The Indigo Spell
Author: Richelle Mead
Synopsis: In the aftermath of a
forbidden moment that rocked Sydney to her core, she struggles to draw the line
between her Alchemist teachings and what her heart is urging her to do.
Then she finally tracks down the elusive,
enigmatic Marcus Finch—a former Alchemist who the organization denies exists,
and who lives in shadows, on the run. With Marcus’s help, Sydney realizes that
the group she’s been loyal to her whole life has been hiding the truth from
her. Is it possible that her golden lily tattoo might have more power over her
than she thinks?
As she struggles to come to terms with
what that might mean, Sydney is compelled to use her growing magical powers to
track down an evil magic user who is targeting powerful young witches. Using
magic goes against everything she always thought she believed, but she realizes
that her only hope is to embrace her special blood—or else she might be next.
Forging her own ways is harder than
Sydney ever dreamed. Maybe by turning off her brain—and following her
heart—she’ll be able to finally figure out where she belongs.
List of Characters
Sydney Sage
Adrian Ivashkov
Jill Dragomir
Eddie Castile
Angeline
Ms. Terwilliger
Marcus
Trey
Zoe
Wolfe
Chapters 21-25 Summary: Sydney returns from her trip at the St.
Louis Alchemist compound and quickly searches out Marcus, needing to show him
the tape she confiscated with evidence that the Alchemists and Warriors of
Light are working together. She checks in with Ms. T who helps get her curfew
extended and Sydney meets up with Marcus at an old record store. She plays the
tape for him and Marcus presents her with the opportunity to finally break her
tattoo by turning it silver. After some hesitation and freaking out, Sydney
finally agrees. Marcus then tells her about his plan to go to Mexico the
following week with Wade and the others to seal their tattoos, expecting Sydney
to go with them. But Sydney refuses. Marcus and Wade try to convince her
otherwise, that they’re sure the Alchemists are onto Sydney now but Sydney
decides she’ll take her chances. She thinks she can do more good by being able
to work on finding information from inside the Alchemists. Sydney leaves and
once she returns to Amberwood, she calls Stanton and attempts to convince her
that the Warriors of Light are onto Jill’s whereabouts. Stanton doesn’t believe
her though and Sydney tries a different tactic, pretending she’s just been
overwhelmed having to constantly be around vampires all the time and stuck at
the school. She would feel better if she had assistance. Stanton agrees to
think about sending extra protection. Sydney falls asleep a short time later
and finds herself in a dream world with Adrian. They discuss the day’s events
and Adrian asks to see the dress Sydney had worn on the dinner with Ian. As
soon as Adrian sees Sydney in the dress, they fall into a heavy, intimate
embrace on top of the table in the dream that Adrian quickly transforms into
the bed at his apartment. But before anything can really get too far, Sydney is
woken up by a knock at the door.
Jill informs
Sydney that a new problem has come up. Angeline got caught sneaking Trey into
her and Jill’s dorm room. Apparently, they’ve grown close through their
tutoring sessions and developed feelings for each other. Thankfully, Angeline
and Trey wouldn’t be expelled, just have to deal with dentention for a while.
Sydney figures that’s a small blessing. Jill tells Sydney Eddie still doesn’t
know and will probably need someone to talk to but she can’t be the person to
do it because of her feelings for him. Right in the middle of their argument,
Jill suddenly sees what happened between Adrian and Sydney just minutes before
through the bond she shares with Adrian. Jill quickly ushers out of Sydney’s
room, her face completely red and embarrassed and Sydney is mortified.
Later that
morning, Sydney finds Trey and class and they discuss what happened between him
and Angeline. Trey never knew she was with Eddie and he feels horrible for the
situation. He would never hurt Eddie like that. Sydney wants to know what he
plans to do now and Trey decides he has to end things with Angeline, he has no
other choice, especially with his family belonging to the Warriors of
Light. After school, Sydney heads over
to Adrian’s apartment since it’s her turn to babysit the callistana (the
dragon/demon made of quartz). Adrian is delighted to see her but his happiness
soon turns to frustration once Sydney tells him they have to stop trying to be
together. She can’t stand Jill being able to see what goes on between them,
especially because she’s a fifteen year old girl, and she can’t risk getting
caught by the Alchemists. Adrian asks if she just plans on avoiding him then
but Sydney tells him, she plans on leaving to Mexico with Marcus. It’s the only
way to be able to find information on the Alchemists and still keep everyone
safe. In reality, Sydney is just afraid of how powerful her feelings are for
Adrian.
Sydney storms
out and meets up with Eddie for dinner. She tries to cheer him up despite the
fact that she isn’t really in a romantic mood after her fight with Adrian.
Sydney lets it slip to Eddie that Jill has feelings for him. Eddie becomes
hopeful but soon decides there’s no way a relationship with Jill can work. He
is her guardian and his job is to keep her safe. Once they’re done catching up
on Sydney’s trip, they head out to her car to leave and suddenly Sydney’s car
explodes. Or well, it had blown up with enough force to destroy the windows and
doors but the car was filled with foam instead of actually setting on fire. As
the police are called, Sydney jumps into her car to get her gun from the glove
compartment before the police arrive and Sydney helps her dig through all the
foam. Sydney also finds the gold cross she had lost at the bed and breakfast.
When she picks it up the cross burns her hand. She retrieves it with her hand
covered and knows that something magical had been done to the cross. The police
return Eddie and Sydney back to Amberwood. Sydney takes out the envelope Ms. T
had given her earlier in the day with a new spell book and discovers a silver
star pendant set with peridots. She remembered Alicia having a charm just like
it.
Sydney thinks
back to the events that have taken place since Ms. T discovered her sister was
behind the attacks with the young girls. Alicia had seen Adrian’s Mustang at
the bed and breakfast, had taken a good look at the car and somehow managed to
find where Adrian lived meaning she was the one who slashed his tires to delay
them in warning Lynne. Sydney believes Alicia is an accomplice with Veronica.
She quickly calls Adrian and asks him to help her sneak out of school (“Can you
come over to Amberwood? I need you to help me break curfew and escape my dorm.”
(Sydney) “Sage, I’ve been waiting two months to hear you say those words. You
want me to bring a ladder. (Adrian)) Sydney tells Adrian to drive to the school
and wait for her by a service road that is behind the dorm. She then goes to
Julia and Kristin’s room because she knows people are always using their room
to sneak out. It turns out there’s a tree right outside Julia and Kristin’s
dorm room and Sydney climbs down it then takes off sprinting to get to Adrian’s
car before the guards show up for patrol.
They drive to
Ms. T’s house and knock on the door but there’s no answer. The door is unlocked
and Adrian and Sydney go inside only to discover all her cats have gone
missing. A screeching sound erupts from Sydney’s purse and the dragon pops it’s
head out. Before Sydney can figure out what the dragon is so upset about,
something zooms over her head and smashes into the wall behind her. A few of
the drops land on her cheek and burn her. Adrian out Sydney’s name to get her
attention and they find Alicia standing on the other side of the room, a gooey,
shimmery substance in her hand. Sydney tells Alicia they know everything, they
know she’s been working with Veronica. Alicia admits she got rid of Veronica
ages ago and has been the one absorbing the witches youth and power. Alicia had
gone to Ms. T’s house to absorb her power. Alicia starts attacking them with
more of the gooey stuff and Adrian manages to get the lights off. He sneaks
into the basement with Sydney where
Sydney comes up with the plan to turn the stairs into ice and Alicia slips down
them. A fight breaks out between Sydney and Alicia, both them using their
magical abilities. Sydney commands Adrian to go find Ms. T while she battles
Alicia. The house caught fire thinks to a fireball Sydney had dropped from when
Alicia knocked her down.
Sydney
transforms five perpetual motion balls into sharp razor blades and uses them to
attack Alicia which slammed into her face. Alicia tries to pull them out but
loses her balance and falls down the stairs. Adrian returns and helps Sydney
get out of the house, telling her Ms. T wasn’t inside. The house goes up in a
huge blaze. As they wait for the police to arrive, a cat shows up and Sydney
and Adrian follow it. They find Ms. T laying in the grass, alive and exhausted.
The next day
Sydney finds out there was no body discovered in what was left of the house
which means Alicia found a way to escape. She also discovers Veronica is at a
hospital in Los Angeles in a coma. Ms. T plans to visit her soon and see if she
can find a way to reverse the spell. Sydney is still determined to leave to
Mexico and says her goodbyes early to everyone. She also returns Wolfe’s gun
and he gives her some advice to not miss what’s standing right in front of her
eyes.
The next day,
Sydney prepares herself to go say goodbye to Jill but Jill comes to her first.
Jill tries to convince Sydney to stay knowing she’ll regret leaving not just
them but Adrian. Sydney is determined to go. She thinks it’s too dangerous for
her and Adrian to be together and she can’t deal with the bond Jill shares with
him. Eddie calls and tells them they need to come downstairs. A new guardian
has arrived, a dhampir named Neil Raymond who will act as a new student at the
school. Before Sydney leaves, Jill gives her an enevelpe from Adrian and Marcus
picks up Sydney. Sydney refuses to read the envelope, disappointed that’s how
Adrian decided to say goodbye to her. She heads off to the train station with
Marcus but as soon as they arrive, she decides she can’t go. Marcus has no
real, concrete plans to take down the Alchemists and expose them. He’s just all
talk and Sydney doesn’t want a life like that. She doesn’t want to spend her
whole life running and doing nothing. She also doesn’t want to spend her whole
life without Adrian.
Once Marcus accepts
the fact that Sydney isn’t going to go to Mexico, he leaves the car with her
and heads off on the train. Sydney rips open the enevelope Adrian left her and
instead of finding a letter, she finds a long series of numbers. She deciphers
its two sets of numbers, one acting latitude and one as longitude and enters
the code into the GPS. She finds Adrian at the Getty Center and finally confesses
her feelings to him. They spend the day at the Getty Center together, kissing
and relaxing. They head back to Amberwood and since Sydney gets caught by Mrs.
Weathers coming in after curfew, she gets detention which surprises both of
them but Sydney doesn’t really mind. Mrs. Weathers also informs Sydney that her
other cousin has arrived and is waiting for Sydney in her room. Sydney heads up
to her dorm room, feeling anxious where she discovers Zoe waiting for her.
Apparently, Zoe has entered the ranks of the Alchemists and will be joining
Sydney at school to help.
Annabell’s Thoughts: FINALLY Sydney gets it together and
admits her feelings for Adrian! It has taken WAY too long for that. I didn’t mind
it at first but with how many time Sydney kept accepting and denying her
feelings for Adrian, it was getting BEYOND ridiculous! I didn’t like though
that she never said ‘I love you’ to Adrian even though he’s said it her a
number of times. It felt wrong =/ The battle scene between Sydney and Alicia
was pretty awesome. It was great to see Sydney wielding her magic and kicking
some major butt with it. I also like how Sydney puts Marcus in his place.
Marcus was such a letdown as a character! All this build for the last few
months for the book and his character then he just turns out to be so one-note
and wimpy. Marcus is all talk, arrogant, and was a rather boring character. I am so happy
Eddie finally knows about Jill’s feelings because that was going on for far too
long, too. Now hopefully, both of them will just admit it to each other and
stop dragging everything out. I LOVE that Zoe is now in the picture. She’s
gonna present a whole new set of problems for Sydney that I can’t wait to read.
I wonder if Zoe will end up falling for the new guardian assigned. How ironic
would that be! ;) All in all The Indigo Spell was a great book. There were
moments that dragged out or didn’t really offer any real depth to the story,
and it was tiring how much Sydney kept denying how she felt for Adrian and how
disappointing Marcus character was, but overall, the book was filled with some
pretty fun magic, wicked humor, great romance, and good suspense. Definitely
will be happy to check out Fiery Heart which comes out in November of this
year!
Bridget's Thoughts: Bridget's Thoughts: Wow, that ending! So incase I haven't made it clear yet: Sydney Sage is a bad-ass! Sydney and Adrian have to go to Ms. T's house because they are worried for her and think Veronica has finally found her. But when they get there, its not Veronica, its Alicia(the girl from the Bed and Breakfast)! I honestly didn't see that one coming at all! So Sydney kicks her butt, with all her awesome witchery. Love it! Then Sydney is faced with a choice: Does she love Adrian or not. At first, when she decides to go with Marcus to Mexico, I was really upset. I thought, if this was how the book ends, I'm for sure NOT reading the next book. But then she changes her mind and finds Adrian because she DOES love him. SHE LOVES HIM!! *sigh* The weird thing though, she never actually tells him that she loves him. Its all just implied. Which annoyed me.Marcus I thought was a big let down. All this hype about Marcus and his group of Merry Men being able to out the Alchemists for the terrible people that they are and he does nothing. Nothing. But hopefully in the next book he will redeem himself. Overall, I loved the ending! It was suspenseful and chair gripping as the rest of the book. The biggest thing I'm hoping for in The Fiery Heart, is that Sydney and Co. finally take on the Alchemists. Now thats some drama I can't wait to see go down!
Bridget's Thoughts: Bridget's Thoughts: Wow, that ending! So incase I haven't made it clear yet: Sydney Sage is a bad-ass! Sydney and Adrian have to go to Ms. T's house because they are worried for her and think Veronica has finally found her. But when they get there, its not Veronica, its Alicia(the girl from the Bed and Breakfast)! I honestly didn't see that one coming at all! So Sydney kicks her butt, with all her awesome witchery. Love it! Then Sydney is faced with a choice: Does she love Adrian or not. At first, when she decides to go with Marcus to Mexico, I was really upset. I thought, if this was how the book ends, I'm for sure NOT reading the next book. But then she changes her mind and finds Adrian because she DOES love him. SHE LOVES HIM!! *sigh* The weird thing though, she never actually tells him that she loves him. Its all just implied. Which annoyed me.Marcus I thought was a big let down. All this hype about Marcus and his group of Merry Men being able to out the Alchemists for the terrible people that they are and he does nothing. Nothing. But hopefully in the next book he will redeem himself. Overall, I loved the ending! It was suspenseful and chair gripping as the rest of the book. The biggest thing I'm hoping for in The Fiery Heart, is that Sydney and Co. finally take on the Alchemists. Now thats some drama I can't wait to see go down!
Favorite Quotes
“Of course not.
That’d be cowardly and immature. And you’d never survive without hair gel—though
you might like their moonshine.” ~Sydney (to Adrian about running away to the
Keepers)
“Although you
would walk up to someone on the street and start telling them about vampires.
Then you’d just get thrown into a psych ward.” ~Marcus
“Man, Sage. It’s
all or nothing with you. Never a dull moment.” ~Adrian
“Sweet talker.
You didn’t know anything about me the first time we met.’ (Sydney)
‘I knew you were
beautiful. I just hoped for the rest.” ~Adrian
“I’m surprised.
I always figured when you two left here, you went home and had your own private
‘training sessions.’” ~Wolfe (to Sydney about Adrian)
“A piece of
heave?’ (Sydney)
‘No. The other
place. The one I’m going to burn in for thinking what I’m thinking.” ~Adrian
(about seeing Sydney’s dress)
“Invisible ice
on the stairs.’ (Sydney)
‘I know I’m not
supposed to say this, but I think I love you even more.” ~Adrian
“I had a friend
like that once. Silver Tooth Sally.” ~Wolfe
Check out a Sneak Peek into The Indigo Spell!
Awesome!!!
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