Chapter Fifteen – Cristina: A Crushing Discovery
⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.
Summary
Cristina leaves the Montaigne Majestic after the protest and encounters Valentina Savant on the pier. Valentina insults Cristina’s family and warns that someone might “sit them down permanently.” Cristina shoves her and screams that she has already lost everything. Oz arrives, defuses the situation, and invites Cristina to his apartment. Once there, they begin to get physically intimate, and Cristina feels ready to have sex for the first time. While Oz searches for a condom in his brother’s room, Cristina notices candles in his closet. Examining them, she finds her honor society pin, a lock of her hair, and her sapphire journal — items used in a love spell. Oz admits he has been conjuring love spells on her since before they first met, and that he lit the candles that morning. Devastated, Cristina gathers her belongings and leaves, telling Oz that his meddling in magic he does not understand is unforgivable.
Key Events
- Cristina confronts Valentina Savant on the pier; Valentina threatens her family.
- Oz steps in and takes Cristina to his apartment.
- Cristina and Oz begin making out; Cristina decides she is ready to have sex.
- While Oz is out of the room, Cristina discovers candles, her stolen pin, a lock of her hair, and her journal.
- Oz admits to conjuring love spells on Cristina for over a year, including that morning.
- Cristina searches for her brother Clem’s stolen knife but does not find it.
- She tells Oz she feels violated and compares the love spell to being drugged.
- Cristina leaves Oz’s apartment, taking her possessions and the spell candles.
Character Development
Cristina
Cristina’s trust is shattered. She had defended Oz against warnings from her brother and aunt, and now realizes her entire relationship may have been magically manipulated. Her anger is focused not only on Oz’s deception but also on the violation of her autonomy. She stands her ground, refuses his apologies, and reclaims her belongings. The experience forces her to question her own feelings and her judgment of others.
Oz
Oz is revealed as manipulative and insecure. He used love spells to win Cristina, then tried to pass off their connection as genuine. His crying and pleas for forgiveness ring hollow when he cannot acknowledge the harm he caused. He also shows defensiveness when Cristina calls out the racial and cultural dimensions of his actions — telling her not to “make this about race” — revealing a lack of understanding of his privilege.
Valentina Savant
Although present only briefly, Valentina serves as a catalyst for Cristina’s raw emotional state. Her threats reinforce the ongoing conflict between their families and foreshadow future danger.
Themes, Symbols, or Motifs
Consent and Autonomy
The love spell is an explicit violation of consent. Cristina compares it to having her drink drugged, linking magical coercion to real-world forms of sexual assault. The chapter questions whether any relationship founded on magic can be genuine.
Trust and Betrayal
Cristina’s relationship with Oz was her “only safe space.” His betrayal destroys that refuge and leaves her isolated. The spell candles, hair, and journal are concrete symbols of his theft of her agency.
Race and Power in Magic
Cristina draws a direct line between Oz’s use of love spells and the historical power dynamics of race. She tells him, “You should be careful meddling in things you don’t have the range or depth to understand,” implying that white practitioners of gen magic may lack the cultural and ancestral context to wield it ethically.
Appearance vs. Reality
The romantic scene before the discovery contrasts sharply with the horror of the truth. Oz’s room, messy yet intimate, is the setting for both tenderness and violation. The closet that hides the spell items becomes a metaphor for the secrets lurking in their relationship.
Why This Chapter Matters
Chapter 15 is a turning point in Cristina’s arc. It strips away the comfort she had in Oz and forces her to confront the possibility that she has been manipulated for over a year. Her choice to leave him sets her on a path of independence and suspicion. The chapter also deepens the novel’s critique of gen magic as a tool that can be abused, especially by those who lack respect for its origins. The loss of her trust in Oz parallels the larger breakdown of the magical community around her and foreshadows future confrontations.
Study Questions and Answers
1. Why does Cristina feel that Oz’s love spell was like being drugged?
Cristina explains that the spell affected her will without her knowledge or consent, just as a date-rape drug would. Even though she felt willing at the time, the fact that Oz had been casting spells for over a year means she can never know which of her feelings were real and which were magically induced.
2. How does the chapter address issues of race in relation to gen magic?
When Oz dismisses Cristina’s anger by saying “not all white people are evil,” she counters that she must always consider race because white people have the power to change her fate. She also warns that her ancestors do not take kindly to outsiders misusing their magical traditions, implying that gen magic has cultural roots that white practitioners often ignore.
3. What does Cristina’s search for Clem’s knife suggest about Oz’s possible involvement in other crimes?
Cristina immediately suspects Oz might have taken her brother’s knife, even though he denies it. Her thorough search shows that she no longer trusts anything he says. The missing knife remains an unresolved detail, hinting that Oz may be connected to other thefts or that the knife is in the hands of someone else.