How It All Goes Down
The Lions' Den
- So, after everything that happened the day before in the library, Luce has a decision to make: should she follow through with Cam's request, or should she bail on him and stick with Daniel?
- At this point, Luce's own guilt about leading Cam on comes to a point where she knows she can't be with him; her feelings for Daniel are too great.
- So Luce determines that she'll go, but only to tell Cam that she's breaking things off with him, since it's not fair to him for her to be leading him on.
- Luce goes to the gates, where she finds another note pinned to the tree by the gate, telling her that Cam has arranged for a car to pick her up and "bring her to him" (15.10).
- Luce decides that the best thing to do is get this over with, even though she's terrified of the trouble she might get into for leaving campus.
- The car takes Luce to a bar in the swampy marshes, down the river from campus.
- Uncertainly, Luce gets out to greet Cam, who appears to have spent the entire day there.
- Before Luce can even get a word out, Cam begins to take over, charming her as usual, even as she tries to remain resolute and tell him that she's not going to pursue anything romantic with him.
- Even after Cam orders Luce champagne and asks her what she wants to talk about, they're interrupted by a seedy guy who tries to make an advance on Luce. Cam gets into a fight with him, because that's how Cam rolls.
- To make matters worse, just before this fight breaks out, Luce notices a shadow beginning to stretch over the ceiling of the bar, as if there to watch the show.
- Cam exhibits the same unusual strength and dexterity as before when he fights with this bar patron.
- Luce flees the scene, only to run into Daniel.
- Wait, Daniel? How did he even find her? And why did he "borrow" Miss Sophia's car to come after her?
- Okay, now we're confused: who's actually stalking whom, again?
- Safely with Daniel, Luce feels a bit better, but she's also put on guard by Daniel's own sense of unease.
- Daniel drives Luce to a sandy path, gets out of the car, and stalks his way toward the water, Luce on his heels.
- Daniel and Luce argue about whether she is involved with Cam.
- Luce gets angry with Daniel for condescending to her—which he does a lot—and they finally, finally, have a moment of connection and actually, seriously, finally kiss.
- Yes, we've been waiting for it forever, too.
- When they finally stop kissing, Daniel seems surprised to find Luce still standing in front of him. It's like he expected her to disappear immediately afterward.
- Of course, Luce has no idea why Daniel would assume that, and she takes his own confusion as a cause for worry. Which, in retrospect, is a perfectly logical reaction. People don't usually disappear after kissing, so why would Daniel think she would?
- At this point, our knowledge from the prologue finally catches up with us, because we know exactly why Daniel thinks Luce would disappear.
- Instead, Daniel is at a loss for words, having never experienced a world in which Luce doesn't disappear after they kiss. At this point, he doesn't know what to do.
- Not surprisingly, neither does Luce.