This is my discussion post for chapters 19-22 of Unearthly by Cynthia Hand. WARNING: There are spoilers for the whole book in this post.
One day when Clara is out flying around, she’s hit with a wave of sadness. She falls, hits a tree, dislocates her shoulder, and gets tangled up in the tree. She knows there’s a Black Wing. She extracts herself from the tree and falls to the ground, where she’s met by a Black Wing named Sam, the one from the mall. She’s able to reach her cell phone in her pocket and call her mom so that she can hear what’s going on.
Clara’s mom shows up soon, and she knows Sam! Sam does some Black Wing magic and the landscape changes. It’s now bleak and colorless: hell. There’s some Mom/Black Wing posturing and she calls him Watcher. Clara can tell that he’s not afraid of her mom but of two other angels off in the distance. Mom goes into Glory, which causes Sam a lot of pain. Clara’s mom tells her — in her head — to think of earth and everything she loves so that they can get back there.
When they do, Sam tells Clara’s mom that she hasn’t won. She can’t hold the glory forever. Sam starts a fire with his hands, a fire that spreads to the forest. He shoots flames at Clara’s mom, hitting her and making her drop the glory. Fight! Fight! He wraps his hand around Clara’s mom’s throat. She tells Clara to think of Tucker. Clara does, and goes into glory. Sam burns wherever Clara touches him. She pushes him back into hell.
Clara’s mom is weak, but she’s healing. Clara turns toward the fire, a fire she recognizes. She and her mom start flying until Clara’s mom can’t go on anymore. She makes Clara go on without her. Clara heads for the spot from her visions, but Christian isn’t there. He’s supposed to be there before she gets there.
While she’s trying to decide whether to go back for her mom or wait to see what happens, she gets a call from Wendy. Her parents are concerned because they don’t know where Tucker is and they were hoping he was with Clara. Wendy tells her that the news is reporting two fires and she has a bad feeling.
Clara doesn’t know what to do. She has a bad feeling too. She flies to Tucker’s to check on him. He’s gone, and so is his horse. She knows that when she gets back, Christian will be waiting, but she has another vision, one of Tucker and his horse surrounded by fire.
Clara knows now that the sadness she feels in her vision isn’t a Black Wing. It’s hers.
She abandons her purpose and heads for where she knows Tucker will be. She can’t carry him and the horse, too. He has to leave Midas behind. They fly back to Clara’s house, to safety. Clara leaves Tucker with her mom then flies back to find Christian.
The fire has already been there; she’s too late. His truck was gutted by fire and he’s not where he’s supposed to be in her visions. She searches for his body but can’t find him. A storm blows through and she’s shivering in the rain when Christian steps out of the trees.
He’s been searching for her. He thought he was supposed to save her. Clara says, “Show yourself,” which is the way she brings her wings out and…Christian’s wings unfold! He’s been having visions of her.
Clara wants to reenact the vision, to kiss him, to make everything right, to fulfill her purpose. But she can’t. She loves Tucker.
She tells Christian that she loves Tucker. Neither of them knows what to do now. They fly back to Clara’s house. Tucker is still there. Christian goes to call his uncle for a ride home and Clara goes in the house with Tucker. He asks if she’s done with her purpose. She says she is, but she doesn’t feel that it is.
OMG I AM DEAD. CHRISTIAN IS AN ANGEL-BLOOD TOO? I did not see that coming. Please tell me I’m not the only one who didn’t know.
I was really surprised that Clara’s mom knew the Black Wing. I mean, I find it plausible that she would know a Black Wing, but what are the odds that she would know that one? Pretty good, apparently.
Every time Clara looked at someone’s wings and they were dark because of soot from the fire, I was sure that person was a Black Wing. I am going to seek out more Black Wings in this series! I know they are hiding among the others and I will find them!
Someone who has read the whole series needs to tell me whether Midas the horse lived. I am seriously knocking a star off my review if he’s dead.
Who’s up for a read-along of Hallowed? Laura, Krystianna and I are discussing one now, so if you haven’t started reading it yet, don’t! We need to get ourselves organized and figure out when everyone is available. If you’re interested, let us know in the comments and tell us when you can read. I know there are a few big events coming up in the blog community that we’ll probably need to work around.
This morning Angela thought it’d be an awesome experiement to try to burn my finger with a match, to see if I’m flammable. Turns out, I am.
“Your wings,” he says. I look over my shoulder at my reflection in the front window of our house. The girl staring back ripples with power the way heat shimmers over a sidewalk. I can suddenly see part of that other creature in her, like the one behind the Black Wing. Her eyes are shadowed with sorrow. Her wings, half folded behind her, are a dark, sweet gray. It’s clear even in the hazy reflectin of the glass. “What does it mean?” asks Tucker.
I’m hosting today’s giveaway and challenge, which is to write a review of the book as a whole and post it on your blog. I didn’t get mine done last night because I get cranky when my favorite baseball team loses. I’ll be posting it in a separate post either late tonight after work or tomorrow.
Enter to win an e-copy of Hallowed, the next book in the series.
