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Cursed City Chapters 36–44 Summary
This Kate Golden Cursed City chapter summary contains full spoilers.
Cursed City Chapter 36
Reid has returned, using his old key card to access the archive. His arrival is immediately tense because Deacon is there, and the two brothers have a long, bitter history. Viv intervenes before things turn physical and explains that she and Deacon were simply hiding from the Citadel hunters overnight and that nothing more happened between Viv and Deacon.
Despite the relief of having Reid back, Viv can’t fully settle into the moment when he kisses her. She’s too aware of Deacon standing nearby, and the hurt on Deacon’s face is impossible to ignore.
Viv asks Reid for answers. He tells her he was held prisoner by Finn, escaped a few months back, and has been hiding on campus ever since in a magically concealed cottage that appears uninhabited from the outside. Reid kept his distance to avoid drawing danger toward Viv and only came looking after he spotted news footage of her car chase in the city. When Viv asks what Reid was doing there himself, he refuses to answer in front of Deacon.
After hearing Reid’s explanation, Viv tells Deacon and Reid she’s not staying at Harker. Reid wants her to lie low with him, but she’s determined to go back with Deacon first to collect her things and say a proper goodbye to Penny. Neither man is happy about it. Reid eventually relents and agrees they should all go together. Viv calls Sophia to arrange a disguise.
Cursed City Chapter 37
Viv and Reid ride the subway back to Fever Dream with Deacon along for the trip. Back at the bar, Penny and Hound are both thrilled to see Viv return. Viv tells Penny she needs to leave the country where it’s safe, but Penny refuses, and Ward backs Penny up. Viv isn’t happy about it, but she lets the matter go.
Deacon shows up freshly showered, which catches Viv off guard in a way she’d rather not examine too closely. She heads to her room, throws her things into a bag, and comes across the spool of film she’d lifted from the archive, the one she’d meant to give Deacon.
Viv brings it to Deacon’s room, which she’s never been inside before, and hands it over. He disappears to one of his bookshelves and comes back with her locket, which he’d retrieved after breaking into her apartment. She’s so moved that she hugs him, and he hugs her back. It’s a quiet, loaded moment between them. Before Viv walks out, Deacon tells her they’re still friends.
Cursed City Chapter 38
Viv and Reid hole up in his cottage, which is hidden under an illusion spell that seals them off from the outside world. The reunion is tense. Reid tells Viv that he was tortured for days before he escaped Finn. He has also been searching for the Caspian Ring. Viv fills Reid in on how the syrabraxa has been affecting her, including worsening bloodlust and a sharpened sensitivity to nearby deviants.
Reid makes Viv promise to stay hidden while he tracks down the ring himself, arguing that if the Brood catches her, the fallout would be catastrophic compared to what the Brood could do to him alone. She gives in.
Later, Viv calls Fiona, who mentions that the Elders’ djinn has gone missing. Something clicks for Viv. She recalls what Nicco told her about his master and realizes that one of the Elders bound Nicco to keep the ring from ever being found. She begins to wonder whether the ring does something beyond lifting the syrabraxa.
At dinner, Viv wants to return to Simon and Son’s to find Nicco, but Reid insists on going himself. She reluctantly agrees. That night, Viv pulls back from physical intimacy, telling Reid she’s too exhausted. He falls asleep with his arms around her while Viv lies awake, turning over a fragmented memory of Driscoll trying to warn her about Reid in his final moments before he died.
Cursed City Chapter 39
Sophia, Elliot, and Peter sneak past the Citadel hunters to visit Viv. Peter has been doing research and brings good news about the Caspian Ring. If Viv puts it on, the syrabraxa gets pulled out of her body and locked into the gem at the center of the ring. The downside is that anyone else who wears the ring afterward would die on the spot. Peter believes they can use the ring as a bargaining chip to clear Viv’s name, or pass it to someone they trust to keep it from Caspar and the High Thane.
Sophia takes it a step further and points out that locking the ring away would prevent anyone from ever creating a syrabraxa again. The unresolved problem is the ring’s location. Nicco hid it centuries ago on the Elders’ orders and is likely dead, so that trail is cold.
After everyone leaves, Viv tries to reconnect with Reid. Things fall apart when a syrabraxa episode hits, and Viv suddenly finds herself back in a fragmented memory of the night her father was killed. She shoves Reid away and runs outside.
Viv calls Deacon on impulse, and Deacon’s voice alone is enough to settle her nerves. They talk briefly and quietly before Viv realizes she is standing outside half-dressed in the professors’ quad and needs to get back inside before a hunter spots her. She hangs up.
Cursed City Chapter 40
Viv, her mom, and Nora are arguing over dress colors in a fitting room when Viv’s mom steps away to take a call. Viv recognizes the voice on the other end immediately. It’s Caspar, telling Viv’s mom that he’s arranging a transfer for someone to a facility he oversees.
When the call ends, Nora pushes for an explanation. Viv’s mom reveals that Caspar is helping move Viv’s paternal grandmother, Ada, to a long-term care facility at no cost. Ada had been living in Shiloh Asylum until a violent break-in forced the patients out. This is the first time Viv has ever heard of Ada.
The news hits Viv like a freight train. She realizes the disoriented woman she encountered at Shiloh was no hallucination. That woman was Ada, her grandmother, and if Viv’s instincts are right, Ada has a syrabraxa inside her. Caspar’s generosity isn’t charity. He’s moving Ada so he can get to her.
Viv cuts the fitting short, grabs Reid and Elliot, and calls Sophia and Peter on the way back. Peter tells Viv that the new moon falls on the night of the gala. Viv confirms that Ada is real, tells Sophia and Peter that the High Thane has already gotten to Ada, then reveals that Caspar Harlock is the High Thane.
Cursed City Chapter 41
The group is trying to figure out how to reach Ada before Caspar does, but they have no fast way to get across the country. Deacon shows up and delivers the news that Ada was the original syrabraxa host. He then floats the idea of cooperating with Caspar instead of racing against him, suggesting that the group help Caspar find the Caspian Ring since the ring would ultimately destroy him when used. Nobody is on board with the idea.
Things get worse when Deacon receives a call from Finn, who has already made it to Deacon’s private plane and killed the pilot and crew. That shuts down the group’s only realistic travel option. Finn also says enough during the call for the group to piece together that Caspar has figured out who Viv is and now knows about Ada as well. They’re out of time and out of options, with the new moon less than two days away and both syrabraxa hosts now exposed.
With no plane and no way to reach Ada, Reid pulls everyone back to the only plan that still makes sense: finding the Caspian Ring. Peter drives home how urgent that is, reminding the group that Caspar intends to act at midnight on Saturday.
Cursed City Chapter 42
Deacon heads back to Fever Dream and texts the group to confirm everyone there is safe, and he starts working his contacts to track down the ring. Viv calls Fiona, who plans to visit the archives first thing in the morning to dig into information Fiona got from the Elders.
Later, Viv is woken by screaming and sees a vision of her dead father telling her to go fight. She knows better than to trust the vision, but she goes anyway, running toward Mortimer Tower, where she finds Harker students in a trance-like state attacking their own peers and blocking the archive doors.
Reid finds Viv in the chaos and tries to get her to leave, but she breaks free and rushes into the archives. Inside, Fiona lies beaten and restrained on the floor. A possessed student named Matt holds Fiona down while the warlock Orin tries to force her to reveal what the Elders told her.
When Reid catches up and grabs Viv before she can attack, Orin ignores Viv and turns to Reid instead. He defers to Reid about what to do next with Fiona, implying that Reid has a hidden connection to the Brood.
Cursed City Chapter 43
Viv walks in on Reid holding Fiona hostage in the archives. He clears the room and finally tells Viv the truth about who he is and what he wants.
Reid explains that he’s the legitimate heir to the Throne of Bael. Deacon is Reid’s illegitimate half-brother, favored by their father despite everything, and Reid has spent his life being pushed aside because of it. Reid plans to use a syrabraxa to kill all deviants, himself included, and he wants the Caspian Ring because it might let him free Viv from the aeon spell before he goes through with the plan.
Then Viv pieces something together. Reid is the one who told Driscoll she was the aeon. Reid admits it. After they slept together, Viv described the night her father was killed, and Reid recognized the story and reported it to Driscoll. He claims he never expected Driscoll to go after Penny, but Viv doesn’t care. That’s where she’s done.
Viv demands that Reid let Fiona go. Reid refuses and threatens Fiona’s wife to force Fiona to reveal the ring’s location. Fiona can only tell Reid that the ring is buried somewhere in the tombs, and even that vague detail is enough. Reid knocks Fiona out and walks away.
Cursed City Chapter 44
Fiona announces she’s shutting Harker down early for the summer and heading to the Elders to report what Reid has done and what Caspar is planning for Ada on the new moon. Before she leaves, Fiona shares what the Elders told her about the Caspian Ring. The ring is silver with a square red stone and is buried somewhere in the tombs. She also warns Viv that the Elders will be looking for Viv.
Peter is troubled by a contradiction no one can resolve. The Elders say the ring is buried in the tombs, but the Mer’s prophecy says the Caspian Ring “lights the attic.” The two clues don’t fit together, and no one can determine where Reid has gone to find the ring.
Viv goes home alone and falls apart. Deacon shows up after getting Viv’s location from Sophia. Viv takes her anger out on him physically, but Deacon doesn’t fight back. He absorbs the blows until Viv breaks down completely.
Once she’s steadied herself, Viv tells Deacon what Fiona said about the ring. He immediately makes the connection. Before the Windsor was built on the site, people accessed Harker through a gateway in a monastery with catacombs beneath it. “Buried in the tombs” points to those catacombs, and “the attic” is an old name for the Windsor itself. The ring is somewhere underneath the Windsor.