SHADOWFEVER Countdown

[oracle]

I think KMM foreshadowed the final scene of Shadowfever earlier in the series. In the earlier scene, a protector of Mac, someone who feels possessive towards her and she feels safe with, comes to get her. Mac has a choice to make; one she feels is unfair. The choice she makes leaves her protector feeling betrayed.

From BF:

Mac feels safe with him.

He is possessive of Mac.

Mac makes her choice and he feels betrayed.

The scene hints at the lost of hope Mac feels after the creature dies. All through the series, Mac finds shelter in thoughts of her parents' love and clings to the hope that her life will go back to "normal" someday.

I still think it's Jack Lane. :-)

Great textual back up. I still disagree but it's cool to follow your train of thought. It kinda makes me uncomfortable to think of Jack being possessive of Mac. Parents can be but at some point they have to let go. Jack has not had a vice grip on Mac...another "man" has. Still think it's JB.

Also, while Mac's parents are her world in many ways, why would losing one of them be the end of everything? Wouldn't losing both of them, mom and dad, be the loss? Just wondering...

Let's see what KMM comes up with. What if she blows our minds and it's someone we never imagined?

[analisa]

I have to agree with Oracle, I think the beast has been described with the exact same words as Barrons was for a reason, not just to mislead us. Not only the wording when she describes it, long black hair, massively muscled and obviously male, preternaturally fast, at the top of his game, with a smoothly muscled grace she found beautiful, and so on, but also it's actions, like sniffing her, retrievieng her sweater and the stones, pissing around her to mark her and protect her. Classic Barrons IMO.


Darkfever pb pg.53

He began pacing a small circle around me. I turned with him, not willing to give him my back.

Dreamfever hb pg.338

It began circling me, taloned hands and feet ripping up tufts of grass and dirt [...]I turned with it, never taking my eyes from its face.

But I also see lizbeth's point, and it's well supported too.

[oracle]

I have to agree with Oracle, I think the beast has been described with the exact same words as Barrons was for a reason, not just to mislead us. Not only the wording when she describes it, long black hair, massively muscled and obviously male, preternaturally fast, at the top of his game, with a smoothly muscled grace she found beautiful, and so on, but also it's actions, like sniffing her, retrievieng her sweater and the stones, pissing around her to mark her and protect her. Classic Barrons IMO.

Darkfever pb pg.53

Dreamfever hb pg.338

But I also see lizbeth's point, and it's well supported too.

I think in this case though, there's more support textually for the beast being Barrons or at least having a greater sense of possessiveness of Mac. I have to find that "feral" reference somewhere. In the meantime, let's see what the close examination of the this countdown digs up. Enjoy!

[oracle]

Friend or foe, Mac?

Dreamfever p. 356

"You were trying to kill it?" I breathed, aghast. What a weird paradigm shift. It had been protecting me. Ferociously. Now it was my enemy?

So, Mac, use your brain here. The beast is never your enemy. It is your protector to the point that it will kill anything and anyone in your vicinity. You're safe. No one else is. Hence why Ryodan had to spend his ammo trying to slow it down or kill it so he could help you escape.

Ryodan doesn't respond directly. Instead he says, on p. 357

"Do you want out of here or not?"

So maybe he wasn't trying to kill it. Just slow it down so he could snatch Mac. Is Ryodan good or bad? Should she have trusted him. In the end, after she stabs the beast, she's all too aware of her betrayal of her greatest protector.

Even though it was tragic, it may have been the best thing for her to do. In that form, all the beast could do was kill and protect. It couldn't guide her. It will all work out. Right?

[lizbeth]

I still disagree but it's cool to follow your train of thought.

Most people do disagree with me. LOL. I'm not being argumentative for the sake of it; I really do believe the creature of the cliffhanger on the cliff (KMM is having too much fun with this. :-D ) is Jack Lane. I have built a theory (more likely a house of cards) that begins back in DF. Jack Lane being the creature is just a part of it not the end game.

It kinda makes me uncomfortable to think of Jack being possessive of Mac. Parents can be but at some point they have to let go. Jack has not had a vice grip on Mac...another "man" has.

Maybe possessive is the wrong word; territorial may be a better fit.

Jack Lane doesn't know the "Dublin Mac" we see in the series. He knows pink Mac. The one who lives at home eating Mom's cooking, works at a bar for clothes and party money, hangs out at the pool in her off time and calls Dad when she sees a fancy car she knows he'll like. Pink Mac hasn't grown up.

Mac tells in DrF that she saw madness in the creature's eyes; it was on the edge of total insanity. I believe the creature found some comfort in the familiarity of Mac's smell and items that carried her scent, like the Royal Hunter did in the smell of the stones earlier in DrF. I don't believe the creature ever recognized Mac as, well, Mac. I believe the creature is, in some ways, like Mac was when she was pri-ya; it has no language (so Voice can't work on it) and is acting only on instinct. Like Mac was driven to sex, the creature was driven to destroy.

Also, while Mac's parents are her world in many ways, why would losing one of them be the end of everything? Wouldn't losing both of them, mom and dad, be the loss? Just wondering...

A couple of quotes from DrF hint, to me, why the death of her father would cause Mac to feel she's lost everything.

"Still, watching them was comforting. They had each other, and there was a love between them that would withstand anything. Alina and I had always intuited, with no small wry pique, that, although our parents adored us and would do anything for us, they loved each other more."

"Daddy looked at her hard, and right before my eyes, he changed. I watched him inflate again, shake off his own emotions, and puff himself up for her. Become her man. Her rock. I smiled. I loved him so much. He'd dragged Mom kicking and screaming from grief once before, and I knew I could rest easy that he would never let grief steal her from him again. No matter what happened to me."

Mac feels that losing her husband would destroy Rainey Lane. Who would be there to drag her "kicking and screaming from grief"? If her father died, Mac feels she would lose her mother too.

Let's see what KMM comes up with. What if she blows our minds and it's someone we never imagined?

A headslapper, an "I can't believe I didn't see that", would be great. I love it when a mystery pulls the rug out from under me.

I have to agree with Oracle, I think the beast has been described with the exact same words as Barrons was for a reason, not just to mislead us.

I don't believe KMM is throwing red herrings around but the Fever series is mystery/suspense series. IMO, the use of misdirection is to be expected. The more the better I think, it adds to the suspense and pacing of the series. KMM isn't misleading the reader; she is allowing the readers to mislead themselves.

I probably have let myself be misdirected right over the edge of that cliff. Woohoo, freefall. :-D

[oracle]

My mantra until the book comes "We shall see"...

[oracle]

Apparently Mac is such a hot commodity that everyone wants to leave their mark her...but is it lasting?

Dreamfever p. 355

"What?" It came out as a low growl.

"Darroc marked you. He must have done it while the princes had you."

"He tattooed me?"

"Right next to Barrons' mark. I can't remove it here. Come."

At least we know it can be removed by Ryodan. Seems to me that Mac is tattoo/pissing contest between Darroc and JZB. What else did they hide on her?

[oracle]

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Now where were we...

An interesting snapshot into Mac's relationship with her protector. This passage tells us a lot while she tells it a lot...

Dreamfever pp. 353 - 354

It sniffed the ground around me for a moment, then stalked downstream and sprawled sleek and deadly on the ground. I guessed it was tired from so much killing.

Feeling a little desperate for the sound of a voice, I talked to it. I told it stories about growing up in the South. I told it about all the fine plans I'd had for my life.

I told it how everything had gone so damn wrong and I'd begun losing one thing after another. It old it about the hell of losing my mind and will to the Unseelie Princes and about Barrons bringing me back. I even told it about my recent trips to Ashford with V'lane, and what I'd learned there, and that I'd begun to fear that there might actually be something wrong with me. I told it things I would never have told a sentient being, baring my deepest feelings and worries. It was cathartic to get it all off my chest, even t a dumb beast.

I dozed, too, and woke about a half hour before the sun plummeted to the horizon, cloaking the forest in night.

The monster rose on all fours, stalked over, urinated around me, and melted into the blackness, black on black with crimson eyes.

I'd been "tucked in" for the night.

This is reminiscent of Mac confessing murder to spectre that turned out to be Mallucé. It isn't the first time that Mac has mistaken her confessor for something less than it really is.

I'm pretty sure this is JZB and finally he gets to hear every single thing that Mac has been holding back from him. Everything. At last. This will play a part in Shadowfever. I'm sure.

The beast's actions--urinating around her, crimson eyes, it's sleekness--all remind me of JZB. If it is him, then he's gotten most of what he wants from Mac. I expect he wants her heart and her uncompromising trust...but that will come in time...if he survives this.

Mac, there's nothing dumb about that beast. Open your eyes. There are way too many oversights until "it's too late" in your world. Use your logic...

[britta0991]

I agree with most oh you i think it will be JZB but he'll come back in later in the book. I don't think KMM would make such a point on never believe something is dead until you know for sure def foreshadowing there but it could have been just for Malluce but i think it works here too but i haven't seen these things that are eating at me addressed so give me y'alls opinion on these things plz.

1)Christian? Pg. 55 Ch 3 Alina's journal entry "he taught me that there are necessary lies." Pg. 67 Christian says "there are necessary lies." i know Alina was with Darroc but mac says while looking at the photos that Alina was looking at the camera with love in her eyes was she really in love with the guy behind the camera and just pretending with the lord master.
2)Alina was a close casket she could be the beast
3)What do we know about the cute eyed boy he keeps popping up is he the dark king or some other creature
4) Ryodan he had to have met Alina but must not have told Barrons is he a bigger player in the game then we know
5) Did Barrons take the day planner and why would he...
6) What is mac is she offspring of the concubine and its like a ying yang thing is it why originally she couldn't get near the book maybe the book was all the bad of the dark king and the concubine was the good of him

January hurry up!!!!!!

[Baubeel4evr]

I think you guys have some really great theories! I just wanted to add a few things that I have been thinking about as to whether or not JZB is the beast.
1. Didn't Jericho tell Mac in DrF that because of Cruce's curse of the silvers that all of those worlds/realms are not what they seem and that just because something happens in one of them, doesn't mean it is what actually happened?
2. So maybe in this realm/world they are in, JZB/beast is dead, but if she can somehow transport his body back to Dublin, into her own world and time, then maybe he he has a chance of survival?!
3. Also, I like to look for recurring images and themes in stories I read and in this series there has been at least two mentions of that Nine Inch Nails song "Closer". So I got to thinking about that and found the lyrics to it and WOW, I think they describe Jericho and Mac's relationship perfectly. Also, the "nine" that Jericho is a part of, and the "nine" in the group name could be a hint of some sort!!?
Here are the lyrics, minus the naughty words. Let me know what you think!!

You let me violate you
You let me desecrate you
You let me penetrate you
You let me complicate you

(Help me)
I broke apart my insides
(Help me)
I've got no soul to sell
(Help me)
The only thing that works for me
Help me get away from myself

I wanna you like an animal
I wanna feel you from the inside
I wanna you like an animal
My whole existence is flawed

You get me closer to God

You can have my isolation
you can have the hate that it brings
You can have my absence of faith
you can have my everything

[ From: http://www.metrolyrics.com/closer-ly...nch-nails.html ]


(Help me)
Tear down my reason
(Help me)
It's your I can smell
(Help me)
You make me perfect
Help me become somebody else

I wanna you like an animal
I wanna feel you from the inside
I wanna you like an animal
My whole existence is flawed

You get me closer to God

Through every forest, above the trees
Within my stomach, scraped off my knees
I drink the honey inside your hive
You are the reason I stay alive