Suddenly A Succubus Ch. 20 - Reflection

So I'm walking my dog last night, right? It's finally a half-decent temperature, I'm enjoying the weather, when I suddenly realize that I never posted a Reflections piece yesterday. Cards on the table, I've been a bit sick this week, and my sense of time is all over the place. It was too late for me to sit down and write this, especially since I didn't want to rush my thoughts on this chapter. Anyways, sorry for the delay!

So, Chapter 20. Of all the comments I've received about Book 2, I'm pretty sure most of them have been some variation of "Where's Vee? What's she doing?", and I'm so excited to finally start touching on these questions. I realize I'm still playing things fairly close to the chest, and we don't get a lot of answers this chapter, but it's a start. If nothing else, Vee is back in the plot, and she's not going anywhere.

Of course, I do hint at where her mind is at. She's forcing herself to call Amara by name, no longer reducing her down to "The Demon". This was a detail that I think worked fantastically in Chapter 13, so it was nice to finally follow up on Vee's perception of her demonic friend here. There are clearly some mixed feelings, and Vee certainly seems eager to push them aside on occasion, but I'm happy with what we see here. Without trying to sound like a tease, I will say that there are plans to dig into the immediate aftermath of the Halloween fight, just not at this time.

We also get some other fun pieces of world building! We see that her parents know she's an Angel, but that they don't know the specifics of what she does. I've purposely been pretty vague about the larger worldbuilding in my universe, but I have a clear picture of what it all looks like. It'll just need some time before it becomes relevant, right now we're just having fun with our young adult existential angst.

Vee returning to campus was an absolute blast. She's a complicated character, which makes it fascinating to see how she reacts to all the different things happening around her. She's seeing ghosts of her own past, remnants of her preparing to fight Amara, but also memories of the nightmares that haunted her for weeks leading up to the fight. Of course, there's a lot she doesn't know, and some of it we get to learn alongside her!

I'm incredibly pleased with the timing of this chapter. It was supposed to serve as a halfway point for the book, and I think I pulled that off really well. In the first half, we see Amara slowly realizing that her dreams are actually Derek's, then deciding to do something about it. Being able to see the climax of that particular story thread, but though Vee, is something I'm really proud of.

Derek confessed to everything, and Amara's plan worked! Of course, Vee doesn't know any of that, but it still goes a long way in reframing her campus experience away from what it had become leading up to Halloween.

Then, of course, we finally switch back to Amara's POV. In keeping with the theme of the chapter, creating a sort of mini-climax to the arcs from the first half of the book, we get to see her plan to overcome Brandon's blackmail. He's such a slimeball, right? Still, if nothing else, this is another step towards Amara embracing her demonic identity. It's a shame she always seems to make those steps right before meeting up unexpectedly with Vee, isn't it?

This was a plot point I've been building to for a while. Nick was the one who first pitched the 'hiding in plain sight' angle, and that was always intended to be a stepping stone for Amara's actions here. If I had giant piles of disposable income, I would absolutely hire an artist to draw Amara's three photoshoots, but sadly I am but a poor, starving artist. Still, maybe some day in the future?

And at long last, it's time for Amara and Vee to talk. It doesn't go so well, does it? This was a scene that took me a while to figure out. What do they say? How do you approach someone who tried to kill you, and you're not sure who was in the right? It's incredibly complicated for both of them, and if I've done my job correctly, that tension came through in the way the scene was written. There are still some open wounds, and Amara's sexy photoshoot, certainly isn't sending the message Vee needed to hear, but at least they're talking, right?

The last scene, at the football field, I don't have as much to talk about. It's fairly tragic, especially after how long Amara spent wishing she could take advantage of her wings, and ideally her anger and frustration was palpable.

Honestly, I thought this would be a longer Reflection, but sometimes I get started and find there isn't as much to say. Sometimes everything is in the chapter, and my commentary is somewhat redundant. I will, however, leave you with one piece of cryptic knowledge; there's a fun easter egg in this chapter, but it won't become obvious until some later plans of mine come to fruition. I can't wait to show you what else is in the works!

Nyx <3