Arrogance

Arrogance lies at the heart of both Ivy and Dana’s character arcs. Neither of them are able to fully grasp the consequences of magic until they acknowledge that their decisions are not always right.

The arrogance surrounding magic begins in Dana’s teenage years, something that she acknowledges numerous times throughout her reflection. When she discusses the beginning of her, Fee, and Marion’s magic instruction, Dana says, “Though everything Fee and I kept telling ourselves it was all just fun. Even as the spells we worked stained steadily darker. Even as the riskier magic we found in the occultist’s book… rebounded on us with strobing headaches and wrung out famishment… Even then we told ourselves this drug we were living on, whose costs we couldn’t begin to reckon, was without our control” (107). The girls ignore the consequences because they convince themselves that...