Stunning photo by @calmdust
Hey fairies!
Welcome back to day 4 of our readalong of Immortal Longings! Let’s get comfy and get reading!
Today we’re reading from Chapter 16 to the end of Chapter 22.
Please be warned, the following section will include spoilers for Immortal Longings by Chloe Gong, from chapters 16 to 22. Please only read on if you’ve finished this section!
-!SPOILERS!-
The games are about to step up! (As if they weren’t stressful enough already!)
Anton misses the announcement as he’s tending to Otta. Do we think he’s doing it out of love or a sense of obligation? Maybe he feels guilty? He doesn’t want her death on his hands but once the games are over he’ll have the death of many others on them.
He thinks they belong to each other… What about Calla though? Is he just using her?
Calla finds Anton to let him know the location pings are stepping up. Before they can get into any kind of argument (because let’s face it – they would have. These two quarrel like it’s their job and I love it!) Calla receives a message from Chami. Yilas is missing and Calla and Anton are going to find her. It seems though, that Ruen has betrayed Anton, betraying Calla in turn, because as they leave he makes a call to tell someone she is on her way.
They’re lucky Eno was about. He helps escort a still alive Yilas out of the temple whilst Calla and Anton take on… whoever these people are. Anton urges her to jump but she won’t.
Omg it’s Pampi!!! She’s speaking Talinese. Calla witnesses her jumping without light first hand. Kill her!!! Kill her now!!!!
Pampi is quite literally trying to have Calla’s heart carved out and she still won’t jump. This has to be about more than just disliking the way jumping feels!
Anton somehow, miraculously, gets her out. That was so intense. My heart is pounding!!
“You’re a wild, terrifying thing, do you know that?”
Anton Makusa, love of my life.
Pls bury me with this quote.
Her secret is out and from the way she asks if he worked it out, it’s almost like she wanted him to know. Whilst this person has lived and breathed in Calla Tuoleimi’s body for a long time, she is not the real Calla.
Chloe Gong does it again with a plot twist that’s absolutely BLINDSIDED ME.
Calla has always been ruthless as we see a flashback that shows how she came about invading the princess.
She can’t jump because even after fifteen years there’s a part of her that worries the real princess’s qi is still in there somewhere.
She’s panicking and tries to leave but Anton tells her she cares for her. He eventually lets her go.
Back with Chami and Yilas, Calla starts to fade out and tells them to call August and get him to shut down her location pings. Let’s hope she does or she’s a goner without Anton around.
Well. At least that’s Pampi disposed of. Thanks August! Somehow I don’t think the lightless jumping will stop though, even with her gone.
Calla’s back in the games and after a bit of a rumble with Nineteen, she’s met with Eno. She tells him again to get out of the games and he says he might… but asks if she can help him until then. Don’t wait Eno, get out now!
Eno was supposed to be keeping watch for Calla but suddenly he’s gone and there are people – not players – after her. People sent by someone with black eyes… Surely not? I know she’s been gone for ten days but one of the last things Anton said was that he cared for her. It can’t be him???
She disposes of her attackers but others didn’t get away so easily… I’m not ok. I need a moment.
😭😭😭 Eno 😭😭😭
We end day four with Calla certain that Anton Makusa has turned on their alliance.
Do you really think Anton has turned on her?
What do you think she’ll do now?
Did you see the plot twist about her not actually being Calla coming?
This section might have been my favourite so far. So much drama. The twists are coming out!
I am SO nervous to see how this ends. See you tomorrow!
Love,
Shannon
Whelp this section was so dramatic I read the whole thing between midnight and 2am lol.
One think I don’t get, and hopefully someone can explain; I understand how as the reader we figured out Calla wasn’t really Calla, but why did Anton realise that? It doesn’t feel like enough happened to make him have that thought…
Also Eno didn’t so much have death flags as death bright-flashing-lights-in-the-shape-of-skulls-and-arrows-all-pointed-at-him, so I wasn’t surprised by him being killed, but I did think it was brutal to have him unceremoniously offed off-page. He deserves a little more than THAT don’t you think? 😅
I’ve blanked on his name and don’t have my copy of the book to hand, but I think August’s guard has got to be the in-palace traitor.
Questions!
Do you really think Anton has turned on her?
Nah, though I do think it’ll be more fun if he has lol.
What do you think she’ll do now?
Honestly, I don’t really know. Win the game. Either I think she will fail to kill the king, or she will succeed but August being on the throne will be even WORSE.
Did you see the plot twist about her not actually being Calla coming?
I called it yesterday, but I totally had the wrong angle on it! My main theory was that it was an Otta-Calla body swap, but i figured even if it wasnt that it’d frame Calla as the victim in the situation.
It, uh, sure didn’t do that. :×
So I kind of predicted that Calla wasn’t really Calla and that’s because Anton and Calla were talking (it was probably in the previous section) and she told him about her first time jumping and how horrible it was. Anton was asking then that the second jump must have been better but Calla conveniently never answered his question and then I started thinking whether she ever made the jump back or not. Probably Anton had the same idea… hopefully this answers your question 🙂 I also had a fleeting thought that maybe it was Otta inside of Calla but other than that I had no other theories who it could’ve been.
I also thought that Eno deserved better than the death off-page that he got.
Do you really think Anton has turned on her?
No, I don’t think it was truly Anton who turned on her. I’d sooner believe it to be August.
What do you think she’ll do now?
She’ll confront Anton, who knows nothing of what she is talking about. She realises he is “innocent” and they team up once again trying to find out who set her up and trying to win the game
Did you see the plot twist about her not actually being Calla coming?
No, I actually believed her to truly be Calla, but not being in her birth body any longer. While the second is true, it still is very different from the truth haha.
– One thing I did wonder, which I don’t fully understand. Calla has yellow eyes, which indicated royalty. It is why she tries to hide them since they’re recognisable. If she jumped at 8 years-old into the body; how is it that she has the royal yellow eyes? In the beginning they said that only she and the king have the same hue of yellow eyes and that it is a hereditary mark of the Shenzhis and Tuoleimis, so how did she have those if she originally isn’t a Tuoleimis. And shouldn’t they have noticed the change in color if she jumped into the body of Calla?
My guess is that there is some further plot reveal that she is truly of the blood line to possess the yellow eyes or it’s just a plot hole.
1) I don’t think Anton turned on Calla. In their relationship, if anything, it’d be Calla turning on Anton first. I don’t trust August at all and he clearly doesn’t like their alliance. What is the beef between the boys??? I’m pretty sure August has some role in this attack on Calla.
2) Calla is no doubt gonna hunt Anton down. How that will play out.. well your guess is as good as mine.
3) NOPE, a big no. That COMPLETEY shook me. I had to reread that whole scene again to fully grasp what just happened! Oh that plot twist. Soooo good!
Do you really think Anton has turned on her?
No but I don’t think it’s August either.
What do you think she’ll do now?
I’m guessing she’ll go after him and try to kill him but he won’t die.
Did you see the plot twist about her not actually being Calla coming?
No – I thought otta or August may not be the people they are meant to be but didn’t suspect calla. Perhaps callas parents found out she wasn’t calla and that’s why she killed them?
So many twists in this section, I loved it!
I don’t actually think that it was Anton who has turned on Calla. She said that she knew of two people who had black eyes but it doesn’t necessarily mean that there aren’t others with black eyes, right? If I had to choose between Anton and August, it would most likely be August then rather than Anton, I believe Anton would have respected the deal between them and remained allies until all the other players were gone.
I’m not sure what Calla will do next, probably will find some clever way to ambush Anton? But he is very precise and good at this killing/attacking thing that it’ll probably be difficult to do. Maybe she’ll ask help from August.
I kind of predicted that Calla is not really Calla when Calla told Anton (I think it was in the previous section) that Calla jumped for the first time when she was 8 and it was horrible for her and then Anton asked that the second time jumping must have been better. Calla conveniently ignored the question so that made me suspicious and I was quite certain that Calla probably never jumped back. So in a way I saw it coming because there was some foreshadowing.
My assumption is August is to blame and is using this to get Anton and Calla to turn on each other so August has more time to get rid of Otta.
She is probably going to find Anton and demand answers but he will sweet talk her to figuring out August is behind this.
The reveal was not shocking to me personally. From the point of Calla destroying the royal family and her goal of removing Kasa all seems very questionable behavior from a princess. Most would prefer the life of luxury but she is willing to try and destroy the monarch in power. That was a bit of a giveaway to me. Either a princess with a bloodlust and morbid sense of justice, or someone who jumped and wants vengeance for her kin.
My heart is broken over Eno…I really thought he would pull his chip or something. I didnt want him to DIE! Also someone with black eyes sent out the hit against her. I dont think it was Anton or August. Possibly Kasa, I doubt he is not aware of Augusts plots. He is probably way more in the know that August believes.
I think Calla will go after Anton, then be convinced that it wasn’t him. I need them to team back up cause they work so well together.
I had a feeling she wasn’t in her original body but not that she adopted the Princess’ identity. I do love the premise that a girl from the countryside has super strong qi. It’s not just the royals that are powerful.
I don’t think Anton has betrayed calla, I think she’s going to keep on working towards her aim either way though.
I honestly don’t like the twist that Calla isn’t calla, I’ve had issues with magic system and the way it works in regards to consent and the twist only makes those issues worse and even more glaring.
Do you really think Anton has turned on her? No way.
What do you think she’ll do now? hopefully confront him.
Did you see the plot twist about her not actually being Calla coming? No!! I can’t believe it. So I don’t understand – what happened to the real Calla’s qi?
I don’t think Anton has turned on Calla. I’m pretty sure it’s August who send those guys. She said that she know of two people who has does eyes so it’s probably that they were sent by August. I’m sad fro Eno but I thought it will happen at some point. I’m not sure what Calla will do next, but it will probably have something to do to with Anton, like finding him and demand answers or try to kill him. I absolutely didn’t see her not actually being Calla. That shock me so much. I still don’t get how she has the yellow eyes, even if it supposed to be only for the royal family.
My entire comment got lot because I wasn’t logged in like I thought 🙁 Take two!
1) Do you really think Anton has turned on her?
Nah. It’s the right time for this kind of fake-out twist in the plot. My wild theory is that it’s Otta (as August’s half sister, there’s a good chance she has dark/ black eyes too)
2) What do you think she’ll do now?
Calla is 100% going to confront Anton.
3) Did you see the plot twist about her not actually being Calla coming?
I didn’t and I feel like I should have! I knew it was odd that no one could jump into her, but completely forgot that bodies being doubled was a thing that could prevent it. In hindsight, it was well foreshadowed an makes a lot of sense (with the whole parent murder).
ALTHOUGH I am curious: how did her eye colour not tip anyone off? The bright yellow is the colour associated with the true Princess’s family. Is it just a coincidence that Calla had very similarly bright eyes or what? Why did no one close to the princess notice the change?
I did NOT see that plot twist coming. But if she’s been Calla since she was 8 years old and we’ve been told the story of her growing up in the palace and training and standing up to her parents as Calla, she’s BASICALLY Calla… And I guess it makes sense now why she was so against the monarchy and wanted to free the people because she WAS the people at one point. I don’t think Anton has turned, he’s def developed feels.
This section nearly killed me. I have just finished it (at 5 in the morning) and I came here to pour my thoughts out before diving in and reading the last section of the story.
I half-predicted the Calla-isn’t-Calla plot twist from when she refused to answer Anton about her second time jumping, heavily impling there wasn’t a second time and that the first (and only) jump she made was in the former Calla’s body.
Eno’s death was the saddest death I’ve read this year, and it was so casually brushed off, it really reflects how cruel and uncaring the city of San-Er really is.
I love how important the emphasis on eye colour is, the men sent to kill Calla confess someone with black eyes had hired them, and so far the only people described as having them are Anton and August. I can’t imagine Anton turning on Calla, at least not like this, he clearly isn’t the type of character to hire others to do his work, so my best guess would be August (for some reason). There’s one thing the end of this section made clear: Calla believes Anton betrayed her and right now she’s hellbent on revenge.
I figured there was something up with Calla not wanting to swap bodies, but not (quite) this! In a previous section, Calla had previously said jumping was so horrible the first time, and Anton said something like “didn’t it get better the second time though?” and Calla didn’t answer, which made me think Calla *hadn’t* jumped a second time and stayed in that body. I hadn’t quite realized that meant the person in Calla’s body wasn’t Calla, though! Now her killing her “parents” makes so much more sense.
Ok, Anton is totally not the one who sent people after Calla. Hello, Calla, AUGUST was the one who told you to go to a particular spot where you then got ambushed! It’s obviously August!
As far as what happens next, I really hope Calla doesn’t kill Anton because don’t we have at least one more book in this series? I need more Calla/Anton tension in my life!
Do you really think Anton has turned on her?
I don’t think Anton turned on her. I think the same people that have been hunting her are the ones responsible. The crescent society people. He even admitted that he liked her, and he proved it by taking care of her when she was injured.
What do you think she’ll do now?
I think she’ll hunt Anton down and they’ll fight. Sooner or later she’ll probably realize it wasn’t him. They’ll probably turn their attention to August and/or the Crescent Society.
Did you see the plot twist about her not actually being Calla coming?
I actually didn’t. But I should have. Her refusal to jump should have been a dead giveaway.