“The old gods may be great, but they are neither kind nor merciful. They are fickle, unsteady as moonlight on water, or shadows in a storm. If you insist on calling them, take heed: be careful what you ask for, be willing to pay the price. And no matter how desperate or dire, never pray to the gods that answer after dark.”

In this ominous warning—which doubles as the book’s Epigraph—Estele cautions Addie about the “old gods,” particularly those who live in the darkness. Witchy and worldly, Estele is Addie’s concierge for the pastoral and animistic theology that propels the book’s supernatural content. Here, she foreshadows Luc’s character traits, including his fickleness and mercilessness.

“Estele used to call these the restless days, when the warmer-blooded gods began to stir, and the cold ones began to settle. When dreamers were most prone to bad ideas, and wanderers were likely to get lost. Addie has always been predisposed to both.” 

Addie’s characterization as a dreamer and a wanderer casts her as having the temperament of an artist. Much of the book exists as an examination of this temperament and its consequences, as Addie flirts with darkness and oblivion, only to find herself thrust into both after making her deal with Luc. Though in some ways a cautionary tale about indulging creative impulses, the novel also depicts Addie enjoying moments of triumph and transcendence, suggesting that the hardship of a dreamer’s life is worth it.

“It is the only thing Addie refused to leave behind and feed to the flames in New Orleans, though the smell of him clung to it like smoke, his stain forever on everything. She does not care. She loves the jacket. It was new then, but it is broken in now, shows its wear in all the ways she can’t. It reminds her of Dorian Gray, time reflected in cowhide instead of human skin.” 

Given that Addie cannot show her age, she imbues her old, beat-up jacket with symbolic resonance to assert her long existence. At once an affectation casting her as an “old soul” and a talisman against the forces of darkness, the jacket is a reminder that time is real for Addie, even if her body does not show it.