By I woke up to find my edits for book 2, so it’s time to start introducing you to a few new characters!
We’ll start with Thána’s mother, Alaina. We first meet Alaina in book 1, but we don’t really get to know her. In Mörderin we get more time with her.
Alaina and her husband moved from Spítia to an ancestral home in California before Thána was born, certain that her child would be born a blood witch. The activity of the Brotherhood convinced her they’d be safer there, and for a while they were.
When the Brotherhood finds them and kills her husband, her magic can no longer hide them, Alaina flees with her two daughters, trying to stay one step ahead of the men sent to kill Thána. When that gets too hard, she tries something desperate.
Using complicated magic, Alaina blocks Thána’s magic and her memory before leaving the ten-year-old where she would be found and cared for before fleeing once more with her younger daughter, Daria, leaving a trail of Thána’s blood for the Brotherhood to follow.
Still, Alaina doesn’t stay in one place long and eventually goes back to Spítia before finding a portal to someplace new where the Brotherhood has never been seen. Alaina and Daria settle into a quiet life in Vaneesh. As much as she misses her daughter, she knows Thána is safer where she is.
One day, Alaina decides it is time to find Thána, and despite Daria warning her of some dire visions of a disaster to come if Alaina leaves, she does exactly that. Stepping through the portal, Alaina envisions traveling back to California and from there to embark on a search for her eldest child.
That didn’t happen, however, as the Brotherhood picked up her trail as soon as she was on the soil of her homeworld, capturing her and imprisoning her at the Mano Kourt, where they tried to get her to tell them where Thána was hidden.
Alaina held her silence though, determined to protect Thána even if it cost her her life. When Thána and Cambious show up to rescue her, Alaina doesn’t believe it at first. She’s frail from starvation and torture, but still alive as they make their escape.
Reunited with her daughter, Alaina slips easily back into mothering mode and joyously introduces Thána to their extended family, something Thána has never really known. All that’s left then is to go to Vaneesh and introduce the two sisters, which is where we pick up the story in book two of The Blood Witch Saga.
I can’t wait to share this book with you, Readers. Now I’m off to the day job.
Photo by Jennifer Marquez on Unsplash
Natalie J Case 