This is a big newsletter, so you’ve been warned. I have reminders at the top, then the Witchshadow recap (which is so long—and also FILLED with spoilers, so be aware!).
I’ve also posted the next two chapters in Early Access, but rather than bog down this newsletter (or those chapters), I’ve posted them separately here. Enjoy.
WE ARE SO CLOSE TO THE END OF EARLY ACCESS—and to the book’s FULL release. Only three weeks away. 😱
Pre-order, pre-order, pre-order! (And vote!)
Last week, we hit 1004 pre-orders and unlocked TIER 2 in the short story pre-order campaign—meaning your awesome pre-orders (from all around the globe!) have gained access to a longer short story.
Now, if you want to get amazing, exclusive CJ Merwild art, we need to hit 1500 pre-orders!
So get your pre-orders in, get your receipts in, and GET READY for Witchlight to hit stores!!
Get your Witchlight tour tickets!
Since the book hits stores in only three weeks, that ALSO means I will be gong on tour!
So make sure you get your tickets!
Grand Rapids, MI
Tuesday, November 4, 2025 6:30 PM
Roselynn Hill Winery (with A Novel Neighbor)
Louisville, KY
Wednesday, November 5, 2025 6:30 PM
Bensalem, PA
Thursday, November 6, 2025 6:00 PM
New York, NY
Friday, November 7, 2025 6:00 PM
In conversation with Lyssia Mia Smith and moderated by Emily Taylor!
Sunday, November 9, 2025 1:00 PM
Featured Author at the Texas Book Festival
Truthwitch GIF Recap on Instagram
For those of you from the OG Witchlanders crew back in 2017, you may recall the Truthwitch GIF recap I did on Twitter to prep you for the release of Windwitch.
Well, the awesome Emily Ritter kindly compiled that WHOLE thing for me, and I was able to share it on my stories on Instagram!
So now you can head to my highlight in my profile and enjoy as if it were 2017 all over again…
Witchshadow Recap
In the spirit of recaps, I FINALLY wrote the official Witchshadow recap for my website.
I’m not going: this took me two entire work days to write. There is just so much plot in Witchshadow. (Which is to be expected, since I had to cram two books into one.)
Still, I had to really get picky in my summary about which details were worth including—and how to arrange them to be the most logical in a recap format.
So just be aware, this isn’t a beat-for-beat recap, and some flashbacks were skipped as well as smaller character moments.
Now onto the Witchshadow recap!
Part 1
In the opening prologue, we watch from the Rook’s point of view as Safi and Iseult heal the Earth Well. Leopold is there and delighted, and scene closes with the Rook heading off on a mission for someone unknown.
The book cuts ahead an entire month, and the reader is given no context about how we got here. All we know is that Iseult faces off to Hell-Bards who have hunted her from Praga into the Ohrin Mountains. And we see Iseult tap easily and brutally into her Weaverwitch magic, cleaving each Hell-Bard and taking their supplies.
In Praga, we discover Safi has been married to Emperor Henrick—and worse, bound to the Hell-Bard’s Loom. She no longer has her magic; the world has lost its spark; and the emperor controls her every move.
Here, a flashback cuts into the story, showing Iseult shortly after the Earth Well was healed. Someone calls to her outside, and she discovers a white weasel with pages from Eridysi’s diary in her mouth—and the weasel is none ther than Esme the Puppeteer. Somehow, rather than die by the Air Well, her soul was bound to an animal’s body. Now she is here to teach Iseult what she knows.
The story returns to the present day, show Iseult and Owl at an abandoned hut. Owl seems to hate Iseult even more now than she did before. Perhaps because she wears a heretic’s collar around her neck that Iseult cannot remove, meaning Owl in turn can’t access her Earthwitchery. Worse, as long as Owl wears the collar, the Hell-Bards can keep tracking them.
Esme—still a weasel—is guiding Iseult east toward Arithunia with the promise that Eridysi’s diary will be there. And, in turn, Iseult will be able to fully embrace her powers and save Safi from Emperor Henrick. However, when Iseult tries to enter the Dreaming by using a Hell-Bard’s noose, she is immediately pounced upon by Corlant, the Cursewitch from her childhood who has been hunting her since Truthwitch. He now knows where Iseult is now and he plans to find her.
Meanwhile, in Veñaza City, Vivia Nihar is with Empress Vaness trying to earn the alliance of the Dalmotti Doge so they can reclaim Vaness’s stolen empire. However, the meeting is a trap—and Dalmotti has allied with the Raider King. This leads Vivia and Vaness through a wild ship battle on the Jadansi Sea.
Things are no better for Stacia Sotar (Stix) who is in the Pirate Republic of Saldonica with Ryber the Sightwitch. Stix is beset from voices from her past as a Paladin, and those voices have sent her to the Slaughter Ring, where Stix convinces the pirate, Admiral Kahina, to let her fight in the ring.
That night, in Praga, we see Safi dance with Leopold—and he gives her the Truth-lens she crafted for Vaness in Bloodwitch. It would seem the prince is part of Uncle Eron’s twenty-year plan to bring peace to the Witchlands. And it would also seem the Truth-lens still contains a piece of her magic.
Another flashback shows Safi at the imperial palace in Praga, in the room where Hell-Bards are noosed as Henrick shows it off. The room is filled with thousands of gold chains, and Safi steals one. We also learn that Safi’s uncle was arrested for the crime of hiding his niece’s Truthwitchery, and that Henrick has promised Safi she can see Uncle Eron after she and Henrick are married.
Back in the Ohrins, where Iseult and Owl continue their travels east, Iseult encounters someone she believes is Aeduan. Except she quickly sees that he is not Aeduan, for somehow he has Threads—and those Threads say he is hunting her. Iseult tries to run, but False Aeduan captures her and takes her to a camp, where Evrane is also clearly possessed by someone who is not her. (Just as she was in Bloodwitch.) Owl is already tied up, but there’s no sign of the weasel Esme.
We finally slip into False Aeduan’s point of view, only to learn that although the remnants of Aeduan are still inside the body, this is the soul of an Old One. He given this body by someone he believed was a fellow Exalted One named Portia (the Exalted One of Void). False Aeduan’s mission (and the possessed Evrane’s) is to stop their enemy, the Rook King.
Another flashback reveals a conversation with Lev about the first Hell-Bard, Midne, who had her magic stolen from her to create the first Loom. And Iseult knows from stolen diary pages that Esme gave her, that Midne was a Paladin of Void, and Portia (her counterpart) was the one who bound her to make the Loom.
In the Slaughter Ring in Saldonica, Stix fights a flame hawk, and in turn, Admiral Kahina essentially admits to being a fellow Paladin like Stix—but of fire, instead of water.
Meanwhile in Praga, Safi meets Leopold, where he surprises her by leading her through a secret tunnel under the palace—and there, he proves he’s working for Uncle Eron. His tale prompts her to take a wild risk the following morning: she joins Hell-Bard training and intentionally loses a knife fight to Caden, which means she is sent to Hell-Bard Keep for special healing. Once at the Keep, she and Zander rush to the Hell-Bard Loom in secret—and while she is slowly dying because her noose was removed to do this trick—so she connects to her uncle over the Loom and learns he is near Arithunaia.
Iseult’s situation also grows more dire as she and Owl are delivered to the Purist Priest Corlant. False Aeduan and False Evrane serve him, and he has amassed many followers. Worse, as Iseult watches on, Corlant reveals himself to be a Cursewitch, able to steal magic from anyone he touches. He tells Iseult she is the same, but she resists this—surely it can’t be true.
Another flashback reveals Owl and Zander have grown close, since he is her personal guard in Praga. She wears her heretic’s collar to block her magic, which makes her seem younger than her six or seven years. She bets Iseult tell her a children’s tale about a witch whose hedgehog was brought back to life by praying to the Moon Mother. We also see that although Leopold continues to prod at Iseult with banter, his Threads reveal he might have actual feelings for her.
In the Nihar lands of Nubrevna, Vivia and Vaness go ashore only to find Cam, Vivia’s most important adviser, has been taken captive by Master Huntsman Yoris. Vivia and Vaness surrender themselves to keep the young man safe, and they learn that Vivia’s own father, King Serafin, has ordered this. She is now considered a traitor to Nihar, and Yoris will deliver her to the capital. They are taken to Noden’s Gift and locked away.
In Saldonica, Stix once more fights in the Slaughter Ring, this time against two sea foxes. But Kahina raises the stakes of the fight by throwing prisoners into the water that Stix must save. She fails, and in her rage, demands to know what Kahina wants from her: the answer is the Blade and Glass first seen in Sightwitchthat Stix now possesses. Stix says she will deliver them if Kahina will empty the Ring—since what Stix truly wants is to finally finish unlocking her Paladin memories. (And to free all the prisoners under the Ring.)
In the Ohrin mountains once more, Iseult awakens in the night to find the weasel has chewed her bindings. She and Owl are able to escape, but Iseult first steals the diary of Eridysi that Corlant has. This awakens him, but Iseult is able to gouge out one of his eyes.
She and Owl flee with False Aeduan in pursuit. However, Iseult is able to take him down as well—and while he’s incapacitated, the real Aeduan awakens and urges Iseult to run. She doesn’t want to leave him, but there’s something else pursuing her Owl in the woods. Something massive that wears ancient Threads of violence.
In Praga, Safi finally has her chance to remove the noose without slowly dying by the “Hell-Bard’s Doom”: she has transformed her Truth-lens into a necklace, which lets her keep part of her magic upon her. This also means she can finally leave the palace (and the noose), for Henrick will have no power over her. To test this, she meets Leopold and they foray into Praga through his secret tunnels. While in Praga, Leopold tells Safi he knows where Iseult is, and he can take her there.
Once more in the past, we see the wedding of Safi and Henrick through Iseult’s eyes. This is part of their plan—it will save Uncle Eron and allow Safi to claim control of Cartorra. While watching dancers in a balcony high above, Leopold arrives and asks Iseult to dance. She sees Threads beneath his cultured mask and once more senses he has feelings for her. Not only that, but that he is a deeply lonely and a deeply conflicted young man.
In Noden’s Gift, as Vivia and Vaness linger in a cell, Dalmotti assassins arrive and try to kill them. Vivia uses the moment to escape, but the assassins pursue all the way to the Water Well. Vivia’s magic overwhelms her, nearly killing her, and Vaness drags her into the spring’s healing waters to save her life. However, as soon as Vivia awakens, she finds an entire armada of Dalmotti ships awaits beyond. It would seem her own father has offered to trade Vivia (and Vaness) in exchange for independence from the Raider King. But rather than give themselves up, Vivia and Vaness flee.
As Iseult and Owl, meanwhile, evade the magic creature hunting them and the again-possessed False Aeduan, they reach the acid lake known as the Solfatarra. A Nomatsi trail cuts through, and Iseult barely gets herself and Owl to a Nomatsi tribe hiding within all that fog. To her shock, the tribe she finds is one led by her own mother Gretchya and Gretchya’s apprentice Alma.
In Saldonica, Stix meets with Kahina, only to intentinally misdirect the pirate Admiral to a secret place in the mountain where the Blade and Glass used to be. Then Stix and Ryber hurry into the empty Ring to free all the prisoners below. Unfortunately, before they can finish their plan, Kahina returns and ignites the Ring on fire. She takes the actual Blade and Glass and leaves.
Gretchya attempts to interrogate False Aeduan, whom the tribe has captured and bound. Yet shortly after, False Aeduan realizes the full extent of the Bloodwitchery in this body, and he is able to escape. He hunts after Iseult (and Owl), who have already left. When he catches up to them, however, he discovers Iseult waiting for him. She threatens to destroy him if he doesn’t help her, but their bargaining is cut short when screams sound.
Iseult rushes back to the Nomatsi camp to find it under attack by Corlant and a monstrous, Void-bound shadow wyrm. As Iseult tries to fight and protect her fellow Nomatsis, she clamps onto Corlant’s Threads so she can cleave him. But she fails, and in that moment, she discovers he is actually her father.
In several flashbacks, we see as Safi and Iseult try to finish their plan against Henrick by noosing him. But it fails, and suddenly Henrick is the one noosing them. Iseult and Safi fight back, but they’re unable to get away before Safi’s Threads are bound to the Hell-Bard Loom. Iseult, with Leopold’s help, is able to escape the palace along with Owl. Before he separates from hem, he tells Iseult he loves her. And she tells him, “No, Rook King. You have simply forgotten what it feels like to be seen.”
Part 2
Safi manages to flee Praga with Leopold, only to be met by her Hell-Bard Thread-family: Caden, Lev, and Zander. Leopold is furious Safi has brought them, but there’s nothing he can do. After finding a special laboratory of Leopold’s, hidden far away, they board a Windwitched flying machine named the Eridysi and take aim toward Arithuania.
In Nubrevna, Vivia and Vaness have escaped, but they are both on the verge of collapse from this new overwhelming surge of their magic and their own exhaustion. They finally find a ship that was part of Vivia’s “pirates” known as the Foxes.
Meanwhile, Stix and Ryber are trapped in the burning Slaughter Ring, and finally—finally—the voices give Stix what she needs. She finds a secret room that unlocks all of her Paladin memories and powers, which allows her to flood the Ring, stop the fires, and go after Kahina.
For Iseult, the revelation that Corlant is her father has sent her into a numb despair. She cannot forgive her mother for this awful secret, and she learns from False Aeduan that Corlant is in fact a Paladin of Void—and that for some unknown reason, Iseult is the only person who can kill him. With this knowledge, she “allows” Corlant to train her on how to access the Hell-Bard Loom via the Dreaming. While there, she finds a connection to Safi and learns Safi is headed this way.
Sure enough, Safi is almost to the Solfatarra—but Lev, Zander, and Caden are now suffering from the Hell-Bard’s Doom, sent to them over their nooses by Emperor Henrick. They are dying, and Leopold reminds that he did warn of this. Things get far worse, however, when the flying machine loses control and crashes into the acid world of the Solfatarra.
Corlant’s next lesson is to teach Iseult how to cleave her fellow Threadwitches, but Iseult refuses to harm Alma. So Corlant simply stabs her—yet Alma is quick and attacks him first. Which prompts a new battle between witches and Purists, Nomatsis and Corlant’s followers. The shadow wyrm returns to attack, and Gretchya lurches between it and Iseult—which saves Iseult’s life but condemns Alma to Corlant’s knife. Iseult realizes in that moment that there is a way to defeat Corlant—and, she hopes, bring Alma back. But she needs Safi with her to succeed.
Iseult flees and sure enough, she and Safi are reunited—and Safi possesses their Threadstones, which are exactly the tools Iseult requires to finally defeat Corlant. Because in those stones—which Corlant has been seeking since Gretchya first stole them in Truthwitch—possess all the souls of previous Cahr Awens. Iseult doesn’t know how or why, but those souls can now be used to power her own magic. But Corlant senses what she plans and begins to amass vast amounts of his own power to stop her.
Meanwhile, in Nubrevna, Vivia has returned with her Fox ship to the Dalmotti blockade. She and Vaness have a plan to bring these ships down, and a violent battle begins in which they must tap into all the magic that has been overwhelming them recently. Unknown to them, however, there are also Paladins on shore assisting this fight: Stix and Kahina.
Now that Stix has caught up to the old Admiral, she realizes the woman isn’t a reincarnation of the wicked Exalted One Lovats like she first assumed, but instead her old friend Rhian (from Sightwitch). They are both part of the Six, both on the same side against the Rook King who betrayed them a thousand years ago by warning the Exalted Ones what the Six had planned.
Together, Stix and Kahina will track down the Rook King to destroy him—but first, they must keep their Chosen Rulers alive.
In a crumbling, ancient tower beyond the Solfatarra, Iseult tries to break the Threadstones and claim the Cahr Awen souls within. However, Henrick arrives at this moment—forcing Safi to fight him while Iseult continues her work in the Dreaming.
False Aeduan, having chosen to fight against Corlant and on the side of the Dark-Giver Iseult, faces off to False Evrane so she cannot hunt down Iseult or Safi and cause more harm. Once their battle ends, the Rook King—Leopold—arrives and removes the Old Ones’ souls from their stolen bodies. But first, he makes False Aeduan (whose name is actually Nadje, and who was an Exalted One of Aether) promise to fight on the side of the Cahr Awen when next he returns.
In light, the Rook King tells Nadje, Twelve will meet on lands long contested. While in darkness, the shadow-ender will topple nightmares and the world-starter will build us all anew.
Nearby, after defeating Henrick, Safi finds Corlant has come for her now. Since she is still a Hell-Bard—and since he is actually the Exalted One Portia who created the Hell-Bard Loom—he can control and destroy her. Iseult tries to save Safi, but Corlant is so powerful, she is flung away by his storm.
Where she is saved, unexpectedly, by the shadow wyrm, who is an unwilling tool of Corlant’s and has been for a thousand years. Now, Iseult finally knows what she must do and she has the power of the Threadstones with which to do it. She enters the Hell-Bard Loom one last time and tracks down Corlant at the center. She fights him, and back in the real world, as she faces a defeated, broken man, she is on the cusp of killing his body too.
But Leopold arrives and does it for her, claiming no one should have to kill their own parent.
Meanwhile, back in Nubrevna, Vivia and Vaness have managed to defeat the Dalmotti blockade—although barely--and now they take control of the ships for their own. On the shore nearby, Stix doesn’t want to leave Vivia, but Kahina tells her they can only return once the Rook King has been destroyed and balance restored to the Witchlands. She, Ryber, and Stix all go into Sleeping Mountain (from Sightwitch) via a nearby magic door under the Water Well.
Meanwhile, deep inside that same mountain, Merik finally awakens from his sleeping ice to find two strange girls before him urging him to get up and find the Raider King. And also to protect this storm hound puppy floundering on the ice before him. He names the puppy Aurora, because the idea of a new dawn gives him hope.
Now that all the Hell-Bards are free, including Safi, she rushes to her uncle in his prison. He is barely alive, but she will save him—just as she will save all of Cartorra now that she is the empress in charge.
Aeduan—once himself —finds a quiet moment with Iseult. She is scarred and damaged from handling so many scorching Threads, but she seems more content than he can remember. She kisses his cheek, and he feels a renewed urgency to protect her. Both as the Cahr Awen and as something more.
In the final scenes, Iseult returns to Alma’s corpse and using the magic from the tale she once told Owl, she asks Sirmaya to help the girl and restore her spirit. We see Leopold arrive—as the Rook King—and use his special Paladin magic to do just that. But not before he speaks with Owl, who no longer wears her collar and is now a full Paladin herself too. She accuses Leopold of betraying the Six “good” Paladins, but he insists it was never him who betrayed.
Someone else is out there. And that someone else is still waiting to act.
CONFIRMED PALADINS AT THE END:
Kullen (Bastien)
Stix (Lady Baile)
Owl (Saria)
Kahina (Rhian)
Leopold (Elias, the Rook King)
CONFIRMED EXALTED ONES AT THE END:
Corlant, who was pretending to be Midne but was in fact Portia, the Exalted One of Void.
Nadje, whose soul possessed Aeduan but was released by the Rook King, was the Exalted One of Aether.
We also know an unnamed Exalted One possessed Evrane until the Rook King also released her.
We also know of the Exalted One Lovats through Stix’s flashbacks, but we have not met him in the present day.
Chapters 21 and 22
As mentioned above, to keep this email from running so long that your email provider clips it, I’ve already posted the chapters here for reading.
And you can expect THREE more chapters per week—because I really want to hit a Very Special Reunion in Chapter 28 before Witchlight hits stores.1
So read the new chapters, or start Early Access now, and don’t forget (of course) to pre-order and vote!
💚 - Sooz
P.S. ICYMI, More Instagram Posts & Reels
This is one of those BIG COOKIE moments for me that I’ve been writing toward for so long.