Thornapple

Eli was born to be the Mistress of Seers. Too bad everyone doesn’t feel that way.

Eli’s bid to be named the Mistress of Seers was a disaster. Those who are witchborn cannot lead the seers, and Eli’s just learned that her mother was a witch. But that’s not why the clan elders won’t follow her—it’s because of her newly discovered curse. Instead, they pick her rival and ex-lover, Amir, as their leader.

Since Amir blew up her apartment right before he claimed her rightful position, Eli’s been staying at Dan’s place. Things are moving fast between them—maybe too fast—then Eli’s life goes from bad to worse and she doesn’t have time to give in to her insecurities. Dan’s job is on the line, Tessa searches for a way to save the witch elders from Amir’s cruel plans, and Eli struggles to understand where her curse came from. All of the clues they uncover point toward Eli’s mother.

Eli tries not to think about her mother too often. After all, the woman had abandoned Eli as a child, and in a psychiatric ward at that. But Eli needs answers, so she probes her family’s history. Along the way she learns that she’s more closely entwined with the local witch cans than she ever realized. Then Amir begins killing witches—some with a slow descent into madness, others publicly and messily—and Eli realizes she’s out of options. She reaches out to her first enemy, someone who tried to control Eli’s destiny before she was ever born: Sarah Allwood, the witch who started it all.

But, what could Sarah have to do with Eli’s mother? Eli hasn’t seen her in twenty years… then Eli learns that the last time her mother visited her, she had a thornapple blossom in her hair.