The Witch Returns

Two years after the final ward closed, Maeril has learned how to keep living without Rishi.

She has not learned how to accept it.

Without telling Elisa or Lantern Hall, Maeril borrows Chime and returns to Fleury Abbey, where she and Rishi once brought a book of their own. In the forbidden lore, she searches for a way to reach him—and discovers that death has not released him.

Rishi may be willing to return. He is not free.

His final sacrifice did not destroy the power that tried to control him. It bound that wound to his soul. A resurrection rite could restore his body, but call him back too soon and the prison returns with him.

So Maeril follows the trail from Fleury to Labyrinth. To reach Rishi, she must gather the family he left behind, confront the machinery built to own his return, and find a way to bring him home without surrendering his freedom.

To free the monk, the witch must open death’s door without making love another chain.