Left to right: Wren and Tamsin.
In the Queendom of Carrow a Mystical Plague begins to spread once again, born from dark magic. Tamsin is an exiled witch, unable to love because of a curse. Wren is a source of magic, caring for her sick father. Once he contracts the plague, Wren is desperate to find a cure for it and seeks Tamsin out. Making a bargain, they set out to find it together, while both girls must also deal with their budding mutual attraction.Tropes:
- Accidental Murder: Tamsin accidentally killed a girl while trying to save her sister Marlena with magic. It got her expelled from the academy and the Coven had cursed her for it too.
- Action Girl: Tamsin proves herself capable of disabling two armed men when faced with their hostile intent, casting a spell and trapping both of them inside a pit. Later she also duels the dark witch, and nearly beats her on her own.
- Agony Beam: In the fight with Marlena, she uses a spell that causes pain to torture Wren.
- Always Identical Twins: Tamsin and her deceased twin Marlena were identical. In fact, Tamsin also tried to make them appear even more identical by also copying Marlena's outfits, as Marlena complained. Later it turns out that Marlena is alive, and when they meet Wren's astonished to see them together.
- Ambiguously Absent Parent: Tamsin's mother becomes a major character, and the relationship which they have (quite poor initially) gets explored heavily. On the other hand, her father is never even mentioned.
- Angsty Surviving Twin: Tamsin tried to save her twin Marlena with magic, which caused her death. She's wracked with guilt by this, and was cursed to not feel love too as punishment. It's then revealed that Marlena's alive however.
- The Big Damn Kiss: Wren and Tamsin passionately kiss toward the end once both have finally expressed that they love each other.
- Cain and Abel: The dark witch whom Tamsin is hunting to stop the deadly mystical plague that she unleashed turns out to be her sister Marlena, whom she'd believed dead. After discovering this, she has to take her down, and they have an epic Wizard Duel.
- Calling Parents by Their Name: Tamsin at first only calls her mother Vera or High Councillor (as her title is) given their estrangement, leaving it a surprise when their relationship gets revealed.
- Cannot Spit It Out: Tamsin and Wren have quite a hard time telling each other they're in love, even after both have realized the fact.
- Cast from Hit Points: Doing magic drains a witch of some energy, depending on the spells and their strength. Tamsin, as the most powerful among her generation, is only slightly weakend after healing a boy from the fever that would kill him otherwise, whereas other witches would be bedridden recovering for days. However, they can also get magic from sources (people who are made of magic, essentially) or the earth itself. The latter is dark magic though, and imbalances the world, causing awful catastrophes.
- Curse:
- Tamsin has been cursed to not feel love. She gets other people's love in return for doing spells which they need.
- A nymph also was hired to poison a golden apple to kill a woman's stepdaughter, with it going awry to destroy an entire year's apple crop instead.
- Daddy's Girl: Wren loves her father deeply, whom she cares for given he has a severe illness. As her mother had died years ago, it was just them for a long time. When he's contracted an even worse illness, Wren sets out to find a cure, and is even reluctantly willing to sacrifice her very love for him if it means he'll live.
- Damsel out of Distress: Tamsin saves Wren and herself after the two are confronted by armed men intent on harming them. She casts a spell which traps both of them inside a pit.
- Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Dark magic, as a result of drawing power from the earth itself, rather than the witch or a source. The earth is imbalanced through doing this, and the effects are terrible. Naturally, it's outlawed and punishable to use.
- Dark Action Girl: Marlena is alive, it turns out, and the witch using dark magic that has caused all the misfortune in the story. When they finally meet, she and Tamsin fight each other in a brutal Wizard Duel.
- The Dark Arts: Dark magic, which here means the kind that draws power directly from the earth, causing a severe imbalance that can do things like release mystical plagues which kill people slowly. It's a fast way to power with terrible consequences for everyone else, and the world generally. It also quickly corrupts the user, turning them cruel and hateful, while once depowered they will return to their previous personality.
- Dem Bones: Arwyn has an army of skeletal animals under her control who she uses while hunting down criminal witches. They are incredibly creepy and very frightening to Wren.
- De-power: Wren manages to break the link between Tamsin and Marlena, leaving the latter without magic as a result, therefore harmless too.
- Does Not Like Magic: Wren's father hates it as her mother was killed in a magically caused plague. However, he gets over this easily when Wren tells him she's a source (basically, pure magic).
- Emotion Eater: Tamsin was made incapable of love by a curse, so she takes other people's emotions in return for spells she casts on their behalf.
- Enchanted Forest: The Witchwood is one, surrounding Within, the land where witches live. It's been enchanted with many spells to scare away muggles from entering. However, witches or sources (people who are living magical fuel) see and hear illusions of their dead loved ones which seem real, which makes it hard to get past its environs too.
- Equivalent Exchange: The magic to fuel spells must come from somewhere. Generally, this is the witch casting a spell. However, it can also be a source or the earth itself (but the latter causes imbalance and is called dark magic, with a dire consequence).
- Evil Sorcerer: Dark witches have created mystical plagues multiple times which killed thousands, causing witches generally to become feared by muggles.
- Exact Words: Tamsin notes that witches like to use these in the magically binding contracts they make. As her agreement with Wren required the latter to give her love, but wasn't specific, she later says Wren's love for her is enough, not giving up her love for her father as was originally the intent.
- The Exile: Tamsin was banished from the witch land, called Within, as part of her punishment after a dark magic spell that she cast ended up killing a girl accidentally.
- Fantastic Romance: A romance where one partner is cursed to be unable to love, making it nearly an Impossible Task.
- Fictional Age of Majority: Tamsin is just seventeen when the story begins, which means she's reached adulthood in her society's reckoning.
- Forced Sleep: Marlena tries to put Tamsin asleep while they fight, so she can draw on her magic with no further interference while she's magically slumbering.
- Friend to All Living Things: Wren, as one effect of being a source, is loved by all animals. Even wild ones come fearlessly over to her with immediate affection.
- Good Is Not Nice:
- Vera, the witch leader, harshly punished Tamsin as a result of her doing dark magic. Given just how bad the effects of dark magic are on others (even if unintended), even Tamsin agrees it's probably what she deserved (the other option was killing her too, so Vera was merciful).
- Arwyn is also not at all nice and commands a beastial skeleton army, but is still on the good side enforcing laws against spells being abused.
- Good Witch Versus Bad Witch: Tamsin is a good witch who's repentant of having used dark magic in the past, trying to stop the new dark witch using it, who's revealed as her sister Marlena. However, it turns out that the dark witch isn't innately evil, but corrupted by the dark magic, and goes back to normal after she's depowered.
- Hair-Contrast Duo: Tamsin is a brunette and Wren a redhead. While the former is a powerful witch who's been cursed to not feel love, Wren's a source (living magic fuel) who deeply loves her father, caring for him in his sickness.
- Healing Hands: Tamsin heals people by passing a hand over where they are affected.
- Important Haircut: Wren has Tamsin cut off her braid, which she had because it was the same way her dead mother kept it, asserting herself as a unique person and no longer miring in the past by doing so.
- It's All About Me: Wren sees Tamsin as the most selfish person who she's ever met, and Tamsin's own sister Marlena viewed her this way too. They're wrong though-Tamsin had risked everything trying to save Marlena in the past, and was punished harshly as a result.
- It's All My Fault: Tamsin frequently laments foolishly having tried to use dark magic so she could save her sister Marlena. This ended in her accidentally killing a girl then Marlena dying (apparently) instead, while Tamsin was exiled and cursed.
- Lack of Empathy: Tamsin, as a result of a curse, no longer feels love (unless she's gotten this from other people). As a result, she is cold and callous to most people, which disturbs Wren greatly. Despite this, she's not really cruel, just indifferent most of the time. She gradually starts to care for Wren however. Over time, her love returns as she and Wren fall for each other.
- Lipstick Lesbian: Tamsin and Wren. Both are feminine girls with long hair who wear dresses, though it's not especially pronounced. They are also both lesbians, it's revealed, and fall for each other.
- Loophole Abuse: Tamsin's curse was that she could never love, and would have to steal love from others to feel emotions again. However, Wren growing to truly love her gives her a constant supply. It doesn't quite break it, but it does stave off the effects, allowing her to love Wren back.
- Love Confession: Tamsin and Wren both finally admit they love each other near the end.
- Magical Gesture: Tamsin makes a sweeping gesture over where people are afflicted to cast spells which heal them.
- Magical Incantation: Spells are sometimes cast by saying specific words.
- Magical Land: Within, or the Witchlands, the domain of witches. It houses their academy and witch government along with many witches themselves of every age, from countries all over the world. There are also many magical objects like talking stones and houses which walk, while strange things such as giant fungi grow there. It's surrounded by a huge Enchanted Forest to enter from the Queendom of Carrow, but may be Another Dimension entirely, with this being just one entrance.
- Magically-Binding Contract: After they make their contract, Tamsin conjures up a black ribbon which goes on Wren's neck, warning that if she breaks it she'll be strangled.
- Magical Society: The Coven in Within are the group which governs their fellow witches.
- A Magic Contract Comes with a Kiss: Tamsin seals her contract with Wren through a kiss at the end. It entails Tamsin, a witch, aiding Wren to stop a dark witch who's unleashed a mystical plague on the land, which Wren's father now has. In return, she gets Wren's love for her father.
- Mark of the Supernatural: Witches in Carrow get a specific mark denoting them. Tamsin's was burned off as part of her punishment. Wren's given one too when she goes to the witch domain and they learn she's a source, registering her. Tamsin later gets hers back after she's forgiven.
- Missing Mom: Wren's mother has been dead for five years when the story starts. As a result, she's left to care for her severely ill father alone.
- Mugging the Monster: Tamsin encounters two armed men while with Wren who intend to rob and rape the pair at the very least. She easily deals with both since, though appearing to be just a teenage girl, she's actually a very powerful witch.
- Mundane Utility: Tamsin sometimes uses her magic in doing ordinary things like drying clothes.
- Mutant Draft Board: The Coven does not take no for an answer regarding witches' membership. Any who do not join voluntarily will be hunted down and forced to. The same goes for sources, who are living magical fuel and very rare, so even more valuable to them.
- Mystical Plague: Dark witches have unleashed ones twice by the time of the story. In the second case, it leeches away people's memories and joys, leaving them empty shells, before their bodies wither away too until they die. The second plague turns out to be the accidental side effect from the dark magic being used, not a deliberately inflicted one.
- The Needs of the Many: Tamsin's mother was willing to exile and curse her while killing her other daughter (or so it seemed) when she deemed it necessary for saving the witches' Coven which she's the leader of.
- Nice Girl: Wren is a kind girl who has dutifully taken care of her ill father, even though it's hard on her, and always shows compassion toward the less fortunate. She's disturbed and appalled how Tamsin is callous in contrast (as she's incapable of caring due to a curse), chiding her and insisting they help the needy anyway, to Tamsin's annoyance at first.
- Non-Heteronormative Society: The Queendom of Carrow and Within do not appear to have any bias against LGBT+ people or relationships. Wren and Tamsin do not see anything unusual or wrong with their attraction to other girls. A minor female character in Wren's village is married to another woman-she finds this completely unremarkable. Tamsin also knew a fellow student whom she mentally refers to using they/them pronouns, indicating they're nonbinary, and she never thinks of them being unusual or notable either.
- Offing the Offspring: Vera broke the bond which Tamsin had with Marlena as it had caused awful side effects. Tamsin created it to keep Marlena alive, with her dying once this happens. It turns out Tamsin and Marlena are her daughters. It's then subverted however as Marlena survived.
- Opposites Attract: Tamsin and Wren are very much opposites in many ways. Physically, Tamsin is a brunette with brown eyes, and Wren a green-eyed redhead. Tamsin is a powerful witch cursed so she can't love, Wren a source of magic who's unable to use it herself who has cared for her father as a result of her deep love for him over many years. Despite this, they fall for each other over time.
- Our Witches Are Different: Here, "witch" appears to be just the name for magic users overall. They don't have stereotypical traits. Most of them are good, aside from a few that practice dark magic. The majority are female, but some male ones also briefly appear. However, they aren't focused on.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Wren's parents lost her brother years prior during the mystical plague in the Year of Darkness. It left both wounded, hating magic as the cause of the plague, and thus witches as welll due to this.
- Polar Opposite Twins: Although identical, Tamsin and Marlena were very different otherwise. Tamsin is the most powerful witch in her generation, able to do spells with ease which exhaust others. Marlena though was very weak, and doing even simple spells put her in the infirmary, even into a coma. She grew to hate Tamsin for accidentally killing a friend of hers. Tamsin though had caused this as a result of a spell to save Marlena because of how much she loved her, which caused her to risk everything.
- Poor Communication Kills: Marlena resented Tamsin's constant coddling, but never actually revealed this to her. This led her to push herself further and further until she nearly killed herself trying to prove she didn't need Tamsin, which in turn led Tamsin to cast dark magic to try and save her, a process that killed Amma, nearly killed Marlena, and laid a curse on the land.
- Posthumous Character: Marlena, Tamsin's twin sister, is dead but her death hangs over Tamsin as this was indirectly her fault, instigating the story since it also was how she'd gotten to where she's stuck at the beginning. Tamsin later also gets Marlena's diary, with her learning about what Marlena thought of her (it wasn't good). However, it turns out Marlena's alive.
- Protective Charm: Tamsin casts magical shield spells over herself in defense when she fights Marlena during the Wizard Duel they have toward the end.
- Queer Establishing Moment:
- Tamsin notes that she found herself attracted to pretty girls before, and mentions kissing Leya, her female best friend while at the academy for witches.
- Wren later realizes she's fallen in love with Tamsin when Leya points this out.
- Redheads Are Ravishing: Tamsin, one of the two heroines, falls for the other, Wren (a redhead). In fact, one of the first things she does with her store of love is note how beautiful Wren's hair is.
- The Reveal: Vera, the High Counciller who's head of the witches' Coven, later turns out to be Tamsin's mother. This is after we've learned she's exiled Tamsin and cursed her for trying to save her twin Marlena with dark magic. Further, she undid the spell that kept Marlena alive, thus killing her (but it's revealed later she actually survived).
- Rotating Protagonist: Tamsin and Wren are both the protagonists, with alternating chapters focused on each.
- Shout-Out: There are references to classic fairy tales. One is of a wicked stepmother who had a nymph cast a spell to poison a golden apple she wanted for her stepdaughter (something like Snow White) but it backfired, poisoning an entire apple crop. Wren meets a toad who claims he's a lord turned into this by a witch, with a kiss turning him back (The Frog Prince). It turns out he's a sprite who wants to trick her though, and if she kissed him she'd turn into a toad too. There's also mention of a creature called a "[[Literature/Rumpelstiltskin stiltzkin]]" that girls can trade their names for the ability to turn straw into gold.
- Significant Green-Eyed Redhead: Wren, one of the two protagonists, has red hair and green eyes.
- Switching P.O.V.: The chapters alternately show things from Tamsin and Wren's perspectives.
- There Is Only One Bed: Wren and Tamsin have to share the same bed in an inn where they get only a small room, which they find awkward, particularly since both have a mutual attraction (but neither knows about this at the time).
- Twin Switch: Tamsin and her twin Marlena used to fool people doing this as a joke. Once their magic manifested, it no longer became possible.
- Vain Sorceress: Vera, the witch leader (High Councillor) has kept herself looking young and beautiful using her magic, though Tamsin can see some cracks in her appearance while close to her.
- Wizard Duel: Tamsin and Marlena, both witches (along with twin sisters) have a vicious, lengthy spell battle toward the end of the book.
- Wizarding School: The Coven have an academy to train witches-Tamsin attended it but was expelled.
- Wizards Live Longer: Some of the witches have lived from one to three hundred years, which is not presented as unusual.
- You Can't Go Home Again:
- Tamsin was expelled from Within on pain of death. She's eventually forced to return.
- After losing her magic, Marlena chooses to leave Within, even knowing she can never come back.
