Overview

"You can see me," a voice said, smooth and cold and ancient.

"I can do more than see you," Rowan said, her hands raised with ward magic crackling between her fingers. "I can track you. Trap you. Stop you from taking anyone else."

"Can you?" The shadow laughed, and the sound made Rowan's skin crawl. "You're powerful, little witch. But you're alone. And alone, you're vulnerable."

"I'm not alone."

"Aren't you?" The shadow tilted what might have been a head. "You've built such impressive walls, such perfect isolation. You're exactly the type I usually feed on. Strong but separate. Capable but alone."

Rowan Blackwood has spent the last six years building walls.

At thirty-four, Rowan has reinvented herself. Once a top supernatural enforcement agent, she is now the city’s premier ward crafter, using her magic and her custom wheelchair to navigate a world that wasn't built for her. She is brilliant, independent, and safe. As long as she doesn’t let anyone too close, she can’t be hurt—and she can’t get anyone else hurt, either.

But a new predator is stalking the city’s supernatural underbelly. Silas, an ancient shadow entity, isn’t hunting the strongest or the fastest; he is hunting the isolated. He feeds on loneliness, picking off vulnerable community members one by one.

Sage Winters refuses to let her be alone.

Sunny, empathetic, and stubborn, Sage is a mediator who sees past Rowan’s prickly defenses. Dealing with her own chronic illness, Sage knows that true strength doesn’t come from solitude—it comes from solidarity. When Silas targets them both, Rowan is forced to make a choice: maintain the walls that have kept her safe, or let Sage in and build something strong enough to withstand the shadows.

To defeat a monster that weaponizes isolation, Rowan must do the one thing that terrifies her more than death: she has to trust a community to catch her.

This story subverts the "chosen one" trope by proving that true strength lies not in solitude, but in solidarity.

✔️ Paranormal Women's Fiction (PWF)
✔️ Sapphic / F/F Romance
✔️ Disability Representation (Wheelchair & Crutches Users)
✔️ Grumpy x Sunshine
✔️ Found Family & Community
✔️ Urban Fantasy Witches
✔️ Hurt/Comfort
✔️ Competence (Magic & Wards)