Hello everyone,

Welcome to my stop on The Witch’s Blood blog tour and boy do I have an awesome post for you!! An A to Z on everything Witch’s Blood and its world. If you haven’t read the series this will give you a taster.

Enjoy!

 

An A to Z of The Witch’s Blood
Thank you to Virginie for being part of our blog tour and for suggesting such an interesting
post! We’ve enjoyed it so much we’ve been inspired to do a longer version of it at some point
– one that will cover the whole trilogy – but for now, here is our handy guide to the world of
The Witch’s Blood….

A is for…. Aidan. King of the South Saxons, and Jack’s father. He blames witchcraft for the
death of his wife, Queen Edith, and embarks upon a literal witch-hunt in The Other World,
determined to rid his kingdom of all magic.

B is for…. Black Holly. Extremely poisonous: one scratch from its deadly thorns sends the
victim into an unbreakable sleep during which the body slowly decays… over decades. Nice!
It’s also quick to spread and hard to remove. No one is happy when it starts growing in
Tillingham.

C is for…. Cormac. A Kin-House wizard, he is also Finn’s cousin and a healer – in more
ways than one. In our heads, he looks a tiny bit like Harry Potter, except taller.

D is for…. Denise. Another witch and a member of the coven, who eventually goes a tad
rogue (think ‘bad’ Willow from Buffy, but way meaner). She has never recovered from what
happened to her daughter, Flo, in The Witch’s Tears.

E is for…. Elves. From hiding in the shadows in real Anglo-Saxon England, the elves have
emerged into positions of power under Ronan’s rule of the other world. They have claws,
fangs, and the ability to instil crippling fear into humans. Definitely not people you want to
meet on a dark night. Or at all, in fact.

F is for…. Finn Lombard. A member of one of the Kin-Houses: dynastic wizards who pass
magic from father to son. Poster boys for the patriarchy. Good looking and arrogant, Finn has
a personal grievance against Ronan, but his family responsibilities bring him into conflict
with Merry more than once. 

G is for…. Gran. Played by Judi Dench in our fantasy film version. Despite the traumatic
events of The Witch’s Tears, Gran is still in control of the coven and is always there for
Merry, trying to guide her and help her. A powerful witch in her own right, she’s prepared to
fight to the bitter end for what she believes in.

H is for…. Hydromancy. A form of magic involving the use of water to see into distant
places. Merry’s very good at it, though she trusts it more than she should…
I is for…. Intervolitare. This is a version of the ‘broomstick spell’ used by Kin-House
wizards. Instant transportation, basically.

J is for…. Jack. The Anglo-Saxon prince who was cursed by the wizard Gwydion, possessed
by The King of Hearts, put into an enchanted sleep by Merry’s ancestor, and then woke up
in twenty-first century Surrey. Strong and sincere, he also good with a sword.

H is for…. The King of Hearts. A creature summoned from the shadow realm by Gwydion, it
needs a human host to exist outside of the that realm. Spends most of The Witch’s Kiss trying
to cut out people’s hearts for Gwydion to use in blood magic before being trapped under the
Black Lake by Merry and Leo. Ronan tries his best to harness its powers in The Witch’s
Blood.

L is for…. Leo. Merry’s older brother, he’s been at her side throughout the drama of The
Witch’s Kiss and The Witch’s Tears, and Merry would be utterly lost without him. Decent
and kind, he’s the voice in Merry’s head encouraging her to always do the right thing.
Unfortunately, his compassion makes him vulnerable.

M is for…. Merry. From wishing she wasn’t a witch at the start of The Witch’s Kiss, Merry
learns to embrace her power as it grows. By the beginning of The Witch’s Blood, she is
determined that no one is ever going to hurt her family again, whatever the cost.

N is for…. Nia. Together with Meredith and Carys, Nia is one of the three witches (ancestors
of Merry) who try to defeat Gwydion in The Witch’s Kiss and subsequently help Merry
navigate the dangers of The Other World.

O is for…. The Other World. The version of Anglo-Saxon England which Ronan and Leo
end up in, another realm accessible through the ‘point of intersection’ near the Black Lake,
where the boundaries between different realities is particularly porous.

P is for…. Poppet magic. On the prohibited magic list for over 500 years. Involves the use
of a doll or puppet, together with something like a nail clipping or lock of hair, to control or
harm someone.

Q is for…. Queen Edith. Jack’s mother and the ruler of the South Saxons. Gwydion
convinced himself he was in love with her, though we suspect this had more to do with his
desire to rule than actual affection. Edith’s rejection of Gwydion leads to him cursing Jack.

R is for…. Ronan. A rare male witch (no, they’re not the same as wizards) who decides he’s
in love with Leo in The Witch’s Tears. Possibly crazier than a bag of cats. Definitely needs to
look up the definition of ‘love.’

S is for…. The Stewards. The ultimate source of justice for witches. If a witch goes ‘bad’,
the Stewards can step in and, in extreme cases, magically strip out a witch’s power.

T is for…. Tillingham. The town where Merry and Leo live. It has a river, a regular sort of
high street, and a castle. Think typical English market town but with more magic.

U is for…. Unicorn. All sorts of magical creatures exist in The Other World, and a unicorn
finds its way through to Tillingham, where it has an unfortunate encounter with a jogger…

V is for…. Vengeance. Gwydion wants vengeance for being denied the crown that he’s come
to think of as his right. Ronan wants vengeance for the way he and his mother were treated by
other witches, and for the general unfairness of the universe. Meredith (Merry’s ancestor)
wants vengeance for the death of her sisters. And Merry…. Merry definitely wants vengeance
too, against the people who have tried to hurt her family. But she at least learns that
sometimes it’s better to try to forgive.

W is for…. Wolves. Wolves that attack on command. Wolves that used to be people.

X is for…. aXe. (Yes, we know it’s cheating.) An enchanted obsidian axe is one of the only
implements that can safely deal with black holly.

Y is for…. Y is for young love. We had to put some romance in there, amongst all the
danger.

Z is for…. Zombie-like. Someone (we’re not going to tell you who) decides it’s a good plan
to build an army of possessed humans who obey every command and have no will of their
own. Because obviously.

And now for the giveaway just follow the tweet