Rebel Witch

In the Crimson Moth duology, author Kristen Ciccarelli took inspiration from Baroness Emma Orczy’s historical novel The Scarlet Pimpernel (1905) and real-life historical witch hunts. The first installment of Ciccarelli’s duology, Heartless Hunter (2024), introduces Rune Winters, a wealthy aristocrat. She thrives in social spaces, playing the damsel to her friends and entertaining the attention of young bachelors seeking a partner. Among these friends is Alexander Sharpe—the younger brother of Gideon Sharpe, the man famous for killing the former Sister Queens and overthrowing the reign of witches in the New Republic. Though Alex doesn’t explicitly betray his brother, he also doesn’t betray Rune’s confidence. In fact, he actively aids her in her pursuits as the infamous vigilante, the Crimson Moth. Rune’s foolish mask among her peers hides her cunning intelligence from the witch-hunters in search of her alter-ego. While everyone simply sees a socialite who hungers for gossip, in reality Rune is efficiently gathering intel on where witches are held after capture and successfully rescuing them from execution.

In Heartless Hunter, witches cast spells by using blood—whether their own, blood freely given by someone else, or blood forcibly taken from the unwilling.