Rebel Witch

“Is that what she wanted all along—a prince? He was a fool to think he’d ever had a chance.”

Gideon still has the same insecurities he had in Heartless Hunter. He believes that Rune, even as a witch, is well above his station. As a beautiful, wealthy aristocrat, Rune can romance a prince, whereas Gideon is a poor, disgraced witch-hunter.

“She liked Umbria and its capital, Caelis. She liked the architecture and the art, the culture and fashions and food, the absence of anti-witch sentiment. She liked it for a visit or a holiday. But it wasn’t where she belonged. Rune hadn’t realized she’d feel this way when she agreed to marry Alex and leave the New Republic. She didn’t know that in leaving the island behind, she was leaving her heart with it. Could you miss the place where everyone wanted you dead? Rune squeezed the whiskey bottle’s neck. Apparently yes.”

This passage reveals Rune’s internal conflict between safety and belonging. Her conflict represents the complicated, often painful ties people have to places that shape them, even when these places can bring them harm. Rune’s realization that she misses the New Republic, despite its violence, reveals her deep-rooted connection to her home, suggesting that identity is forged as much by struggle as by love.

“The very idea of working for Cressida filled Rune with dizzying self-loathing. But Cressida had saved her life, along with Seraphine’s. Cressida didn’t want her dead, unlike Gideon and everyone else in the New Republic. Most importantly: Cressida wanted to save the witches they’d left behind. Girls who were being exterminated at this very moment. Every week, the names of dead witches made their way to Rune’s ears.”

As this passage reflects, Rune doesn’t support Cressida’s methods or ideologies, but rather is stuck choosing the lesser of two evils. Her self-loathing reflects how survival under oppressive systems often forces alliances that betray people’s values, highlighting the psychological toll of carrying both guilt and responsibility.