Hexed

Hexed (2024) is the sixth and final installment in Emily McIntire’s Never After series. The book falls under the categories of dark romance and billionaire/millionaire romance. Previous entries in the series made McIntire a number one bestselling New York Times author; these titles include Hooked (2021), Scarred (2022), Wretched (2022), Twisted (2023), and Crossed (2023). In addition to the Never After books, McIntire writes the Sugarlake Series of romances. 

Hexed is told using first-person narration from the dual perspectives of the protagonists: Venesa and Enzo. The impending marriage between a Southern belle and a Mafia prince and its ensuing complications allow the novel to explore the themes of The Effects of Toxic Family Legacies, Love Versus Duty, and The Unrealistic Nature of Fairy Tales.

This guide is based on the McIntire Publishing 2024 Kindle edition of the novel.

Content Warning: The source material and this guide feature depictions of death, graphic violence, emotional abuse, physical abuse, child abuse, bullying, sexual violence, rape, substance use, addiction, gender discrimination, sexual content, anti-gay bias, and cursing.

Plot Summary

The novel opens with Venesa Kingston, a fixer for her uncle Trent Kingston’s criminal empire in South Carolina. She is in the process of executing a contract hit in New York City that will come back to haunt her years later. 

The story then jumps forward two years as Venesa returns to New York to track her cousin Aria, Trent’s only child, who has run away to pursue a singing career. The cousins meet at night near the Hudson River, where they discover a man bleeding to death from a stab wound. Venesa, a practicing witch who is skilled with poisons and potions, is able to revive the man briefly and convinces Aria to summon help. The dying man turns out to be Enzo Marino, the younger son of New York’s top mafia boss, Carlos Marino. Thinking Aria saved him, he is grateful, and his father and Trent encourage him to propose to Aria. 

A year later, Enzo and Aria are engaged and travel to the fictional town of Atlantic Cove, South Carolina, to meet the rest of the Kingston family. Trent is the most powerful man in town and runs both legal and illegal businesses there. When Enzo arrives, Trent asks him to continue a hotel project in Atlantic Cove that Enzo’s brother, Giuseppe, began. Giuseppe was murdered three years earlier; it was a mob hit, but the culprit was never caught. Enzo resists the idea until he catches a glimpse of Trent’s mysterious niece, Venesa. He tells Trent that he’ll consider the hotel if Venesa shows him around town to explain why this would be a good investment.

Both Venesa and Enzo are drawn to one another but resist the urge to pursue a romance because of their duty to their families. Venesa shows Enzo the Atlantic Cove boardwalk and talks about her troubled relationship with her mother. The couple also visits the Lair, the restaurant and bar that Venesa manages. Venesa’s mother waited tables there after she turned her back on the Kingstons to marry a man who gambled and drank heavily; that man later murdered her. 

While waiting for Venesa at the Lair, Enzo learns that she’s gone to the basement gambling den to deal with a card-counting gambler. Venesa hauls the gambler off to a room where she tortures people who run afoul of the Kingston family. Watching her extract information, Enzo is fascinated by Venesa’s dark side because it is so like his own. 

As Enzo becomes more amenable to the hotel deal, Trent orders Venesa to spend further time with him to ensure his cooperation. She agrees, hoping in exchange to receive an heirloom family painting that belonged to her mother. Meanwhile, she and Enzo grow closer; she explains her traumatic childhood, and Enzo confides that his own father was neglectful and drove his mother to suicide. Enzo’s reluctance to marry Aria grows, but it seems that the only way out of the marriage may be for Enzo to kill his father.

Venesa’s 25th birthday party takes place on her uncle’s yacht. To her anger and horror, Aria has invited Venesa’s father, Harald; Venesa storms out, but Enzo lingers, following Harald when he leaves and delivering him to Venesa to torture. Venesa ultimately kills her father, but not before Harald reveals that her uncle had her mother killed.

Venesa isn’t sure whether to believe her father, but a gun drop soon diverts her attention. Trent provides her with no backup, and the deal goes awry; Venesa emerges unscathed only because Enzo learned about the drop and followed her, intervening as it turns sour. Later that night, both attend the engagement party for Enzo and Aria’s upcoming wedding. During the party, Trent berates Venesa for how the drop unfolded and then gives the painting she requested to Aria. Venesa retaliates by having sex with Enzo in the bathroom, where Trent catches them together. During the ensuing argument, Trent confesses to murdering Venesa’s mother, explaining that their father planned to leave the family estate to her. He then orders Venesa to leave town permanently. 

Though bent on revenge, Venesa temporarily relocates to New York. Meanwhile, Enzo breaks off his engagement to Aria, and he, too, goes to New York. There, he reunites with Venesa, and the two begin a relationship. Simultaneously, Enzo’s relationship with his father crumbles; Carlos pulls a gun on him when Enzo reveals that the marriage is off, and Enzo learns soon afterward that his father contracted with Trent to kill Enzo. With this revelation, he begins making plans to overthrow his father. 

However, Enzo’s plans hit a snag when Carlos reveals that Venesa was the one who killed his brother and then orders Enzo to kill her. Before Enzo can decide what to do, Carlos (acting in coordination with Trent) has Venesa kidnapped and then confronts Enzo. Now realizing that his father also ordered his brother’s death, Enzo shoots him. Meanwhile, Venesa wakes up on her own torture table, where Aria plans to kill her. However, Venesa manages to talk her out of this and is in the process of escaping when Enzo arrives to rescue her.

Enzo and Venesa then go to the cabin where Bastien, a Kingston employee secretly loyal to Venesa, has taken Aria. There, Venesa recovers the heirloom painting, which Bastien discovered contained documents bequeathing the estate to Venesa. Venesa and Enzo use Aria as bait to lure Trent to the cabin; in the ensuing fight, Venesa kills Trent and injects Aria’s vocal cords with poison, rendering her unable to speak. Aria attempts to retaliate a month later, but Venesa kills her before she can kill Enzo, leaving Venesa and Enzo in undisputed control of their respective family empires. On Venesa’s 26th birthday, Enzo proposes and then gives her a birthday present: two low-level enemies to torture.