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Plot Summary
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Plot Summary
The novel alternates between two timelines separated by four centuries, both set in and around the Orkney Islands off the northern coast of Scotland. In 1594, a healer named Alison Balfour is falsely accused of witchcraft and tried for conspiring to kill the Earl of Orkney. In 2024, a young woman named Erin lies in a Glasgow hospital burn unit after a fire on the same Orkney beach where Alison was executed. Binding the two stories is The Book of Witching, an ancient volume with a bark cover and black pages said to hold all the darkness on earth.
The novel opens in May 2024 when a park ranger discovers two bodies on the beach at Fynhallow, a bay on the uninhabited Isle of Gunn: a charred corpse with bound hands and a badly burned teenage girl. In January 1594, Alison Balfour, a spaewife, or folk healer, on the Isle of Gunn, wakes to find her children, twelve-year-old Edward and six-year-old Beatrice, missing. She discovers her mother, Mhairi Ness, leading an initiation ceremony for the Triskele, an ancient clan of magic-wielders. Edward and Beatrice are ordained as Carriers of The Book of Witching by screaming into its black pages. Alison left the Triskele years ago, but Mhairi insists no one truly leaves.
In 2024, Clementine (Clem) Woodbury learns that her daughter, Erin, has been airlifted to Glasgow Royal Infirmary with extensive burns. Clem has dilated cardiomyopathy, a heart condition that will eventually require a transplant. Erin had been hiking in Orkney with her boyfriend, Arlo McGrath, and her best friend, Senna. Clem rushes to the hospital with Erin's fifteen-month-old daughter, Freya. Her burns nurse, Bee, delivers grim news: Arlo was already dead when found, and Senna is still missing. A police officer has been stationed at Erin's bedside as part of an ongoing investigation.
In 1594, Alison is approached by John Stewart, the illegitimate half-brother of Patrick Stewart, Earl of Orkney, who asks her to create a charm to take a life. Alison refuses. That autumn, she learns that Thomas Paplay, a man she once healed, has been tortured to death for attempting to poison the earl. Alison realizes John wished to kill his own brother and fears blame will fall on her. Soldiers arrest her on charges of witchcraft. In the dungeon at Kirkwall Castle, Father Colville, the king's chamberlain, has her stripped and searched for the Devil's mark, declaring a painless spot beneath her tongue as proof of a pact with Satan.
In 2024, Clem discovers the phrase "Arlo's hands need to be bound" in Erin's handwriting, matching how Arlo was found. Horrified, she tears out the page and burns it. Detectives confirm the binding, making this a murder investigation. Clem's ex-husband and Erin's father, Quinn, arrives, and the two form an uneasy alliance. When Erin emerges from her coma, she does not recognize either parent, insists her name is Nyx, and describes witnessing a woman burning. She oscillates between brief lucid moments and longer stretches in which she claims to be Nyx and shows cold indifference toward Arlo's death.
Alison's trial begins before two bishops. Her lawyer, Andrew Couper, secures the appointment of David Moncrief, Alison's childhood friend and Triskele member, as notary. Father Colville presents witnesses and introduces a wax charm inscribed with "Nyx," a Triskele word meaning "vengeance," found in Alison's sack. Alison's husband, William, testifies on her behalf, but Father Colville dismantles his testimony. When Couper mounts an effective defense, the earl conspires to have the lawyer removed; thugs beat Couper to death while Edward hides nearby.
At Detective Constable Stephanie Dorrit's prompting, Clem and Quinn find Erin's TikTok account. The videos reveal that Erin joined a group calling itself the Triskele, consulted an antiques dealer named Paul Renney about a cursed book, and planned a fire ritual on Beltane (May 1), the exact date of the fire. One video states that the Green Man, a mythological figure central to Beltane, must have his hands bound. Clem and Quinn travel to Orkney and find the real Triskele, led by an elderly woman named Edina, who tells them a book was stolen from the clan and that its possessor will die if it is not returned.
Flashbacks reveal how Erin was drawn into a cult. Senna introduced her to a Glasgow group calling itself the Triskele, led by a man known as "the Brother." The graduation ceremony required Erin to have sex with Arlo in front of the group; Freya was conceived during this ritual. Afterward, the Brother gave Erin The Book of Witching, relieved to be rid of it. Erin began experiencing nightmares and dark urges. Every attempt to dispose of the book failed; it always reappeared. When the Brother died by suicide, Erin contacted Paul Renney, who told her a fire ritual at Fynhallow on Beltane could destroy the curse.
The trial intensifies. Father Colville applies caschielaws, strips of red-hot metal, to Alison's legs to force a confession; she refuses. Edward is seized and burned with the same instruments before the bishops halt the torture. William is then crushed to death under a door laden with stones before the crowd. Alison holds fast, honoring his shouted plea: for Orkney. The rebels believe the earl is using the trial to curry favor with the witch-hunting King James VI. Only when Father Colville begins crushing six-year-old Beatrice's hand does Alison break, delivering a false confession.
Before her execution, Edward visits Alison and reveals the truth. The Book of Witching showed him Alison's meeting with John Stewart and Paplay in the cathedral gardens. After Alison departed, Paplay asked Edward to make a charm to cause death. Edward fashioned the "Nyx" charm and gave it to Paplay, believing that if the earl died, a vision he saw during his initiation, of Alison burning at the stake, would not come true. Edward also confesses to learning "soul-slipping," a Carrier ability to inhabit another body through the book. He slipped into Erin's body in 2024, calling himself Nyx and trying to stop what he believed was a burning, which explains Erin's shifts between identities.
On December 16, 1594, Alison renounces her confession at the stake, declares her innocence, and curses John Stewart before she is strangled and burned. Father Colville destroys the record of her retraction, but David Moncrief has secretly copied it and sails for Edinburgh to deliver the truth to the king. Mhairi is killed protecting Beatrice from soldiers, but her distraction holds long enough for Beatrice to escape to Edward, who takes her north to safety.
In 2024, Senna is found alive. Clem learns the full story: Erin tied Arlo's hands for the ritual, the fire erupted unnaturally, and Senna placed the book in the flames, but it followed her home. The book turns up in Freya's changing bag. Clem drives to Orkney and delivers it to Edina, whose clan performs a ceremony to destroy it. Senna gives a police statement confirming all three participants joined willingly and that Arlo consented to having his hands bound, shifting the investigation away from Erin. Erin reveals that Arlo is Freya's father.
Six months later, Clem undergoes a successful heart transplant. Erin recovers, adapting to prosthetic hands, and rebuilds her relationship with Quinn. She introduces Freya to Arlo's parents as their granddaughter. In a final scene, a raven watches Erin from Kelvingrove Park, and she wonders whether Arlo escaped into the bird in a flash she saw before he fell, a comforting possibility she holds without certainty. In a brief epilogue set four years later, five-year-old Freya finds The Book of Witching among her birthday toys. The book whispers her name and instructs her to scream, beginning the cycle anew.
The novel opens in May 2024 when a park ranger discovers two bodies on the beach at Fynhallow, a bay on the uninhabited Isle of Gunn: a charred corpse with bound hands and a badly burned teenage girl. In January 1594, Alison Balfour, a spaewife, or folk healer, on the Isle of Gunn, wakes to find her children, twelve-year-old Edward and six-year-old Beatrice, missing. She discovers her mother, Mhairi Ness, leading an initiation ceremony for the Triskele, an ancient clan of magic-wielders. Edward and Beatrice are ordained as Carriers of The Book of Witching by screaming into its black pages. Alison left the Triskele years ago, but Mhairi insists no one truly leaves.
In 2024, Clementine (Clem) Woodbury learns that her daughter, Erin, has been airlifted to Glasgow Royal Infirmary with extensive burns. Clem has dilated cardiomyopathy, a heart condition that will eventually require a transplant. Erin had been hiking in Orkney with her boyfriend, Arlo McGrath, and her best friend, Senna. Clem rushes to the hospital with Erin's fifteen-month-old daughter, Freya. Her burns nurse, Bee, delivers grim news: Arlo was already dead when found, and Senna is still missing. A police officer has been stationed at Erin's bedside as part of an ongoing investigation.
In 1594, Alison is approached by John Stewart, the illegitimate half-brother of Patrick Stewart, Earl of Orkney, who asks her to create a charm to take a life. Alison refuses. That autumn, she learns that Thomas Paplay, a man she once healed, has been tortured to death for attempting to poison the earl. Alison realizes John wished to kill his own brother and fears blame will fall on her. Soldiers arrest her on charges of witchcraft. In the dungeon at Kirkwall Castle, Father Colville, the king's chamberlain, has her stripped and searched for the Devil's mark, declaring a painless spot beneath her tongue as proof of a pact with Satan.
In 2024, Clem discovers the phrase "Arlo's hands need to be bound" in Erin's handwriting, matching how Arlo was found. Horrified, she tears out the page and burns it. Detectives confirm the binding, making this a murder investigation. Clem's ex-husband and Erin's father, Quinn, arrives, and the two form an uneasy alliance. When Erin emerges from her coma, she does not recognize either parent, insists her name is Nyx, and describes witnessing a woman burning. She oscillates between brief lucid moments and longer stretches in which she claims to be Nyx and shows cold indifference toward Arlo's death.
Alison's trial begins before two bishops. Her lawyer, Andrew Couper, secures the appointment of David Moncrief, Alison's childhood friend and Triskele member, as notary. Father Colville presents witnesses and introduces a wax charm inscribed with "Nyx," a Triskele word meaning "vengeance," found in Alison's sack. Alison's husband, William, testifies on her behalf, but Father Colville dismantles his testimony. When Couper mounts an effective defense, the earl conspires to have the lawyer removed; thugs beat Couper to death while Edward hides nearby.
At Detective Constable Stephanie Dorrit's prompting, Clem and Quinn find Erin's TikTok account. The videos reveal that Erin joined a group calling itself the Triskele, consulted an antiques dealer named Paul Renney about a cursed book, and planned a fire ritual on Beltane (May 1), the exact date of the fire. One video states that the Green Man, a mythological figure central to Beltane, must have his hands bound. Clem and Quinn travel to Orkney and find the real Triskele, led by an elderly woman named Edina, who tells them a book was stolen from the clan and that its possessor will die if it is not returned.
Flashbacks reveal how Erin was drawn into a cult. Senna introduced her to a Glasgow group calling itself the Triskele, led by a man known as "the Brother." The graduation ceremony required Erin to have sex with Arlo in front of the group; Freya was conceived during this ritual. Afterward, the Brother gave Erin The Book of Witching, relieved to be rid of it. Erin began experiencing nightmares and dark urges. Every attempt to dispose of the book failed; it always reappeared. When the Brother died by suicide, Erin contacted Paul Renney, who told her a fire ritual at Fynhallow on Beltane could destroy the curse.
The trial intensifies. Father Colville applies caschielaws, strips of red-hot metal, to Alison's legs to force a confession; she refuses. Edward is seized and burned with the same instruments before the bishops halt the torture. William is then crushed to death under a door laden with stones before the crowd. Alison holds fast, honoring his shouted plea: for Orkney. The rebels believe the earl is using the trial to curry favor with the witch-hunting King James VI. Only when Father Colville begins crushing six-year-old Beatrice's hand does Alison break, delivering a false confession.
Before her execution, Edward visits Alison and reveals the truth. The Book of Witching showed him Alison's meeting with John Stewart and Paplay in the cathedral gardens. After Alison departed, Paplay asked Edward to make a charm to cause death. Edward fashioned the "Nyx" charm and gave it to Paplay, believing that if the earl died, a vision he saw during his initiation, of Alison burning at the stake, would not come true. Edward also confesses to learning "soul-slipping," a Carrier ability to inhabit another body through the book. He slipped into Erin's body in 2024, calling himself Nyx and trying to stop what he believed was a burning, which explains Erin's shifts between identities.
On December 16, 1594, Alison renounces her confession at the stake, declares her innocence, and curses John Stewart before she is strangled and burned. Father Colville destroys the record of her retraction, but David Moncrief has secretly copied it and sails for Edinburgh to deliver the truth to the king. Mhairi is killed protecting Beatrice from soldiers, but her distraction holds long enough for Beatrice to escape to Edward, who takes her north to safety.
In 2024, Senna is found alive. Clem learns the full story: Erin tied Arlo's hands for the ritual, the fire erupted unnaturally, and Senna placed the book in the flames, but it followed her home. The book turns up in Freya's changing bag. Clem drives to Orkney and delivers it to Edina, whose clan performs a ceremony to destroy it. Senna gives a police statement confirming all three participants joined willingly and that Arlo consented to having his hands bound, shifting the investigation away from Erin. Erin reveals that Arlo is Freya's father.
Six months later, Clem undergoes a successful heart transplant. Erin recovers, adapting to prosthetic hands, and rebuilds her relationship with Quinn. She introduces Freya to Arlo's parents as their granddaughter. In a final scene, a raven watches Erin from Kelvingrove Park, and she wonders whether Arlo escaped into the bird in a flash she saw before he fell, a comforting possibility she holds without certainty. In a brief epilogue set four years later, five-year-old Freya finds The Book of Witching among her birthday toys. The book whispers her name and instructs her to scream, beginning the cycle anew.