Gravebriar by Casey L. Bond 

            available this Friday, March 19, 2021

Double, double toil and trouble is brewing in Cauldron, a city of witches where magic, discord and secrets abound. Where life and power will soon hang in the balance, change hands and will drive innocents from within its walls.

Within the protective hedge that surrounds the city of Cauldron, meant to keep the witches within safe  from those who fear and would destroy them, there is a once beautiful realm. Witches with many gifts live gathered in covens that share similar powers while the most powerful of each serves as their voice on the council of Cauldron. Which though started out as open-minded and impartial, now have many who crave more power, a greed that causes strife and unrest, that is spreading though the realm. There are witch hunters outside the hedge that seek to destroy what they cannot have or fear those who are different.

On the night of a great revel, that welcomes all covens to join together and celebrate, one seeks to destroy. Arbor of Gravebriar Coven’s powers have grown, leading him to be the next great power within that coven. Until on this night of merriment, he falls gravely ill from a poison whose only cure is a vine, with a life span of only hours, that grows solely on the grave of a newly deceased Gravebrair witch. As the counsel convenes all are pointing fingers at a single would-be assassin, Castor. Castor a young female witch of Gravebriar whose deadly secret power is now revealed which causes some on the counsel to order her immediate death, until Castor offers a way to save Arbor, a coven mate and long-time friend. Others lay the deed at the feet of the Silverthorn Coven, specifically Forge. Forge a young male witch whose deadly powers and questionable deeds, have been hidden as well, will now join Castor on a perilous trek to find the vine that may or may not exist, in an ancient graveyard, that likewise may or may not be found.

Castor has been warned to return with the gravebriar vine or face death. Forge has been urged to take Castor’s life and only then will all be forgiven and he may return to Cauldron. Untrusting, each must find a means to work together to find not only the gravebriar vine but to uncover the one true witch responsible for Arbor’s illness. As they travel together, they will learn more of each other, surmise why there is such distrust and division within Cauldron; while also searching for Witch Hunters that may be at the center of it all.

 

The is beauty in the realm that Casey L. Bond has given us. It is there is her narrative of the world and the witches within, there is romance that has sprouted and will bloom, there is greed and malice that is festering and rotting away at the roots of story. Forge and Castor will have to learn to put aside their enmity of each other if they are to succeed. Many secrets and twists abound, adventure and old-time circus grandeur that would surprise and delight even P. T. Barnum himself.

I found myself wishing for an anthology full of the backstories of all the mystical, magical characters, their cities and worlds. Casey L. Bond with few words gives the imagination a rich environment in which to take root and grow with no limits for all to see. And if the eyes are the windows of the soul, when I look into Castor and Forge’s eyes it is as looking through colorful stain glass windows to all their secrets, needs, wants, loves, loyalties and fierce devotion to their people and their world.