Witchmark

Witchmark (2018) C.L. Polk (The Kingston Cycle #1)

I reread this so I can finally finish the series.

Mr. Elliot dragged in a tattered breath. “I got too close. They needed the souls. The war—” He gagged and rolled away from me, retching.

I held him steady. “Don’t try to talk.”

He dragged in ragged breaths and kept talking. “Find my murderer, Sir Christopher.”

I froze. “I’m Dr. Singer.”

“Help me find out who killed Nick Elliot, and everything I can teach you before Frostnight is yours.”

“Starting with how to hide your true nature, I think. You shine, Starred One, to anyone with the power to see.”

Possibilities lay outside the door he’d cracked open. If I could appear mundane to highborn mages with the trick of seeing magical auras, Kingston could be mine to walk again.

“How did it come to this?” He wiped a hand over his forehead as if he could erase his vexation. “Every single spirit speaker I’ve visited is a fraud. Every building reputed as haunted is just drafty and old. Every true witch I’ve seen in a trial has no hope of freedom.”

“They don’t try you until you fail the examination.”

“And they’ll arrest someone on the barest suspicion, so long as they’re poor. Did you know that?”

“I do,” I said. “Which is why I would like you to please stop speaking of it.”

Characters: Dr. Christopher Miles Hensley Singer, Mr. Tristan Hunter, Nicholas Alva Elliot, Mrs. Bass, Mrs. Sparrow, Dame Grace Hensley, Miss Robin Thorpe, Kate Small, Dr. Matheson, Dr. Crosby, Dr. James Fredman, Young Gerald, Gerald Grimes, Bill Pike, Cpl. James Badger, Pvt. Jack Bunting, Cpl. Terrence Pigeon, Sir Percy Stanley, Raymond Blake, Richard Poole, Celinda Poole, Clara Sibley, Julia Riggins, Douglas Fox, Constable Fisher, Avia Jessup, Caroline Miller, Alice Farmer, Janey Cooper, Cully Miller, Grand Duchess Aife, Cormac, Queen Constantina

Cover design by Will Staehle

Publisher: Tor

Rating: 8/10

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