Phoenix Bishop is fifteen, and her life is basically a cosmic joke.
She’s supposed to be descended from actual Salem witches. The kind people whisper about. The kind that used to matter. In Fairhaven, Massachusetts, that still means something. The old supernatural families have money, rules, and secrets. Everyone else just pretends magic isn’t real.
The only problem is that Phoenix doesn’t have any.
No powers. No sparks. Nothing special. So she doesn’t belong with the powerful families, and she definitely doesn’t belong with the normal kids either. She’s just stuck in the middle, watching both sides pretend they aren’t at war.
Then kids at Fairhaven High start dying.
Not accidents. Not normal. Bloody. Wrong. Like something out of one of those late-night horror movies, her mom says will rot her brain.
Phoenix knows it isn’t random. She can feel it. Something old is moving under the surface of the town.
Right around the time Malachi Kane transfers in.
He’s the new quarterback. Everyone loves him. Teachers, cheerleaders, basically the entire school. But there’s something off about him. About his brothers, too. They watch everything like they’re waiting for something to happen.
And the more Phoenix starts digging into the murders, the more it feels like they didn’t just move to Fairhaven by accident.
Which would be bad enough, except she already has Noah Phips to worry about. Noah, whom she’s liked forever. Noah, whose family thinks magic is a disease that should be wiped out completely.
But the killings are building toward something bigger.
The Black Witch.
The story everyone grew up hearing. The thing both sides are afraid of.
Phoenix starts having dreams she can’t explain. Visions. Moments where the air feels charged, and her hands don’t feel like her own. Power she never had flickers to life.
And then the truth starts coming together.
The Black Witch isn’t coming back.
She’s already here.
And Malachi and his brothers didn’t come to Fairhaven to take over.
