Plot Twist is back! Chapter 11: The Woman in the Woods
In the woods, Selene finds the child who carries her magic, the lover she lost, and a truth that could destroy them all. (Plus, vote to help name the book!)
Welcome to Plot Twist — my interactive storytelling project where you help decide what happens next.* Every Thursday, a new chapter drops, and paid Story Editors get exclusive bonus scenes (including the spicier ones 🔥). If you’re new, start here — and subscribe so you don’t miss the next twist.
Plot Twist is back for the season!
Fall is here! The pumpkin spice lattes are flowing, Meg Ryan movies are playing in the background, and – most importantly – Plot Twist is back!
Which means every Thursday you’ll get a new chapter to read, comment on, and interact with! (Check out this post for my new publishing schedule here on Substack.)
Here’s a quick recap of what’s happened so far (you can also read the past chapters here):
Queen Selene of Frontera is trapped between duty and desire. Ordered to produce an heir despite a body that might kill her, she’s spent years trying to hold together her coven while secretly longing for the quiet mountain life — and the woman — she’d left behind. When a massive magical surge shook the wards protecting their world, Selene followed the pull to Wild Ivy, a small mountain town that hid more than it revealed. There, she found the home she once shared with her ex-fiancée, Arielle… and a child named Sia whose power thrummed with something far too familiar.
The discovery shattered everything Selene thought she knew about magic, bloodlines, and love. Her mother — Her Majesty — arrived ready to invoke Article 11, the coven’s most brutal law: execute any child born of forbidden magic to protect the coven as a whole. Torn between saving her people and protecting the girl who might destroy them all, Selene defied her orders, erecting wards around the child and her family and daring her friends to stop her. By dawn, the mountain air was thick with blood and secrets, as Selene faced the past she had buried — and the woman she had never truly stopped loving.
This season you’re in for some juicy treats – including sex scenes reserved just for paid subscribers. Whether a free or paid subscriber, you’re invited to read, comment, and help develop this magical world of found family, queer relationships, and power struggles.
Ready to head back to Wild Ivy?! Me too!
But first – a reminder that this is a collaborative project, so be sure to vote on polls and comment your thoughts. You’re welcome to be a passive reader, but I promise it will be much more fun if you engage.
This week, you’ll help decide what we’re going to name Book 1! This is a big one so be sure to vote.
It’s good to be back here creating with you again.
Without further ado, here is Chapter 11 of book, title TBD by you!
Chapter 11: The Woman in the Woods
Arielle’s arms wrapped around Selene as she slept, the feeling so familiar to the Queen that she was instantly transported to a time and place far away from articles and obligations, where the only duty she had was to this love. She’d broken so many promises, shredded that love to pieces, and yet here Arielle was, pressing her body against Selene’s, slobbering kisses against her neck.
“Wake up,” Arielle shook her gently, and Selene rolled over, not yet ready to open her eyes, the scent of moss, earth, and something else more feral filling her nose.
Arielle kissed her again, this time running her tongue up and down her neck, her face, the roughness abrasive against Selene’s cheek, the scent rank.
“You have the worst morning breath.”
“I’ll let Albee know he should brush more,” Arielle said, and Selene shot her eyes open.
A big white fluffy dog with orange ears and the most beautiful black eyes lined with white eyelashes stared back at her. Albee smiled in a way Selene had never seen a dog smile before, like he was so very glad to see her, like he’d been waiting years to meet her and finally she was here. It made Selene smile back, greeting him like an old friend, patting his head as he curled into her.
“Traitor,” Arielle said, and Selene couldn’t tell which one of them she meant as Albee fell to the forest floor, pressing his large back into Selene, her arms wrapping around him, big spoon to his not-so-little one.
Cold dew clung to pine needles, the wards humming faintly like power lines deciding whether to hold. The taste of copper sat thick on her tongue.
Pine needles, dirt, and now fur covered her couture clothes. The wards humming faintly like power lines beside her and her tongue was think with the taste of copper. But Selene didn’t care. She pushed her body farther into Albee’s, rubbing his belly and smiling as widely as he did. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt this happy, intimate, and loved. All from a stranger’s dog.
Not a stranger’s. She remembered, looking up at her ex.
“What are you doing?”
Selene couldn’t tell who Arielle was talking to, but before either could answer, she felt a hook catch in her stomach, yanking her to her feet and turning her head to the right where she saw Sia standing on one side of the barrier, staring blank-faced at the handsome, well-dressed man beckoning her to him on the other side of it.
“STOP,” Selene commanded, her voice a shockwave ricocheting off everything around her, making the world pause and time stand still. Nothing moved, not the trees, not the brook in the distance, not even the anthill she hadn’t realized she’d been laying in mere moments before.
Selene didn’t have time to think about what she’d done or the toll it would take on her and the forest around her. Time pausing was the kind of rare, forbidden magic only warned about in the advanced physics classes she’d practically failed, and she couldn’t remember the elemental consequences.
But she didn’t care. Something primal in her body urged her forward, grabbing Sia and pulling her back from Willem’s outstretched hand. She had no idea how long this would last, but she knew, instinctually, that she had to get Sia back to the cabin as soon as she could.
“Move,” she commanded, and the girl unfroze, her eyes frantically looking around her, panic turning to awe as she waved her hand in front of Willem’s face.
Sia looked up at Selene with awe. “Woah.”
“Woah, indeed.” Selene beckoned Sia to follow her.
“But my mom,” she pointed to Arielle and Albee, both frozen in time.
Selene sighed and walked over to them. She unfroze the dog first, pausing before letting Arielle out of the spell. “You sure we can’t just leave her like this?”
“No!” Sia replied, appalled.
The kid was right, Selene knew she was right, and yet still, she hesitated, fear gripping her body as forcefully as Arielle still gripped Albee’s leash. The magic still hummed beneath her skin, wild and untrained in a way it hadn’t been since she was a child — since the last time she dated Arielle. She worried it would refuse to obey, like it had then. She was too powerful for her own good. The only way she’d ever kept it under control was by not using it at all.
She could feel it crawling toward her fingertips, desperate to move, to act. For the first time in years, Selene wasn’t sure if she was the one controlling the magic or if the magic was controlling her. She feared that if she touched Arielle or Albee she might harm them more than help. She couldn’t hurt Sia; somehow she knew that instinctively, though she didn’t yet understand why. But Arielle was different. Arielle wasn’t magical like she was. And hadn’t that always been the problem between them?
But Selene could feel the pause already loosening, and she knew Ashley would call her mother to join them the minute she unfroze, which meant the most powerful people in the world would be here soon, and even Selene’s strongest wards would fall. She had to give Sia a chance to escape while she could, and that meant facing Arielle.
“Wake,” she finally commanded and Arielle came to life, immediately grabbing her daughter and thrusting Sia behind her.
“What the hell is happening here,” Arielle backed away from Selene, getting dangerously close to the wards.
“Arielle stop,” Selene said and her words acted as a command again, forcing Arielle in her place.
Arielle panicked, trying and failing to move as Albee pulled on his leash and Sia started to freak out.
“You told me you were a good witch,” the child cried, yanking at her mother’s arm.
“I never said such a thing,” Selene said, grabbing a rock and throwing it at her reinforced wards. The rock shattered into fifty pieces, tiny pebbles falling at their feet. “But I am trying to keep you from being electrocuted.”
Sia reeled back from the wards, dragging Albee with her while Selene waved her hand and Arielle could move again. “Now come,” Selene commanded, her voice an order, “I’ll explain everything once we’re safe inside.”
Arielle started to complain, but Sia tugged on her arms, pulling her away from the ward and towards their house. Selene couldn’t tell how much of the child was acting of her own free will or Selene’s command as her Queen, but either way, Willem was twitching, his fingers pulsing magic, and they had little time left. Selene ushered Arielle, Sia, and Albee inside and closed the door just as she heard Ashley yell out her name. They were out of time.
Selene turned around to explain to Arielle that they all had to flee, but instead she found herself staring at a tall, beautiful woman wearing a flowing dress, barefoot in the living room Selene had once called home.
“What’s going on?” the woman asked, her voice melodic and calm in a way that irritated Selene precisely because it soothed her.
There was no doubt: this was Sia’s mother. Which meant she was also Arielle’s wife.
The confident, in-charge woman Selene had been moments before vanished. She forgot she was a Queen, sliding back into the insecure teenager who had once compared herself to every woman in every room. In front of her stood pure poise and grace. If this was the kind of woman Arielle loved, no wonder Selene had never been enough.
“What’s going on?” Arielle’s wife repeated, pulling Sia close. Arielle joined them, and all three looked at Selene expectantly.
The old ache of not-enoughness pressed at Selene’s chest, but beneath it lived something steadier: duty, love, and the stubborn need to protect what she’d already lost once. She straightened. Shame could wait. Sia could not.
She could feel the pulsing of the mountain below her, the pull of the trees, the rush of the creek. Selene inhaled, grounding herself in the land, and exhaled the version of herself Arielle knew, the young girl who’d loved and left. In her place stood the Queen she’d been forced to become.
“I am Selene,” she said, extending a hand to Arielle’s wife, then pulling it back when she saw it was shaking. “And you are?”
“Lyra,” Sia’s mother replied.
“Lyra. Nice to meet you.”
“Nice is not the word I’d use,” Lyra said evenly.
“Here’s what’s going on.” Selene drew a sharp breath, voice steadying. “We have about an hour — give or take — before the most powerful people in the world arrive to kill your child.”
The family began to protest, but Selene lifted a hand and the air thickened with command. “I will answer your questions on the way. For now, pack a small bag, say goodbye to your belongings, and meet me outside in three minutes.”
She turned toward the door, then paused, softening. “The dog stays here.”
“No!” Sia shouted, and the door slammed shut on its own, nearly catching Selene’s fingers.
So the kid’s an Elemental. Selene thought. This just got harder.
“You told me you were a good witch,” Sia said again.
“There’s no such thing as good and bad witches,” Selene replied. “Just those with power and those who want it. Both will be here soon to take you away if you don’t pack your things and get outside.”
“Have you lost your mind?” Arielle voice was sharp with fear and love.
Selene looked past her, to Lyra who was calm, unbothered, and glowing. It took a second before Selene realized the glow wasn’t beauty; it was power.
Lyra was a witch. Which meant she was Selene’s subject.
“You’ll come with me,” Selene commanded.
“You are not my Queen,” Lyra said, unflinching.
“You’re on my land,” Selene countered.
Lyra’s lips curved, almost smiling. “My family line has walked these mountains since long before your coven came and colonized them. We reject your protection, and your reign. Our magic is of the land, not of you.”
Arielle stepped between them, voice shaking. “Will someone please tell me what the hell is going on?”
“She doesn’t know?” Selene said, half laughing, half horrified.
“I told her more than you ever did,” Lyra snapped.
“Told me what?” Arielle demanded.
Selene exhaled hard. “That your daughter’s power just painted a target on this entire mountain. And that if we don’t move now, she’ll die for what she is.”
“I do not run,” Lyra said.
“We have no choice,” Selene replied.
“You brought this to us,” Lyra countered. “You will save us from it.”
“That’s what I’m trying to do!” Selene threw her arms out in exasperation, her magic escaping and ricocheting off whatever spells and wards Lyra had in this home.
“I will not run,” Lyra stood strong and proud. “Never again.”
The fierce resolve in Lyra’s face told Selene there was no way they were getting out of here before Her Majesty and the Council arrived. “Fine,” she sighed. “I’m going to need both of you to come with me.”
Arielle stepped forward before realizing Selene meant her wife and child. “What about me?” she asked.
“Gather food, we’re going to need it.”
Selene led them outside, closing Arielle into the house and throwing up a shield to keep her there. She didn’t need a humdrum seeing what was about to happen.
Then she turned to Sia, “What’s your class?”
“I’m in sixth grade,” Sia replied.
“No, your classification,” Selene explained. “You’re an Elemental. That’s how you closed the door. I’m wondering what you are …”
“She has none,” Lyra replied.
“You never had her classified?” Selene was shocked.
“We don’t need your labels,” Lyra replied.
When they got to the wards, Willem and Ashley were gone, probably off to bring her mother here to help them break through. Yet another reason they needed to hurry.
Selene turned to Lyra and put her fingers against an invisible wall, “Feel this?”
Lyra placed her palms up and down the barrier, looking like a mime stuck in a box. “How did I never know this was here before?”
“Because it wasn’t,” Selene explained. “But it’s here now to keep you and your family safe. No one wishing you any harm will come through it. Wizards will stop in their tracks, humdrums who get close will suddenly have to run home with diarrhea.”
Sia giggled, making Selene smirk. She’d been around Sia’s age when she’d been taught how to build a barrier to keep humdrums out, and at the time explosive diarrhea had been the most hilarious thing she could come up with. Seeing Sia laugh about it brought her back to a time when she was more innocent, protecting her diary or secret gossiping, not the life of innocent people.
“Can you feel this?” Selene asked the still giggling child.
“Will it make me poop my pants?” Sia laughed.
Selene smiled, “Only one way to find out.”
Slowly, tentatively, Sia reached her hand out, pulling it back with a jolt, shocked. “Ouch!”
Sia pulled her hand to her chest and Lyra protectively placed herself between Selene and Sia. “What did you do to my child?”
“That shouldn’t have shocked her,” Selene replied.
“It really hurts,” Sia cradled her hand.
“Let me see it,” Selene said.
“No,” Sia pulled her hand away, covering her arms.
“That shouldn’t shock you. Only people who cause you harm.” Something dawned on Selene. “Sia, do you ever…”
“We’re done here,” Lyra interrupted, voice firm.
Lyra stormed away, dragging Sia behind her, the child’s injured hand tucked against her chest. The door slammed, rattling the wards until they sang. For a heartbeat, the forest held its breath again — the same terrible quiet from when Selene woke. She pressed her palm to the invisible barrier, feeling it hum back at her like a warning. Whatever had just passed between her and that girl, it had changed the air itself.
Selene whispered to no one, “What did I just do?”
The forest answered with silence.
Your Turn to Shape the Story!
For the next week, the poll is open and the comments are waiting for your magic.
This is where Plot Twist truly comes alive — every vote, every theory, every spark you share shapes what happens next.
🗳️ Vote. 💬 Comment. 🗣️ Engage with others (respectfully).
Join in and be part of creativity + community.
This week’s audience decision: What should we title our book?!
Plot Twist is the experiment here on Substack, and I’ve been calling this story Blood Witch as a placeholder — but it’s time to give Book One its real name.
Which one captures the heart and vibe of the story best?
🩸 The Price of Her Blood — She was born to uphold the law. She’ll bleed to destroy it.
💔 The Blood Between Us — Family built the empire. Love will burn it down.
🔮 The Circle of Blood — Thirty-three witches. One covenant reborn.
✍️ Your Spell, Your Choice — Have a better title in mind? Name the rebellion yourself.
Got an idea of your own you want to throw out! Let us know if the comments!
The poll closes soon — so get your votes in!
✨ Join the fun.
🌙 Change the story.
Thanks for playing along.
See you next week with Chapter 12!
Lauren
*FINE PRINT — PLEASE READ BEFORE YOU COMMENT OR VOTE
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