Plot Twist, Chapter 12: The Law of Blood
The law is clear, her heart is not. When loyalty and love collide, something — or someone — will break. (Plus, vote results are in for our new title!)
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.
We have a title for the 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.
Last week, you all voted between four options:
🩸 The Price of Her Blood
💔 The Blood Between Us
🔮 The Circle of Blood
✍️ Audience Choice!
Some great suggestions were sent in to me, including:
The Circle of Blood: the Blood Witch
The Wards of Wild Ivy
The Magic We Make
The Witches of Frontera
and my favorite: Super Fucking Gay Witches
But only one could be our winner.
I am excited to announce that the name of our book will be: The Price of Her Blood!
Let me know what you think in the comments! Did your choice win?!
Now that we have a title, let’s get back into the story.
A quick recap of what happened in last week’s chapter:
Selene awakens disoriented in the forest after the magical surge and, in trying to protect Arielle’s daughter Sia, reignites old wounds and collides head-on with the family — and the forbidden bloodline — she once fled.
This week is full of drama and tension.
I can’t wait to hear what you think!
Let’s dig in.
Chapter 12: The Law of Blood
The old porch swing creaked as Selene sat down on it, unsure what else to do. The boards beneath her groaned like they were welcoming her home.
She was certain she could take Lyra in a duel if it came to that. Probably. But with Sia’s help? That was less clear. Her magic was already thin from the wards, threadbare and trembling under her skin. And besides — it was rude to barge into someone’s house after you’d just told them your family was coming to kill their child. Even she had limits.
The swing moved again, slow and steady, as if from memory. She had spent hours here once — days, maybe — staring into the forest, waiting for the world to make sense again. When had it stopped? When had she stopped?
Obviously, it had begun when she became Queen, but there must have been a moment — a hinge in time — when stillness gave way to motion. When the porch swing became the throne, and quiet mornings turned into endless lists and late-night decrees. She had gone from the kind of person who sat and watched the sunrise to the kind who only saw it as a sliver through a window, up early to get camera ready.
She missed this forest. She missed this house. And, Goddesses help her, she missed Arielle.
As if summoned by the thought, Arielle stepped onto the porch. The sound of the door closing behind her hit Selene harder than it should have. Selene patted the swing beside her, an instinct born of muscle memory — the same unspoken gesture they’d shared a thousand times. But this time, Arielle didn’t move.
They had always come out here when they fought. The swing was neutral ground, a space to air their grievances, letting the forest absorb their anger. But today there was nothing neutral about the way Arielle looked at her.
“Please explain what the hell is going on to me,” Arielle’s voice was a tightly woven calm. “My wife just told me your family is trying to come and kill my child. It is so far-fetched I cannot believe it is true, so please tell me she is mistaken.”
Selene stood, but Arielle stepped back, a look of fear in her eyes.
“Others want to hurt your child, but I promise I am only here to help her,” Selene said carefully. “We don’t have time for back-and-forth. I need to speak to your whole family — now.”
The door opened again, and Lyra stepped out. “Say what you have to say and then be gone.”
Selene glanced around. The forest watched her like it always did, but tonight it felt closer, heavier. She lowered her voice. “Not out here.”
“I have nothing to hide from these woods,” Lyra said flatly.
You should, Selene thought, but didn’t have time to argue.
Selene exhaled, then began.
“The blood law,” she said. “It’s old — older than any of us. The Frontera Coven decided millennia ago that to keep power pure, any child born outside sanctioned lineage — adopted, bastard, mixed-blood — would be annihilated. It is to protect the bloodline from thinning, to keep the magic strong and the coven safe.”
“It is to keep power in the hands of a chosen few,” Lyra replied.
Selene’s throat tightened at the accuracy of her words. “They only have enforced it once in my lifetime — and it caused a rebellion that almost cost us the coven. But the law still stands. Its existence is enough to keep most people in compliance.”
Lyra shook her head, anger rippling like wind through her voice. “This is exactly why I’ve never wanted anything to do with your coven. Archaic, obsessed with purity, talking about protection when it’s really ownership.”
She stepped closer, eyes sharp and unflinching as they glared at Selene. “I wanted nothing to do with Frontera when I moved here. I want nothing to do with it now. And my daughter will have nothing to do with it in the future. Take your law and your threats and leave.”
Selene didn’t move. The porch swing creaked again behind her, an eerie reminder of where she was, a house that used to be her home. She looked from Lyra’s fury to Arielle’s fear and felt the weight of both pressing against her ribs.
She couldn’t leave. They wouldn’t survive if she did. She had to make Arielle understand why she was here, and what had to be done, so she would help her convince Lyra to let her help.
“I left once to protect you,” she said to the woman who had been the love of her life. “At the time, I thought I was right — I still do. I saved you from the horror that is my family. But now I’ve brought that horror to your doorstep, exactly how I swore I wouldn’t, and I’m so very sorry for that.”
Arielle’s jaw clenched, her eyes flashing anger and fear, but Selene kept going. “I wish I could go back to when you thought my family were just corrupt billionaires. They’re not just wealthy, Arielle. They’re powerful — beyond belief powerful — surrounded by people who could destroy everything you love. If I leave you now, you’re helpless. There’s nowhere you can go where they can’t find you.”
Her breath trembled in the air between them. “I know you want to be independent, to keep me out — but I am the only hope you have of saving your daughter. Please. For the love of Sia, let me stay.”
“No,” Lyra said, her voice sharp as flint. “You cannot stay here.”
Selene’s restraint snapped. She stormed off the porch, boots thudding against the old steps, and marched toward the wards. She pulled out the tiny silver knife she always kept on her in case of emergencies and had five small cuts made on the tips of each of her fingers before Lyra realized what she was doing and ran after her.
Too late. Selene had already thrust her bleeding hands into the ground. Pulling every wisp of magic she could conjure from the forest, every bit of herself she’d left behind all those years, every ounce of power her lineage had bestowed into her blood, and spoke with an authority fit for the Queen she was.
“No one but me shall come,” she commanded, her voice deep and echoing off the mountains around her.
“No one but me shall go,” she felt the wards answer next to her, gaining a solidity.
“For two full sunrises and two full sunsets,” she added, knowing the magic up here responded well to natural cues. She was right, the wards hummed louder, pulsating energy thrumming off of them that knocked even Selene back.
The air fractured around her, light spilling through cracks in the unseen. The wards pulsed, visible now — shimmering bands of copper and green circling the property. The force knocked her backward, landing hard against the dirt.
Lyra stared, horrified. “What have you done?”
Selene’s throat burned as she forced the words out. “What I had to do to save your child.”
“You’ll get us all killed,” Lyra said.
As blood began to drip down her legs and the darkness crept in, Selene wondered if Lyra was right.
Time for Your Input!
This week, I want to know: Was Selene right to cast the ward without consent?
I’m torn on this! Part of me thinks she absolutely violated the family’s space locking them inside for 48 hours, but the other part things she had to protect Sia.
What do you think?!
For the next week, the poll is open and the comments are waiting for your magic.
This is where Plot Twist truly comes alive so: 🗳️ Vote, 💬 comment, and 🗣️ engage (respectfully) with others.
✨Join in and be a part of creativity + community!
See you in the comments!
Lauren
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