Someone is Always Watching
Blythe and her friends—Gabrielle, and brother and sister Tucker
and Tanya—have always been a tight friend group, attending a local high school
and falling in and out of love with each other. But an act of violence has
caused a rift between Blythe and Tucker . . . and unexpected bursts of
aggression and disturbing nightmares have started to become more frequent in
their lives.
The strange happenings culminate in a shocking event at school: Gabrielle is
found covered in blood in front of their deceased principal, with no memory of
what happened.
Cracks in their friendship, as well as in their own memories, start appearing,
threatening to expose long-forgotten secrets which could change the group’s
lives forever. How can Blythe and her friends trust each other when they can’t
even trust their own memories?
On my sixteenth birthday, I’ll become a murderer.
I don’t want to kill anyone but it’s my duty as princess.
To stop the threat of the Cursed. The ones who destroyed our planet and most
life.
If I don’t participate in the ritual to seal my initiation into the ruling
council and solidify my mother’s empire, everyone will figure out the truth.
My truth.
That I’m a Cursed.
It gets worse.
My only hope rests in the hands of Ryker, whose sister I sentenced to death.
Francesca Flores's The Witch and the Vampire is a queer Rapunzel retelling where a witch and a vampire who trust no one but themselves must journey together through a cursed forest with danger at every turn.
Ava and Kaye used to be best friends. Until one night two years ago, vampires broke through the magical barrier protecting their town, and in the ensuing attack, Kaye’s mother was killed, and Ava was turned into a vampire. Since then, Ava has been trapped in her house. Her mother Eugenia needs her: Ava still has her witch powers, and Eugenia must take them in order to hide that she's a vampire as well. Desperate to escape her confinement and stop her mother's plans to destroy the town, Ava must break out, flee to the forest, and seek help from the vampires who live there. When there is another attack, she sees her opportunity and escapes.
Kaye, now at the end of her training as a Flame witch, is ready to fulfill her duty of killing any vampires that threaten the town, including Ava. On the night that Ava escapes, Kaye follows her and convinces her to travel together into the forest, while secretly planning to turn her in. Ava agrees, hoping to rekindle their old friendship, and the romantic feelings she'd started to have for Kaye before that terrible night.
But with monstrous trees that devour humans whole, vampires who attack from above, and Ava’s stepfather tracking her, the woods are full of danger. As they travel deeper into the forest, Kaye questions everything she thought she knew. The two are each other's greatest threat—and also their only hope, if they want to make it through the forest unscathed.
