Harried Witch (Wretched Mage #2)
Wretched Mage Recap
When Jane Darling takes on her ailing father’s responsibilities and journeys to a merchant fair in the Capital, she knows her family’s livelihood depends on her success.
But after stepping off at the wrong train station, Jane is seized by a monstrous creature and taken to Mountheim, a hidden realm ruled by the mageborn, beings who wield mana.
Brought before their court, Jane learns that the mageborn live in secrecy from humankind after the Shroud War, a brutal conflict that scarred both races and was erased from human history.
Mountheim is suffering the consequences of a punishment brought upon them by Reagan, their Mage Lord, who bears a curse for his past transgressions.
He is condemned to lose control of his form and turn into his animal familiar whenever he strays from virtue.
He is the very creature who captured Jane.
Reagan is tasked by Judge Malory with discovering how a human managed to breach mage territory.
Until the truth is known, Jane is sentenced to remain in Mountheim.
The tension between them is evident, heightened by her captivity.
Her first attempt to escape nearly costs her life during a Strzyga attack, forcing her to strike a bargain with Reagan: she will stay, cooperate, and work for their estate if her family is kept safe, and her trading duties are overseen by Finn, an emissary.
Jane accompanies Reagan on his travels through mageborn territories, helping him negotiate trade deals. She learns about magecraft with the intention of protecting herself, exploring relics imbued with mana and the use of a protection rune she eventually etches onto her own skin.
Their growing closeness awakens a yearning between them, though Jane knows their laws forbid any bond between human and mageborn, so she fights her feelings. Their attraction reaches a breaking point, and they become romantically involved.
On the evening Reagan’s curse is meant to break, Varian, his cousin and next heir to Mountheim, abducts Jane by glamouring himself as Reagan and takes her to a hidden cabin to lure Reagan there, incite his worst impulses, and lead him farther from virtue.
Varian has plotted with violent Scions who harm Jane in order to remove Reagan from power.
When Reagan transforms into his animal familiar, Jane refuses to believe that the curse has not been broken and resourcefully uses her gemstone to prove that Reagan has been found worthy.
Her stone resonates with his heartstone, proving to Judge Malory that he has been redeemed.
Reagan returns to his human form, and the citizens of Mountheim lose the animal features they carried.
In the aftermath, the question arises of how Reagan’s curse was interfered with, and the judge bargains with Jane to investigate it.
When they return to the castle, Jane discovers that Reagan has concealed a devastating truth: her sister, Joy, who had come searching for her, is imprisoned in Mountheim.
Her father had a heart attack and lies unconscious in the castle infirmary.
The revelation forces Jane to confront not only Reagan’s betrayal but also her own nature.
Reagan reveals that she was able to enter mage territory because she and her sister are mageborn.