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THE WREN'S NEST
Dark Magic. Deep Roots. Fated Love.
February 15, 2026 • Issue No. 2
Dear Reader,
Happy Saturday from the writing desk. I've been deep in edits for Tethered in Shadow and Storm this week—Damon and Lirael are not making things easy for me—and I needed to come up for air. So I thought I'd bring you along behind the curtain.
Today's issue has a character dossier you've been asking for, a deep look at how I build magic systems from the ground up, your complete reading guide to every book I've published so far, and a free download I'm pretty excited about. Grab your tea (or your wine, I won't judge), and let's settle in.
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Character Dossier
Who Is Damon Ryse?
He's the last person you'd expect fate to choose for an ancient soul bond. A wisecracking magical hunter who works for the Order, Damon's been running from real connection for years—hiding behind sarcasm and a runed dagger. Then a rift tears open in a rain-soaked London alley, and an exiled elf sentinel steps through it.
And nothing is ever the same.
Damon Ryse
Magical Hunter • Soul-Tethered • Reluctant Hero
Damon is what happens when you give a man extraordinary power and absolutely no patience for authority. He's ex-field ops for the Order of mystical enforcement, a specialist in dimensional tears and creature containment. He carries enchanted blades, smokes clove cigarettes laced with magic powder, and wears a silver ring that warns him when something dangerous is close. He's been through demon infestations, blood pacts with banshee queens, and six weeks undercover as a vampire's snack boy. But the one thing he wasn't prepared for? A tether that bound his soul to a woman who wanted him dead.
"You say that like I wanted this. You think I like being tied to some exiled elf princess with a superiority complex and an attitude problem?"
Magic Type
Runic combat spells, enchanted weaponry
Weakness
Glacial blue eyes and a certain sentinel's sharp tongue
Weapon of Choice
Containment dagger etched with ancient runes
First Appears
Tethered in Ash and Starlight
What I love most about writing Damon is that underneath the bravado, he's someone who's deeply lonely. He uses humor to keep people at arm's length. The tether terrifies him not because it's magic—he deals with magic every day—but because it's intimacy. It demands that he be known. And being known means being vulnerable. That's the real battle for Damon, far more than any Revenant or Shade.
In Book 2, you'll see sides of him he's never shown anyone. I can't wait for you to meet that version of him.
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Behind the Pages
Building Magic from the Ground Up
One of the questions I get asked most is: How do you come up with your magic systems? The honest answer is that every single one starts with a feeling, not a rulebook.
It Always Starts with a Question
For Tethered in Ash and Starlight, the question was: What if the bond that was supposed to control you became the thing that set you free? The tether magic—the soul bonds, the corrupted chains, the Revenant's rewriting of fate—all grew from that seed. Every magical rule I built served that central tension between control and choice.
For the Holloway sisters in Witches of Willow Creek, the question was quieter: What if magic wasn't dramatic at all? What if it was as patient as a garden? That's why Elara's earth-whispering, Lyra's color-infusion, and Clara's spirit-mending all feel like extensions of who they are rather than powers they wield. The magic breathes like the land itself.
And for The Whispering House, the question was the most personal: What if the place you inherit is also the place that inherits you? Hollowmere House doesn't just have ghosts. It has memory. It has intention. Seraphina doesn't just move in—she's absorbed.
The Rule I Never Break
Magic in my books always has a cost. Not because I want to punish my characters, but because stakes without sacrifice feel hollow. In the Tethered Trilogy, the cost is autonomy—the tether demands proximity, emotional bleed, shared dreams. In Willow Creek, the cost is subtler: the Holloway sisters give pieces of themselves to the land, and the land gives back. It's reciprocal. In The Whispering House, the cost is truth. The deeper Seraphina goes into Hollowmere's magic, the more of her own buried history she has to face.
I think that's what makes magic feel real in a story. Not the system. The price.
What's your favorite type of magic system in fantasy? Reply to this email and tell me—I read every single one, and your answers genuinely shape how I write.
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Your Complete Guide
Every Book, In Order
New to my worlds? Here's exactly where to start (and where you're headed). Each series is standalone—you can jump in anywhere—but here's the full map.
The Tethered Trilogy
Dark romantasy • Fated mates • Enemies to lovers • Spicy
1
Tethered in Ash and Starlight
Damon & Lirael's origin — the bond, the betrayal, the battle
✓ Available now
2
Tethered in Shadow and Storm
The Loom has awoken. Choice comes with a price.
☆ Coming March 2026
3
Book 3 — Title TBA
The final thread. The last choice.
○ In development
Witches of Hollomere
Gothic paranormal romance • Haunted houses • Slow burn • Closed door
1
The Whispering House
Seraphina inherits a haunted manor—and uncovers a love that transcends death
✓ Available now
2
Book 2 — Coming Soon
An older force stirs beneath the cliffs of Port Blossom
☆ Coming February 2026
Witches of Willow Creek
Cozy fantasy • Sister bonds • Small-town magic • Closed door
1
Witches of Willow Creek
Three Holloway sisters use earth magic to save their town—and each other
✓ Available now
Standalone
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The Thornbound Promise
Fae courts, earth magic, storm-wielders—the novella that started it all
✓ Available now
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Free Downloads
Bonus Content Just for Subscribers
The Holloway Grimoire
A beautifully formatted PDF of spells, herbal remedies, and blessings straight from the Holloway sisters' family grimoire in Witches of Willow Creek. Includes definitions of Earth-Whispering, Color-Infusion, and Spirit-Mending, plus the Moonpetal lore.
Map of Hollowmere House
Explore every room, corridor, and hidden passage of the haunted manor from The Whispering House. Print it out, mark your favorite scenes, and see where the secrets are buried.
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New Reader? Start Here
Featured Reads
Tethered in Ash and Starlight
The Tethered Trilogy • Book 1
enemies to loversfated mateshe falls firstforced proximity
A magical hunter. An exiled elf sentinel. A soul bond neither of them wanted—and a conspiracy that spans lifetimes. When Damon Ryse and Lirael Virelen are tethered against their will, they discover the bond was engineered by an ancient force that once killed them in a past life. Now they have to choose: be weapons, or be free.
The Whispering House
Witches of Hollomere • Book 1
gothic romancehaunted houseslow burnclosed door
Book restorer Seraphina Locke inherits a crumbling manor in a coastal Massachusetts town she's never heard of—from a great-aunt she never knew existed. Hollowmere House holds secrets in its walls, a curse in its foundations, and a presence named Nathaniel who's been waiting for someone like her for a very long time.
Witches of Willow Creek
Standalone (for now)
cozy fantasyfound familynature magicsmall town
Three sisters. One enchanted town. A legacy of quiet, powerful magic passed down through generations of Holloway women. When their small town faces a threat no one else can see, Elara, Lyra, and Clara must weave their gifts together—earth-whispering, color-infusion, and spirit-mending—to protect everything they love.
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Coming Next Month
Tethered in Shadow and Storm
The Tethered Trilogy, Book 2
The Revenant is gone. The Loom has awoken. And choice comes with a price.
Damon and Lirael thought their war was over. But in the ruins of fate, something older has stirred—a being wrapped in starlight and silence, watching the threads of the universe with ancient eyes. As the first new tethered bonds emerge across realms, strange and unstable, the price of rewriting fate becomes terrifyingly clear.
There are bonds that heal. There are bonds that burn. And some were never meant to be unbroken.
Until the next thread is woven,
Jennie Wren Foster
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