Today’s writing soundtrack is “Salem’s Secret” by Peter Gundry, and I honestly could not have chosen anything more fitting if I tried.

There’s something about it—the haunting strings, the sense of old magic stirring in forgotten places, that quiet feeling that something has been waiting in the dark for a very long time.

Which is perfect, because I’m currently writing Chapter Five of Book 7 of the Witchfire Series, I won't share the title because that will spoil the surprise

And the deeper I get into this book, the more I’m realizing that awakened may be doing a lot more work in that title than I originally intended.

Elara and Cassian have survived rebellion, prophecy, blood oaths, ancient magic, assassination attempts, and enough vampire politics to make any reasonable person pack a bag and move somewhere considerably less immortal.

Unfortunately for them, reasonable has never been the Witchfire way.

Now the world around them is changing.

Lyra is growing.

The old powers are paying attention.

The Veil is no longer behaving the way it should.

And Elara’s witchfire is becoming something even the oldest vampires may not completely understand.

That’s the part I’m loving about Chapter Five.

There’s a different kind of danger creeping into the story now.

Not simply an enemy standing across a battlefield.

Not simply another ambitious vampire deciding Cassian’s throne would look better with someone else sitting on it.

This feels older.

Quieter.

Like a secret buried beneath centuries of vampire history has finally begun scratching at the surface.

And while “Salem’s Secret” plays in the background, I keep finding myself writing scenes that feel less like discovering something new and more like uncovering something that was always there.

Waiting.

For Elara.

For Cassian.

For Lyra.

Perhaps for all three.

Cassian, naturally, remains Cassian.

His solution to mysterious ancient forces threatening his family continues to hover somewhere between identify the threat and destroy absolutely everything associated with it.

Elara, equally naturally, would probably prefer to poke the mysterious ancient force and ask it several extremely inconvenient questions.

Their marriage remains very healthy.

For them.

But underneath the banter, the possessiveness, the witchfire, and the occasional urge to dismantle the vampire aristocracy one noble at a time, Chapter Five is pushing deeper into what this story is really about:

Transformation.

What happens when the woman everyone thought they understood begins becoming something they have no name for?

What happens when an ancient king realizes there may be forces in his world that even seven centuries of experience haven't prepared him for?

And what happens when their daughter—the impossible child born of mortal breath, immortal blood, flame, and night—begins awakening things that were supposed to remain asleep?

That’s where I am today.

Peter Gundry’s “Salem’s Secret” filling the room.

Chapter Five open in front of me.

Blue witchfire flickering somewhere in the back of my imagination.

And the distinct feeling that Elara Mărginean is getting very close to discovering a secret the vampire world would have preferred she never found.

Which, if you know Elara at all, means there is absolutely no chance she’s going to leave it alone.

Chapter Five of Witchfire Awakened is underway.

And some secrets were buried for a reason.

— J. Sands