Nomads, Vol. 1: Waking the Witch

Clementine has nowhere to run—from a dying evangelist mother who despises her witch blood, a teenage brother who clings to her for salvation, and the kind of backwater life that rots you slow. So when a smooth-talking farmhand offers her a way out—money and freedom in exchange for the careful, limited use of her arcana—she takes the risk, joining a crew of would-be outlaws with flashy powers and bad ideas, hoping to pull enough low-level jobs to save her family and disappear. Then the train job goes sideways. What they’re told through a shady contact is a simple heist—some jewelry, a briefcase of money—turns out to involve a prototype drug tied to an arcane criminal organization known as Phantom. Suddenly, they’re not just criminals. They’re captured. Conscripted. Put to work for a syndicate that carves its secrets in blood—and, for the unlucky, a mind-erasing procedure they call Rebirth. The jobs are brutal. The leash is short. And Clementine is hiding the one thing that would make her priceless—or dead: she’s a nomad, an exceedingly rare witch who can slip sideways through space, vanishing between the cracks of reality. If Phantom discovers her ability, she’s no longer expendable. If she uses it, she exposes herself. And if she’s caught, she risks losing the one thing Rebirth doesn’t preserve: her identity. Either way, she must decide how much of her being she’s willing to burn to keep the people she loves alive—and whether survival is still worth it if it means ceasing to be Clementine. ------- WAKING THE WITCH is a slow-burn, character-driven story—one with found family, desperate thieves, high-stakes heists, weird magic, and the kind of emotional grit you find in a Coen brothers flick or a dark Western. This world is broken and strange, shot through with both violence and hope. Expect magic, outlaws, and daring heists; real, complicated people—damaged, brave, and painfully human; mysteries, weirdness, and plenty of grit; lush prose and a story that takes its time.  We’re here for the long haul, updating on a regular schedule (bi-weekly). We hope you’ll join us on this ride. We genuinely appreciate every reader who gives this book a shot. If you stick around to the end, know you’re one of the rare ones, and we appreciate you deeply, and Book 2 is well underway.  See you down the road,Arthur N. Ryder & J.E. Kasper