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Read a Heartless Hunter summary with spoilers! Below is a recap of Heartless Hunter, the first book in The Powerless Trilogy by Kristen Ciccarelli. If you’re looking for what happened in Heartless Hunter, then you are in the right place!

Special thanks to Erica for providing this Heartless Hunter summary! Check her out on Instagram at @itsneverthelastchapter or on her book blog or her personal blog.

Author
Kristen Ciccarelli

Ratings
4.4 stars on Amazon
4.2 stars on Goodreads
Add Heartless Hunter at Goodreads

The Crimson Moth Series
#1 Heartless Hunter summary (this page)
#2 Rebel Witch (synopsis)

***** Everything below is a SPOILER *****

What happened in Heartless Hunter?

A Heartless Hunter summary:

Rune Winters is a witch. But she must hide her identity to stay alive. When she was 12, the purging of the witches began. Anyone who was a witch or protected one (known as Sympathizers) was punished. To protect herself, her best friend Alex Sharpe suggested that Rune turn her grandmother in. Rune watched her grandmother get dragged from her chambers, stripped-searched for casting scars, and ultimately killed.

Since that day, she decides to protect the witches she can using her grandmother’s wealthy resources. With the wealth she inherits, Rune pretends to be nothing but a pretty socialite with money. But when dusk falls, she is the Crimson Moth. She rescues witches on the hunt before the Royal Guard can capture them.

Alex Sharpe’s brother Gideon Sharpe is the Captain of the Royal Guard, and he has made it his life’s mission to rid the city of witches. Only Alex understands why he feels that way but has never discussed it with Rune. Alex also condemns the killing of witches, but torn between his brother and best friend, he draws the line at spying on either of them. However, he still offers information when he can to Rune, so she knows who Gideon’s next target is.

When Seraphine, Rune’s grandmother’s best friend, is caught by the Royal Guard, Rune sees no other way but to befriend Gideon for insider information. She invites him to her party, but he declines. Gideon has never liked her and made it clear since he first met her. He becomes suspicious when Gideon learns from Harrow, his informant, that witch symbols were found on Rune’s ship. He wonders how the silly socialite could be as smart as the Crimson Moth. Harrow suggests that Gideon become one of her suitors to confirm it for himself. He takes Harrow’s advice and goes to Rune’s party.

At the party, Gideon lies to Rune about Seraphine’s holding location. They get dangerously close to kissing before Rune realizes what they’re doing. Verity catches them alone and fears she will lose Rune the way she lost her witch sisters. 

Unaware of Gideon’s lie, Rune goes to the fake holding location and realizes it is a trap. She escapes by using Gideon’s blood for a spell without his permission. Just as Rune’s horse begins picking up speed, her arm is injured by a bullet. 

After encountering the Crimson Moth, Gideon rushes to a party to check if Rune has a bullet wound. He finds her, but with Alex and Verity vouching for her alibi, he is confused. Rune also confesses that she mentioned the hiding location to the women at a luncheon. This confuses him further because anyone could be the Crimson Moth.

A few days later, Gideon sends her a handmade dress – a Sharpe original – for the Luminaries Dinner. He also visits Rune and asks her to show him the beach she mentioned during the night of her party. They walk to the beach, and things start to heat up again. This time, Gideon shares his past with her. He tells her about his days as Cressida’s lover. Cressida was the youngest of the Sister Queens. He recounts how she used him, manipulated him, and treated him like a servant to punish him. She killed his little sister and threatened to kill Alex, too. Rune learns that Alex killed Cressida because if Gideon did, he would die due to her branding him. That’s what drove Gideon’s hatred towards witches and their magic. Rune is horrified and feels guilty for pretending with Gideon. Again, Gideon doesn’t spot any casting scars on her body.

On the day of the Luminaries Dinner, Gideon discovers that his best guards are murdered by witches. Harrow informs him that people have been discussing the witches returning to claim power. He also spots a warning on the wall that he’s next. At the dinner, Rune is asked to kill Seraphine in front of a crowd. While she wrestles with her thoughts, a fire breaks out. It engulfs the stage and her. Rune realizes the fire is aimed at her, trying to kill her. Gideon reaches in time and saves her. 

When they part ways, Gideon returns to the courtyard and spots Cressida’s spell mark, indicating that she caused the fire with magic. Rune goes to meet Alex at Thornwood Hall, Cressida’s former residence. Alex tells her about Gideon’s past and how lost he felt while his brother struggled.

Alex invites his brother to a card game as a final goodbye to Thornwood Hall before he leaves for Caelis. Pretending to play, Alex gets Gideon to wager his prison coin, granting him access to the cell where Seraphine is held. After Gideon loses it, he decides to leave. On his way out, he informs Alex about Cressida’s spell mark and confirms with him whether he is sure that he killed her. Alex later hands over the coin to Rune and confesses to her that he never killed Cressida. He only shot at the roof and warned her to stay away from Gideon. If she were back now, she would be plotting to kill them all. Rune warns him not to tell anyone else, fearing he may be arrested for sympathizing with witches. She is, however, very upset with Alex and worried for Gideon.

Gideon learns about witch gatherings in a print shop. So he takes his guards, Leila and Harrow, to capture them. When Gideon tells Harrow that he’s sure Rune is not the Crimson Moth after the fire, Harrow questions his judgment. She argues of all the possibilities that she is the Crimson Moth and is throwing him off her trail. Meanwhile, unknowingly, they walk into a trap, and a blast occurs. When Rune learns about it the next day, she rushes out searching for Gideon. He finds Rune crying outside his tenement, and overcome by motion, they spend the night together. The following day, Harrow and Leila visit Gideon. They inform him that Rune’s best friend Verity had asked the print shop owner for permission to use his space for a good price. To squash their suspicion of Rune, Gideon confesses that they slept together, and he searches her for scars. He dismisses it as a one-off. Overhearing him, Rune is hurt and decides to leave.

She runs to Thornwood Hall, where Alex asks her to marry him and move to Caelis. Heartbroken, she agrees.

How did Heartless Hunter end? – Heartless Hunter Summary

Two days before their departure, Rune, Alex, and Verity hatch a plan to rescue Seraphine from the prison cell. This plan is foiled when Rune can’t find the prison guard uniform and Gideon’s prison cell coin. She also finds a box of hand-stitched buttercups with a card from Gideon in her bedroom explaining himself. Rune decides he needs to hear about the engagement with Alex, so she agrees to meet Gideon at his shop. Before meeting him, she makes a pit stop at Verity’s residence to check if she took the uniform and prison cell coin. To her surprise, neither Verity’s room, where they’ve met multiple times, nor Verity herself exists at the University. Confused, Rune goes to meet Gideon. He reveals that he overheard their plan to rescue Seraphine. He was also the one who took the guard uniform and prison cell coin. Realization dawns on Rune, and she tries to escape. But Leila and the guards arrest her.

To celebrate Liberty Day, the townspeople gather in the square to watch Seraphine’s purging. As Rune is taken to the platform, Alex appears and announces his involvement in her plans. He is arrested as a Witch Sympathizer. Rune and Seraphine are brought to the platform. Just as Rune prepares for death, an army of witches led by Verity appears. Verity’s appearance transforms into Cressida. Rune is shocked that she was fooled for years by her closest friend.

Cressida kills the Good Commander and shoots at Gideon. But Alex takes the bullet. Rune uses Alex’s blood to cast a spell that causes an earthquake that splits the earth in two. The witches escape Gideon’s army. As they sail away from the island, Rune tells Seraphine that she doesn’t want to help Cressida in her mission to regain what she lost. She also asks Seraphine to train her so that she is prepared when Gideon finds her.

There you go! There’s your Heartless Hunter summary.

Special thanks to Erica for providing this Heartless Hunter summary! Check her out on Instagram at @itsneverthelastchapter or on her book blog or her personal blog.

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