Heartless Hunter by Kristen Ciccarelli is the first book in The Crimson Moth duology, originally released on February 20, 2024. Ciccarelli is known for her previous works, the Iskari series and Edgewood.
Heartless Hunter drops readers into a world reeling from revolution, where witches once held the seat of power but now are hunted down and put to death. A dangerous game unfolds between a witch rebel named Rune and a relentless witch hunter, Gideon.
If you’re looking for:
- Heartless Hunter characters
- locations in the book
- Heartless Hunter book summary
- the ending explained
- my favorite quotes
- book review/final thoughts
…I hope this guide helps before jumping into the sequel, Rebel Witch.
Warning: this guide contains MAJOR spoilers for Heartless Hunter. Proceed with caution if you haven’t yet finished the book.
Heartless Hunter characters
Who is Rune Winters?
Rune is a young woman hiding her witch identity after her grandmother’s purging. Poses as a shallow socialite but operates as the vigilante Crimson Moth by night, rescuing witches. Engaged to Alex Sharpe at the end.
Who is Gideon Sharpe?
The notorious, ruthless Blood Guard Captain and witch hunter. Also, Alex’s big brother. Gideon helped assassinate the Sister Queens and has a strong hatred for witchkind given what Cressida did to him. He’s still haunted by his past with Cressida and the Sister Queens.
He has complicated feelings for Rune after learning she’s the Crimson Moth, and we get the sense that he doesn’t feel deserving of love.
Who is Alexander Sharpe?
Alex is Gideon’s younger brother and Rune’s best friend. He’s also hopelessly in love with Rune. He’s a skilled musician who never experienced the pain Gideon endured at the hands of Cressida because he went off to school, but he came and has been helping Rune rescue witches.
He supposedly killed Queen Cressida, but we later find out he let her escape. Alex was always the merciful one, too kind for his own good. He gives Rune his mother’s ring when he proposes and she says yes.
Other characters
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Kestrel Winters (Nan) | Rune’s adoptive grandmother, a powerful witch. Arrested and purged by the Blood Guard after Rune reported her under duress. She asked Rune to find Seraphine Oakes. |
| Seraphine Oakes | A powerful witch, former advisor to the Sister Queens, and Kestrel’s oldest friend. Went into exile. Captured by the Blood Guard but escapes during a chaotic purging attempt. Appears much younger than expected. |
| Verity de Wilde | Rune’s best friend and confidante. A scholarship student who helps Rune with her missions as the Crimson Moth. Revealed to be Queen Cressida in disguise. |
| Laila Creed | A Blood Guard member, daughter of Nicolas Creed. Dislikes Rune and suspects her involvement with the Crimson Moth. Participates in Seraphine’s capture and attempted purging. |
| Noah Creed | Laila’s brother and son of Nicolas Creed. Considered a potential suitor for Rune. Defends Rune against Laila’s accusations. |
| Nicolas Creed | The Good Commander of the New Republic. Orders the purging of witches. Killed by Cressida/Verity during Seraphine’s attempted purging. |
| Queen Cressida Roseblood | The youngest of the Sister Queens. Presumed dead after being killed by Alex Sharpe, but later revealed to be alive, having disguised herself as Verity de Wilde. She tormented Gideon Sharpe in the past and branded him. Leads a witch uprising. |
| Lizbeth | A loyal servant at Wintersea House who stayed after Nan’s arrest. Assists Rune with her plans. |
| Carson Mercer | An elderly, unimpressed stable hand at the opera house. Disapproves of Rune. |
| Harrow | An informant providing Gideon Sharpe with information, particularly about the Crimson Moth. Has a missing left ear, likely due to mistreatment by witches she served before the revolution. Suggests Gideon woo Rune. Hurt in an explosion. |
| Tasker Brothers | Two Blood Guard soldiers known for their cruelty towards witches. Found murdered, throats slashed. |
| Charlotte Gong | A young woman engaged to Elias Creed. |
| Bart Wentholt | A self-obsessed potential suitor for Rune, son of a witch hunter. His mother was discharged from the Blood Guard due to injury. |
| Sister Queens (Analise & Elowyn) | Cressida’s older sisters, former rulers. Assassinated by Gideon Sharpe. Accused by Gideon of torturing his mother and using forbidden magic. |
| Juniper | A witch who was Harrow’s former mistress. Her fate after the revolution is unknown to Gideon. |
| Tessa Sharpe | Gideon and Alex’s younger sister. Killed by a magical illness inflicted by Cressida as punishment towards Gideon. |
| Sun & Levi Sharpe | Gideon and Alex’s parents, famous royal dressmakers (The Sharpe Duet) for the Sister Queens. Died shortly before the revolution; mother by suicide, father by hanging. Gideon implies the Queens’ cruelty contributed to their deaths. |
Locations in Heartless Hunter
| Location | Description |
|---|---|
| Capital City | The main setting, featuring fog-laden streets, electric lamps, closed shops, the city center, an opera house, and Blood Guard headquarters. Site of witch purgings. |
| Seraphine’s cottage | A small cottage perched on a wooded headland by a cliff’s edge. Found empty by Rune, marked with a bloody X by the Blood Guard. |
| Wintersea House | The Winters’ family estate. Rune inherits it after Nan’s purging. Contains Rune’s hidden casting room. |
| Opera House | A massive, copper-domed building in the city center. Formerly opulent, ransacked during the revolution but still functional. Features a grand foyer, salons, alcoves, and boxes, including one reserved for the Blood Guard. |
| Old Town | An industrial part of the capital city, home to working-class families, tradespeople, and factories. Gideon Sharpe lives here in his parents’ former tenement and tailor shop. |
| Thornwood Hall | Queen Cressida’s former summer home. Given to Alex Sharpe after the revolution. Alex plans to sell it. Gideon avoids the house due to traumatic memories associated with Cressida. |
| Palace | Former residence of the Sister Queens. Now houses the New Republic government, including the prison and the Luminaries Dinner courtyard. |
| Palace prison | A heavily guarded facility beneath the palace where witches are held before purging. Consists of seven concentric circles with gates named after the Ancients. Witches are kept in the seventh circle. Requires access coins. |
| Seldom Harbor Mine | An old, deteriorating mine used temporarily by the Blood Guard as a holding location. Gideon uses it as a trap for the Crimson Moth. Its lower levels are flooded by the sea. |
| Oakhaven Park | The Creed family estate, formerly belonging to Seraphine Oakes. Site of a masked ball. Contains Warden Creed’s study with the prison map. |
| The University | Located in the capital, attended by Verity de Wilde on scholarship. Contains Summer Hall dormitory. |
| Caelis | Capital city of Umbria, a country across the Barrow Strait. Alex plans to move here to resume his music studies and asks Rune to join him. |
| Cove | Location with cliffs used for jumping into the sea, located in the Outer Wards. Where Rune first met Gideon. |
| Print Shop | A shop in Old Town used by Cressida/Verity and other witches for secret meetings. Site of an explosion trap set by witches. |
| Blood Guard HQ | Located in the former Royal Library building. Site of a secondary explosion attack. |
Heartless Hunter summary
The Crimson Moth
In the oppressive New Republic born from revolution, witches are pariahs, their magic fading, their lives forfeit. Rune Winters lives a dangerous double life: a vapid socialite by day, the Crimson Moth by night. She rescues condemned witches, haunted by the memory of betraying her own grandmother, Kestrel, to the ruthless Blood Guard to save herself. Her secret crusade is fraught with peril, requiring illusion spells (Mirages) cast with carefully collected blood to avoid the telltale casting scars that mark witches for death.
Seeking her grandmother’s exiled friend, Seraphine Oakes, Rune finds only a captured cottage and the ominous mark of the Blood Guard, forcing her back into the heart of the city she despises. Dun-dun-DUN!
Gideon Sharpe, the heartless hunter
To find Seraphine and continue her work as the Crimson Moth, Rune navigates the treacherous social circles of the New Republic’s elite. Attending the opera, she encounters Laila Creed, a suspicious Blood Guard member, and Gideon Sharpe, the Republic’s most feared witch hunter—and the brother of her closest friend, Alex.
Gideon initially dismisses the seemingly shallow Rune. However, whispers of the Crimson Moth using Rune’s merchant ships force Gideon to investigate. He decides to infiltrate Rune’s world by pretending to court her, unaware she plans the same deception to extract information from him.
This sets up a dangerous game of cat and mouse in Heartless Hunter, where both witch and hunter wear masks.
He made her a dress!
Gideon’s pursuit of Rune intensifies. He presents her with a handmade silk rose, a gesture laden with his own painful past involving Queen Cressida, and apologizes for his initial rudeness, maneuvering himself into her social sphere. Rune, needing information on Seraphine’s location, accepts his apology and invites him to dance, continuing her charade. Their interactions are charged with suspicion and undeniable attraction.
Gideon then arranges a meeting at his family’s old tailor shop, offering to make Rune a dress for the Luminaries Dinner—a pretext to search her for casting scars. Rune, knowing she has no scars, agrees, turning his plan to her advantage while learning more about his traumatic past with the Sister Queens. Their dangerous game in Heartless Hunter deepens.
Falling for the trap
Gideon, finding no scars on Rune, remains suspicious but tells her a false location for Seraphine—an old mine near Seldom Harbor—setting a trap for the Crimson Moth. Rune, seeking Seraphine, walks into it. Gideon captures her, but she stabs him in the leg and escapes deeper into the flooding mine. After a tense underwater hiding sequence, Gideon recaptures her, but she uses the chaos to escape again, sealing the mine entrance with a Deadbolt spell using Gideon’s blood from her knife. Laila Creed shoots Rune’s arm as she flees on her horse, Lady. To establish an alibi, Rune races to a masked ball at the Creed estate, Oakhaven Park. Gideon, realizing Rune told others the false location, knows his trap failed to isolate the Moth but confronts Rune at the ball. Alex provides Rune an alibi.
Revelations & revolution
At Oakhaven Park, Alex helps Rune trace a map of the palace prison from Warden Creed’s study. Preparing for the heist, Rune discovers her friend Verity is missing from her university dorm, which now appears to be a broom closet, raising suspicions Verity might be more than she seems. Before Rune can confront Gideon, she overhears him telling Laila and Harrow that sleeping with her was a chore to confirm she wasn’t the Crimson Moth. Heartbroken and furious, Rune ends their courtship.
Later, Gideon realizes Alex stole his prison access coin for Rune. A witch attack disrupts Seraphine’s public purging; Alex confesses to aiding Rune and is arrested by Gideon. Cressida reveals herself as Verity, having faked her death and disguised herself. Cressida kills Commander Creed and shoots Alex when he shields Gideon.
Heartless Hunter ending
In the aftermath of the battle at the purging, Alex dies in Rune’s arms after giving her permission to use his blood for a powerful spell. With his sacrifice, she casts Earth Sunderer, a Majora spell that splits the city square, creating a chasm filled by the sea and allowing the witches, led by Cressida (fake Verity), to escape.
Rune, Seraphine, Cressida, and the new witch army flee the island on one of Rune’s cargo ships bound for Caelis. Rune feels lost, grappling with Alex’s death, Cressida’s deception, and her unresolved connection to Gideon (who vowed to hunt her down).
The ending of Heartless Hunter leaves us with Rune adrift and bound to the evil witch queen, facing an uncertain future as a fugitive again pursued by Gideon (who she is still very much in love with).
Unanswered questions
- How is Alex’s gutwrenching death going to impact the dynamic between Rune and Gideon? 💔
- What will Cressida do next now that she’s revealed herself and raised a witch army?
- How will Rune navigate her (forced) alliance with Cressida—knowing she tormented Gideon?
- What info did Kestrel want Seraphine to tell Rune? And why does Seraphine look so young?? WHAT IS SHE.
- Will Rune finally use her own blood now to wield stronger magic (given what she could accomplish with Alex’s blood)?
- Earth Sunderer was super powerful—what other spells did Kestrel keep in her old books?
Heartless Hunter quotes
Some people are determined to live out their own personal tragedies.
Every time Gideon looked at the young heiress, she reminded him of the sea: steal-your-breath beautiful on the surface, with the promise of untold depths beneath.
The point is to let me give you this one small thing, because I couldn’t give you the rest.
I hate you, Gideon Sharpe. I hate you so much, it hurts. And if you don’t open this door, I’ll go on hating you forever.
You are not the things that happened to you.
Isn’t that the point of art—to tame the monsters in us?
The more power we wield, Gideon, the more they want to see us fall. What are we to do? Let those who hate us plot our demise? To play by the rules when everyone else disregards them—that is foolishness. Once you’ve seized power for yourself and those you love, you must do everything to keep it. Even sacrifice your soul. If you don’t, you’ll watch your loved ones harmed by those wanting what you have.
Book review: Heartless Hunter by Kristen Ciccarelli
I did not expect to love this book as much as I did—WOW! Everything was fantastic; a unique magic system, fast-paced writing, beautiful character portrayals, and believable motivations that enflamed each of the conflicts and kept the story moving.
I loved Rune and her scrappy personality, but I was also torn between the two brothers. The way Ciccarelli wrote them, as opposites in appearance and personality, really worked for the story and made me care deeply for them both. Despite Alex wanting Rune to run away with him and her not feeling the same way he did, he had numerous great qualities and so much goodness and loyalty in his heart. My heart broke for what happened to him, knowing his struggle to support and love both Gideon and Rune. Ah, it hurts!
Naturally, I’m jumping straight into Rebel Witch because I have no chill and need to see how this ends.
If you’ve read Heartless Hunter by Kristen Ciccarelli, what did you think? Share your comments below, and I’ll see you after the next book!
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