What if the secret to her best friend's happiness is the source of her own worst fear? Su made the ultimate sacrifice to save her lover from a fate worse than death: she allowed her witch friend Alex to bind her fox-self as a familiar, tying their powers together, with Alex holding the leash. Alex is willing to reverse the binding, but she doesn't know how, and neither do the other witches she knows, so they'll have to travel overseas in search of the one person who might have the answer: the legendary, and possibly entirely mythical, Witch of the Hexenwald. But Alex has her own motive in seeking the witch, who just happens to be her ancestor: she wants to learn, to become the strongest witch she can be. But doing so could put her firmly on the side of keeping Su bound. Because foxes make excellent witches' familiars, and hexenfuchs like Su make the best familiars of all...