Tasting Red

Scarlett Rogers, called Red, is the 24-year-old granddaughter of the world's most powerful mage, Eloise Rogers³. She has spent years hiding from that legacy, working as a bartender and studying finance at Boston University. After being tormented at Fairy Fine Arts Academy for having no magical ability, she left the magical world entirely and built a human life with friends who know nothing of her past. She is covered in tattoos and piercings that serve as armor against deep insecurity. Red experiences monthly episodes of uncontrollable lust that make her feel monstrous, not knowing they are a werewolf mating drive. She is fiercely independent, rejecting her grandmother's³ wealth to prove her own worth, but she carries profound shame about her perceived inadequacy. Her bright red hair is the only physical connection she maintains to her deceased mother¹⁵.

Brexley Moon is a 29-year-old werewolf who has lived as a lone wolf since being violently exiled from his pack at age nine. The four claw scars raking down his face are a permanent reminder of his father's brutality and his own failed attempt to save an innocent woman¹⁵. He works as a mercenary assassin known as the Big Bad Wolf, accepting only jobs that require no ongoing relationships. He is sardonic, controlled, and pathologically avoids emotional connection, believing dependence on others is a death sentence for a wolf. He spins a titanium ring around his finger when agitated. Despite his isolation, he has a deep love of classic literature, particularly Pride and Prejudice. He owns multiple properties, including a luxury Boston condo and a remote Washington cabin, but calls none of them home until he meets Red¹.

Eloise Rogers, known universally as Grandma or Gigi, is the Level Five mage behind the Grandma's House empire, famous for Magic Morsels, baked goods that give humans a taste of magic. She is elegant, shrewd, and deeply devoted to her granddaughter Red¹, though her relentless work ethic created distance between them. Gigi carries immense guilt over the death of her daughter Samantha¹⁵ and has channeled her grief into building a business that helps humans access small magics. She sends Red¹ homemade cookies every month with notes saying they are made with love and lard. She is more morally complex than her wholesome public image suggests, willing to keep devastating secrets to protect those she loves, and her choices have had far-reaching consequences she never anticipated.

Jameson Sturgeon is a weathered, fifty-something werewolf who has survived decades as a lone wolf sustained by hatred and the hope of revenge. He owns a tavern called Sam's¹⁵, named after the mate he lost¹⁵. His nose was burned in a forest fire, destroying his sense of smell. He saved a young Brexley's² life years ago and trained him to survive exile, extracting a future favor in exchange. He is gruff, impatient, and consumed by a twenty-five-year vendetta against Eloise Rogers³, whom he blames for keeping his mate¹⁵ from him. Under his flannel shirts and permanent scowl is a man who loved deeply and has been hollowed out by grief, a father who never knew he had a daughter¹.

Hunter is a Level Two telekinetic and the son of Gigi's³ head of security, Theodore Dunkin¹⁴. Trained since childhood to protect the Rogers family, he is deeply ashamed of his low power rating and desperate for his father's¹⁴ approval. He and Red¹ had a secret physical relationship at Fairy Fine Arts Academy that he kept hidden from everyone, shaming her for her sexual intensity while privately benefiting from her affection. He presents as dutiful and professional, but his controlled exterior masks profound insecurity about his place in the magical hierarchy and a willingness to compromise his principles for power.

Goldie is Red's best friend and coworker at the Poison Apple. A full-figured, confident blonde who always wears pink and black, she is exuberant, physically affectionate, and fiercely loyal. She has terrible taste in men and often ends up heartbroken. She taught Red¹ how to own a room and helped her break out of her shell when they first met. Goldie is the first person Red¹ calls when something goes wrong, and she would physically fight anyone who threatens her friends¹. Her curiosity can be relentless, but her capacity for forgiveness and love is bottomless.

Cinder is Red's coworker and friend, a quiet goth artist with sleek dark hair, purple monolid eyes, and sharp eyeliner wings. She is reserved with words but intense in loyalty, often speaking the exact truth everyone else avoids. She minors in philosophy alongside her art major. Cinder spoils Red's¹ rabbits shamelessly and provides calm, steady support when Goldie's⁶ drama peaks. Her background is mysterious, but she listens more than she speaks, and her quiet presence anchors the friend group through crisis.

Rapunzel (Rap) is the owner of the Poison Apple, a woman in her late twenties with a rainbow mohawk and deliberately tattered designer clothes. She runs a strict humans-only bar but was not always human herself: she once had magic and lost it, a secret she guards fiercely. She is a pragmatic survivor who recognizes the same quality in others, which is why she hired Red¹, Goldie⁶, and Cinder⁷, giving them a safe place to rebuild their lives. Rap is protective and resourceful, willing to bend her own rules and call in dangerous favors when her employees are threatened.

Hansel is one half of a sadistic twin pair, a Level Four mage with the power to inflict or remove thirst. Pale and thin with waist-length white-blonde hair, he presents as bored and aristocratic while being casually cruel. He and his sister Gretel¹⁰ murdered their grandmother to inherit the Gumdrop baking empire and now seek Gigi's³ secret recipe to expand their power. He was Red's¹ primary tormentor at Fairy Fine Arts Academy, using his dehydration magic to sabotage her classes and drive her to alcohol poisoning at a party.

Gretel is Hansel's⁹ twin sister, a Level Four mage with the power to inflict or remove hunger. She is more openly deranged than her brother⁹, prone to hyena-like laughter while torturing victims. She and Hansel⁹ share an unnervingly intimate bond that disturbs everyone around them. Gretel was the one who starved Red¹ at FFA until she became skeletal, and she delights in forcing victims to eat garbage or writhe in agony from phantom hunger. Her magic over appetite could be used for healing but she wields it only for pain.

Dame Kiki Eleganza is a Black drag queen and Level Four healing mage known as the Fairy Godmother. She is also an empath who senses the age of emotional wounds alongside physical ones. Brexley² protected her years ago when her family tried to have her killed for her lifestyle, and she has healed him many times since, refusing payment in favor of friendship. She is glamorous, warm, and believes most people just need a good kick in the rump to reach their potential.

Dr. Langley is Red's¹ finance professor at Boston University, nicknamed the dragon. A sharp, impeccably dressed Black woman whose harsh feedback on Red's failing grade catalyzes her academic determination and forces her to confront her study habits.

Tom Thumb is a young driver who works for Brexley², picking up late-night calls without question. He is loyal, discreet, and entirely unfazed by blood-spattered werewolves, escaped rabbits, or women fleeing burning buildings.

Theodore Dunkin is Hunter's⁵ father and the head of Gigi's³ security operation. A paranoid Level Four telekinetic who runs a tight operation. He went to extreme lengths to hide Gigi³ during the crisis, blocking even Red¹ from contacting her grandmother³.

Samantha Rogers is Red's¹ mother and Gigi's³ daughter, who died when Red was four. She was a Level Four mage with the talent for developing others' magic abilities. Described as kind, loving, and able to see the good in everyone, her choices to protect those she loved set in motion the events that would shape her daughter's entire life.