Powerful bloodlines tied by Fate, who can’t be free even in death...
Demdike and Chattox, famed witches of Pendle Forest, might be dead, but they’re not gone. Bound to their bloodline, they’ve spent the past two and a half centuries watching over their descendants, waiting for when they’ll be needed. When 14 year old Yana comes into her psychic abilities and inherits the ‘eyes of the Chattox family’, she can see the long-dead witches, as well as an encroaching evil. But even with this foreknowledge, she’s trapped by marriage interviews and being unable to see her own future, and more importantly, whoever her future husband will be.
Demdike’s healing gifts are alive and working in Claire, a mid-30s midwife well renowned for her skills and holding her tongue. The Secrets of Pendle are safe with her and her midwives. However, when surgeons looking to make standardisation the norm encroach on her territory, she soon realises how, even a respected woman is vulnerable in a patriarchal system. The two descendants must come together to protect the ones they love from an ancient evil, all whilst balancing their lives and the cruelties of being a woman in a man’s world. Set in late 1800s NW England, this book has all the elements of the area: strong, hardy people, atmospheric horror and days as unpredictable as the weather.
One Foot in the Ether: Whispers of the Pendle Witches is available at Amazon.
Book Excerpt
She hadn’t known what to expect from death. No one did. Still, none of her previous thoughts could have come close. This, and she was definitely having an atypical experience. For most souls, death was a release from the mortal coil. Complete separation from the life they’d once lived. She hadn't been so lucky.
Some parts of the system had been the same. Her soul had been scooped up. Taken somewhere. She vaguely recalled going over her life and having events explained. Gaining an understanding of the why; to the point she was no longer angry about things which had once made her furious. However, the entire encounter was now a blur.
The powers that be had done this on purpose, but the awareness lingered instinctively. Either way, she knew she'd died, gone to the other place, and then thrown back. Before they could send her along to wherever she should have gone next. There'd been an issue. A snag. One which stopped her from moving along to the happy, bliss-filled world of the nether realm. Said snag bore one name: Chattox. Even in death, her frenemy was still causing her bloody issues.
“Hey, Demdike, how’s non-life treating you?”
Demdike didn’t answer, suddenly filled with the desire to bludgeon the other woman. However, she knew from experience it would be pointless. They weren’t physical beings any longer—even if they were still tied to the physical world. Unless she was willing to destroy the other's soul, the spirit could reform. A tempting idea some days; this non-life was enough to make even the most patient saint a little homicidal. However, even in her worse moments, she wasn't willing to land the final blow.
“The same way it’s been treating me for the past two and a half hundred years,” she eventually returned. Still not looking at the other, less she finally indulged her violent impulses.
“They’re having a bake sale soon, at the local church. Gods, I miss cake.”
Demdike sighed. The sad part was she couldn’t even get rid of the other. Without Chattox, she would be entirely alone in this exhausting existence.
“Their cake isn’t anything like the one we used to have. They have more access to sugar, for starters.”
Demdike wasn’t even going to comment on the reasons why. King James I's and his ilk had done more than destroy her life. Stretching his greedy grip across the world. From the supposed lands of gold to the continent of darkness, James I's influence had impacted many. She couldn't help but feel for the poor souls stolen from these other countries. Their plights differed from the witch trials, but suffering was a universal language.
She would've liked to aid them, but she couldn't even help herself. There was no one to hear her, anyway. Well, other than Chattox, but as she was in the exact same situation. It was no different than voicing her words to the void. Except the void didn’t reply.
“Aye, I know, but it doesn’t mean I don’t miss the little pleasures. Few and far between, though they were.”
Demdike hummed. This was a conversation they’d had many times. When their new existence was mostly just the two of them, they often spoke of their past. Their past life, to be specific. A lot of it seemed funny now. Maybe it was their time in the decompression zone post life—or maybe it was simply the effect of being so removed from what they’d once been—but matters of life and death were suddenly much less dramatic and far funnier when you were already dead. Fighting over coin, linens, and food were memories they could now look back on and find humour in.
Though she also missed cake, death was a lot simpler. Mostly. There was no fighting for survival when you simply just were. No hunger to push you forward or pain to keep you still. As much as she’d once lived with one foot in the ether, having both on death's side was much simpler. If you ignored the limited company. Or how she feared her own mind and sense of self were slowly eroding over time. As though, without a physical body, she was slowly dispersing into nothingness; it was just taking a little longer.
– Excerpted from One Foot in the Ether: Whispers of the Pendle Witches by Kayleigh Kavanagh, Kayleigh Kavanagh, 2025. Reprinted with permission.
10 Things You Might Not Know About One Foot in the Ether:
Whispers of the Pendle Witches
1. The book was originally meant to be set exactly two hundred years
after the trials in 1812, but after the author learnt more about the time
period, set it later for historical accuracy.
2. Schools were a big push by Queen Victoria, and this enabled a lot
of women and the poorer populous to gain an education. William was originally
meant to introduce the idea of schools to the north. However, when the book had
to be set later than 1812, he then became someone in support of her movement
who wanted to ensure even the poorest of his community could gain an education.
3. There were several campaigns to discredit midwives, despite their
having much better results (compared to the doctors). Just like Claire
experienced, the women were shown as incompetent and dangerous, even though the
doctors had higher death rates. Repeated smear campaigns against the midwives
eventually helped institute standardisation as expectant mothers (and fathers)
chose hospitals as the ‘safer’ place to give birth. I think Claire would be
both happy and unhappy about this, as the NHS was a dream of hers, and it keeps
her women safe, but men being involved in the delivery process is something she
would still be vehemently against.
4. The revival of the spiritualist movement in the late 1800s was key
to the later Wicca religion. The two are both credited with the spiritual
movements we see today, and the encouragement towards alternative healing,
which is primarily focused on foods and herbs. The remedies the cunning folk
(Demdike and Chattox) used to use and were accused of witchcraft
for.
5. The cunning folk were very similar to shamanic healers in that
they created ‘natural remedies’ from the earth and what was available to them
and helped with healing spiritual matters. From melancholy and low spirits
(what we would now recognise as depression) to removing and fighting invading
spirits and demons. They were a jack of all trades and considered vital to the
community. Until they weren’t. Supposed demonic possessions did rise in their
absence though…
6. Demdike is still believed to haunt the places she lived and died,
and this occultist belief informed the book and made me think, ‘why might she
still be around’.
7. Chattox and Demdike were considered rivals in life, but by modern
standards, they would be considered ‘sister witches,’ and this filtered into
the novel, making them more like sisters who irritated one another rather than archenemies.
8. Some people think Device was a misrecorded name, and their surname
was actually Davies (a popular Northern surname). Hence, why the midwife is
named Claire Davies.
9. Lord James was initially meant to be a reincarnated James Device, or Nowell, but this idea was later scrapped. Instead, James was hinted as being Yana’s youngest sibling in the epilogue who was born after the cleansing ritual, and Nowell is off suffering in his afterlife.
10. Chattox accidentally spoils big reveals because she’s terrible at reading the room despite her gifts of foresight.
Kayleigh Kavanagh is a disabled writer from the North-West of England. Growing up in the area, she learnt a lot about the Pendle Witches and launched her debut novel around their life story. Her main writing genres are fantasy and romance, but she loves stories in all formats and genres. Kayleigh hopes to one day be able to share the many ideas dancing around in her head with the world.
Her latest book is the historical fantasy, One Foot in the Ether: Whispers of the Pendle Witches.
You can visit her on Facebook, Instagram, Goodreads and Tiktok.
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