Characters Bewitched Laura Thalassa

Selene Bowers: The Unremembered Witch

Overview

Selene Bowers is the central protagonist of Laura Thalassa’s Bewitched, a witch whose rare incantatrix immemorata magic erodes her memories with every spell she casts. To navigate daily life, she relies on an elaborate system of journals, sticky notes, and Polaroid labels—a brittle scaffold that compensates for a mind that forgets the past even as it forges a future. Her condition is considered a progressive, terminal syndrome without known cure (as revealed during her admissions interview at Henbane Coven, Chapter 1). Yet Selene refuses to abandon magic, believing a life without it is not worth living. Her fierce determination to join the coven propels her across continents, leads her to awaken the cursed sorcerer Memnon, and forces her to confront a buried identity as his ancient queen, Roxilana.

Selene is shaped as much by what she loses as by what she chooses to preserve. Her adaptive magic makes her unreliable in her own story, but her resourcefulness, idealism, and stubbornness ensure she remains an active agent. The narrative tracks her from desperate applicant to soul mate, from amnesiac to heir of a forgotten empire.

Plot Role

As the first-person narrator and sole point-of-view character, Selene drives the story through her decisions and her magical limitations. Her quest for a stronger magic quest and a familiar, set by Constance Sternfallow, takes her to the Galapagos Islands (Chapter 2–3), where an indigo magical attack causes her plane to crash. In the aftermath, she bonds with a panther familiar (Nero) and, following the mysterious voice calling her “my queen,” enters an ancient tomb to awaken Memnon (Chapter 10). This single reckless action unleashes the book’s central conflict: Memnon’s hunt to restore his kingdom and revive their shared past.

Selene’s memory loss serves a crucial structural function. It creates narrative gaps that the reader and Selene fill together, making each discovery—about the murders, her soul mate status, her own past—a gradual revelation. She is both investigator and suspect when witches begin to die (Chapters 14–15, 18, 31). By the climax, Selene learns that her amnesia itself is a curse she cast, a damnatio memoriae meant to erase Memnon and his empire from history (Chapter 37). Her role pivots from aspiring coven member to the key that can either restore or destroy an ancient legacy.

Motivations and Traits Shown Through Actions

Selene’s primary motivation is to belong to a magical community. At Henbane’s admissions interview (Chapter 1), she contests the head witch’s rejection with a fierce persistence, declaring she will keep applying. This stubborn optimism defines her: she refuses to accept limitation, whether from a disease or from authority. Her organization—her detailed planner, her use of memory aids—demonstrates a disciplined compensation for her impairment.

Her bravery is repeatedly shown. During the plane crash (Chapter 3), she ignores personal danger to enter the cockpit and cast a landing spell. Later, when she discovers a dark spell circle binding a non-consenting werewolf (Chapter 26), she breaks the ritual, shoves the priestess, and uses explosive magic to carry the girl to safety—a selfless act that leaves her wounded and with further memory loss. Mistress Gestalt, a guest lecturer in wards class (Chapter 15), notes that Selene’s magic is locked away and warns her that power attracts vultures—a truth that Selene initially dismisses but later accepts when she realizes she is a soul mate.

Her idealism sometimes borders on naivety. She trusts Kasey’s shady spell circle because she needs money to feed Nero, and she repeatedly underestimates how dangerous Memnon can be. Yet she also demonstrates a strong moral core: when the high priestess accuses her of being a murder suspect (Chapter 36), Selene insists on a truth spell, confident in her innocence. Even when the Politia officer suggests her memory loss could mean she unknowingly committed the murders (Chapter 31), she holds firm that her character is unchanged by her forgetting.

Chronological Arc

Selene’s arc moves through three phases: Pursuit, Awakening, and Reckoning.

  1. Pursuit (Chapters 1–5): Selene applies to Henbane Coven, is rejected, then given conditional acceptance pending a magic quest and familiar. She travels to the Galapagos, survives a magical attack, bonds with Nero, and follows blue magic to Memnon’s tomb.

  2. Awakening (Chapters 10–36): She enters Henbane, experiences the first murder, learns of her forbidden dark magic affinity (hellfire, blood), receives cryptic warnings from Mistress Gestalt, sleeps with Kane under Memnon’s magical amplification, and is kidnapped and confronted with her soul mate bond. Through an email from Peel Academy she learns she is both a Witch and a Soul Mate. She initially rejects Memnon’s offer to restore her memories, asserting that her amnesiac self is powerful and authentic.

  3. Reckoning (Chapters 37–46): Memnon burns her notebooks in revenge. Selene, realizing her safety and identity depend on recovering the past, agrees to a blood oath and curse-lifting spell. Her memories are restored, including her past life as Roxilana and her betrayal of Memnon. The chapter ends with her arrest, having unleashed a monster in Memnon and facing the consequences of her choices.

Relationships

Memnon: Her soul mate and antagonist. Their bond is telepathic and emotional. Selene oscillates between fear, attraction, resentment, and reluctant trust. Memnon believes she is his lost wife Roxilana; Selene resists this identity until the Peel documents confirm it. Their relationship is defined by power imbalances—he can invade her dreams, leer at her thoughts, and burn her only record of self. Yet she also holds leverage: she is the only one who can lift his curse.

Sybil: Her best friend and emotional anchor. Sybil stands by Selene even when the Politia suspects her, offering practical help like creating a timeline to prove her innocence (Chapter 39). Their friendship provides warmth and humor in a dark narrative.

Kane Halloway: A lycanthrope from Peel Academy who once asked Selene on a date (a detail she lost to magic). Their brief physical relationship is manipulated by Memnon, but Kane remains a supporter, and the lycanthropes later request to speak with her (Chapter 36).

Nero: Her panther familiar, bonded magically during the quest in the jungle. Nero is a loyal protector and a living witness to events she forgets. When Nero kills a human (Chapter 20), Selene must face the animal nature of her bond.

Key Decisions and Consequences

  • Contesting the rejection (Chapter 1): Gains her a conditional path to membership, but also places her in a position to be accepted alongside Memnon’s awakening.
  • Accepting the shady spell circle (Chapters 26, 32): Leads to a physical attack, her first conscious act of defensive dark magic, and the loss of that week from her planner—damaging her alibi.
  • Refusing Memnon’s first memory-restoration offer (Chapter 37): A powerful assertion of her current identity, but it also provokes him to burn her notebooks, destroying her only alibi.
  • Agreeing to the blood oath (Chapter 45): A risky commitment that she will lift the curse and marry him. It leads to memory restoration but also triggers her arrest, and she realizes she has awakened a monster.

Theme/Symbol Connections

Memory and Identity: Selene’s entire existence is a question of what remains when you cannot remember. She argues that her ambition, heart, and optimism are born from her memory loss, not despite it. The notebooks are literal symbols of her constructed identity; when Memnon burns them, he attacks her sense of self. Explore the full theme page at /books/bewitched/themes/memory-and-identity/.

Soul Mates and Unbreakable Bonds: The bond with Memnon is telepathic, emotional, and magical. Selene discovers she was fated to him, but freedom and consent remain central. Her arc challenges the idea that fate erases choice. See the dedicated page at /books/bewitched/themes/soul-mates-and-unbreakable-bonds/.

Dark Magic and Consequence: The Law of Three governs every spell; Selene’s own curse is a perfect example—her damnatio memoriae returns threefold as memory theft. Her hellfire and blood affinities hint at deep darkness. Learn more at /books/bewitched/themes/dark-magic-and-consequence/.

Revenge and Justice: Memnon’s revenge (burning her journals) mirrors the theme of retribution. Selene must decide whether revenge heals or destroys. Visit /books/bewitched/themes/revenge-and-justice/.

Sacrifice and Protection: Selene risks her own life and memory to save others (the werewolf girl, the plane passengers). Her decision to take the blood oath is a sacrifice of her current self for a murky future. See the exploration at /books/bewitched/themes/sacrifice-and-protection/.

5 Book-Specific Questions and Answers

1. Why does Selene use sticky notes and journals?
Because every spell she casts destroys a portion of her memories. She compensates by writing down everything: schedules, names, even Polaroid photos of buildings so she can recognize them. This system is her lifeline to function in a world that expects her to remember.

2. What does Selene learn from her Peel Academy records?
The official Awakening document lists her magical type as both “Witch” and “Soul Mate.” This is the first concrete proof that she is bonded to Memnon by a supernatural, unbreakable bond predating her current life (Chapter 35–36).

3. How does Selene prove her innocence to the high priestess?
She cannot fully prove it because her own mind hides events from her. She volunteers to undergo a truth spell, but the priestess notes that such a spell would not work on someone whose memory is locked. Instead, Selene appeals to her own motives: she would never risk her hard-won place at the coven by committing murder.

4. What is the damnatio memoriae curse, and why did Selene cast it?
It is a curse that condemns a person and their legacy to oblivion—erasing them from memory and historical record. Selene (as Roxilana) cast it on herself and Memnon to bury his empire and their shared past. The Law of Three turned the spell back on her, causing her own memory loss.

5. Does Selene ultimately get her memories back?
Yes. In Chapter 46, after performing the blood oath with Memnon, she repeats a curse-lifting spell that restores her missing memories. She relives her childhood, her Awakening, and finally her past life as Roxilana—including the devastating moment she betrayed Memnon.

For more insights, visit the dedicated ending explained page and the comprehensive questions and answers page.