A Demon's Guide to Wooing a Witch (Glimmer Falls, #2)

by Sarah Hawley

No, he’d dawdled and brooded and pined for the witch like bloody Lord Byron himself (and Astaroth ought to know, since he’d shagged that dramatic bastard for a few months in the early nineteenth century).

She writes explicit Wars of the Roses tentacle fan fiction, too.” Way, way too much Wars of the Roses tentacle fan fiction, which she posted to AO3 like a horny human teenager rather than the millennia-old demoness she was.

Wtf?

The autumn air felt crisp against her flushed skin. Calladia took a deep breath, welcoming the icy spear in her lungs.

Hecate, this house. It scratched at her like one of the poofy dresses she’d been forced to wear growing up.

“Your idea of what’s best and mine don’t match, Mom.” Calladia’s voice sounded as tired as her mother looked. “I just wish you could understand that.” She left before her mother could say anything more.

“Mortals live such colorful lives. It’s fascinating.” Humans were bright but fleeting, like flowers that opened at dawn and perished at dusk. He outlived them all, yet they still managed to surprise him.

The moon peeped out again, then hid its face coyly. When another patch of sky was revealed, he saw stars shining brilliant and pure against the blackness.

But life had lost its ability to surprise sometime in the murky past.

“You’re a Swiftie?” He squinted, confused. “Is that a species? We’ve already established I’m a demon.”

he wasn’t in the mood to watch a bloody werewolf flirt with his witch.

She never felt better than when larger, stronger beings treated her like an equal and, most importantly, a threat.

men are more trouble than they’re worth.” “Men are definitely trouble,” he agreed. “But trouble can be fun.”

She was so lovely it made his fingertips tingle with the urge to touch her.

The demon plane was beautiful in its own way, but the brilliant shades of Earth were more to his taste. Rather than relying on outside magic to thrive, the human world produced its own, and he hadn’t found anywhere else in the universe quite so vibrant.

And she was the most beautiful person Astaroth had ever seen.

Calladia wasn’t a prize to be won—she was an equal competitor in this battle of wills and wants, and the only way to woo a woman like that was to leave her wanting until she got impatient and seized the prize herself.

You are wholly yourself, and that in itself is perfect, because anything else would be a lie.”

you learn quickly that magic isn’t just yours, and it isn’t just a skill set. It’s a legacy, passed down through generations. It doesn’t come free.”

She missed dinner parties and nights reading alone on her couch and the warm feeling of having a place that welcomed her exactly as she was.

He might think of her as “his” witch, but that was a private, relational expression, not a claim of ownership. He was her demon as much as she was his witch.

“Lilith,” the other demoness said gently, “was that perhaps something you read in a fanfic?” Lilith’s brow furrowed. “The dragon heart? I’m sure that was canon. Right before that tentacle monster stumbled upon him.” She cackled. “Or oozed onto him, rather. Slurped up to him? Smacked sucker-marks into his ass?” Sandranella winced. “Definitely fanfic. I don’t think I’ll ever recover after reading that link you sent me.” She gave Astaroth a sympathetic look. “I heard she forced you to beta read her latest explicit fic on AO3. My condolences.”

“I’m not afflicted by madness.” Lilith winked. “Madness is afflicted by me.”

Were demons universally sexy? A question for a later time.

Being in nature made her feel small, but in a good way. Maybe that was part of being human. In the long stretch of time, she was just a blip. And when you were a blip, you didn’t have to worry about the weight of eons. You could live as loudly as you wanted in the space allotted to you.

You burn, Calladia, and it’s not your failing if other people can’t handle your light.”

The glow from the floating torches cast stars across her watery eyes, and her hair gleamed gold. She was luminous without even trying.

“It’s like liquid sunlight.”

For the first time in his long existence, Astaroth was in love.

“I had a boyfriend in college,” she blurted out. “Though maybe it’s weird to call him that, since he was fifteen years older than me.” “Taylor Swift would call that a problematic age gap,” Astaroth said.

“Some bastards want power but don’t know how to get it without tearing other people down. If they can’t earn respect on their own merits, they’ll create a victim with no choice in the matter.”

“Being strong doesn’t mean winning every battle. Sometimes it means surviving to fight again.”

“Your favorite tea is orange and ginger?” He’d need to stock up on some. He had a tea cabinet in his flat in London, and he liked the idea of her tea leaves nestled next to his.

“My life may be shorter, but it’s so much brighter. Why would I want to go back to what I was before?”

“The sun could die and the stars could fall and the earth could rip itself apart, and none of that would matter, so long as you were in my arms.”