A Discovery of Witches (All Souls, #1)

by Deborah Harkness

Humans outnumbered us and found our power frightening, my mother explained, and fear was the strongest force on earth.

Her concentration didn’t waver until something half human and half animal crept near and pinched my arm.

left an odor of singed feathers in the house.

It wasn’t magic, exactly, to put your hand on top of a book. My palm tingled, much as my skin tingled when a witch looked at me, and the tension left the manuscript.

“in two parts: the first Anatomical, the second Psychological”—was written in a later hand, in pencil. It was familiar, too, but I couldn’t place it.

The baby held a silver rose in one hand, a golden rose in the other. On its feet were tiny wings, and drops of red liquid showered down on the baby’s long black hair.

But the illuminator, for all his obvious talent, had the details all wrong. The glass vessel was supposed to point up, not down. The baby was supposed to be half black and half white, to show that it was a hermaphrodite. It should have had male genitalia and female breasts—or two heads, at the very least.

A low chuckle startled me.

One of them whispered something, and Clairmont’s head swiveled so fast it would have snapped the neck of a lesser being. He made a soft hissing sound that ruffled the hair on my own neck. The two exchanged looks and departed as quietly as they had appeared.

Clairmont moved so quickly I didn’t see him round the desks. In an instant he was standing with one hand on the back of my chair and the other resting on the surface in front of me. His broad shoulders were curved around me like the wings of a falcon shielding his prey.

I love him!

The notion of pulling an illegal maneuver and crossing the river so that I could smack the vampire upside his beautiful head with whatever piece of boat equipment was handy was very tempting.

God, he was beautiful, I thought again, slightly dazzled.

This morning he smelled sweeter, like a freshly picked carnation. I inhaled deeply.

All you have to do is be a good listener. Nobody really wants to keep secrets, not even the dead. People leave clues everywhere, and if you pay attention, you can piece them together.”

Normal’ is a bedtime story—a fable—that humans tell themselves to feel better when faced with overwhelming evidence that most of what’s happening around them is not ‘normal’ at all.”

A vampire had to desire another creature more than anyone or anything else in order to mate, and cravings were rooted in desire.

The strongest distinguishing characteristic of humans is their power of denial.

Marcus nodded. “Yep. Are you always like this? All dressed up in adrenaline and no place to go?”

I love marcus

“Timothy,” he answered, rocking back on his heels. He was wearing mismatched cowboy boots, one red and one black. His eyes were mismatched, too—one was blue and one was green.

“You’re the one.” He tipped his fingers at me, pivoted on the heel of the red boot, and walked away.

Somewhere in the center of my soul, a rusty chain began to unwind. It freed itself, link by link, from where it had rested unobserved, waiting for him. My hands, which had been balled up and pressed against his chest, unfurled with it. The chain continued to drop, to an unfathomable depth where there was nothing but darkness and Matthew. At last it snapped to its full length, anchoring me to a vampire. Despite the manuscript, despite the fact that my hands contained enough voltage to run a microwave, and despite the photograph, as long as I was connected to him, I was safe.

“Witches don’t have centuries to fall in love. We do it quickly. Sarah says my mother fell in love with my father the moment she saw him. I’ve loved you since I decided not to hit you with an oar on the City of Oxford’s dock.”

It is a blessing as well as a burden to love so much that you can hurt so badly when love is gone.”

How could you not have been loved before, when I love you so much?”

He’ll always find you, no matter what. You can trust him. He’s the one we’ve been waiting for.

Desire urges me on, as fear bridles me.’ Doesn’t that explain everything that happens in the world?”

“‘It begins with absence and desire,’”

“‘It begins with blood and fear.’”

“‘It begins with a discovery o...