“Fuck the balance. I’ll watch the world burn before I allow it to force you into something you do not want.”
REVIEW
Would I read it again? Yes No Maybe
Spice Level Legend How spicy is this book?
Tropes | Trigger Warnings |
Enemies to lovers, Forced proximity, Age gap, Dark academia, Witches, Vampires | Dub con, Violence, Betrayal, Ritualistic murder, Death, Loss of a loved one, Recollection of child abuse |
SUMMARY
This is Book 2 of the Coven of Bones series. You can find Book 1 here.
We pick up where we left off - in the Tribunal room with all the Coven after all the murder, the demon releasing, and the Lucifer reveal. One of the higher up demons, Beelzebub, snaps Willow's neck. Gray is not happy. He brings her back because he luvs her.
Willow wakes up in Gray’s room. She remembers dying but that's it. He brought her back by exchanging her soul for anothers. He keeps telling her she needs to rest.
The next day, she decides to make a run for it … again. She takes off through the woods, Gray shows up, says if she can outrun him and get out of the woods before he catches her, he’ll let her leave. She almost makes it but he catches her. They end up fucking in the forest, she marks him (on accident), which makes him real happy and her real confused.
The werewolves that are in the forest are human men who were cursed by Charlotte for accusing her of being a witch. A werewolf comes out of the woods but Willow uses her magic and transforms him back into a human, whose name was Jonathan, then into a cat. Gray calls him a “familiar” and the cat is attached and protective of Willow.
Willow feels very conflicted because she’s in love with Gray, but he's Lucifer. He’s the literal Devil. He’s killed people. She’s afraid he wants to take over the world.
The rest of the witches are not happy that Lucifer is attempting to take over the Coven. They want to kill him but he’s not really killable. Iban (who is still jealous and thinks he belongs with Willow) tells Willow that he knows of a knife that they can imbue with magic and it can kill Gray. But the problem is that no one has been able to get close to him - but now Willow can.
Willow thinks that killing him is the right thing but she’s in love with him and doesn’t want to kill him.
But…they imbue the knife. And she stabs him. Fortunately for all of us, Iban was mistaken about his lore. Yes, Gray has a weakness, but it's Willow. If Willow dies, so will Gray.
She feels awful that she stabbed him, and he's not happy about it either. They fight but then they make up in the best way…multiple times.
He takes her into the Tribunal room and tells the rest of the Coven that they need to accept Willow as a leader and when the time is right, she will open the seal between worlds so that demons can come and go as they please. Gray also kills every senior leader who helped and encouraged Willow to stab Gray. He doesn’t kill her friends who were involved because she asks him nicely not to.
Michael, Lucifer's twin brother, comes to visit one night. He’s kind of a dick and Willow instantly dislikes him. He wasn’t just there to say hi, we find out later, he was stealing the knife that Willow had tried to kill Gray with.
The ending is a little confusing so I’ll do my best to sum it up. A hedge maze appears in the courtyard and Willow enters it. She finds Charlotte there at the center.
Basically - God’s army is evil. Charlotte calls magic “The Source”. Says that God is taking a lot of its power, using his influence to make witches neglect it, so the Source gets weakened. Now God is too powerful to fight alone. Charlotte says Destiny speaks of 3 women who will change the world and bring about a new order. The Maiden. The Mother. The Crone.
Charlotte says there must be order and since the Devil is no longer in hell, God needs to get out of heaven. Charlotte tells her that the person to fight against God’s army is not Willow, but “Her” (the Maiden) and points at Charlotte’s stomach.
Willow isn’t pregnant yet, but she will be.
Gray doesn’t even know this or what will be expected of him.
Willow leaves the maze and a bunch of witches start beating on her, she kills them all, and is really mad, and huffs her way to the Tribunal room.
Michael is there. Iban is there working with him. Iban stabs Willow and uses her blood to open the seal to Hell again.
Gray also receives an abdominal wound where Willow got stabbed. Him, and his demon buddies, rush to her in the Tribunal room.
Side note - one of Willow's friends Margot and one of Gray’s demon buddies, Beelzebub, are an item.
Michael is using Willow's friend Margot as motivation for Willow to behave. Beelzebub bursts into the Tribunal room, and Michael shoves Margot towards the seal, and she falls into Hell, Beelzebub jumps in after her. Willows familiar, the cat Jonathan, and Gray arrive. Jonathan shifts back into his werewolf form and Willow begs him to save Margot, so he jumps into Hell as well. Gray and Michael fight, Willow headbutts Iban in the face, and then uses the knife in her abdomen to slice his throat. Gray and her manage to throw Michael and Iban’s body into the Pit and they seal it. Unfortunately, Margot, Beelzebub, and Jonanthan are still down there.
Gray tells her they will rescue them all. Willow says we better, we need all your friends for what's to come. They upset the balance by bringing Gray to Earth and their daughter will be the one to make it right.
Gray and Willow get their marriage blessed by the Goddess - aka Lucifer's sister. Gray has one more surprise for Willow - but this time it's good. He had one of his demon buddies go and get Ash (remember Willow’s brother?).
The conclusion to this trilogy comes out October 7th. According to the synopsis, this book will focus on Margot and Beelzebub in Hell.