A Witch's Guide to Fake Dating a Demon (glimmer Falls, #1)

In the magical town of Glimmer Falls, Mariel Spark is a witch who consistently fails at spellcraft. Despite a birth prophecy declaring she would be the most powerful witch in generations of the prestigious Spark family, Mariel can only reliably perform nature magic, coaxing plants to bloom and healing injured flora. Her mother, Diantha Spark, relentlessly pressures her to improve and withholds funding for graduate school in Magical Herbology until Mariel demonstrates progress in other disciplines.

During a practice session with her best friends, Calladia Cunnington, a thread witch who weaves spells through thread, and Themmie Tibayan, a pixie social media influencer, Mariel tries to summon flour for baking but mangles the incantation. She accidentally summons Ozroth the Ruthless, a demon soul bargainer who trades magical boons in exchange for human souls. Ozroth explains he is bound to the mortal plane until Mariel completes a soul bargain, trading her soul, which contains both her magic and her emotions, for any boon. Mariel flatly refuses.

Ozroth is privately desperate. Months earlier, a dying warlock's soul entered his chest instead of passing to the demon plane, the demons' home realm. This unprecedented event flooded him with human emotions and damaged his reputation. His mentor, Astaroth of the Nine, an archdemon on the ruling high council of nine, has wagered on Ozroth's ability to complete his next bargain and given him until the end of October. Ozroth sees Mariel's extraordinary power as his chance to restore his standing.

When Diantha arrives unannounced, Mariel panics and introduces Oz as her boyfriend. Diantha bursts into tears of joy, and the fake relationship spirals: Diantha throws a party, during which Cynthia Cunnington, Calladia's mother and the town mayor, questions Oz about his background while Diantha retells the embarrassing story of Mariel's birth. Oz poses as a history professor from a fictitious university and wears a hat to conceal his horns.

As they spend time together, Oz observes that Mariel's magic works when driven by genuine emotion rather than forced performance. He helps around her house while privately searching for her breaking point. Astaroth contacts him through a magical tattoo and instructs him to exploit Mariel's insecurity and her desire for her family's approval. Oz agrees but feels sickened.

Mariel confides in Calladia about Oz's true identity. Calladia places magical wards, or protective barriers, around Mariel's home and warns that Oz may be manipulating her, drawing parallels to Calladia's own experience with an abusive ex-boyfriend. Meanwhile, Mariel, Oz, and their friends protest a resort that Cynthia is pushing to build in the magical forest outside town, threatening endangered fire salamanders that depend on the land's magic.

Mariel takes Oz to a hidden hot spring in the forest, where they nearly kiss before a sick fire salamander interrupts. She senses something wrong with the forest's magical web and finds a tree consumed by black rot. She heals it by pouring her magic into the earth, but the effort drains her so completely she collapses. Oz carries her to safety, and their bond deepens.

At a disastrous Sunday dinner, Diantha demands Mariel demonstrate her spellcraft. Mariel attempts to move a saltshaker but launches it into the ceiling and shatters it. Oz defends her, telling her parents they treat her like a performing animal. Mariel flees in tears, lashing out at Oz and Themmie before they all separate.

They reconcile in Mariel's greenhouse, where Oz shows her how demon blood makes a fire lily bloom with golden sparks. Mariel kisses him, but Oz pulls away, calling it a mistake. At a late-night diner, Themmie suggests Oz feels guilty about being attracted to someone whose soul he is obligated to take.

Oz confesses the full truth about the warlock's soul and the emotional upheaval it has caused. Mariel realizes it also gave him human magic, explaining a blue lightning bolt he produced during an angry outburst at a town hall meeting about the construction project. She tells him she wants to date him, and they sleep together for the first time. Mariel proposes postponing the bargain indefinitely. Oz stays on Earth with her, and she surrenders her soul only when she is ready to die, potentially decades later. Oz agrees, choosing Mariel over his duty.

Over the following week, Mariel battles spreading patches of blight that require increasingly more energy to heal. Oz urges her to ask for help, and she brings in Alzapraz, her ancient ancestor. During a spellcraft lesson, Mariel stands up to Alzapraz, articulating that her family has always dismissed what she excels at, and he concedes she is formidable. Oz and Mariel declare their love. At the next Sunday dinner, Mariel confronts her parents and successfully banishes a cockatrice, a dangerous creature Diantha summons to silence her. This confirms her theory: Her magic succeeds when the impulse comes from her own desire, not external demands.

The turning point arrives when Alzapraz pins Oz to the wall with magic and reveals his horns to the family. Alzapraz declares the forest rot matches a pattern he witnessed centuries ago when a demon forced a nature-focused witch into a bargain. Mariel concludes Oz has manipulated her all along. When a bolt of white lightning destroys her greenhouse and championship floral display, her conviction hardens. Calladia punches Oz and magically launches him into the next county.

Stranded, Oz receives a final summons from Astaroth, who claims the demon plane is dying and demands Mariel's soul. Oz refuses. On Halloween, Mariel goes to the construction site and unleashes her full nature magic, engulfing bulldozers in brambles and flowers. Inside her fortress of vines, a man who introduced himself earlier as journalist James Higgins reveals his true identity: Astaroth, who has been orchestrating the blight and the greenhouse destruction to frame Oz and force a bargain.

Themmie airdrops Oz into the clearing, and he confronts Astaroth, who admits the demon plane is not dying. When Astaroth holds his sword to Oz's neck, threatening decapitation as the only way to kill an immortal, Mariel agrees to trade her soul to save Oz's life. She adds careful conditions: Astaroth must halt the construction permanently, fix the blight, restore her greenhouse, free Oz, and sever the summoning bond, the magical link created when she accidentally called Oz forth. She also casts a spell directing her soul to go where there is love.

Astaroth extracts Mariel's soul, and she goes cold and emotionless. But the soul, following her spell, sinks into Oz's chest. Now possessing two souls and human magic, Oz exploits a loophole: He offers to trade Mariel's soul, which belongs to him, back to where there is love, using a carefully conjugated spell. Astaroth, unaware Oz can perform magic, accepts. Mariel's soul returns to her, restoring her magic, emotions, and connection to nature, while Oz retains the warlock's soul. Calladia arrives and uses a spell-enhanced punch to launch Astaroth over the mountains.

All bargain conditions are fulfilled: The construction halts after the true landowner's will designates the area a nature reserve, the blight vanishes, and the greenhouse is restored. Mariel enters the Pacific Northwest Floral Championships and wins Best in Show. Diantha offers a genuine apology for years of belittling Mariel's nature magic, and Mariel sets firm boundaries. Oz discovers a wound is healing slowly and finds a white hair; Mariel theorizes that retaining the warlock's mortal soul has made him mortal, meaning he can age alongside her. Oz embraces the prospect of a finite human life with Mariel, and they celebrate with milkshakes alongside Calladia and Themmie.