This Coven Won’t Break (These Witches Don’t Burn)

Product Description

In this gripping, romantic sequel to These Witches Don’t Burn, Hannah must work alongside her new girlfriend to take down the Hunters desperate to steal her magic.

Hannah Walsh just wants to finish high school. It’s her senior year, so she should be focusing on classes, hanging out with her best friend, and flirting with her new girlfriend, Morgan. But it turns out surviving a murderous Witch Hunter doesn’t exactly qualify as a summer vacation, and now the rest of the Hunters seem more intent on destroying her magic than ever.

When Hannah learns the Hunters have gone nationwide, armed with a serum capable of taking out entire covens at once, she’s desperate to help. Now, with witches across the country losing the most important thing they have–their power–Hannah could be their best shot at finally defeating the Hunters. After all, she’s one of the only witches to escape a Hunter with her magic intact.

Or so everyone believes. Because as good as she is at faking it, doing even the smallest bit of magic leaves her in agony. The only person who can bring her comfort, who can make her power flourish, is Morgan. But Morgan’s magic is on the line, too, and if Hannah can’t figure out how to save her–and the rest of the Witches–she’ll lose everything she’s ever known. And as the Hunters get dangerously close to their final target, will all the Witches in Salem be enough to stop an enemy determined to destroy magic for good?

About the Author

Isabel Sterling is an LGBTQ educator and advocate by day and a YA author by night. When she’s not writing about magic and murder, Isabel can be found lost in a good book, marathoning her favorite shows, or relaxing by the lake. She lives in Central New York with her wife and their brood of furry children: cats Oliver and December, and a beagle-mix named Lily.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

1
High school. They say it’s the best time of our lives. A time of exploration and endless possibilities. We can try out for any sport, dabble in any form of artistic expression. And by the time we walk across the graduation stage, we’re supposed to know exactly who we want to be.
They say a lot of things, but as I sit in my dead father’s car, parked at the back of the student lot for the first day of senior year, I can’t help but call bullshit.
Salem High isn’t a place to discover who you are. It’s a place to survive and move on. A place where the swing from celebrity to outcast is only one misstep away. Especially for a girl like me.
I cut the engine and check my hair in the visor mirror, brushing the bangs out of my eyes. Even though the local news never mentioned my name, it didn’t take long before everyone figured out that their top story—Recent Salem High graduate Benton Hall arrested on charges of attempted murder—was about me. The entire school probably saw the gruesome re-creations of Benton’s makeshift pyre, where he tied my ex-girlfriend Veronica and me to a stake and tried to burn us alive.
If any of my classmates managed to miss the news, and the social media fallout it created—whichdid mention my name—I’m sure they’ll find out the second they step onto school grounds.
Not that any of them will be able to guess why Benton did what he did.
The only people at school who know that Veronica and I are Elemental Witches—the only ones who know about the Witch Hunters trying to kill us—are the handful of covenmates who go here, my Blood Witch girlfriend, and my best friend.
A sharp knock raps against my window. I flinch, nearly stabbing myself in the eye as my hands jolt away from the mirror.
“Sorry, Hannah!” The muffled voice of said best friend penetrates the closed window, and its familiarity calms my pounding heart. “Are you coming in?”
“Just a sec, Gemma.” I grab my backpack from the passenger’s seat and force out a slow breath, counting to ten as I exhale.I can do this. I’m okay. When my ragged heartbeat has calmed to a more normal rhythm,