What is it about witches that makes them so fascinating and so frightening at once? According to editor Stefan Dziemianowicz, it is their dual nature. Their ability to cast spells, conjure the infernal, and traffic with the unholy ranks them among the most formidable and fearsome agents of the supernatural world. And yet, witches also have a fundamentally human side, which sets them apart from their weird brethren of ghosts, vampires, and werewolves. For all their remarkable powers, witches are as accessible as a next-door neighbor, and sometimes as vulnerable.

Readers will find the witches who populate this volume's pages as fascinating and frightening as ever. Best of all, in the stories collected here there are all kinds of witches to encounter: good witches, bad witches, practitioners of white witchcraft, and devotees of black magic. The majority are female, some are male, and a few are completely unclassifiable within traditional gender and biological categories. Several were born witches, while many chose the witch's life. A few mix simple love potions, while others turn their culinary skills to mixing more volatile concoctions that have the ability to threaten all we hold dear. Some of the witches portrayed resent not getting the treatment they feel they deserve from those with lesser powers, while others are not even aware that they have any special influence at all. Some, like many of their human counterparts, are outcasts. Some can't be taken too seriously; others shouldn't be crossed.

But have no fear: The magic at work in these one hundred tales potent enough to entertain the least superstitious of readers!