Page 20 of Bright Soul

Wren shrugged. “Whatever the coven doesn’t need, I’m sure Ashbough Protective Services can take. I left a credit card for the owner to charge if they get a chance to return, though I’m not sure it will matter…”

She drifted off with a sigh before turning abruptly toward Roe and Ben and asking, “Could I speak with Cress alone for a few minutes?”

Roe’s lashes fluttered. “Yeah, sure. Let’s go get the coven to look at what you brought. C’mon, Ben.”

Wren deflated again once they were gone and walked over to retrieve her staff. The crates landed on the ground with a jarring clatter. “You used celestial witch magic a few days ago,” she said, inspecting the length of fine wood in her hands.

“I did. It was a stored spell on Evening Guidance. I’m not sure how…” I began to explain, drifting off when she held up a hand.

When she turned to look my way, her eyes were red-rimmed with grief and a new wave of tears. “I want you to know that I don’t regret defending you. My family wronged yours… My parents did the unthinkable. I…I’m not part of it anymore.”

“Wren, it’s okay, I promise. I don’t blame you for anything,” I murmured.

“Good, because I…” She breathed out raggedly. “I’m not a Starsurge anymore.”

All the air left my lungs, a reply drying up on my tongue. Did that mean what I thought it did? “The rest of your family…” I couldn’t even complete the vile thought.

“D-Disowned me,” she said in a miserable whisper. “The only thing I can keep are the clothes I came here wearing and my staff. And I don’t know if I even want the staff.”

What vile people,I thought. I channeled my inner Roe for what to say next, knowing her family would take Wren in if the other woman so much as suggested it.

“Wren, I’m sorry your birth givers were—” I searched for a respectful enough way to say this without hurting her further. “—that they made the decisions that led us here. Family is also what you make of it. You still have the coven. We’ll support you through this if, uh, if you will let us.”

She gave me a hesitant lift of her lips. “I’ll try to be a better friend.” After a scuff of her foot, she changed the subject quickly. “And to start, I want to experiment with your magic.”

I tilted my head, my gaze searching the air above us for my handbook. It held my excess magic, the whole celestial might of my family line. “Experiment how?” I asked.

“It’s not like I’ve met anyone with access to two affinities. Do you have anyone to teach you how to use celestial witch magic?”

Well, there was my birth mother’s ghost, but she wasn’t here for this discussion. Her comings and goings were pretty unreliable, but she’d wanted to be around to help mentor me. And Jordan, though I didn’t know her well enough to ask for magical training. “If you’re offering, count me in,” I said.

We agreed to meet up after dinner time this evening, or whenever we called it quits for the day on purging the library.After we came to an agreement, we waited in companionable silence. She schooled her face to hide the worst of her grief, and I decided not to mention anything to our friends about what we’d discussed. When they arrived, they were occupied with awe as crates were pried open and weapons were laid out on the floor, all made with silver.

There were a few guns and cases of silver bullets. We set those aside for now, going for the weapons associated with our affinities. Our leaders would know who could make the best use of the limited supply of guns and ammunition.

I eagerly traded out my old training sword for a newly made one with a longer cross guard. My decision was fairly easy, so I stood back to watch what everyone else took. Ben secreted away a couple daggers, while Roe tested the weight behind a length of metal with sharp bits extending from the ball at the end—a flanged mace, she called it. Each test swing she took disturbed the air audibly.

Willow lifted a delicate silver trident like she’d break it, twisting it in the light to admire the patterns of fish scales etched into the long, thin pole and up to the three wicked points at the end. It appeared ceremonial, like a celestial witch staff, not meant to actually skewer something.

“I can really take this?” she asked in her whisper of a voice.

“Absolutely,” Wren answered. She didn’t even glance around as she set down her sun-topped staff and picked up a smaller, less ornate one about the length of her forearm. It was topped with a silvery-blue glass globe framed by a pair of crescent moons. Her shoulders loosened like she’d dropped a weight from them as she gave the new tool an approving nod.

Bianca was the one to share that these were made standard for teams of unnatural hunters since creatures determined to be aberrations were almost always twisted from dimensional magic or simply weren’t from our world at all. Silver was the oneweakness most of those creatures shared. “The perfect weapons to kill them easily while they’re trapped in the boxes here,” she said.

Ben elbowed her, scowling. “Don’t jinx us.”

10

CRESS

Before the purge was underway, I joined the other librarian witches in the powercore chamber to commune with Braza. She spoke with all of us mentally as we went one by one to place our hands within her jelly-like sphere to take in her magic.

“I’ve already begun the extermination protocol on containment rooms with inanimate objects and the weakest creatures. Approximately a third of the occupied rooms will not need your attention.”

“Where should we start, then?” Leona asked. She’d gone first to take Braza’s magic and had stood there a long time, teeth gritted as she absorbed more and more while purple mist swirled around her.

“There is a mated pair of doskalo that are imprisoned in separate rooms on floor negative twenty-nine. They are attacking the runic seals with everything in them as we speak.”

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