Page 28 of How to Charm a Coven (How to Flirt with a Witch #2)

However, the discovery of bio-magical absorption methods by European practitioners in the early 1800s marked a shift in human-chimera relations.

Through a blood ritual (protocol redacted by order of C.S.A.M.M.

Directive 274), practitioners could assimilate a chimera’s capabilities, including metamorphosis and psychic influence.

This precipitated a change in magical philosophy and practice.

The colonial period saw increasing tension between traditional Guardians and those who sought to control magic.

In the early 1900s, when the abuse of biological magic during World War I demonstrated its catastrophic potential, the newly established Coven of Shadows and Alchemists for Managing Magic enacted sweeping reforms, declaring bio magic too dangerous to possess.

Those who opposed this doctrine, including the remaining Guardians, were eliminated in the Great Magical Reform of 1928.

While some Guardian bloodlines maintained their practices in isolated mountain regions, C.S.A.M.M.’s influence eventually reached these remote areas. Their philosophy that chimeras were essential to magical equilibrium was branded as dangerous idealism.

The Guardian title was later appropriated by the Coven, though with a different purpose. While ancient Guardians maintained harmony between magic and humanity, modern Guardians and Trackers serve C.S.A.M.M. by harnessing it. These roles exemplify the Coven’s reformation of magical governance .

My hands shake as I brace my palms against the floor. So bio magic wasn’t always considered dangerous. It wasn’t meant to be consumed.

Lucy was right—and there’s a lot that I never knew about the relationship between humans and magic.

Could I be descended from the ancient Guardians this book talks about?

Mom’s side is from the Philippines, which fits the region.

Plus, the pull I feel toward magic, my ability to sense it, the chimeras talking to me… It all fits.

I press my palm to my chest, feeling my fluttering heartbeat. I thought I was broken—not witch enough and also not normal enough. But what if that’s by design? What if there’s a reason I can hear the chimeras when no one else can?

Before I can keep reading, footsteps click beyond the library door. My pulse spikes, an icy sensation shooting through me.

I grab the book and stuff it back onto a shelf, then slip through the gap in the iron gate just as the door swings open with a creak that reverberates through my bones. I crouch behind the closest bookcase.

“Should be in the third row near the bottom,” Fiona says.

Through the gaps in the shelves, I catch a glimpse of her cloaked figure bathed in shadows.

A second person strides closer, their footsteps quiet.

I struggle to suppress my breathing, willing my heart to calm down. Please, please don’t come to the back of the library…

Through the shelves, two bookcases away, Hayley bends down and drags a finger along the spines, her cloak pooling around her feet.

She freezes. Her head turns left and right, like she can sense my presence.

I cover my mouth and hold my breath, staying as still as I can.

After an agonizing moment, she returns her attention to the shelf. Leather groans and scrapes as she pulls out a book. “This one?”

“Let’s see.” Fiona’s heels click as she steps into the room. “That’s it. Should have the enchantments near the beginning. ”

Enchantments? Are they planning to use ancient magic to catch the chimeras?

At last, their footsteps fade, and the door clicks shut.

I let out my breath in a whoosh.

I wait before emerging from my hiding spot on trembling legs.

My discovery sits like a stone in my chest. I knew C.S.A.M.M.

was formed to control magic, but I never knew humans once coexisted with magic—and that those humans had been eradicated.

The coven let that part of their history die… or more likely, buried it on purpose.

Ancient Guardians.

The words roll around in my mind, like they’re trying to see if they belong there.

This would explain who I am and what I can do. Some of those witches must have survived, and I’m descended from them.

And once, long ago, the coven eliminated people like me.

My stomach churns. By working with the coven to trap chimeras, I’m betraying the people who dedicated their lives to protecting them—people who might be my ancestors.

My phone vibrates against my butt, making me jump.

I pull it out of my pocket and squint at the bright screen.

Natalie

Where are you? We’re getting ready to go.

I’m out of time.

And I’m more confused than ever about what I’m supposed to do.

I return the alcove to what it was (uh, except for the broken padlock) and head back toward the lobby, a strange tingling in my head.

Ever since Natalie brought me into the coven, I’ve been trying to prove my worth.

I showed the witches my ability and let them use it—use me —for their benefit, all to achieve some sense of purpose and belonging.

I swore their oath and spent my time and energy hunting down curses, and now, I’m hunting chimeras .

But what if my ability isn’t meant for hunting chimeras, but for protecting them? What if that’s my purpose? This deep sense of right and wrong inside me is trying to tell me something, waving a red flag while I obediently run around with a golden net.

I turn a corner in the empty brick hallway, my rapid footsteps echoing my pounding heart. Who, exactly, am I trying to be? Who am I betraying by ignoring what feels true?

The same intuition that pulls me toward magic is telling me I shouldn’t be trapping chimeras. Even if it means stepping away from the coven I’ve been trying so hard to fit into, and even if it means facing the rejection I’ve been afraid of, I have to do the right thing.

But it’s not as simple as that. The cost of choosing this path would be more than just isolation from the coven—it would be five years of isolation from everybody I know and love. Five years of my life, wasted while I rot in prison.

I slow my steps before I get to the lobby, my chest fluttering. Do I follow my intuition and do what feels morally right? Or do I keep fighting for the belonging and purpose that comes with being in Natalie’s coven?

I have minutes left to decide. On the one hand, I could listen to the ancient Guardians who protected the balance between magic and humanity—witches who are long gone and have no influence over my life.

On the other hand, I could listen to the coven—the people who are here and now, a community I can be a part of if I do what they say.

So, do I follow in the footsteps of the ancient Guardians…or do I keep fighting to prove my worth to a coven that doesn’t respect me? The choice seems obvious, but I suspect Natalie might try to change my mind.