I glance at the closed door and flip through the pages, searching for information about people who could communicate with the chimeras.
Finally, I find something, and my breath catches.
…certain regions produced individuals capable of telepathic communion with these entities, a phenomenon documented in Eastern manuscripts dating back to 600 CE.
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 oncecoexistedwith 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.
