Page 63 of The Spell Caster

The meeting erupted as his words registered and everyone started yelling over one another. Apparently, that hadn’t been common knowledge.

I rolled my eyes. He hadn’t bothered to mention it to me either. Knowing him, he had clobbered the angel that burned him and stolen its weapon in retaliation.

Costi chuckled behind me.

“You enjoy stirring people up way too much,” I said without turning.

Quince clapped his hands. “Quiet, please!” Most of the chatter died down, so he continued. “Young man, the Arcaenum has a process. We may not yell out in the middle of the meetings—there are many witches with points of discussion, and it isn’t fair to them to interrupt. You must confer with your group’s delegate, who may bring your concern to the councilors.”

“Lemme confer with my delegate real quick,” Costi said, then leaned over to murmur into my ear. “Layla, baby, talk some sense into these assholes before I start flinging daggers.”

Fate. Tell me he did not actually bring weapons into the Arcaenum chamber. My cheeks heated, and I cleared my throat nervously. “I invoke my privilege to speak as a delegate.”

Quince sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Go ahead, Delegate.”

“My… uh… constituent is concerned about the weapons the angels seem to be using. He has procured a working model for testing purposes and would like to propose adding a shield to the guardians’ standard equipment.” There, that sounded very diplomatic.

The audience of witches boiled over into speculative chatter once again.

Rhodes spoke over the din. “Security Coordinator Daire, could you please explain what this is about?”

Daire’s face darkened in anger. “A dangerous idea that we already discussed.”

“Not as dangerous as going out there defenseless,” Costi shot back.

Quince interrupted, “Guardian Blackthorn, please.”

Rhodes returned to the discussion. “Coordinator Daire, are you saying you have an angel weapon in your possession but didn’t share that information with the Council?”

Daire bristled. “It’s a guardian matter.”

“You didn’t bring it to a vote or anything,” Costi said.

“It doesn’t need a vote, Blackthorn. We’re not messing around with unknown weaponry,” Daire seethed.

“We need to know what these weapons do, how we can stop them,” Costi argued.

As the councilors muttered uncertainly, my annoyance flared. They weren’t convinced?

“I invoke my privilege.” Another of the delegates stood, a lanky witch with a thinning hairline. “Angels can’t make things like weapons. I think this was probably a fluke, something they stole from the non-magicals. Now that you got it away from them, they won’t have it anymore.”

Murmurs of agreement filled the meeting space as my anger simmered. They hadn’t heard about the same weapons being used against Northern Sea? And even I knew the outsiders didn’t have any laser staffs! This wasn’t a fluke, and these witches were too comfortable to notice the danger—just as Councilor Rhodes had suggested.

Costi groaned behind me, only loud enough for me to hear.

“This is so useless,” I said. “Calamus, you saw the weapons. An angel was trying to kill you. You talk to them.”

Calamus looked disappointed in me. “I’m not sure I agree with setting off random weapons to test them.”

Costi barked a laugh. “You were fine with opening up a Hell portal, though.”

“You’re not supposed to know about that,” Calamus said to Costi, then looked at me accusingly.

Quince fixed our group with a glare, and I ducked my head like a child caught chattering in class.

“If I may?” Cedar Grey had been watching silently until now. His voice wasn’t loud, but it stopped the side conversations instantly. The members all turned their attention to him. Uneasiness trickled through me. How did he do that? “I sympathize with your position, Blackthorn. Young guardians often want to lash out with more violence than is strictly necessary. We all know it’s difficult to be Troubled.”

“I’m asking for shields,” Costi growled.

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