Free Magick (Book 3 in the Coven Series) by Trish Milburn

still be as powerful?”
    “It’s the same,” Sarah says. “The only thing that is different is what you can use it for.” She looks at me. “Since the bracelets negate dark magic, it can’t be used for dark purposes.”
    “So it’s white magic?” he asks.
    “Not exactly. As we understand it, even the darkest magic is mixed with light. Only the dark magic is so overwhelming that it almost always eclipses the light. Most witches don’t even know it’s there beneath.”
    “But I thought you said not every witch has the potential to be a white witch,” I say.
    “They don’t. For instance, the Bane are somewhere in between. We know we still possess dark magic, but we keep it under control. Egan can learn to do the same. Yours is trickier.” Sarah shoves her hands into the pockets of the tan slacks she’s wearing. “Because you are the one with white witch potential, your dark magic is also stronger. Were it not for the bracelet, I think it would take over again.”
    Cold settles heavily in my middle.
    The next hour passes with Egan accessing more and more of his power. I’m equal parts anxious and afraid to tackle my own power, but the longer I have to wait the more my stomach twists itself in knots.
    “Let’s take a break and come back after lunch,” Sarah says.
    Part of me wants to protest, but I realize a break is a good idea. Even without doing anything on my part, I’m tired. While the Bane members talk to Egan, I slip from the room and wander down a hallway with no destination in mind. Every nugget of information I’ve learned since waking up chained to that chair jostles for position in my mind. I’m so lost in my own thoughts that I don’t hear the clicking of Sarah’s heels until she’s almost beside me.
    “You seem to be thinking awfully hard,” she says.
    I stop in the middle of the corridor but don’t look at her. “The more I learn, the more I’m convinced my mother was a potential white witch, and that’s why she died,” I say as more pieces of the giant puzzle slide into their designated spots in the overall picture.
    “But you said she was killed for trying to flee your coven.”
    I start walking again, slower this time. “That’s what they said, but my mother was like no one else in my family. She was kind and loving. Maybe I just didn’t see it, but I never saw her use really dark magic. But I never saw anything like the bright light I emitted during that fight with my coven either.”
    “She probably had no idea why she was different, just that she didn’t fit.”
    “Things I overlooked before are slipping into place, and I think they killed her because they didn’t want her to find out what she was.” I swallow hard and wonder if I’ll ever not want to cry when I think about her. “My father  . . . he’s a horrible man. I believe he killed her so the other covens wouldn’t find out about her and call for a Conclave. To him, it was better to say his wife had run away with his children than to admit he had a potential white witch in our bloodline.”
    Sarah is quiet for a moment as my revelation hangs in the air. “I’m sorry.”
    I shrug, not trusting myself to speak.
    Sarah places her hand on my shoulder, a gesture of comfort that totally surprises me. “From what you’ve told me about her, I think your mother would be proud of you.”
    I shake my head. “She’d be appalled. She would have never killed a man.”
    “You don’t know what she would have done if people she loved were threatened.” It seems Sarah has at least partially accepted Keller’s explanation for what drove me to kill Barrow.
    I try to imagine my mother driving the life from someone like I did with Amos Barrow, and the image simply won’t form.
    “You can do what she didn’t have the opportunity to,” Sarah says. “She wanted to be free, and if we can figure out how to bring your white witch powers to fruition maybe you can find a way to convince the covens to change their