A Soul of Light

A Soul of Light The Unlocked Series ~ Book 2 Rebecca Maeve Hartwell Content and Trigger Warnings WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS!!! Depicted (on the page): Panic-attacks from complex PTSD around SA (sexual assault) and DV (domestic violence) triggers. (Zero non-con is actually depicted). Gaslighting about SA/DV on the page. (Indirect, brief) confrontation with abuser. Death (adult humans only). Violence, gore, injury. Alcohol consumption. Drowning/suffocation. Accusations of terrorism. Use of the word ‘cripple’ by one character as a slur towards another. Mentioned (NOT on the page): Mention/descriptions of rape, date-rape/drugging, sexual coercion, non-con, etc. in backstory. Mention/descriptions of abuse in backstory. Mention/descriptions of cheating in backstory. Mentions/description of polyamory being part of abuse. Mention of abortion in backstory and in the abstract. Mention of pregnancy scares. Mention of STD scares. Mention of acid attack in backstory. Noose imagery and threats. Word use: Amputation, decapitation. ~ All of these are presented in ways meant to help heal from them and/or address them in productive and honest ways. None are designed to be traumatizing, triggering, or dismissive. Bonus Material To claim your free eBook copy of the prequel novella for the Unlocked series, just click here or visit: www.rebeccamaevehartwell.com/a-life-of-stone Contents 1. Chapter One 2. Chapter Two 3. Chapter Three 4. Chapter Four 5. Chapter Five 6. Chapter Six 7. Chapter Seven 8. Chapter Eight 9. Chapter Nine 10. Chapter Ten 11. Chapter Eleven 12. Chapter Twelve 13. Chapter Thirteen 14. Chapter Fourteen 15. Chapter Fifteen 16. Chapter Sixteen 17. Chapter Seventeen 18. Chapter Eighteen 19. Chapter Nineteen 20. Chapter Twenty 21. Chapter Twenty-One 22. Chapter Twenty-Two 23. Chapter Twenty-Three 24. Chapter Twenty-Four 25. Chapter Twenty-Five 26. Chapter Twenty-Six 27. Chapter Twenty-Seven 28. Chapter Twenty-Eight 29. Chapter Twenty-Nine 30. Chapter Thirty 31. Chapter Thirty-One 32. Chapter Thirty-Two 33. Chapter Thirty-Three 34. Chapter Thirty-Four 35. Chapter Thirty-Five 36. Chapter Thirty-Six 37. Chapter Thirty-Seven 38. Chapter Thirty-Eight 39. Chapter Thirty-Nine 40. Chapter Forty 41. Chapter Forty-One 42. Chapter Forty-Two Also by Rebecca Maeve Hartwell About the Author Acknowledgments and Copyright Chapter One Angie wrapped her arms tight around her middle, staring vacantly at the gold-framed obsidian mirror propped on the piano. Her exhaustion and anxiety dropped and soared like a rollercoaster within the smoky currents of her still-healing magic. All she could see in the reflection were her own memories and the uncertainty of her future, which needed no magic. They played through her mind on their own in every waking hour. She sighed. Perhaps it was for the best she’d never learned to scry, and the mirror wasn’t hers to use. Daniel sat beside her on the bench, his hands pressed against the wooden cover over the piano’s keys. His many rings glinted in the midwinter pre-dawn light through the window above as his glassy, rich brown eyes stared into the darkly polished mirror. His angular, beautiful face was clean-shaven and delicately lined with the worry and burdens that haunted him. His wide mouth was soft, and his fine, light brown hair swept his sharp cheekbones and the collar of his button-down shirt. Angie watched him, remembering the first time she’d ever seen Daniel scrying. He’d been sitting in his candle-lit bedroom in their cottage at the patrician conference last summer, searching for her. Searching with his magic because Angie had run away and he was unaware she’d just returned. She didn’t want to remember what had made her flee. The images of the large blond man who had broken her—destroyed her—rose in her mind, and she pushed them away. He, and his entire world, were distant and powerless to reach her. The lingering, pervasive sense of looming danger that Angie had lived with for the last six months flared into her awareness, and she closed her eyes. Remember why I’m here now. Remember that I’m safe with him. Daniel sighed. He blinked several times, yawned, and raked his hair out of his face. Angie’s stomach clenched. “Well?” Daniel shrugged. “Aye. Not much, but enough,” he said, his Caledonian accent carving the mundane sentence into a work of art even to her accustomed ears. “The Senators whose shields and wards I can break through have returned from their meeting. As far as I can tell, no one went to Stonehenge in Locus Proxima for this solstice, so we have more time before they install a new lock.” Angie exhaled through a weak smile. She had no desire to return to the empty half-world, devoid of all life, that housed the still-powerful hub of magic. Daniel pinched the bridge of his nose. “Maybe the new, true Seer that Dawn hinted at recruiting will see more.” “True Seer?” Angie asked, raising a brow and rubbing Daniel’s back to help him wake up from his trance. “Yeah. Run-of-the-mill Seers like me can see the past and present—within reason—but true Seers can also see the future.” Angie blinked, surprised. Daniel shook his head. “Not for certain, mind you. Not like in mythology. Free will and choice mean that’s impossible. But they can see down different chains of cause and effect, and can sometimes say ‘if this happens, then this other thing is a likely outcome’.” “Have you ever witnessed that? What did they say?” Daniel’s aura flickered, buffeting cool air against Angie’s face. “Sorry,” he said, and Angie smiled. “Not at all. It’s fine.” It smelled of him—beeswax and frankincense—and felt delicious against her constant overheating. He pulled his aura back under control. “Yes,” Daniel said, looking anywhere but at Angie. “Dawn’s sponsor was a true Seer. He…said a lot of things about possible futures. But he wasn’t all there. I wanted to ask him about one of them, but he died before I could. The English Court had given him a Wyrd sentence, like me. Only they cut his life away a certain distance in his future, not at a certain age like mine was. Honestly, it was a bit of a mercy for him given the high cost of true Sight, but he ignored it and kept needling