“Jane,” he said warmly, and came over to greet me. Then he glanced at Clara.

“We have a problem, I’m afraid.” I glanced at Clara. “Sorry, I need to talk to my friend.”

She blurted. “Do you know any witches?”

“A few.” Bruce grinned at her. “And don’t get that book. Try the one with the silver runes on the cover. It’s much better.”

He headed towards the back room. “We’ve got a problem. That possession thing? Coven got themselves an angry ghost.”

“How?”

“Initiation ceremony, if you know what I mean. Girl said no, got abused for it. She’s safe. I talked him out of killing the lot of them, but he wants to make sure it doesn’t happen again…”

Bruce considered that. “There’s always the name and shame route, but we don’t have evidence.”

“It would look like a malicious rumor.” I sighed, running my hand through my hair. “I really don’t want to have to fight him again.”

“I don’t want to have to fight him at all. We need to get evidence.”

“He won’t tell me where the girl is.” I sighed. “I don’t blame him, and she’s probably been through enough.”

The thought of slipping somebody into the coven crossed my mind. Clara was the best candidate, but I wasn’t going to ask it of her.

“But she won’t be the only one. Which coven is it?”

“Silver Thorn is the name he gave me. The Covenant of the Silver Thorn.” I let out a breath. “Oh, and he’s possessing their high priestess.”

“Probably serves her right.”

“Yeah, but not to the point of killing her, and I don’t even think it would hurt him that much.” I ran my hand through my hair again. “What do you know about them?”

“Ultra closed. High priestess is…eh. Never liked her. One of those not really qualified women who thinks she can just start a coven based off of a few books, and power hungry to boot. I’m not surprised this is happening.”

“That’s a good thing. If you aren’t surprised, that means at least some people might be wary of them.” I sighed. “Warn Clara, would you?”

“The girl outside?”

“Untrained, has talent, vulnerable. She’s going to get recruited by some troublemaker if we aren’t careful.”

I glanced outside. She was reading through the book with the silver runes.

“At least she didn’t tell me I can’t be a witch because I have a Y chromosome.”

I laughed. “I didn’t think you were one.”

He grinned and touched a finger to the side of his nose.