Magic Rising — Camilla Chafer

For Stella, the Witches' Council Summit is supposed to be about getting to know her fellow witches but instead she finds herself on trial for murder. The accusations may be evidence of a sinister plot at work or they may be a ruse to draw attention away from the mounting tensions as the witches vie for supremacy. Reaching out to her boyfriend Evan for help would be reassuring… if he wasn't oddly unreachable, working a case even his closest friend doesn't know anything about As the ominous reasons behind the trial come to light, an assassin unleashes a terrifying campaign against the Council candidates. With tensions running high and accusations flying faster than a backfiring spell, the witches are forced to gather together for safety, but that might just lead to an implosion as the culprit is sought. Plus there's the small matter of an ancient talisman the werewolves want, a talisman that they say was stolen, but the more she investigates, the more it appears that it isn't the simple artefact they claim it to be. With Evan still missing and her world more complicated than ever, the choices Stella must make might confirm her place as a formidable witch in her new world or leave her excommunicated… forever.