At this, a warm smile finally breaks across his face, his body further solidifying. Maybe not enough to take on the dark armies, but hopefully enough to do the one thing I need him to do right now.
“Pop quiz,” I say. “Which Arcana am I?”
“Damn, Cass. How hard did you hit your head?”
“Answer the question, Mr. McCauley.”
Ani rolls his eyes. “Despite the fact that you’re acting like a fool,Dr. Devane, you’re the Moon.”
“Correct. And you are…?”
Ani holds up his hands like a stage magician revealing his last trick. “Tada! The Sun.”
“Excellent. Keep it up and you’ll get that A in no time. Next question… What is moonlight?”
He rolls his eyes, but still plays along.
“It’s… sunlight,” he says, glancing up at the cracks in the ceiling and quickly catching my drift. “Reflected by the moon.”
“Ah, there he is, the fiery Arcana genius we know and love. So, you see my dilemma, yes? I simply cannotdo this without you. You bail on me now, Mr. McCauley, and you’re signing my death warrant as well as everyone else’s.”
“Laying it on a little thick, Doctor,” he says with another eye roll, but a bit more of his old spirit shines through. “Where are you going with all this melodrama?”
“You and I have a strong bond,” I continue. “Right now, we need to call on that bond to juice my mental magick. I don’t need much—just enough to be able to reach out to the others. Stevie, primarily—she has the ability to dreamcast, which means she should be the most receptive to my communications.”
“So we’re sending a mental message?”
“Less of a message and more of a warning. A dire one.”
Barring an escape route, we need to let the others know about Judgment’s plans before they walk into an ambush at the Fool’s Grave. That sick druid was right about one thing—our Star won’t resist a rescue mission. And as soon as she and the others start plotting, they’ll realize they need the Arcana objects. They probably already have.
It’s precisely what Judgment’s counting on.
“Okay, professor,” Ani finally says, and I damn near fall to my knees in relief at the steely determination rising in his voice. Gone are the doubts, the insecurities, the guilt. Even the sarcasm takes a back seat, his love for Stevie and his brothers shining through. “What do you need me to do?”
“I need you to focus your energy on reconnecting with your human form.”
“How?”
“Your gift is fire, but for this, you’ll need to tap into the earth. Think about all of your physical senses—every part of your body you use to experience the world around you. Recall the scent and taste of your favorite foods, the feel of sun-warmed rocks as you climb in the Cauldron, the sounds of the river rushing through Blood and Sorrow’s lands. Think of all those songs you and Stevie sing, and the tea she made for you, the music of her laughter, the taste of her sweet, soft lips as she—”
“Yes, thank you, I can take it from here.” With a grin and a shake of his head, Ani is finally on board. The seeds have taken root, and he’s slowly coming back into view.
“You may not be able to fully reclaim your body yet, but I’m fairly confident you can bring enough of yourself back to the physical plane to do what needs to be done.”
“And what, exactly, is that?”
I offer a sly grin, then slice my palm open on the sharp rock. “Bleed.”
“Oh, is that all? Of course. Sure. No problem, professor psycho,” he says, pushing up his sleeves. But there’s no anger or concern in his gaze now. Only the same determination I hear in his voice. “Just so you know, I’m getting an A in your classes. All of them. For the rest of my academic career. Non-negotiable.”
“Assuming we succeed, we will discuss grades later. Now, get to work. We don’t have much time.”
Ani nods, all the jokes finally fading as he closes his eyes and focuses his attention on the task. While he tries to reach out to his physical form, I kneel on the cave floor and squeeze my hand into fist, dripping blood onto a spot illuminated by a thin shaft of moonlight.
Seconds later, Ani’s crouching across from me and doing the same thing.
I smile at him with a raised eyebrow, surprised at how quickly he was able to do it. He’s not a hundred percent solidified—his edges are still a bit blurry, and his image is still flickering, but he’s bleeding. Real, actual, Sun Arcana blood.
