It’s with great effort that I hide my shock.
My, my, how easily the righteous fall…
“You’ve missed a few things during your… possession,” the Tower says. “Everything is completely fucked. We just want to end this thing and move on.”
If the Light Arcana give up this easily, I can only imagine how quickly the rest of mage- and witch-kind will fall in line.
More and more, the Magician’s war is looking like a skirmish. He thought he needed the Light. Thought he needed to turn them, to enslave them, to own them.
The Star takes my hand, and it’s all I can do not to jerk away at her vile touch.
“Do you have the Wand?” she asks. “Pleasetell me you have the Wand.”
“I… I wish I could.” I lower my eyes. “I tried to take it from them, but once I freed myself from the Black Sun’s clutches, it was all I could do to escape that prison alive. I… Goddess, I’m so sorry. I had no idea you would want it for this.”
“Oh, Ani.” She smiles at me, her wide eyes annoyingly bright. “It’s not your fault. I’m just glad you made it out.”
Was shealwaysthis sweet and saccharine? It’s a wonder the other two haven’t died of it yet.
“The best I can do is take you to it,” I tell her, coughing and clutching at my chest. The weaker I seem, the less likely they are to be on guard on our way out, and I’ll need them docile when I retrieve my Wand. “They keep it in the druid’s cave. It’s… it’s where they’ve got Cass.”
“Wait. Cass isalive?” Her mouth rounds with shock and hope.
Aww, the poor little thing. Tormenting her is almost too easy.
“Barelyalive,” I croak out. “I told him if I made it out, I would try to get help. We were both hoping you’d be here. We sensed it. I just… I don’t know how we can help him, Stevie. He’s… in bad shape.”
A low growl echoes behind me, but when I turn around, I see only the Devil kicking at the ground, his eyes downcast.
The Star grabs my face, turning my attention back to her. “You did the right thing, Ani. You saved yourself. That’s the most important thing—look out for number one, because no one else will.”
I slip away from the sick burn of her touch and look again at then others, then back to the Star. Narrowing my eyes in confusion, I ask, “What’s going on with you three? You’re barely speaking. And earlier, I swore I heard arguing. Is everything—”
“It’sfine.” She shoots the men a harsh glare. “We’ll catch you up later. Let’s just do the ritual, get what we need, and get out of here before anythingelsefalls apart.”
I nod, ducking my head to hide my smile.
They reallyarebroken. Ruined.
It’s a beautiful thing, witnessing the disintegration of a love once thought unbreakable.
The Devil retrieves an athame from his backpack, and we form a circle around the cleared space where the Star claimed she felt the magick.
After pouring the professor’s blood onto the ground, the Devil slices his palm, then passes the blade around. The Tower and the Star do the same, each of them spilling blood before finally handing the weapon to me. I make a quick slice across my palm and add my blood to the mix.
She recites the spell, and the rest of us join in, repeating it three times.
Blood that binds, blood that shields
At our command, the magick yields
Seconds later, I watch with abject fascination as the magickal dome rises up from solid ground. Our blood coats it, thick and shiny and mesmerizing. Again, the ground vibrates, but this time it’s not the Tower’s doing.
The bubble of protection vanishes.
And there, gleaming among the ruins, the sacred objects shine.
The Princes of the Tarot sit at each cardinal point, but those cards are useless now.
