“Some ancient place beyond the Void where Dark Judgment calls the so-called sinners to atone.” Absently, he rubs his chest, right on the spot where Judgment marked him. The mark itself is gone, but I’m sure the pain still lingers.
“The place from your visions?” Carly asks me, and I nod again.
“Stevie…” Professor Maddox presses her fingertips to her temples like she’s trying to keep her head from exploding. “Your visions are powerful—I’m not questioning that. But so much of what you see is wrapped in metaphor and symbology. What you experience in your dreams and visions is unique to you and you alone. We’re not even sure those caves exist in our realm—not in the way you’ve experienced them in your dreams.”
“Well, they existsomewhere,” I say. “I’m sure of it. As long as that’s the case, then we’ve got a chance at finding Doc and Ani. And as long asthat’sthe case, we have to take that chance.”
“Okay,” she says. “Let’s assume you’re right, and the caves exist somewhere we can actually get to them. Why are you so certain the mages are there?”
“The Magician. That’s his prison of choice.”
“You’re certain?”
“He all but admitted it to me.”
After my Solstice ritual earlier, there wasn’t much time to get into the specifics of everything the Magician revealed to me—we were too focused on subduing Ani and trying to break him out of Judgment’s hold. But I have to tell them now. They need to know what we’re up against.
“All the witches and mages who’ve died recently—everyone they’ve framed, tortured, and executed—are fighting for the Dark Arcana now,” I say. “Not willingly, but forcefully.”
“But how can executed witches fight?” Isla asks.
It takes me a minute to find the courage to tell them the whole story, and when I do, the words threaten to choke me. I can barely speak above a whisper, but I force myself to continue, painting the same gruesome picture for my friends as the Magician painted for me.
“We’re talking aboutthousandsof people,” I say. “So many more than what the media is reporting. Since this whole thing started in earnest, there have beenmassexecutions, mass graves. With help from the dark mages in our realm, the Magician stripped out all those souls and replaced them with dark magick—some sort of spell that keeps them physically alive and bound to him.”
“Alive isn’t the word I’d use,” Baz says.
“Undead,” I say. “An entire army of them. They will keep fighting for him until their bodies literally disintegrate. As for the souls?” A deep, dark shudder wracks my body. “He’s imprisoned them in the spiral caves beyond the Void.”
“You’ve seen all of this?” Isla asks gently.
All I can do is nod.
“And if her other visions are any indication,” Baz says, “the general of this fucked-up army is none other than Ansel McCauley.”
“The Black Sun,” I say. “That’s what Dark Judgment called Ani in my nightmares. They said he’d be the one to lead the armies to victory.”
“But… how?” Carly asks.
“Something to do with the Wand of Flame and Fury,” I say. “We think it can literally raise the dead.”
Maddox nods, her face as pale as the sheets. “Wands contain the very spark of life. If the Dark Arcana have found a way to harness that energy… Goddess, I can only imagine.”
“There’s more,” I say. “Regular witches and mages aren’t the only ones he’s turning. With Judgment’s help, the Magician is planning to turn all the Light Arcana dark, just like he did with Ani.”
“But Ani isn’t… he’s not undead,” Nat says.
“Right.” I wrap my arms around myself to keep from shivering. “Apparently, Light Arcana don’t need to be executed. He just… drives the light out of us. The physical body and consciousness remain, while everything else—the heart and soul, the light that makes us who we are—is imprisoned in those caves.”
Nat sits on the edge of the bed, her toes mere inches from the pool of Doc’s blood. “So you figure that’s where Dr. Devane and Ani are too.”
“Yes. Doc and therealAni,” I clarify. “Ani’s soul. That’s my best guess based on everything I’ve seen.”
“It makes sense,” Professor Maddox says. “But again, do the caves exist in our realm? From what you’ve described, it doesn’t seem like the sort of place you just happen upon while hiking through Arcana Academy lands.”
“No, a place like thatwouldn’texist here,” Professor Broome says. “If Judgment and the Magician are imprisoning souls, they wouldn’t use a place from our realm. Doing so would require too much energy on their part—they can’t fully manifest here. Not yet, anyway.”
“Stevie, I’m with the professors on this one.” Kirin plucks his glasses from a pile of broken glass on the floor and pushes them back onto his face, his pale green eyes electrifying in the dimly lit room. “Any place the Dark Arcana are using to trap soulshasto be in another realm. Even if it’s touching our realm somehow, the only way we could access it is through the dream realm.”
