Tarot Academy 4 - Sarah Piper Page 0,2

try to call his soul back.”

Crystals and cards in place, Kelly begins a soft chant, and Kate lights a bowl of dried herbs, walking it around the room until the smoke touches all four corners.

“For years, I’ve used this blend to eliminate nightmares and encourage peaceful sleep,” she says. “Combined with Kelly’s Tarot spell and the grounding crystals, my hope is that it’ll break Judgment’s hold long enough for Ani to heal and find his way back to us.”

Bedroom sufficiently smoked, Kate sets the bowl back on the table and touches Stevie’s shoulder, gently urging her back to her feet.

Stevie looks like a zombie, her eyes glazed, her body sagging with the effort of standing up.

“Stevie, I need you to make some tea,” Kate says softly. “Can you do that for me?”

Stevie blinks at her as if “tea” is a foreign language.

“Come on, sweetness. Let’s go.” Kate guides her toward the kitchen. “I know you’re worried, but Ani needs us to focus right now. Go make your special tea—something he likes. I’m sure he’ll be wanting a nice, hot cup when he wakes up.”

At this, Stevie finally shows signs of life.

“Sex with a caramel,” she says resolutely, wiping away the last of her tears. “That’s his favorite. Is the pantry well-stocked?”

“A tea maven’s dream,” Kate says.

Stevie offers a weak smile, but it’s a smile nevertheless, one that leaves the tiniest spark of hope in its wake as she heads into the kitchen.

The moment Stevie’s out of earshot, Kate looks at me and shakes her head, her eyes full of doubt.

“It’s not like before,” she tells me. “Kirin, Stevie, and Baz—they delved into the dream realm together. Ani’s all alone out there, and he’s under the influence of a potion designed to bind him to the very darkness that’s now torturing him to within an inch of his life.”

As if to underscore the point, a fresh bruise blackens Ani’s cheek, blood trickling from his nose.

A tremor of anger rolls through me. “Make another dream potion. Send me in there right now, and I’ll hunt down that monster myself.”

And if you think Ani looks bad, wait until you see what I’ve got in store for Judgment…

“You know I can’t do that,” she says. “You could end up in the same situation, and where would that leave Stevie and the others?”

“So there’s no hope. That’s what you’re telling me.”

“As long as there’s magick, there’s always hope.” Kate rolls up her sleeves and reaches for a bottle from the bedside table, purple-blue liquid pulsating inside the opalescent glass. “I’m just saying it’s going to take a while, and Kelly and I need to be left to our work. You’ve done all you can for him now. Let us take it from here.”

She shakes the bottle, turning the liquid a deep red, then hands it over. “It’s ready.”

“What’s this?” I ask, swirling it before the light. It looks like blood shot through with golden threads.

“Think of it as a time-release sedative.”

“You won’t send me to the realm, but you’re trying to tranquilize me?”

“It’s for Janelle and Casey. They’ll be coming out of the binding spell soon, and when they do, we’ll need to guide them back to consciousness slowly, through a careful meditation. If they come back too quickly, it could further damage their psyches and leave them even more susceptible to future possession. Phaines severed the connection, but I’m not convinced he’s done with them.”

“Phaines is dead.” Saying the words out loud makes me realize for the first time how quickly this night unraveled, how much has imploded in the last couple of hours. Phaines’s murder by Anna Trello, the discovery of the siphoned magick stolen from students on campus, Baz’s vanishing act, Ani… It’s almost too much to bear.

Kate’s eyebrows shoot up, but before I can tell her anything else about the murder, the headboard rattles against the wall, and Kelly unleashes a string of curses.

“He’s fighting the spell!” she cries. “Kate, we need to do the injection. Now.”

“Injection?” I ask. Alarm shoots through my limbs, but Kate is already shoving me out the door.

“Go,” she orders. “Keep Stevie out.” She shuts and bolts the door, leaving me alone in the dark hallway with a bottle of potion and a hole in my chest the size of Arizona.

I press my palm to the door and close my eyes. On the other side, chaos erupts, the women shouting orders at each other, Ani thrashing against his dark tormentor, the world falling down.

It’s been a