Spells of Mist and Spirit Read online

  Spells of Mist and Spirit

  Tarot Academy, Book Five

  Copyright © 2021 by Sarah Piper

  SarahPiperBooks.com

  Published by Two Gnomes Media

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  Cover design by Luminescence Covers

  All rights reserved. With the exception of brief quotations used for promotional or review purposes, no part of this book may be recorded, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the express permission of the author.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, businesses, organizations, brands, media, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  v4

  E-book ISBN: 978-1-948455-50-3

  Paperback ISBN: 978-1-948455-24-4

  Audiobook ISBN: 978-1-977300-85-0

  Contents

  Book Series by Sarah Piper

  Get Connected!

  About Spells of Mist and Spirit

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Wicked Conjuring Excerpt

  About Sarah Piper

  Book Series by Sarah Piper

  M/F Romance Series

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  Monstrous Obsessions

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  Vampire Royals of New York

  Reverse Harem Romance Series

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  Claimed by Gargoyles

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  The Witch’s Monsters

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  Tarot Academy

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  The Witch’s Rebels

  Get Connected!

  I love connecting with readers! There are a few different ways you can keep in touch:

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  Email:

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  TikTok: @sarahpiperbooks

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  Facebook group: Sarah Piper’s Sassy Witches

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  Twitter: @sarahpiperbooks

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  Newsletter: Never miss a new release or a sale! Sign up for the VIP Readers Club:

  sarahpiperbooks.com/readers-club

  About Spells of Mist and Spirit

  How dark are you willing to go for the ones you love?

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  Our enemy claims that the darkness lives in all Arcana. That in a world of light and shadow, one cannot exist without the other. That we're all but one tragedy away from giving in.

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  Even the mages who’ve sworn to love and protect me.

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  Even me—the Star herself.

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  We call ourselves the Light Arcana, but the enemy's right. I’ve seen that darkness. Tasted it. Felt it flickering inside me like a black flame.

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  The Dark Acrana have taken nearly everything from me.

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  My parents. My friends. My magick. My men.

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  No more.

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  It's time to ignite that flame.

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  It's time to show them what happens when the Star blazes hot enough to burn.

  Spells of Mist and Spirit is also available in audio narrated by Stephen Dexter and Nicole Poole!

  One

  ANSEL

  Before the man was unceremoniously dumped inside the cave, I didn’t think it was possible for a mage’s soul to be more broken than mine.

  Especially not the soul of one of my Arcana brothers.

  Especially not his soul.

  Cass was supposed to be our leader. The strongest of all of us. Unbreakable.

  But he is broken. I know it as surely I know all the shades of blue in Stevie’s eyes.

  How could I not? I’m the one who shattered him. That’s how it feels, anyway. I may not have any control over the one they call the Black Sun, but he’s still connected to me. I can see—and feel—everything he does. His every word, every action, every thought weighs heavy on my conscience. The blood he’s spilled is on my hands. When the Dark Arcana split me in two, this part of me—the true part—kept the conscience, the heart, the soul.

  That… that thing… He took the malice and cruelty. The darkness I’ve been carrying my entire life finally made manifest. And then he amplified it.

  I wish I could say it wasn’t my fault, but it is. And now I watch, helpless and invisible in the shadows of the misty cave, as the Black Sun and his master look upon my Arcana brother like he’s a prized buck they’ve just shot and dragged out of the woods.

  They can’t see me. Like the rest of the mage and witch souls they’ve exiled, I exist between realms. Here, yet not here. Alive, yet not.

  From the looks of things, Cass may soon join the rest of us.

  “Truthfully, I was hoping the professor would put up more of a fight,” my dark counterpart says, lips curling back over his teeth. The Wand of Flame and Fury pulses bright in his hand, and he prods Cass’s slumped body with it. “Guess he’s just as feeble as the others. How he’s managed to survive his own pathetic life even this long is a mystery.”

  “But he has survived, and you’re fortunate that’s the case.” Dark Judgment places a hand on the shoulder of his star pupil. “You have great passion for this work, my Sun. An admirable quality, but you must rein in your fire until it is time to fully unleash your power.”

  The Black Sun glares at him, a spark of defiance igniting in his eyes. I feel it rising in my own chest—his unchecked desire to dominate.

  To burn.

  Not long ago, he looked upon Judgment with reverence and awe, but that’s no longer the case. The Wand has given him a thirst for power that only destruction and death can sate, and right now, the other Dark Arcana are all that stand in his way.

  He doesn’t want to share.

  None of them do.

  “What the darkness has unleashed will never again be caged, druid.” He tightens his grip on the Wand, a fierce wave of possessiveness roiling through his body.

  Judgment releases his shoulder and smiles—the beaming grin of a proud father, his razor-sharp fangs tipped in blood. “Good man, my Sun. Another test passed.”

  “A test?”

  “Yes. You are more than ready for what awaits. Our Magician will be quite pleased with your rapid progress.”

  At this, my chest constricts with a mirroring flicker of the Black Sun’s only vulnerability.

  My vulnerability.

  That desperate, endless quest for validation and recognition from a father who turned his back on our family the moment he discovered I was a mage and not his son, and from a mother who blamed me for the ruins she set ablaze with her own treachery and lies.

  Judgment is a poor substitute for a parent’s love, but still. He’s offering him everything I never had.

  No matter. My parents are dead now. Incinerated in the attack on my hometown conceived by Judgment and carried out by the Black Sun standing before me.

  I may as well have lit the fuse myself.

  The taste of blood and ash fills my mouth, and in this moment, I feel more connected to my own darkness than ever before. And for the span of a single deep breath, I’m almost ready to give up, to fade out of the flimsy existence I’m still clinging to and let the Dark Arcana take whatever they want.

  But there on the cold, wet ground before us, Cass—my professor, my friend, my brother—finally coughs out a breath. It’s labored and bloody, but the life hasn’t left him yet. He’s still fucking fighting. And as long as that’s the case—for however long it lasts—I’m not going anywhere.

  The Black Sun shoves the end of the Wand into Cass’s bare chest, right over his heart. The mark of Judgment flares to life.

  XX. Trump Twenty.

  Cass’s body spasms in pain, but he makes no sound. I run to him, dropping to my knees beside him and reaching for his hand, but he can’t feel me any more than the others can see me. I’m no more substantial than the mist.

  As far as the Dark Arcana are concerned, Ansel McCauley is dead and gone.

  “Leave him,” Judgment says, and the fiery mark fades into a charred black wound. “I have preparations to make with the others, and you must return to the Fool’s Grave to await the professor’s companions.”

  “Why are you so sure they’ll be there?”

  “The Light Arcana are not so foolish to believe they can win this war without the sacred objects. They will most certainly attempt to retrieve them.”

  “But they’re sealed in protective magick. They can’t unlock it without my blood. Or his, for that matter.” He kicks Cass’s leg, unleashing another dreary moan from the wounded man�
��s lips. Even in the dimness of the cave, the black blood shines wet on the back of his skull.

  Goddess, what I wouldn’t give for even a breath’s worth of magick right now…

  “Precisely,” Judgment says. “Take what you need from the professor, then go to the Fool’s Grave and wait. When the others arrive, you will play the part of their beloved Ansel.”

  He crouches beside me and retrieves a small vial from his pocket, then helps himself to the fresh blood still leaking from Cass’s wounds.

  “The Light Arcana are reckless and emotional,” Judgment continues. “The moment they believe you’ve returned to them as their former friend and brother, logic and reason will flee. They’ll trust you to help them unearth the objects, and then you’ll valiantly offer to lead them back to Cassius Devane.”

  “You want me to bring them here? To the cave?”

  “The Star would never resist a rescue mission. Especially when it comes to the men she claims to love.” Judgment shows his teeth again, but his smile quickly turns into a sneer of mockery. “Her unabated feelings toward her precious Moon Arcana will be the final nail in her proverbial coffin.”

  His disdain and contempt toward the woman we love fills me with a fire so intense, I’m surprised I’m not glowing with it. Beneath my touch, Cass flinches as if the same fire burns inside his veins, but he doesn’t open his eyes. Doesn’t take another breath.

  Judgment begins a tiresome speech about victories yet to be earned, magick yet to be harnessed, but I don’t need to eavesdrop to understand his plans.

  They’re going to lead my brothers and our woman into a trap.

  And then they’re going to obliterate their souls, just like they did mine.

  With the Keepers of the Grave turned dark and the sacred objects in the Magician’s possession, their armies can easily tear the thin veil separating our realms. They will gather their undead soldiers and break upon the campus of Arcana Academy like a tidal wave unleashed on an anthill.

  Once the Academy has been destroyed and all who live annihilated or enslaved, the armies will move on to the wider world.

  The Magician will control magick for an eternity.

  And everything around him—everything that doesn’t serve him—will burn.

  “So you mean to kill her then?” the Black Sun asks with a twisted grin of his own, and my heart—what’s left of it—slams against my chest. “Gotta admit—didn’t see that coming. I figured the Magician would have some other use for the Star.”

  “He has plenty of uses for her, none of which requires her to be alive. At least not in the way that humans think of the word. Alas, as much as I’d love to be the one to redeem the fallen Star, I’m not going to kill her.” Judgment glances down at the lump of human formerly known as Cass. “We’re going to watch him do it. But not until he drives her to the absolute brink of madness.”

  “The professor? He’s as lovesick as the rest of them. He’d die before he hurt that woman.”

  Judgment reaches for the man’s shoulder again, his eyes full of an ancient wisdom so dark and deep—so certain—it fills this fading heart of mine with ice. “In the end, my Sun, every last one of them will atone. Only by seeking absolution for their sins will they come to know peace. But before such peace can be granted, first they must be broken.”

  The deadly, ominous warning echoes across the cave, and the vile assholes finally leave us. One to go kiss the boots of his master, the other to lead our brothers—and our bright, beautiful Star—to their deaths.

  I close my eyes, and with everything I have, call on the very last shred of my magick, hoping to goddess I’ve got enough of something left inside me to reach across these forsaken realms and make him hear me.

  “Cass? You need to wake up. Now.”

  Two

  STEVIE

  Jareth is not having it.

  His ear-piercing screech and the frantic beating of wings against the glass outside give me and the guys just enough warning. Without a second to spare, we dive behind the bed and take cover.

  The fucking window explodes.

  In a tempest of glass and fury, my owl swoops inside, circling the small room twice before finally coming to perch on my shoulder. He’s trembling, tiny shards of glass raining from his wings like snow, but despite the epic break-in, he doesn’t seem to be injured.

  “Way to make an entrance, buddy.” Gingerly, I rise from the rubble, careful not to jostle him too much. He hops down to my forearm, his weight familiar and comfortable, and for a single heartbeat I allow myself the luxury of closing my eyes and taking a deep breath.

  All I smell is blood.

  A tremor rolls down my spine, and Jareth’s talons dig in deep. His energy fills me at once, his fear and rage mingling with my own, his protective magick pulsating through my body in warm, electric waves. It zips across my skin and makes the hairs on my arms stand on end.

  Suddenly, I want to move.

  To run.

  To fucking fly. Out the window, across the desert sands, all the way to the ends of the known world until I’ve left every terrible nightmare behind.

  Do it, Stevie… Just go…

  A firm grip on the back of my neck brings me back to reality, and I open my eyes to find Baz standing before me, his eyes glowing with a strange light.

  “Baz?” I reach up and touch his lips, my fingers trembling. His skin is hot, his breath ragged. “Are you… What’s happening?”

  “You tell me.”

  I draw back, my fingers still vibrating. It’s not his light, I realize. It’s mine. My skin, my hair, my entire body is bathed in a soft, golden fire, pulsing in time with my heartbeat.

  “Rein it in, Little Bird,” Baz whispers, sliding his hand up to cup my cheek. “I love a magick show as much as anyone, but right now we need you calm and focused.”

  “We need to get to Cass and Ani,” I say, remembering the mission with sudden, shocking clarity. “Why are we still standing here? We need to go. We—”

  “We will. But not like this.” He brings his other hand up, cradling me, beseeching me with those deep, red-brown eyes. “Breathe it out, Stevie. Let it go.”

  I hold his gaze for a beat, then finally nod, blowing out a breath and stamping my feet to dissipate the energy. The glow fades away.

  From his perch on my arm, Jareth lets out a soft hoot and tucks his head under my shoulder.

  “Hello, Handsome.” I pick a few shards of glass from his wings and stroke his feathers. “It’s okay. We’re all okay.”

  “Stevie? Kirin?” Muffled voices call out from the other side of the door, frantic and tight. The rest of our friends are still beating madly on the wood, but Ani’s wards are holding strong.

  With a quick spell, Kirin calls on his air magick, and Baz offers an assist with his earth magick, attacking the wood. The door begins to rattle in its frame, and with one last push from the outside, the whole thing finally gives.