Tarot Academy 4 - Sarah Piper Page 0,106

me focused, helping me put together the puzzle pieces that might just save our lives.

The curse isn’t that the light and the dark exist within us—that’s just our nature. The curse is that we will always be drawn to both, and anything can happen—at any point—to flip the switch… Here’s the most terrifying part… It’s not that the Dark Magician wants the objects so he can control magick, or that Dark Judgment may be trying to raise the dead. It’s that they represent what each of us has the potential to become. The very things that made them go dark exist in all Arcana witches and mages…

Lala’s in my memory now, her kindness and wisdom a beacon in the darkness.

True love is a formidable force on its own. When it sees itself reflected in the heart of another, it will lay bare and burn down anything that stands in the way of that union. The process can be terrifying and painful, but it’s wholly necessary. Only love has the power to dismantle our fears and set free the pure, limitless heart within.

The Magician… Even he has something to say.

They were willing to die for the cause they believed in. Can you say the same of your Arcana brothers? Of yourself? All the people and things and causes you claim to value… How far are you willing to go to stand up for them, Starla Milan…

The voices eddy and swirl, filling me with hope and knowledge, with courage and strength. But of all the voices in my head, it’s the Magician’s that inspires me now, igniting a fire in my chest that burns hotter than any witchfire.

I pull myself to my feet, my magick already working its healing energy, my rage pulling double duty.

“Kirin,” I call out, my voice strong and clear. “Baz.”

Across the room, my mages help each other to their feet, bruised and bloodied, but alive. Standing. Strong.

“I know where they are,” I say, before they can even ask, recalling the visions the Dark Magician showed me at the Fool’s Grave, the secrets he spilled in his eagerness to shine. I remember one of Mom’s prophecies too, one Kirin and I were working on the day the news broke from California, all the pieces slowly clicking into place.

Cities kneel before the flames

Thus begins the deadly game

When hope is lost the Star shall fall

As Death arrives to conquer all

From the ashes, called to rise

With blackened hearts and golden eyes

Souls imprisoned in a tomb

Soldiers marching for our doom

“We can save them,” I say. “Both of them. I know where we have to go.”

Lala’s voice returns to me, reciting another prophecy.

Thus her ache shall find no ease, so shall the daughter of The World surrender to the emptiness, to the void within and without. By her own hand, of her own volition, The Star shall fall. Henceforth she shall take her eternal breath in utter darkness.

“What are you talking about?” Baz finally makes it across the room, gathering me into his arms. Kirin comes to stand beside us, encircling us both in a powerful embrace.

Love. Strength. Fear. Hope. Courage. Passion. Rage. All of it is ours, to accept and to wield. To learn from. To nurture.

“Where do we have to go?” Kirin asks.

Out in the hallway, Carly and Professor Broome are still attacking the door, hitting it with every spell in their arsenal. The wood is just beginning to splinter, hope shining through the cracks.

I think back again to what the Dark Magician revealed. The witches and mages he corrupted… They’re dead, their bodies reanimated by his dark magick, their souls imprisoned for all eternity, nowhere to call home.

But the Light Arcana? No execution required. That’s what he said.

No execution required.

Which means that Ani—the real Ani—is still alive, physically whole and unbroken, but his soul is trapped with the others, imprisoned in the spiral-marked cave beyond the holly thicket.

I’ve seen that cave in my nightmares, the dream-realm replica of a place that surely exists in our world, hidden in the mists.

It’s the place where Judgment calls the Unworthy to atone.

A place we were never meant to wander.

Again, Kirin’s voice echoes through my memories.

It’s said that there are places in this world so deep, so dark, so compelling, when you peer down into them, they literally beckon you to jump…

A sheer cliff that descends hundreds of feet—maybe thousands—into abject nothingness. Before they finally warded and fenced it off in the 1930s, dozens of students and teachers committed suicide there—people that were otherwise completely content…

I take a deep breath, and gaze deeply into the eyes of two of the men I love, knowing that in order to save the other two, in order to reunite Ani with his soul and drive out the darkness, in order to bring them back from the precipice of death and finish this fight, in order to honor our vows to save magick and protect all who wield it…

We have to go to the one place pretty much guaranteed to kill us all.

“We’re going to the Void,” I tell them. “And we’re going to fight.”

Everything is on the line as Stevie and her mages take on their darkest enemies and face their greatest fears in the epic conclusion of the Tarot Academy series! Find out what happens in Tarot Academy 5: Spells of Mist and Spirit!

If you loved reading this story as much as I loved writing it, please help a girl out and leave a review on Amazon! Even a quick sentence or two about your favorite part can help other readers discover the book, and that makes me super happy!

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XOXO

Sarah

About Sarah Piper

Sarah Piper is a Kindle All-Star winning urban fantasy and paranormal romance author. Through her signature brew of dark magic, heart-pounding suspense, and steamy romance, Sarah promises a sexy, supernatural escape into a world where the magic is real, the monsters are sinfully hot, and the witches always get their magically-ever-afters.

Her works include the newly released Tarot Academy series and The Witch's Rebels, a fan-favorite reverse harem urban fantasy series readers have dubbed "super sexy," "imaginative and original," "off-the-walls good," and "delightfully wicked in the best ways," a quote Sarah hopes will appear on her tombstone.

Originally from New York, Sarah now makes her home in northern Colorado with her husband (though that changes frequently) (the location, not the husband), where she spends her days sleeping like a vampire and her nights writing books, casting spells, gazing at the moon, playing with her ever-expanding collection of Tarot cards, binge-watching Supernatural (Team Dean!), and obsessing over the best way to brew a cup of tea.

You can find her online at SarahPiperBooks.com and in her Facebook readers group, Sarah Piper's Sassy Witches! If you're sassy, or if you need a little more sass in your life, or if you need more Dean Winchester gifs in your life (who doesn't?), come hang out!