Tarot Academy 4 - Sarah Piper Page 0,73
air with the scent of candle smoke and lemon bread and the big-haired, air-guitar-shredding nostalgia of the eighties.
I’ve just wrapped up the last song—and epic rendition of I’ll Be There for You—when the impossible happens.
The citrine crystal cracks in half.
And Ani says my name.
Twenty-Five
ANSEL
Stevie… Stevie…
The name is on my lips, the sound of it bringing flashes of another life to my mind. A woman with wild, curly hair and eyes the color of the sky. She’s running down a red dirt path toward me, her hair flowing out behind her, her smile as bright as the sun itself.
Stevie…
She glows like an angel, reaching for me, still smiling, her words echoing in my mind, again and again and again.
Mage of sunshine, mage of fire
Hear my words and know my desire
Wherever you wander, wherever you roam
May the light of our love guide you back home
I reach for her, the magick between us building, conspiring to bring us together. I feel it pulling me closer, pulling her closer…
Mage of sunshine, mage of fire
Hear my words and know my desire
Wherever you wander, wherever you roam
May the light of our love guide you back home
My heart beats a frantic rhythm, the air around me superheated with magick and fire. If I could only touch her, feel her in my arms, maybe I would remember…
Mage of sunshine, mage of fire
Hear my words and know my desire
Wherever you wander, wherever you roam
May the light of our love guide you back home
Home. Yes, she is my home. She must be. I can feel it, deep inside. A sense of rightness and completion. Joy. A light that can’t be dimmed.
I push harder, running faster and farther, determined to reach her. She’s closer now, so close I can almost taste the sweet scent of her skin. I stretch out my arms, and she does the same, our fingertips brushing for the briefest instant…
Lightning explodes overhead, ripping the very fabric of space and time, tearing her from my grasp. I reach for her again, desperate, lost, but my wild-haired angel is already fading, vanishing into nothingness.
Stevie…
Who was she? Do I know her? Did I ever?
The hollow ache in my chest tells me I do. But the harder I try to remember her, the faster the feeling dissipates. In its place, a new feeling dawns, hot and electric, full of power. Full of promise. Full of everything I could ever want.
“Come back, Ansel,” a voice calls, so unlike the angel woman. This one is dark and certain, full of fire and smoke and death. “You know where you belong. Return to me now, my Black Sun.”
At his command, the hollow inside me fills with purpose, with a deep desire to please him. To forget all else that came before, and forsake all that will come after.
There is only him. Only power. Only fire.
I blink away the momentary confusion, and my vision sharpens. Before me, the dark druid stands tall, the Wand of Flame and Fury gripped tightly in his hand.
I bow to him, dropping to my knees.
“Forgive me,” I say.
“It is done.” He touches the Wand to my chest, the uncomfortable heat of it urging me back to my feet. “They don’t understand our great need, Ansel. The purity of our mission is like a blinding light, chasing away their inner darkness. They recoil from it in shame. Only fire will set them free.”
“Yes, I understand.”
“So you’ve said, yet part of you recoils as well.”
“What must I do?”
“We must separate that which prevents you from fulfilling your great destiny. From achieving your ultimate power.”
I nod, willing to do whatever it takes to please him. To earn his trust.
The druid steps aside, revealing the red dirt path where I first saw the woman. But instead of an angel, another woman awaits in the distance, standing inside a golden chariot led by two magnificent horses—one black, one white.
“You mustn’t move, Ansel,” he warns. “Not until the ritual is complete.”
I promise to obey, and the druid’s eyes sparkle with something that looks like malice, but I know that can’t be true. He saved me. He sees my true potential. He will not fail me.
Stepping off the path, he raises the wand toward the sky, his powerful magick igniting the wood, burning so hot it’s nearly white.
Far in the distance, the charioteer whips her horses into action, driving them hard and fast toward us.
Toward me.
The druid closes his eyes and speaks his dark enchantment:
Flame and fury, will and might
Rend the shadow from the light
Dark desires now