Chapter 41 To Heal the Soul #2
“I don’t,” she bites back, reaching for Cassius’s hand. She looks up at him. “I promise. I don’t.”
“Then prove it. Set Sidarphion free and let the god go,” Odette urges. “He’s only tied to you so long as the bargain remains unfinished.”
“What makes you so confident we can kill Triche? He’s over a hundred years old. He caged a god. He’s been killing witches for a century.”
Odette opens her arms to the room. “Look at us. We have everything. Mathematical, floramantic, musical, linguistic, and celestial magic. Plus”—she points at Claudia—“new magic that Triche won’t expect. Stellinguistic.”
“And the element of surprise,” Cassius says.
“But we’re first-years. We’ve barely begun to master the magic of our disciplines,” Alistair says. “We’re not supposed to use magic at all on our own.”
“Don’t act like you haven’t broken that rule a thousand times,” Odette says. “All of us have. That’s why we’re going to win this fight.”
Odette is a convincing rhetorician. Claudia is starting to agree. Why shouldn’t they have faith in themselves? They’ve come this far. Odette and Claudia have already bested Triche’s magic once. They can do it again.
For Cassius, she can do anything.
Alistair shakes his head. “I don’t know if my elementary potions will do much good here.”
“I haven’t learned any offensive mathematical spells,” Angel says.
Claudia looks at Angel and Alistair. “Both of you need to give yourselves more credit. Alis, you’ve made several powerful poultices and tonics.
And Angel—remember how you won Alistair’s heart?
You formulated the exact chances of your love.
You’re even a published mathematician. You both are strong, powerful witches. ”
“Exactly,” Odette says excitedly. “We’re far more advanced than most first-years. Claudia and I both trained our celestial magic extensively with Lamour, and Marcherie has had Dolericym’s favor since the very first day.”
Cassius chimes in with, “I’ve been training with Triche since I was a teenager. I’m confident in my linguistic magic.”
“We can take him,” Marcherie says, sitting up straight and gazing at Odette.
“But we need to orchestrate a plan. A careful, precise plan in perfect order. We all need to know exactly what everyone is going to do and when they are going to do it so we don’t accidentally hurt one another or lose our footing in the heat of the moment. ”
Angel paces the room. “It needs to be like chess. There has to be a strategy.”
“Where do we start?” Claudia asks.
“Start with the end,” Odette answers. “What will be strong enough to kill him?”
The room goes quiet as the six of them think.
Alistair crosses the room to a wide dresser in the corner.
He opens a drawer and places Bishop gently inside, letting him rest. He turns back to the group and reaches for a loose sheet of paper.
Angel peers over his shoulder while he scribbles.
Odette flips through the grimoire. Marcherie starts humming quietly to herself while she paces around the couch.
Cassius just stares at Claudia. Unblinking, awestruck. She gives him a quick smile and mouths, “I love you.”
“I love you, too,” he mouths back.
Her heart warms. Her focus sharpens. Her killer instincts reignite. She turns her attention to the group and says, “Existing magics can’t disrupt the cosmic order of life and death, but it’s possible that stellinguistic magic can.”
Odette perks up, pursing her lips before settling into a devious smile.
“It’s the only magic that will be completely foreign to Triche.
He won’t know how to deflect it. At the very least, I think it can cage him while we kill him.
He may be powerful, but for now, he’s still a man in a mortal body, right? ”
“I like this. I like this a lot.” Cassius stands, bracing his arms against the armrest of the chaise. “I think our best chance is to trap him in the lake with a stellinguistic spell and drown him.”
“Won’t work.” Claudia strains to sit up and sip water. She flips through the grimoire to the very first spell. “He has Andromeda, Aquarius carved into his chest to keep from drowning.”
“To keep from drowning in water,” Odette counters with a sly grin. “Starlake isn’t water.”
“What is it?”
“Essence of dreams,” Cassius says. “The same thing I gave you to stop you from hurting yourself in your sleep.”
“But how are we going to get him in there?” Angel asks. “How will we get him to Starlake at all?”
All of them look at Cassius. “You need to trick him into coming,” Odette says. “Persuade him with magic to come with his guard down and no external weapons. We’ll be lying in wait.”
He nods. “I can do that.”
“Who should strike first when they arrive?” Marcherie asks.
Cassius rounds the couch and gently touches Claudia’s shoulder.
“I think it should be Claudia. He’ll be so shocked that you’re here and alive.
Your presence alone will frighten him, and it’s important to show your strength quickly.
He needs to know you’re tough enough to withstand his magic and that his poisoning spell didn’t work on you. ”
“I agree,” Odette says. “He’ll never expect that.”
“He won’t be expecting you, either,” Marcherie adds.
“Fair point. But I think after Claudia strikes, Cassius should be next. Show him that you’re not on his side.”
Cassius rubs Claudia’s shoulder, circling his thumb in a soothing motion while he speaks. “He’ll start to find his footing after that.”
“Not if I stun him with a siren scream,” Marcherie suggests. “Oh! I could even use that to lure him into Starlake itself. Then your spell doesn’t have to get him into the lake. It just has to keep him there until he runs out of air.”
“Won’t your song stun all of us?” Angel asks.
Alistair leaps up, staring across the room at the entryway for the kitchen. “I bet I could make a potion that would make all of us immune from it. I can also make us some buffs to have on the battlefield. Strength potions, healing elixirs, and the like.”
“That’s perfect,” Odette says. “Marcherie will be our siren, and we”—she gestures to herself and Claudia—“will create a spell that drowns him.”
“What should we use?”
“What about Aquarius?”
“No. It’s too fickle, and it’s the water bearer. You said it yourself—we’re not working with water. Give me a minute to think.” Claudia visualizes every constellation she remembers seeing on Triche’s body. “I want to try to avoid using any combination that he has on him.”
“Why?”
“I just have a feeling that there’s a stronger reason he’s scarred himself with them. Immunity from their effects, maybe.”
“What makes you say that? What did you see?”
“I was just thinking that there had to be something in place that protected him from all the celestial witches he’s killed. I can’t imagine how else he was able to defeat Lamour, unless he was somehow shielded from multiple celestial spells.”
“But we have no way of knowing every single spell on his body. You said you only saw glimpses. Plus, we’re using stellinguistic magic here.
It’s different. He won’t expect it, won’t know how to fight against it.
I say our best bet is to use the constellations that best fit our goal. I propose Cassiopeia, for punishment.”
Claudia ponders for a moment before nodding in agreement. “That’s smart. Her position is well-suited for this as well.”
“Why? Explain it to me. I want to understand how it works,” Cassius says.
“Because she’s upside down,” Odette says knowingly.
“Exactly,” Claudia responds. “Easy to drown someone if they’re head-side down in the lake, right?” Now, what to pair with it? Claudia flips through the grimoire and thumbs through all the papers scattered along the desk. Not Taurus, not Mensa, not Ophiuchus…
“What if we pair her with Eridanus?” she suggests, drawing her proposed spell on a blank sheet of parchment. “That’s the river, but it also represents dreams, hope, and purification.” She slides her proposed spell over to Odette.
Odette stares at it for a long time, tracing it with her finger and mumbling unintelligibly to herself. Minutes pass until finally, she nods and smiles. “This is it. This is perfect. Now we just need to write the linguistic counterpart.”
“I can help,” Cassius says, taking a seat next to Claudia. She leans against his shoulder and smiles at him.
He’s so beautiful. And he’s more advanced at linguistic magic than Claudia and Odette combined. If he writes the poem to accompany the constellations, it will be even better. Stronger. Smarter.
This is going to work.
Cassius takes his journal into the nearby study and closes the door while he works.
“Alistair.” Odette turns to him. “You go brew up everything we need. Definitely something to make us immune from Marcherie’s call, and then anything else you can think of.”
“On it.” He motions for Angel to follow him into the kitchen.
The group reunites an hour later. Alistair and Angel carry armfuls of potions in tiny jars. Marcherie’s voice is thoroughly warmed up, and her eyes are wet and wide since she briefly communed with Dolericym to give her strength. Cassius presents his proposal for the stellinguistic spell:
Like Cassiopeia, your body will hang upside down
As punishment for your murder, rage, and pride
Here, with this lake as our Eridanus, you will drown
In the fervent dreams of those who refused to die
It’s perfect. Claudia and Odette combine their blood to write the spell.
When it’s done, they lay the spell on the table and the six of them hover over it. Wordlessly, they shoot glances at one another. Angel, anxious; Alistair, impressed; Marcherie, proud; Cassius, unsure; Odette, roguish. And Claudia, unafraid.
“This will work,” she says. She squeezes Cassius’s hand, but his face doesn’t change.
“Cas, are you okay?” Alistair asks.
Odette’s nostrils flare. She glares at him. “Don’t tell me you’re sad about killing Triche.”
“He’s allowed to be,” Marcherie says. “Triche is like family to him.”
“No, he’s not,” Cassius murmurs. He looks at Claudia. “You are my family.” He looks around the room. “All of you are.” He takes Claudia’s hands. “And I’ll kill for us. I’ll do anything for you.” He chews on his lip. “But I fear we’re acting too sure about this. We don’t truly know if it will work.”
A tense silence chills the room.
“But we can,” Alistair says brightly. “Angel can calculate the chances of anything. Darling, what are the odds that Triche dies tonight?”
Angel’s face lights up. “Right.” He fumbles through the messy papers until he finds a blank one and reaches for a quill. Odette picks up the stellinguistic spell as Marcherie clears the table for him.
The five of them stand around and stare intensely while he works. It takes him about ten minutes and two more sheets of paper to come up with an answer, and it’s not a good one. Eyes wide, he looks up at them and says, “Thirty-seven percent.”
“It could be worse,” Alistair says.
“It could be a whole lot better,” Angel counters.
“It’s the best we’re going to get,” Odette snaps. “Are you ready to bring him here, Cas?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be. I’ll open the Doorway outside, close to the lake.” He starts toward the front door, and the rest follow silently, spells and potions in hand.
Outside, this is the first time Claudia sees Starlake without poison blurring her vision.
She recognizes it immediately as the place where she and Cassius danced in her dreams. It’s more beautiful now that she’s experiencing it awake—not just the glittering white estate, not just the milky, misty lavender lake, but the entire world around them.
It’s soft with early-morning light, still hazy and dreamlike.
She can’t believe she’s only just now realizing where they are. “This is the Realm of Dreams, isn’t it?”
Ahead of her, Cassius nods.
In every way, it’s the perfect, gorgeous opposite of the Realm of Nightmares. Claudia hates that they’re about to stain it all with blood. This world doesn’t deserve to contain such horrors.
But it will all be over soon, and then they can spend the rest of their days here. They can dream as much as they want. This is where the nightmares end.
Stopping beside the vast, shimmering lake, Cassius opens the Doorway with a swift sentence. It yawns like a mouth in front of him, framed by white flame.
“I’ll be back as fast as I can,” Cassius says. “Be ready.”
He gives Claudia one long look, followed by one quick kiss before he steps through and disappears into the black.
The rest of them stand close by, waiting. A cold breeze twirls through the humid air. Claudia shivers. A minute of silence has passed when a chilling thought comes over her.
“Angel?” she calls.
“Yes?”
She should’ve asked her next question earlier. They should’ve thought of it before they let Cassius leave. She swallows hard, eyes locked forward on the Doorway. “What are the chances we all make it out alive?”
Angel pales. Stiffens. He pulls a small notebook from his pocket and scribbles on the paper for a whole minute. His eyes narrow. Shaking his head, he scratches over his work and tries again. He does this two more times before looking over at Claudia with sad, shiny eyes.
“Zero.”