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“Then perhaps we can make an exchange,” I offered. “If I get you out of the Abyss, then you will hand over the Mortana Wand.”
“That isn’t how it works,” Edgar grumbled. “I cannot hand over the Wand because you are not yet a member of the Reaper Order. You must pass the Warlock’s Trial before I could even think of giving it to you.”
“If I have to earn it, then so be it,” I said. “Let me show you what I can do, and when I join the Reaper Order, you can give me the Wand so I can help the coven.”
I gestured for my friends to back up as I faced the forest. “My magic is strong.”
I lifted my hands, and a shimmering shield bloomed around us, expanding to encompass Edgar’s cabin, the woods, then all of the village. Edgar turned his gaze upward, but my shield had disappeared into the clouds. He barely blinked, and I could tell he wasn’t impressed, but I was only getting started.
Battle orbs formed in my palms, and I placed my hands together, melding the orbs into a singular weapon. I aimed the high-powered orb at the forest, and the magic erupted from my hands. A deafening explosion sounded, uprooting trees in an instant and sending clods of dirt raining down on us. I quickly formed a shield, and obliterated bits of tree trunks bounced off it and went flying in the other direction. My friends flinched, but my shield protected them. In the distance, I heard the townspeople scream as the explosion rocked the forest.
The dust settled, revealing a huge crater in the ground where hundreds of trees once stood.
Edgar appeared unfazed. “Your magic is powerful, but this is not Death magic.”
“I’m a reaper,” I pointed out. “All the souls here are already dead. My powers of death are limited.”
Edgar frowned. “You don’t understand the power of death if you think it is limited here.”
It was clear I had to pull off something big if I was going to convince him. It had to go beyond anything I’d ever done before—Death magic that exceeded all my perceived limitations. I wasn’t entirely sure what that entailed. There was so much I didn’t know about my powers, but I couldn’t wait around to learn these things when I needed the Mortana Wand now.
I glanced around for inspiration and noticed townspeople sticking their heads out of their cabins or peering through the trees. Their ghostly faces stared back at me, as if cautiously anticipating another explosion.
A big explosion wasn’t going to cut it. Any witch or warlock could make a shield or cast a battle orb. I had to show Edgar that I wasn’t just any warlock. I was a reaper, and to become that, I had to become a master of death like he was.
I recalled the day Professor Warren tried to get me to summon spirits, because he thought I must be able to interact with them in order to help them cross over. I was going to take it one step further. I needed to not just become a master of death, but a master of the dead themselves.
I conjured all the Mortana crystals I had, every last one that I’d spent months infusing with my magic. They were like batteries charged with more Death magic than I could ever conjure up on my own in one go. With them, I withdrew the stone Beau Blankard had given me from my pocket. He’d enchanted it to amplify a Mortana’s power, and I had to use everything in my arsenal to convince Edgar of my power.
I curled the crystals in my fists. Magic surged through me, filling me with power unlike ever before. I let it permeate every cell of my body until I couldn’t hold it back any longer. I reached a tipping point, and Death magic blasted out of me. I heard my friends gasp in surprise, but I was too focused on my magic to turn and see their reaction.
Black tendrils of magic twisted through the streets of the village, aimed at the spirits of the dead surrounding us. There had to be over a hundred of them within sight. The magic seeped into their forms, until the spirits and my power were one and the same.
I swayed on my feet, but I willed myself to remain standing. I ordered the dead forward with nothing more than a simple thought. They followed my command and marched down the path to line up behind me like an army of soldiers.
The brief wave of dizziness passed, and I turned to Edgar with my head held high. His features hadn’t changed, though. If anything, he appeared bored.
“You can’t deny the power I have over death,” I stated.
Edgar frowned, like I was merely wasting his time. “You think you are a master reaper, but a mistake you made bound me here, and I can see that you’ve only slightly grown in maturity since then.”
“Slightly grown?” I balked. The day I met him was the first time I’d cast a shield. My powers were hundreds of times stronger now.
“I have conquered death!” I protested. “Look at all these spirits I can control. I am a reaper through and through.”
“And yet you have still not mastered death,” Edgar replied calmly.
My teeth gritted. I’d just pulled off the greatest feat of magic I’d ever done, and it wasn’t good enough for him? “I’m in the Abyss. That’s close enough to death.”
“And still death eludes you,” Edgar said flatly.
Frustration didn’t even cover the rage brewing inside of me. Edgar was so calm and collected, when he should be doing everything in his power to help me pass this trial. It was like he didn’t want to hand over the Mortana Wand and help the coven. I bet he wanted to keep all that power to himself.
“What do you want from me?” I demanded. “To die? I don’t have to die to know death. I’ve seen death. I’ve felt the life drain from people’s bodies. I’ve suffered with the grief of dead family members. I’ve watched the people I love pass away without me being able to do anything to stop it. Every day, I hear more and more voices as the coven takes its last breath. I’ve crossed over spirits, and I’ve brought them back to life. I’m here in the Abyss, controlling the spirits of the dead, and you still want to stand there and tell me I don’t understand death?”
The rage building up inside of me snapped, and the spirits I controlled spoke my final words in unison. “Death is final, as am I.”
I lifted my hands, and the dead followed my command. Our power combined, until a glowing column of magic rose to the sky behind us. Power pulsed through the village, so much that a hum fell over the town, and the magic lit up the forest like the sun. The column stretched far into the clouds and must’ve been at least a mile long, stretching so far we couldn’t see the end of it. It was the kind of magic that could level the whole town in an instant if I commanded it to.
