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After Lucas and I returned from Autumn’s cottage, we explained everything to the others. Everyone was as equally shocked as we were to learn there was another reaper out there, but Lucas wanted nothing to do with her. As far as he was concerned, he had her book of spells, and that was all she could offer him.
Professor Warren had used his necromancy powers to send the Executors’ bodies far away, like he had last time. Chloe cast a spell with the Mentalist Wand to confuse any Executors who approached our wards, which would keep the priestesses from getting too close again.
As the weeks passed, Lucas dove into the Reaper Records, practicing the spells within it to grow his power. That was, when the Waning wasn’t affecting his powers. The Waning was getting stronger, affecting us all at different times, and it often lasted up to a week or more. Edgar had yet to show up with the Mortana Wand, but Lucas was determined to learn everything he could from that book.
Chloe and Talia spent time sneaking around the borders of Octavia Falls to gather intel, while Grant and Miles went along to protect the girls. It came as no surprise that the cult’s greatest supporters were among the Executors’ ranks, including Sheriff Baker, who was as bad as the priestesses. It was difficult to get much more information than that, because Chloe and Talia had to get close enough to someone to use teleinsight on them, and we had to be careful we weren’t spotted.
A heavy snowstorm passed through the mountains at the end of January and blanketed the safe house for months. We hadn’t seen Autumn since that day at her cottage. I thought she might try to reach out, but she hadn’t. Lucas didn’t think she cared, but I thought there was a part of her that did, but she was too ashamed to show it.
Cold, chilly days curled up by the fire with Lucas warmed to spring mornings. Each week, my stomach grew bigger, until I was so big I was starting to waddle. Between weekly doctor’s appointments with Luana and making plans with Lucas for our future, it was easy to forget we were still fighting a war. Discussing baby names and picking out colors for nursery blankets made the Miriamic Conflict feel like a distant dream. In our little corner of the forest, life seemed perfect.
Lucas found me reading in the den on the afternoon of May seventh. Chloe was lounging in the chair across the room, infusing crystals with magic while her cat, Marley, purred in her lap. Lucas had been practicing spells all morning, and he came running so fast he nearly tripped over the rug.
“You’re never going to believe what I can do!” he cried.
I sat up straighter. “Whatever it is, it sounds like good news.”
Lucas tugged on my arm. “You have to follow me to the library.”
Chloe’s interest piqued, and she set her crystals aside. “Can I see?”
“Come along,” Lucas offered. “You don’t want to miss this.”
We entered the library. I sat in a chair near the window, stroking Isa’s head in my lap. Chloe leaned against the side of the desk, and Marley and Oliver lay sprawled out on the floor where the sun shined in through the window.
Lucas stood in the center of the room. “There’s a spell in the Reaper Records that talks about Death energy and transformation. We know I’m connected to Death energy because I feel it when someone dies. I used to think what I felt was a void—an absence of their spirit. According to the book, what I’m sensing is the transformation of their spirit.”
“You’ve known this for months, though,” I pointed out. “The records are pretty clear about it.”
“Yes, but I’ve finally made sense of how to utilize it,” Lucas said. “Look at this.”
Lucas grabbed the Reaper Records from the desk and flipped through the pages. He held the book up to reveal a drawing of the Death card from the tarot deck. “As we know from tarot, the Death card doesn’t always represent physical death, but death to all kinds of things—cycles, seasons of life, belief patterns. It means change. When something dies, it gives way for something new to exist in its place. It all comes back to transformation. All transformation creates energy.”
Chloe crossed her arms. “You have my attention. Where are you going with this?”
Lucas wore a bright smile. I’d never seen him more proud of himself. “All these months, I’ve been trying to work with Death magic, in the sense of the energy that lingers when life ends. But transformation happens in all stages of life, not just at the end. I thought that to utilize this magic I had to pull that energy from a graveyard or a morgue, but as long as there’s transformation happening around me, I can find Death magic anywhere.”
Lucas grabbed a potted plant out of the window and set it on the desk. “Take this plant for example. Every day, leaves are growing, some are dying to make way for fresh leaves, it gets bigger—it transforms. There’s Death energy right here at my fingertips! I just have to get perceptive enough to see what’s transforming in my environment so I can use that energy.”
“But you aren’t an Earth Elementai, so you can’t manipulate the plant,” I pointed out.
“Doesn’t matter,” Lucas said. “I can manipulate its energy, as long as it’s transforming.”
“This is potentially really powerful magic,” I remarked. “How can you utilize it?”
Lucas beamed. “That’s what I wanted to show you.”
He hurried across the room to where his scythe was leaning against one of the bookcases. “In this instance, I had to get a little creative. A simple houseplant doesn’t have enough transformation energy within it to pull this off, but I do. I’m in the midst of becoming a father, and there are old pieces of myself dying to become a new man. I’m literally transforming. So I felt into that energy, and I realized I could take it and put it into the scythe.”
“Like an enchantment?” I asked.
Lucas nodded. “Exactly.”
“But the scythe’s already enchanted,” Chloe pointed out. “From the night you used to kill the sluagh. The creature’s blood enchanted it.”
“Yes, and I was able to break your enchanted restraints with it that night, but this is completely different, a whole new tier of magic.” He held the scythe straight out in front of himself, and the entire weapon began to glow a purple hue. He opened his hand… and the scythe remained floating mid-air.
I sat up straighter, and Isa perked her ears. “How’s it doing that?”
