Page 45 of A Soul’s Awakening

Ivy leaned over. “That looks like Caspian’s array.”

“Similar structure,” Markus agreed. “Different purpose. Caspian’s design pushed magic outward, searching beyond the veil and throughout realms to find something.”

Ren dropped Caspian’s grimoire on the table. “It’s not just similar.” Everyone looked at him as he opened the book. “I found something you’ll all want to see.”

He flipped to a page near the back of the grimoire, a yellow piece of parchment with stained black ink that had smudged over the years. “Caspian wrote that the array doesn’t obey the anchor in the center. It reflects it.”

“Go on,” Markus encouraged, leaning in and scratching his chin.

“If the anchor reaches outward, it searches,” Ren said. “If it tries to control, it pulls inward.”

Alex perked up. “So, it changes depending on who the anchor is?”

Ren nodded. “What’s worse, is that the sentient magic he wielded, that both Theo and Alex have as well, isn’t exactly … stable. It’s fed by emotions, and goes beyond the normal laws of magic. It can be shaped into practically anything.”

Markus moved aside the grimoire and laid out six pieces of paper on the kitchen table. “I knew this array had to be gigantic if their goal was to use all the phantom’s power and feed it into the array. But this … I was not expecting this.”

The drawing formed together to create a map of downtown Salem … overlaid with a massive array structure.

“How did they even set up something like that without anyone noticing?” Ivy questioned.

“I don’t know, but my contacts confirmed it. One said they were told to set up an array around here.” Markus tapped on the paper, then slid it across to the other side. “Someone else said it was here. Individually, it doesn’t add up, but together it makes sense. Three days from now they’re moving the captured phantoms across the city and activating it.”

Alex’s voice tightened. “Why? Who do they plan to be the anchor?”

Markus looked at him. “They don’t need to choose. Only a select few people have even the faintest possibility of managing something so wildly out of control.”

“So they have no idea that the anchor isn’t fixed.” I didn’t look up from the diagram. “They’re missing Caspian’s important observation, and how our unique magic works. Which means … they have no idea what’s going to happen when I approach, do they?”

“To be honest, neither do we,” Stella added. “The Syndicate doesn’t want Theo to power the array. They want to prove the system can safely stabilize itself through him, so they can turn magic into a self-governing network.”

“So, how do we stop this? They know Theo won’t just stay back and do nothing. They’re banking on him showing up. Do we stop the convoys? Focus on releasing the phantoms so they can’t fuel the array with power?”

“No.” I met Ren’s eyes. “We walk right into their trap and meet it head on.”

No one argued because they all realized the same thing. We weren’t stopping a plan anymore. We were interrupting something already in motion.

21

“The key to controlling your magic is to control your emotions,” Alex began explaining. “You’ve figured out how to send back phantoms, now we have to work on the bigger problem: Fixing the veil. Here’s a simple barrier I made, but it has a tear in it. You have fifteen seconds to repair it before Stella attacks you.” The translucent wall before me glimmered a pale blue.

“Wait, hold on—”

“Ten seconds, Theo. I’m not holding back.” Radiant red flowers swirled around the rose tattoo covering Stella’s right arm. “These petals won’t just slice through the array, they’ll slice right through you.”

Panic seized my chest. I knew she wasn’t joking.

“Come on, Theo. I’ll keep the barrier stabilized while you stitch it together,” Alex encouraged.

My magic stirred inside my chest, feeling the urgency. This was only a simple tear, maybe a few inches wide. If I couldn’t do this, how was I going to repair the real thing?

I spoke to the magic gently. It needs to be patched. Will you lend me your strength to fix it?

“Time’s up!” Stella shouted, thrusting her arm forward as bladed flower petals tore through the air toward me.

Pale white light flared around my hands. I hovered them over the tear, where magic was dispersing like seeds in the wind. I drew my palms together, fingertips brushing. The air vibrated, the barrier shuddered, and then the magic settled. With one final press, the tear sealed shut just as the razor-sharp petals deflected off the barrier.

“Clever.” Markus, who was surveying us from nearby, scratched his chin. “Caspian knew a lot about runes and arrays, but obviously you don’t. He probably would have used a rune, but you used your sign language magic to close the array. Unfortunately, that won’t work on something as large as the veil between two realms. You need to learn how to converse with your magic, let it find what’s wrong and fix it for you.”