Chapter 11

CHAPTER ELEVEN

S econds passed, and they hadn’t collided with something solid. Her feet were moving to keep up with Carter’s consistent pull. Rose peeked, slowly opening her eyes. She closed and opened them again, unsure of what happened. The world around them was so dark, she didn’t know if she was blind or if there was nothing to see. Carter growled, sensing her action. She tightened her grip on him again as they ran through a space between realms.

Nothing was visible as they traveled. To her eyes, the entire place was a void. “Do you know where you’re going?” she whispered, unsure what else might lurk in the darkness.

The veil cat nodded and led without a moment’s hesitation. Rose closed her eyes again. Best not to examine this emptiness too closely. She felt a tug similar to Carter’s initial jump. Then she was weightless, falling.

Rose landed with a splash.

The water was ice cold, and the current was quick. Rose didn’t think as she pulled on her water magic. She was a strong swimmer without the magic, but the river’s flow was brutal. Searching the water for Carter, she was astounded to see him licking his paw from the opposite bank.

How had he ended up there?

The river fought to pull her downstream. Ignoring Carter, she focused on getting herself across the water. The current threatened again to pull her under, and she laughed. She was the Norden Point—she could tame a river. Her magic took over, guiding the river to lift her out and drop her on the grassy bank.

“You good?” she asked Carter. His yellow-green eyes blinked in confusion like she should be asking herself that question instead of him. He gave a low, non-committal growl as he returned to licking his paws. He’d been the one to land her in the river, but somehow, he looked smug.

This was the nature of felines.

“You are going to hear about this later,” Rose said with no venom. She couldn’t believe they made it. The veil cat rolled its eyes at her and finally stopped licking its paw.

They were beyond the veil.

The land looked surprisingly similar to the continent. They were in a meadow, grass beneath them and trees surrounding the space. The river behind them ran in both directions, farther than the eye could see.

“Do you know where we need to go?” Rose asked.

Carter shook his head.

Rose searched the horizon, but she didn’t see any settlements or spirits in view. She wasn’t sure whether she could see spirits though—even here. “Are we being watched? Any spirits around?” she asked Carter.

He shook his head again.

This was as good as anywhere else for her test. “I need to check for the connection to Luc.” She chanced closing her eyes to let her magic search the place. Convinced they were safe for a moment, Rose left her physical body defenseless as she dove inward—to the heart of her magic.

She went straight to her internal lake of power. The cool breeze of her wind guided her to the lake’s edge. She looked into the water, unsure what to expect. Would the tunnel into his power reappear now that they were in the same realm?

The tunnel still wasn’t there.

Something tightened in her chest. Not phantom magic pains—but pure, simple panic. Something had to be here. He was beyond the veil—and now, so was she. This should be no different than when they were both on the continent, and his magic was ready and willing to support her whenever needed.

Where was it?

Her stomach churned, threatening unrest. Before she knew what she was doing, she dove into the lake. Maybe she couldn’t see the tunnel into his power from the angle on the beach. She gave herself any and every excuse as she swam toward the bottom.

She wanted to stomp, cry, and scream when she reached the sandy floor of the lake. It wasn’t there. He wasn’t there. She shut her eyes tightly, trying to hold back the stream of tears.

Opening her eyes, she focused on the next steps. Though she didn’t understand it, she knew the answer lay with the shiny black stone from her encounters. It had been hidden beneath the lakebed. She dove down deeper, her hand reaching out and pushing away the sand to reveal the hidden material.

The black stone was here.

She swam up a little higher and used her magic to push the sand around the lake bed, revealing more strips of the onyx. It spidered through the entirety of the lake. This was how it had been in the dream that wasn’t a dream.

The onyx stone matched that of the Suden Point’s artifact. It was firmly entrenched within her lake of power. The memory of Luc’s voice called to her, telling her she already knew the answer to all her questions.

Her connection to Luc must have changed.

An image flashed through her mind: the shape of a hand reaching up through the stone floor, the floor stretching around it like a glove. The pulse in her magic strengthened as her mind considered how to let him in.

“Acknowledge what it means, Rose.” The words echoed those she’d heard previously. What she needed to acknowledge was on the tip of her tongue—something she knew to be impossible.

A sharp nip pulled her back from the heart of her magic. She opened her eyes in the meadow. Still in veil cat form, Carter prowled protectively in front of her. She saw a tear in her leggings where he must have scratched her to get her attention. She only had to glance up to understand why.

Six veil cats stalked opposite Carter.

“Didn’t you say they were extinct?” Rose asked.

The veil cat’s hearing must be better than she thought as a chorus of growls echoed across the arbitrary line Carter had drawn between them.

“Not the time. I understand,” Rose whispered. “What do we do?” She shook her head. Carter couldn’t answer that. She needed a different question.

The pack didn’t attack. Rose wasn’t sure how much Carter had tested them. He paced before her, tension heavy in each step. Rose readied her magic. Even if they didn’t attack—they didn’t look friendly. She cursed inwardly. She needed time to figure out how to let Luc in if the black stone was a new connection point to him.

The veil cats didn’t cross the line Carter’s pacing defined, but they were not secure enough to continue her experimentation. What were the veil cats doing? How were they here?

The answer to why they hadn’t attacked came a second too late. They were waiting for something. For someone.

Someone worse than the pack of deadly felines was coming.

As the thought clicked into place for Rose, something triggered Carter. Snapping at her hand, he signaled her to hold his fur again. He seemed loath to give the veil cats his back. Once her hand was secured in his fur, he started walking them backward towards the river.

Rose narrowed her eyes, trying to see what he saw. Something beautiful and terrible moved in the distance. The pack of veil cats growled again, showing their teeth. This must be the last warning. Her wind and water were ready to defend against whatever—whomever—was coming.

The figure on the horizon charged toward them. Even on horseback, at such a distance, Rose could tell she was a force to be reckoned with. The horse moved unnaturally fast—faster even than when Rose pushed her horses with her wind magic.

Power rippled from the woman as she entered the meadow. The veil cats growled again; not a warning—a call.

Rose instinctively knew who this was: their leader.

Beings with a lot of power surrounded Rose regularly. But her senses tingled as she evaluated this new threat. Her power surpassed Luc’s—maybe even Arie’s—but it was different, too, more connected to the magic of this place. The hair Rose clung to at Carter’s scruff stood on end. His hackles rose, but she couldn’t ask what he sensed.

“Let’s get out of here,” she whispered. Power flooded the meadow, and the woman’s face did not look friendly. She could only be one person—one known not to like visitors.

Roots sprouted from the ground, wrapping around Rose’s feet and Carter’s paws as they took another step back. The land stretched to hold them hostage until its leader arrived.

The veil cats readied for attack.

Carter was mentally ahead of her. Fire shot from him, burning the roots away, freeing them. He turned, and Rose followed, sprinting toward the riverbank. A chorus of growls vibrated from the veil cats as they pursued. Carter urged Rose forward—her hand not giving an inch of its hold. They reached the river. Rose could see their target this time. Though there had been no sign of the veil when they’d crossed from the continent, now, above the river, something billowed—a break between realms.

“Stop!” the woman’s voice called. Power thrummed through the single word. Roots pushed through the ground again, after them—but Carter’s fire held them at bay. They needed to escape quickly.

They took another running start, and the Vesten Point pushed hard off the ground as they reached the river’s edge. She dug her fingers tighter into his fur and closed her eyes as they careened into the unknown.

Blackness surrounded them.

Once again, Carter moved with precision through an uninhabited space. Even panicked as she was, she tried to look in all directions, her hand still tightly laced in Carter’s fur as they moved through this in-between space. She saw nothing.

They were through it even faster than the first time. Landing with a thud, the ground was familiar—the cool and damp cavern floor. Rose didn’t bother to push herself up. She looked to her right to ensure Carter had returned with her. Seeing his fae form sprawled beside her, she let out a breath of relief, before her head fell back to the cave floor.

“How’d it go?” Juliette’s familiar voice was somehow calming, even with their failure.

Rose replied. “It definitely could have gone better.”