Chapter 33

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

“ Y ou still have to explain!” Rose called. They had fallen through the void and landed back at Compass Lake. Rose was still picking herself up off the ground when Zrak started to leave.

In no realm could he just walk away. Carter agreed, growling still in veil cat form, herding Zrak away from the willow’s branches. She shook herself as she caught up to him. This god might be more trouble than he was worth, but he had answers they needed. Cassandra was happy to be rid of him. That didn’t give her a lot of hope for his usefulness.

Zrak’s face was impassive as he replied. “You’ll do what is needed to retrieve him, I’m sure.” He picked an invisible piece of lint from his shirt as he continued. “Everything is going according to plan.” His reply wasn’t cocky, but it was sure.

“Aterra trying to escape was part of the plan?” she hissed, her hand moving to her hip.

“Those details aren’t always evident in the bigger picture.” He didn’t look at her as he spoke, proof that he knew his answer was as useless as it sounded.

“Whose plan is this, Zrak?” Carter asked, having returned to his fae form. “You haven’t shared yours. How do we know we have the same goals?”

The directness Carter had started with Cassandra was overflowing to the Osten god. Rose was right there with him though. None of their questions had been answered so far as Zrak was concerned. They were still operating on the idea that he was the lesser of two evils.

Zrak turned to him, appraising the Vesten Point in a new light. “You don’t.”

Rose tried to count to ten to calm herself. She was failing miserably. She agreed with Zrak’s initial statement. She would retrieve Luc, but that wasn’t the question. “What are we going to do with Aterra?” she asked. “If you have a plan, does it include solving that god-sized problem? Does it still hold that we need three gods to balance the continent? What about a demigod?” She decided to launch a stream of questions at Zrak and see if he’d answer any of them since all other attempts to reason with him had been unsuccessful.

They had reappeared in the Burning Garden, within the shelter of the willow tree they traveled through. Zrak gave no further reply as he stood there. His unhelpfulness was maddening, but Rose was pretty sure he knew it.

“What was your plan, Zrak? If things are still going according to it, then it’s time we knew.” She gave Zrak one last opportunity to share this himself.

His lips pressed into a firm line.

“Fine. I can start guessing.” Rose had a list for Zrak. She wasn’t sure how they would help with Aterra, but she knew she needed to get Zrak talking if they were to solve anything. And time was of the essence. Even with Luc helping to hold Aterra, it was only a matter of time before he slipped his leash again. He’d found some weakness in Cassandra’s magic, and Rose was sure he’d continue to exploit it.

She started thinking through everything she knew out loud. “You somehow knew what Carter was.” She scratched her head. “You knew before he was born what he would be.” It was a statement, not a question. Cassandra and Zrak had made this deal five hundred years ago. Carter couldn’t be much older than Luc. Somehow, Zrak knew another veil cat shifter would be on the continent, and he knew Carter was him when he arrived.

“Yes,” he said, though he offered no additional information.

Rose turned to Carter. “Did she tell you why she needed you?” Rose didn’t think the Lost God would be much more help on this front. Though she wasn’t positive, they could leverage this to help with Aterra. Even if they could—would Carter let them?

“Not really,” he replied. “She at least acknowledged that she did need me. But she was intent on what she said aloud—I would only shepherd spirits to start.” He ran a hand through his shaggy hair, damp with sweat from the movement between realms.

“What does she need from him?” Rose challenged Zrak again.

The Osten god was unphased as he replied. “That’s for her to tell him.”

A low growl rumbled from Carter’s chest. Rose turned to look at the Vesten Point. He was still in fae form, but the noise emanating from him was all feline.

“Yes,” Zrak said too casually. “He’s becoming more aligned with his shift. The more he lets the magic of Cassandra’s realm in, the more the three parts of his magic will unite.”

Rose’s attention whipped back to the god. “I don’t know what to do with you.” She waved her hands in exasperation. “You’re coming with us.” She wanted to walk right up to him and grab his ear, yanking him by it back to Norden house like the petulant god-child he was. Let Aurora, Arie, and Juliette deal with him. He was their friend and patron—allegedly.

He looked down his nose at her. “You can’t force me to. You’re down a Compass Point,” Zrak replied. There was plenty of arrogance in the statement.

Rose saw red. Just as she was about to explode, an unlikely voice of reason broke through the tree branches.

“Do they need to hold you?” She’d never been so happy to hear Arie’s voice aloud before. Her shoulders wanted to sag in relief as Aurora and Arie parted the tree branches and let themselves in.

“Would you make the Compass Points’ existence harder than we have already?” Aurora asked, not unkindly.

The dynamic changed instantly.

Zrak’s easy confidence—his carefree stance—was gone. He appeared far too still. Rose wondered if he was even breathing. “Arctos.” His head turned. “Aurora.” His gaze returned to Arie as he said, “I can explain.”

“That’s what I’ve been telling Rose,” Arie replied. “But you seem to be bringing my defense of you into question.” Arie let Aurora’s hand slip from its place in the crook of his arm. She let him go as he closed the distance between himself and Zrak. “Please, Zrak.” Rose wasn’t sure she’d ever heard Arie speak so softly—so kindly. His tone was gentle, and Rose feared his heart would break if Zrak turned out to be the villain of this story. “Tell me I haven’t been lying to her.”

“There’s so much you don’t know,” Zrak’s words were quiet, but exhaustion thrummed through each one of them.

Rose couldn’t take it anymore. She couldn’t take what Zrak’s words might do to Arie. “Why don’t you explain it? Arie said you like plans. You seem to be the puppet master of our lives at the moment. We deserve to know what you do.”

Zrak’s sigh was dramatic. Rose wanted to roll her eyes but held the motion to see if the Lost God would finally reveal his secrets. For everything to fit into place, he had to know things before they happened.

From Arie’s memories, it was clear Zrak had suspected Aterra wouldn’t change his behavior. He seemed sure that one of the gods, though he never named who, would continue to throw the continent into chaos. Did he also know how to stop him?

Zrak had to know that another veil cat shifter would come before he went to Cassandra seeking sanctuary.

Finally, he had to know that something would drive the Compass Points beyond the veil. He had to know they’d eventually come for something. Need on the continent would be so great that the realm beyond the veil would be the only sanctuary. Or, in their case, the only place strong enough to hold the Suden god.

Her magic thrummed in her chest. The bond with Luc pulsed as she considered the only available option—magic.

“Can Zrak see the future?”

“It’s the only thing that makes sense,” Luc’s voice echoed in her mind. She could feel him considering the thoughts she was already processing, putting into words the things she hadn’t yet been able to. “I don’t think it’s… see though.”

Of course, the Osten could hear secrets on the wind. Rose’s experience was that secrets traveled on the wind when they were particularly potent—when strong emotions were attached. She didn’t know if they had to be in progress when they were carried.

The pulse of Luc’s magic was strong as she completed the thought. He seemed to agree. There was nothing left to do but test her theory.

“You can hear secrets on the wind,” Rose said, not as a question but as a statement.

Arie’s head swiveled toward her. It tilted to the side in his traditional bird-like movement. “That’s always been his power,” Arie said carefully. Not having fully put together what Rose had only guessed.

“The secrets he hears”—she looked at Carter—“they’re not just in the present.”

Now, she had Carter’s attention. His gaze pinched as he worked out what Rose was saying.

“He knew my secret before I existed. It’s what he went to Cassandra with,” Carter said. “He knew a secret from hundreds of years…in the future.”

Zrak’s lack of response to her accusations was its own confirmation.

“Zrak?” Arie echoed. “Is that true?” The hurt in his voice was too much for Rose. She wanted to throttle the Lost God for the pain he was causing Arie, a friend who trusted him—who believed in him against all odds.

“Yes,” Zrak replied, defeat coating the single word reply.

“Secrets from…” Arie repeated the words, trying to make sense of them. “Secrets from the future?” He was in Zrak’s face now. His finger pushed into Zrak’s broad chest. “You didn’t think that was important to tell us before we started down this path five hundred years ago?”

Zrak sighed again.

“No! You don’t get to sigh at me like this is exhausting,” Arie said. “How much did you know? How sure were you? How much information did you have before you bet all of our futures—the continent’s future—on these secrets?”

Arie pushed Zrak back with both hands. “Get out of my sight. I can’t even look at you.” He shook his head as he paced in a circle. He pointed at Zrak. “But answer their questions first.” He waved his hand like he was flapping a wing. “They’re cleaning up our mess and deserve to at least know everything we do.” Arie couldn’t be stopped now. He appeared to be unraveling before them, talking to himself. “I guess it’s not things all of us know, is it? It’s things only you know.”

He ran his fingers through his hair. Rose agreed with the sentiment but was relieved to finally have some of this out in the open. Seeing her friend’s world come crashing down brought her no joy. Arie held Zrak on a pedestal for hundreds of years. It was heartbreaking to watch his realization: the Osten god was as flawed as he was.

“I made the best decisions I could with the information I had,” Zrak said, straightening his spine.

“You made decisions for us!” Arie said, fire rimming his eyes. The temperature in the burning garden elevated as Arie’s temper rose.

“I had to go with what I knew!” Zrak roared back. “I didn’t know what telling you would change.”

“Oh, please,” Arie yelled. “You could have at least tried to talk to me!”

Zrak’s shoulders sagged. He appeared to be losing steam. “I couldn’t, Arie. The secrets are never clear. They are simple scenes, simple words. I had to put the pieces together about the speakers.” He sighed again. “While I only heard Aterra’s plans for power, I couldn’t be sure he acted alone.” His gaze flicked to Aurora.

Her eyes narrowed at him like she didn’t appreciate the implication. She didn’t interrupt though. She sensed Zrak needed to make his case to Arie alone.

“I heard you with the Norden Point, but I never heard enough to determine if you knew of Aterra’s actions. You were so guarded with her.”

Rose couldn’t disagree there. She and Arie had lived together for a decade without either admitting what they were. Rose, the rightful Norden leader, and Arie, the Vesten god.

“What about my Vesten Point?” Arie baited him. Don’t you think I deserved to know your plans for him?

“Now he’s yours?” Zrak laughed darkly. “I heard the Vesten Point’s secrets. One of them being that he feared his patron had no use for him!”

Arie’s gaze finally left Zrak’s, fixing on Carter. His face seemed to soften momentarily in regret. Then he shook his head, the flame of his anger overtaking any gentler emotions. “He didn’t need me. Rose did...no thanks to you,” he added.

“You could never imagine the responsibility. The weight of knowing these secrets. Of piecing together the paths we could take, but knowing there was only one chance of preventing another natural disaster.”

Arie pulled his hand down his face. “We might have if you’d shared it with us. But I guess we’ll never see how that could have turned out.” He turned to walk away. Aurora took his hand, but before they left, she had her own words for Zrak.

“Do what they want, Zrak. Don’t make us get involved further. You’ve meddled to get us to this point. Let them finish this. Tell them everything you know. They don’t deserve what we’ve left for them.”