Chapter 35
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
R ose wasn’t sure what to make of Zrak. As much as she found him insufferably frustrating, he seemed to genuinely care about the outcome for the continent.
The idea Rose and Luc had started to shape needed to solidify before they acted. They needed one more conversation with everyone before proceeding. Rose wouldn’t risk not bringing Luc home again.
She left Juliette and Carter to harass Zrak and searched for Arie. He was pacing in the hallway as if he’d been trying to decide whether to enter the room.
“Are you going to come in?” she asked, closing the door to the Norden library behind her.
Arie’s eyes narrowed. “Is he still there?”
Rose laughed. “Where do you think he would have gone?” She turned back to look at the closed door. “You can hear him in there.”
“I don’t know. Who knows anything about him?” Arie’s voice started to rise.
“I know you’re angry with him, but maybe you should cut him some slack.” She glanced at the library door again.
Arie’s eyes widened. “Why?”
“We’re all guilty of trying to solve this thing on our own. You, by protecting me and ultimately guiding me back to Compass Lake. Me, thinking I had to find out how the Compass Points would hold Aterra. Luc, taking Aterra off the continent...” She sighed. “We’ve all had plans.” She shrugged. “Zrak’s plan may have more information than some of ours did, but the only certain thing is our plans don’t work when we don’t share them with each other.” She ran a hand through her hair. “I only figured out how the Compass Points could work together when I explained what I was doing. It was difficult for me to give everyone all of the facts. Just like it was difficult for you to share who you were, and that was after only ten years.” She looked at her friend, making sure he heard her. “Zrak has been making his own plans for as long as the continent has existed. He’s not used to explaining himself or sharing information. His habit will be harder to break.”
“If he were anyone else, I’d agree with you. But Zrak…” He sighed. “He was supposed to be the best of us, planning for the future we all wanted for the continent.” Arie ran a hand through his hair.
“Don’t you think this might be you putting him on a bit of a pedestal?” Rose asked quietly. “Why did you believe that of him but not yourself? He’s no more infallible than you are. In fact, he’s made many of the same mistakes you have.” She laughed.
Arie glared like he didn’t find her comment all that amusing. His lips formed a tight line. He looked like he would respond to her jab—something about being a god and never making mistakes. It was only weeks ago he’d apologized to her for not sharing his secrets. He had acknowledged when they spoke after her first battle with Aterra that he’d made a bad call. They were all guilty of trying to make plans and solve the problem independently. “You might have a point,” he mumbled.
“Of course I do. I’m the Norden Point,” Rose said, mocking Arie’s usual phrase.
“Do you know what you’ll do with Aterra?” he asked. “That’s the only reason I contemplated going back in there.” He gestured toward the library. His brow was furrowed, and he looked worried. Rose never saw him seriously show concern over her actions. Arie, like Luc, seemed to think her capable of anything.
“I think so,” she said. “Come back to the library. Let’s talk it through.”
“You think so?” his voice rose again, but this was a more familiar exasperation. “You’re going to lure me back into the library with a half-baked plan?” he asked. “And we still haven’t discussed how you will balance Luc’s power in his position as Suden Point when he returns to the continent.”
She nodded. “I know, Arie.”
Arie raised his brows. “You’re far too calm about this. Threatening the Suden Point’s return should have had you cursing us all.” He tilted his head.
Rose shrugged. The balance of her and Luc’s idea made sense. Yes, she still needed to talk to Carter, but given what he’d just done in offering his services to Cassandra, Rose didn’t think he’d object to their ask. “I’m finishing this the only way that has worked for me, Arie. I want to work with and use the trust I’ve built with my fellow Compass Points.”
“You saw what my trust in Zrak got me—got all of us,” Arie said flatly.
“Arie,” Rose put her hand on his shoulder. “I’m telling you this because it’s an exact mirror of your situation, yet you seem too consumed by your own anger to see it.”
Arie’s head tilted again in a birdlike gesture. “I’m not that dense, Rose. I see it. I just disagree with you. I want you to learn from my mistakes, not replicate them.”
Rose smiled. “I hate that Zrak made you feel this way. I even hate Zrak sometimes. He is completely unhelpful and infuriating. But I also think he’s telling the truth. He picked the best path available to him. He shared what information he could. Things he was unsure about, he kept to himself.”
“That doesn’t justify…”
“It got us to where we are today. We haven’t succeeded yet, but we are so close.” She could feel the plea in her own voice, like she willed her words to be true.
“We are close, Rose. We just need to push a little harder,” Luc said, his voice attempting to provide the comfort his touch normally would in these situations. She longed for him to be there with her, convincing Arie to release his anger.
“I know you don’t like that we have to clean up your mess, but that was always going to be the reality of the situation. Zrak’s plans only came to be after the gods had already made a mess of things.” She locked eyes with her best friend. “It was never going to be you who fixed this, Arie.”
“I didn’t want it to have to be you,” he whispered.
“I didn’t particularly want to do it, either,” she said with a wicked smile. “But”—she raised her arms in an exaggerated shrug—“this is our path.”
“I’m sorry,” he said, water rimming his eyes.
“I know.” She reached out, squeezing his shoulder. “Now, let’s go finalize things with the others.”
He scrunched his features like he was ruffling his feathers, then walked into the library. Aurora must not have been far, following quickly after. The pair sat on the couch as far from Zrak as possible. Arie refused to meet the god’s gaze as he spoke.
“So, all three of you are going back?” Arie asked, looking at the Compass Points. “Can someone please tell me what the plan is with Aterra? I feel like you all don’t understand the enormity of the problem.”
Arie wasn’t wrong. It was a problem over five hundred years old: where to banish a god. But Rose thought the half-in, half-out idea held merit. Carter did, too, as they started discussing. He had no problem further bartering with Cassandra. The gleam in his eye told Rose he might be a little too eager to work with the Lady of the Veil.
They were interrupted by a knock on the library door. Rose stood to answer it. Aaron stood before her, and she beamed at him. “You made it.”
“Walter sent us to you. I hope that’s alright,” Aaron replied.
“Of course.” Her gaze slid over his shoulder to the fae standing behind him—a male who appeared to convey both being thoroughly put out and slightly scared in the way his green eyes darted between Aaron and Rose. The male was shorter than Aaron and had brown skin. Rose was glad to see Aaron had succeeded in tracking him down. “You must be Darren. Welcome to Compass Lake.”
Darren nodded at her. “Not to be rude, but do you know why I’m here?” His words had no bite. A nervous energy hung in the air around him.
“This is your fault,” she said through the bond to Luc.
Luc laughed softly. “Trust me, he was more put out by me knocking a kid over by accident when I first met him. He’ll be fine.”
Rose remembered everything Luc had said about Darren when they were in Loch. This male was a powerful Suden, one who made Luc question what the continent would look like if Aterra hadn’t plotted to birth a demigod. She could feel why. Her weapons-master magic stretched toward the new arrival. It was eager to test him.
“Come in, and we can try to explain,” Rose said, stepping aside to let him and Aaron pass as she reined in her magic.
Aaron appeared to realize he would be required to shepherd Darren through whatever came next. His movements were stilted as he turned to Rose with a whisper, “How many of them are here?”
Rose’s smile was devious. “Two other Compass Points and three gods.”
Darren faltered in his step, overhearing her words. He halted before crossing the threshold. “Did you say…gods?”
Based on Luc’s overview of his frank conversation with Darren in Loch, Rose was sure he didn’t care about the Compass Points. He’d been irreverent at best to Luc. It appeared the gods were another matter. She nodded. “Will that be a problem?”
“I didn’t have much choice about joining Aaron here.” He slapped Aaron’s back familiarly, though they must have only been traveling together a few days. Desperation on the continent must form strong bonds. “So, I’m guessing I don’t have much choice in this next step either.”
Rose smiled. Luc had been right about this fae.
“I told you,” he said. She could feel his smugness through the bond. She ignored his gloating and glanced at Aaron.
“Have you been to Suden house yet?” she asked.
Aaron tensed. “Not yet. I wanted to give Luc one more chance to change his mind.”
Darren glanced between them, suspicion in his eyes.
“Does he know?” Rose asked. She was sure she knew the answer, and now she was just teasing Darren, the same way Darren had picked on Luc in their first conversation.
“Who knew you would be so ruthless in your revenge for this perceived slight against me.” Luc laughed through the bond.
“He does not,” Aaron said. He studied her momentarily in the entryway. Rose had a feeling Aaron could sense she was talking to his brother. The way he tilted his head and sniffed the air made her laugh nervously.
“You really need to stop doing that,” she said.
“You’re communicating with him, aren’t you?” Aaron asked.
Darren gave up on understanding their conversation and crossed his arms over his chest while waiting to be filled in. He tapped his foot loudly to hurry them along.
She smiled. “I am.”
“And he doesn’t want to change his mind?” Aaron asked.
“Change his mind about what?” Darren tried.
Rose ignored him as she heard the reply from Luc she expected. “He does not.”
Aaron shrugged and gestured them forward. “You might as well go in the library and learn for yourself,” he said to Darren.
Rose ushered them into the room. “You all know Luc’s brother, Aaron.” A round of hellos and acknowledgement greeted him. “And this is Darren. He’s the Suden Luc requested to join us.”
Darren tried another question as he took a seat. “Where is the Suden Point, if I may ask?”
“He’s beyond the veil,” Rose stated matter-of-factly. She would start telling him what he needed to know now that they were all assembled. “It’s a long story, but he went and took Aterra with him to work towards restoring balance on the continent.”
“Is he…dead?” Darren asked cautiously. She saw his mind working through the conversation he’d overheard between Rose and Aaron in the hallway.
“No,” she replied.
“And how do you know that he wanted me here then? If he’s beyond the veil but not dead?” Darren’s questions were quite reasonable. He’d shown calm in the face of a lack of understanding. He sought facts before calling them all crazy and walking out.
“He’s my bound partner. Our connection allows me to speak to him.”
“I see,” was Darren’s reply. She was sure he had more questions about that statement, but he looked around the room and seemed to decide that if no one else was objecting, he wouldn’t either. “Do…” Rose could see his mind working, but he could not put the pieces together. “Do you need my help to retrieve him?”
Rose smiled. “We do.”
“So, you’re all going back? The new guy, too?” Arie asked again, bringing the conversation back to the beginning.
“We’re all going back, and we’d like Darren to join us,” Rose said.
Darren looked around the room and pointed at his own chest. Confusion was evident on his face. “What do you need me for?”
“This is going to be fun,” Luc said, his voice giddy through the bond, like he was excited to play puppet master for this part of their plan.