Chapter 6

CHAPTER SIX

550 YEARS AGO

“ A t least, this time, he accepted my plan…no matter how reluctantly,” Cee said as they walked down Marcil’s main street.

It had been days since they’d replanted the field, but Cee’s resentment about their father’s decision hadn’t abated. Usually, it was short-lived, but this felt different.

Thankfully, their father had caved to one of Cee’s plans. She wanted their family to take responsibility for the villagers by caring for the ill. If their people were suffering, Cee wanted their family to experience it with them. Their father hadn’t deemed it something he could contribute to personally—he didn’t have any basic healing skills—however, he supported the sisters in doing so, especially now that the crops were on their way to regrowing.

Andie grunted in solidarity with Cee. Her arm still throbbed from the blood given for the field. Even a few days later, it was still tender—that’s how deep she’d gone for the offering. It was more than she’d suspected. Whatever was happening, the continent was getting desperate.

“ Where are we headed first?”

Cee looked down at the list in her hand. The piece of paper was tucked into the pages of their shared journal. Her face sombered. “Nona—” She cleared her throat of emotion. “Nona is first on the list.”

Andie let her head fall. First on the list meant she was closest to death. Nona had helped raise them. She had looked after them as children.

Even with her head hung, Andie could feel the eyes of the villagers on her as they walked. After their father’s announcement and seeing the results of her work, the villagers seemed suspicious of her. Blood magic might be what was saving them, but few were happy about it. Even Garth didn’t approach as they passed on the street today. He waved at Cee while keeping his distance from Andie and the power she displayed to replant the field.

Cee tucked the journal into her jacket pocket, and the twins entered Nona’s home with a soft knock. Ilena, the village healer, was already there. She shook her head solemnly. “All we can do is make her comfortable. It would help me if you could sit with her…I have other patients I could do more for.”

Cee took the lead. “Of course we will.”

Andie hadn’t spent much time considering the afterlife. But with someone so close to death before her, it could no longer be avoided.

“Don’t look away. She helped raise us,” Cee chided, taking Nona’s hand. “The least we can do is let her know someone is with her as she passes.”

Andie nodded, immediately feeling better when a cat jumped into her lap. Nona had always kept them as pets. She scratched the cat’s head, and it purred as she looked toward Nona. Andie cheated a little. Unable to look at Nona directly, she aimed her gaze just past Nona’s bed. If Cee glanced at her again, she’d appear to be following directions. Andie wasn’t trying to be difficult, she just didn’t know how to deal with death.

Her gaze fixed on the wall, Andie heard Cee rustling with something under her skirt. Part of her wondered if this was a test, so Andie did as she’d been asked and kept staring ahead. At the moment Nona breathed her last, magic flooded the room.

Andie jostled unexpectedly at the sensation. The cat on her lap jumped off as the scent of copper prickled her nose. Blood. “What are you doing?” she hissed at her sister.

Cee didn’t respond, her head swiveling, following something Andie couldn’t see above the body.

“Cee…”

She didn’t acknowledge Andie’s plea. Cee stood and, before Andie could stop her, was rushing from the house into the street.

“ What are you doing?” Andie hissed again, following.

Cee’s neck tilted back, still looking at something hovering just above their regular line of vision. Blood magic didn’t usually work for Cee, but Andie couldn’t deny she was using it now. Realizing she wouldn’t respond, Andie cleared a path as Cee followed whatever she saw.

The sun was setting, but they still had time before the light was gone. Cee led them out of the village and into the surrounding forest. They both knew better than to be in the woods after dark. Cee’s speed increased like she, too, knew they only had so much time for whatever this was.

Andie chased Cee until the river was in sight. The Othlow River had a powerful current that was too dangerous for swimming. Andie came to a halt behind her sister. Though Cee still didn’t speak to her, Andie no longer cared. Her gaze was fixed on an animal prowling the riverbank.

It was huge, easily chest height. The feline’s fur was reddish-brown, and though it didn’t bare its teeth, it had the easy confidence of a predator. Andie wasn’t afraid of it, though she was sure she should be. Her draw to the animal was undeniable—a mystery she needed to unravel. Before she acted on it, Andie needed to remove her sister from danger. She tugged Cee behind a tree.

“Stop it, Andie!” Cee whisper-hissed.

“Oh, so you can speak,” Andie replied. “Why are we here?”

Cee spun to glare at Andie. Blood still dripped from Cee’s arm—the cut she’d made in Nona’s home. “We’re following Nona’s spirit,” she said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

Andie shook her head, wondering if she’d heard her sister correctly. “Following…”

“Nona’s spirit,” Cee finished for her. “It led us here to this beast.” Cee gestured across the river.

The language affronted Andie. It wasn’t a beast. The animal was most certainly a giant cat. She shook her head, focusing on her twin’s words. “Why are we following Nona’s spirit?” Andie asked.

“If we’re to comfort our people as they pass, we need to know what happens to them.”

“Cee,” Andie started. She didn’t want to sound callous, but she wasn’t sure it mattered where their people went when they died. She couldn’t entirely ignore her piqued curiosity at the cat before them though. Andie wanted to learn what it was here for, how it was connected to Nona’s passing.

“Andie, you have to see this,” Cee whispered. She was once again staring just above the animal’s head. “Here,” she said, shoving a dagger into Andie’s hand. “Cut yourself.”

Unsure where this was going, Andie did as she was told. She made a small cut, letting a few drops of blood fall directly to the continent as she offered a little of herself. The problem was, she didn’t know what she was asking for.

She focused on Cee’s words, Nona’s spirit. As her blood fell in gentle drops, she asked to see Nona’s spirit; she hoped that was right. Before she could question herself too much, the land responded. Magic surged around her, and a sheen of magic slid over her open eyes.

Nona’s spirit was exactly where Cee was staring.

More surprisingly, Nona’s hand rested on the scruff of the giant cat’s neck. Nona was scratching the animal even though she no longer had a physical form. With feline grace, the animal crouched back on its haunches, preparing for a leap. Spirit Nona’s hand tangled further into its fur.

“Where are they?—”

“Nona can’t swim!” Cee yelled, cutting off her question. Andie was sure Cee would realize her error momentarily. It didn’t matter if Nona could swim—she was already dead.

Instead, Cee ripped the dagger back from Andie and plunged it again into her skin. Cee seemed to dig deeper this time. She didn’t communicate with the land the way Andie did. This felt like a brute-force attempt at simple magic.

Only it seemed to be working.

Andie wasn’t sure what Cee was doing, but she felt the magic. Something like a golden lasso looped around Nona’s spirit as the animal jumped into the air. Andie saw the jolt when the lasso drew taught. The magic tugged Nona’s spirit back, separating it from the animal. The cat turned and snarled in her twin’s direction, but it seemed unable to stop what had already begun—even as Cee’s lasso stole its cargo. The animal disappeared with a pop beyond something fluttering in the air above the river.

Cee had a hold on Nona’s spirit. The spirit struggled against the golden lasso, almost like she fought to follow the animal. A chill crept over Andie’s neck as she recognized this.

What had they done?

It was too late now—the feline was gone. They couldn’t send her through the fluttering veil-like space nor drop her into the cold rushing waters below. With another burst of magic, Cee tugged hard, pulling the spirit back toward the riverbank, aiming for a tangle of bushes to provide a soft landing.

“Got her,” Cee said to herself, not seeming to notice the horror Andie was experiencing.

Neither was prepared for what happened next.

It could only be described as consuming: The bush consumed Nona’s spirit.

No noise was heard, but the bushes rustled violently as the plants absorbed Nona’s essence. Andie’s hand covered her mouth. The leaves swayed, and the branches rustled as if they were licking their lips after a tasty meal.

Then, the bush sprouted. Branches, leaves, and flowers shot out in all directions as the plant grew at an unnatural pace. The flowers bloomed, the leaves shed and regrew, and the bush went through multiple cycles of life in only a few moments. Finally, it stopped moving but didn’t return to a more expected size.

It had grown—even faster and larger than what Andie had done to the field.

The sisters watched in silence. They stood together until they realized the sun would soon set.

“We need to get back to the village,” Andie said, unsure what to say about what they’d just witnessed.

There was no denying the bush grew from magic, but it wasn’t truly blood magic—or wasn’t only blood magic. It was magic provided by a spirit’s sacrifice to the continent. Goosebumps rose on Andie’s skin as she wondered if Nona wanted to make this sacrifice.

The image of Nona struggling against Cee’s magical lasso was burned into her mind. Andie feared she knew the answer.

“This is what we’ve been looking for!” Cee said. Her voice was excited, out of line with what they had just witnessed.

Andie stared at the bush, unable to put her thoughts into words. She reached wordlessly for the journal. Cee handed it to her without question, and Andie began to write.

“My blood offerings for growth never work. But this—” Cee was so animated. More excited than Andie had seen her in weeks. “If one spirit could grow a bush to ten times its standard size, what might we do with multiple spirits and a field sown of crops ready to grow?”

Cee was right. It had done more, faster than any blood magic Andie had seen, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that it wasn’t what Nona had wanted for herself.