Chapter 12

CHAPTER TWELVE

S ome unspoken agreement led them all just a bit farther down the southern road. Though they knew that Zrak’s agents that brought the mist plague, the Nebulus, were gone—they’d made their mark on the village and left—it was still an eerie thing to be so close to a town of immobile bodies.

“I can start on a meal if you want to try to get some more work in,” Luc said as his hand caressed Rose’s lower back.

His touch was enough to send heat through her veins. It had her longing for that place of no responsibility—where none of this depended on them.

Making weapons, though, there was no denying that was her charge. The likelihood was high that they would need them soon. Forget about finding and facing Aterra and Aiden. If the mist attacked where they were close enough to do something about it, would Juliette’s wind magic be enough to protect her? What about Carter? He had no natural defenses. She sighed, feeling the weight of the Vesten coin in her pocket. One problem at a time.

“Thanks, Luc,” she replied as she looked to Carter and Juliette for agreement. “You two in?”

Carter nodded as he drew circles in the sand with his foot.

Juliette gave Rose a searching look. “This is when you’ll have to evaluate my magic? Instead of feeling its presence?”

Rose nodded. She thought they had built enough mutual respect that Juliette would let her do this. Yet there was no denying the tension between Juliette and Luc when they had come out of the village. Rose hadn’t had a chance to ask him about it, but she was sure it was due to Rose’s open communication about Osten secrets.

“What does it entail?” Juliette asked. “I admit I’ve never had my magic evaluated in such a way. Is it similar to a fae court’s test for power?”

Rose understood the comparison. It was something Juliette was familiar with, but Rose couldn’t bring herself to reassure her. “The outcome may be similar,” Rose started. “The method is quite different. At least in my Norden experience.” She took a breath before plunging in. “My magic will test yours, but it’s without words or expectations. It’s almost like a game. But it isn’t about one power winning over the other. It’s just the forum in which mine explores. I know that sounds stupid.” Rose shrugged. “In a standard evaluation, our magics will behave like this for some time. I’ll likely get scents, sounds, and feelings of things you hold dear.” Her gaze fell to Luc as she said, “Usually, it’s not complete images or scenes. More the essence of the wielder—since that is what I put into the weapon.”

Juliette gave Rose a sharp look, clearly paying too much attention to Rose’s phrasing as she asked, “What happens in a non-standard evaluation?”

Luc coughed.

Rose quickly weighed the pros and cons. Juliette deserved to know the stronger the power, apparently, the more chance she had of seeing more. “The only Compass Point I’ve evaluated so far is Luc,” Rose said carefully. “I think you’d agree he is a special case.”

Juliette nodded, but her eyes didn’t leave Rose’s, urging her to continue.

“I saw scenes, images, more…” Rose said, unsure how to finish.

“And you think that’s because of the strength of his magic?” Juliette asked.

“Why else?”

“You don’t think it has anything to do with”—Juliette’s lip curled in a smirk as she continued—“your unique connection to him?”

Her cheeks heated. Even as one of them, she was unsure she would ever be comfortable with the Compass Points discussing her personal life. Biting her lip, she returned to Juliette’s actual question. This had been on her list of considerations. But with no comparable experience, she didn’t know how to weigh its probability. “I can’t say for sure.”

Juliette glanced between them. Luc’s hand had left her back, but his body angled toward her. His eyes narrowed at each of Juliette’s questions, deciding if and when he should intervene. He let Rose fight her own battles. She knew his relationship with the other Compass Points was strained. So, she appreciated how much space he gave her to build her own with them. Even if they still thought she was his puppet.

“I’d still like to try if you’re up for it.” Rose straightened her spine and lifted her chin. She wouldn’t let this line of questioning deter her from her purpose. Juliette needed one of her weapons, and Rose would finish the twin daggers she’d started.

“Okay, let’s see what happens,” Juliette replied, her gaze still assessing but her posture more poised. Had she just been testing Rose? She desperately wanted to know where she stood with Juliette, but she seemed to run hot and cold. They’d trained together and Juliette had shared Osten secrets just yesterday. Not even a day later, she was back to over-analyzing everything Rose was doing and challenging her at every turn. Rose wanted Juliette in her corner. But she wouldn’t lay down her pride to do it. Juliette needed to respect her if the fragile trust they were building stood a chance of strengthening.

The three of them moved toward a more open space while Luc cooked. Carter had the forge fire hot before Rose moved to grab the blades from her saddlebags. Juliette met her as she turned back to the workspace.

“I want your word that you’ll discuss anything you see with me before you share it with the Suden Point,” Juliette said, her voice barely above a whisper.

This was a reasonable request. Juliette wasn’t asking her not to tell. She asked for the chance to understand what Rose thought she saw or felt before the rest of the Compass Points knew about it. Rose just wished Juliette didn’t feel the need to request this. She hoped it would be assumed that they would discuss what Rose saw. Shaking her head, she couldn’t wish things to be different. She needed to put in the work to make them so.

“That’s fair.”

Juliette dipped her chin. “Good.”

The women walked together to the flames Carter tended. His magic sped up Rose’s process. Not having to wait for the heat was a godsend. Rose placed the first dagger in the flame as she told Juliette what was next. “I’ll need you to do something a little flashier with your magic now. But don’t worry if you stop it when you feel my magic starting to mingle with yours. That is normal. I just need yours flaring at the start.”

Rose went about her work, and before long, the scent of sage and citrus hit her nose. Juliette’s small cyclone was now much bigger. It picked up leaves, dirt, and rocks from the meadow before them as it progressed in its circular movement.

Closing her eyes, Rose worked the dagger’s blade. Though short, it would still need to be sharp. She lost herself in the rhythm of smoothing the blade as a spiral of her magic reached for Juliette’s.

Her power felt old. Not aged and rotting like what she’d sensed of Aterra’s. No, Juliette’s had a texture to it, like wrinkles of skin on a human’s face. A nuance the fae never had to deal with. This age wasn’t a weakness, she thought as her magic prodded further, more like sophistication. It spoke to experience and knowledge that could only be gained through trials. Juliette had put in the work for her position.

Rose’s magic tugged on that specific thread. What obstacles had Juliette faced? What had made her such a fearsome Osten Point? She pressed forward with her magic. Determination, perseverance, and justification of any means to achieve her end, these flashes of Juliette flipped through Rose’s mind as her magic went deeper.

Luc’s magic had been like falling through an endless tunnel. Aaron’s had been the wide expanse of a plateau. Juliette’s power led her through a locked door disconnected from any structure. The door opened to reveal a descending set of stairs. It wasn’t an endless descent like Luc’s. She went down them, feeling a flash and a change. It was now cold and a little damp, but Juliette’s wind blew past Rose, urging her forward to the paths carved into stone. A cave network.

Instinctively, Rose knew the paths may differ, but they all led to the same place. The Osten fae. They were at the root of this. The Osten needed Juliette. And she did everything to protect them. It drove everything Juliette did. It was different from Luc’s care for his court. Different from trying to make herself available and approachable to them. It felt tense and weighty. It was a much tighter bond—a bond bound in blood.

A flash of pain surfaced at her thought. Images flickered before her as her magic searched the cave. Wind sent her forward to an opening at the end of the path—the room all paths connected to. Blood welled on the light brown skin. Juliette’s hand gripping into a fist as she spoke words Rose couldn’t make out. Drops of deep red falling onto the stone. A strong, penetrating voice echoed in the room.

Where were they? What was she seeing? Rose shook herself free of the sensory overload. What it was didn’t matter for the moment. She was forging a blade for Juliette, and whatever this was, it was what she needed.

Knowing and understanding were different. She only had to know to make the blade. This was the center of the storm. It was the heart of Juliette’s power and what she did to take care of the Osten fae. Rose sank into the feeling she found in the cave as she pulled her magic back and focused it on the weapon she worked.

Arie’s comment made her conscious of it—her wind wrapping around her weapons as she worked them. She leaned into that now. Using her wind as she forged the Osten Point’s weapon was fitting.

Reaching for the second dagger, Rose continued to spin her magic around it, focusing on Juliette’s blood-deep devotion to the Osten fae as she plunged it into the heat. She created a cyclone of her own wind and weapons master magic, whipping the fire and ash of the forge as she raised and lowered her hammer to the dagger. She didn’t overthink the image at the core of Juliette’s magic—or what the Osten Point’s feelings meant. She didn’t need the details to spur the feelings and essence into shape.

The magic may not require it, but the weapons master was undoubtedly intrigued. Her curiosity couldn’t be a distraction now. The cold calculation of Juliette’s blood falling to stone. Rose’s mind circled the image as she worked. Juliette paid the price—the Osten fae were worth the cost.

Emerging from her frenzy, she heard Luc speaking softly behind her. “The food is ready. How long has she been like that?”

The fire was still hot as she opened her eyes. She wiped a dirty arm across her brow and used her wind to cool the dagger. “I think I’m done,” Rose said. The blade gleamed in the firelight. The sun had set again during her work.

She flipped the daggers simultaneously, grabbing the sharp blades in her fists with expert ease. Unsure what overcame her, she bowed slightly as she presented them. “For you, Lady Osten.”

Juliette’s lips curved into a smile as her fingers slid around the hilts. Rose’s magic, still awake and tuned to the Osten Point before her, could feel the rightness of the warrior with the daggers. There was a sparkle in Juliette’s eye as she raised the blades to an attack position, settling into how they worked with her natural fighting style. “You’ve outdone yourself, Rose.”

Rose was exhausted, but she cocked her hip and smiled anyway. “I’m well aware.”