Chapter 15

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

R ose had a smile on her face as she walked out of Luc’s room the following morning. She ran into Carter in the hallway. He gave her a questioning look as Luc pulled the door closed behind them.

“Don’t hurt yourself thinking about it, Carter,” she said and took satisfaction in a slight blush tinging his cheeks. “I told you I didn’t want the extra room. Please respect my decision next time.”

Carter coughed and nodded as he headed down the stairs.

Juliette was already down there and had breakfast for them. The inn was nice, but they needed to keep moving. Rose was going to miss having a bed, though. Camping was not her favorite, no matter how frequently she did it.

After a quick breakfast, they headed out to the stables. She couldn’t ignore the hole in the center of the square as they passed. It called to her again. Luc’s magic was still faint, but its pull was more insistent now that she understood the pain it caused him. Something came over her, stopping her in her tracks. “I think we should try to close the hole,” she said.

As soon as the words were out, she knew it needed to happen. It felt right. Her motives were far from pure. Many had tried to close the hole and couldn’t. Her magic hummed as she thought of the Compass Points having to use their powers together to do what others couldn’t. This town needed closure, literal and figurative. The hole still disrupted their market. The villagers still eyed Luc with disdain.

Fixing it wouldn’t heal everyone, but it would blot out the constant reminder. It could also be the scenario the Compass Points needed to test their united magic.

Luc turned, raising an eyebrow at her.

She smiled sheepishly at him. It would have been preferable if she’d spoken to him about this ahead of time. But she hadn’t known they’d needed to until now. No taking back her suggestion. The others were just as mystified by her comment. They looked to Luc, like maybe he hadn’t fully explained the hole to her.

“I know he’s tried. I know Michael has tried. I know all combinations of powerful Suden have tried,” she said. “But have the Compass Points ever tried together?”

Luc’s lip tugged into a smirk. He knew what she was doing. He wouldn’t stop her. “They have not.”

“We’ve had no reason to,” Juliette said. “Why would that work?”

“Our united power is meant to balance the gods,” Carter said. “Some believe Luc’s power would rival a god on the continent today… It’s certainly possible.”

Juliette realized she was outvoted. Her hands went to her hips, but she moved toward the hole with the others.

“Do you have a plan?” Luc whispered in Rose’s ear as they moved. “Or are we winging it?”

“The latter,” she whispered, but knew he wouldn’t judge her for it. More loudly, she said, “Luc, you should try to pull the hole closed, as I assume you’ve done before.” He nodded in acknowledgment. “Juliette and I will push wind into the ground around the edges to support you.” She looked to Carter, unsure what to do with his fire or shifter.

“I’ll focus on the bottom. I think I’ll be able to tell if it’s closing.”

Rose noted the certainty in his voice that there was a bottom.

“You don’t think it’s an abyss?” Rose couldn’t hold back the question.

He shook his head, but didn’t really answer her as he said, “My fire, lighting the darkness, should help loosen the hole’s hold over this place.”

Luc raised an eyebrow again and met Rose’s gaze. She would need to unpack that later, but for now, they had a plan.

She nodded at each of them. “Ready?”

It was still early, but some of the villagers of Loch were already moving through the square. They would be unable to hide this attempt. Insecurity flooded Rose briefly. What if they failed? She shook it off. They needed to try working together before confronting Aterra. Practicing at their campsites would only get them so far. This was a real problem on the continent that needed fixing. They had to try.

The ground shook beneath them as Luc sent his power toward the hole of its own creation. As was becoming a pattern, a tendril of his magic hung back, wrapping around her. She reached for her wind, silently apologizing to her water magic again for its inactivity. But she needed to focus on working with Juliette, and she only knew how to do that through their shared magic at the moment. Juliette’s magic circled hers, and they shot together toward the hole. Their power spun as they worked to tighten the circumference.

The heat from Carter’s magic flared against her skin even as he directed it into the depths of darkness. He stood closer than the rest of them, his magic pushing into the vast blackness of the tunnel, lighting some of the descent.

Their power may not be a single unit, but working on a common problem felt right. She searched the edges of the hole for signs of movement. Was it getting any smaller? She swore the circle shook and shrunk.

It was a small victory, but they needed more.

They had to push harder. Rose dug into her magic stores. Her power was a lake at her center. Circling the familiar water, she reached for more magic. As she did, a strong wind lifted and guided her around the lake’s shore. Tugging again on her power, it flexed, wanting to help but having already given everything she had. She needed more to complete this task. Responding to her unspoken demand, the wind deposited her at a door.

What was this? She was deep in her magic, and it was fading fast. She was pouring more than she cared to admit into this endeavor—wanting so badly to succeed. Not just for the victory it would be for the Compass Points to work in collaboration. She wanted Luc to have evidence of such a painful memory wiped away. Rose was about to dive back into her wind and see what was behind the door when shouting startled her.

“What are you doing?” a female yelled. “Stop!” She ran toward the Compass Points. Her voice must have been familiar to Luc because he pulled back his power. The female halted as Luc made eye contact with her. The rage in her eyes was evident, but so was the fear. It must have just crossed her mind that she was interrupting the Suden Point and what that might mean.

“Camilla.” Luc nodded at her. His face was blank, reining in whatever he was feeling at the sight of the older fae. His power once again leashed.

Rose stepped forward. This had been her idea, after all. “Is there a problem?” she asked.

“You can’t close it.” Camilla’s eyes tracked to Rose.

“Why not?” Rose asked.

Luc’s mouth opened, but Camilla answered first. “My son! My son is down there.” Her voice cracked.

Rose let her eyes close, feeling the words—the pain in them—wash over her. This was Anthony’s mother. Rose’s breakfast roiled in her stomach. Did Camilla think her son would climb back out?

“Why would you try now?” Tears leaked down Camilla’s face, and Rose was unsure how to answer, but she knew she needed to. It was a bone-deep assurance from her magic that the Compass Points had to do this.

“I’m the new Norden Point,” Rose started. She gestured to the others. “We need a task that requires uniting our powers.” That was really all she could say.

Camilla seemed to realize that Rose was giving her more information than she deserved. She looked down at her hands tangled together. “Why?” she asked, her words a whisper.

Rose looked at the others. Their looks indicated that this was her idea, her mess, and she could clean it up however she saw fit. Rose nodded. “I can’t begin to imagine your grief, Camilla, but we have to do this. Our power must be united to regain balance on the continent and stop the mist plague.”

Camilla let out a breath. She nodded, seeming to acknowledge Rose’s words. Still, Camilla gave a lingering glare to the Suden Point as a male caught up to her, wrapping his arms around her shoulders and leading her away.

“Well,” Carter said, “whatever you were trying to accomplish, I think you proved our magics can do things together that they can’t individually.” He eyed the hole. Rose did too. It was definitely smaller than when they started.

Rose gave him a soft smile as she reached for Luc’s hand and squeezed. He squeezed back. She knew he didn’t hold this against her.

“Are we going to try again?” Juliette asked. Rose gave the hole a lingering glance. If she could have opened the door in her power stores, could they have closed it completely? Rose weighed her desire to try again against getting back on the road. She pulled her compass from beneath her tunic. As they’d entered the village yesterday, it had been pointing south.

As she stood south of the hole, it now pointed north.

Her heart sank. She had a feeling she knew what this meant but needed to test it. Walking to the northern entrance of the square, she looked down at the compass again. It pointed south, directly back at the hole.

At least this made the decision for her. They couldn’t continue after Aterra until they closed the hole. Aurora’s compass wouldn’t allow it.

With no other option, they tried to close the hole again. Rose couldn’t find the door this time, her mind distracted with worry. The compass directed based on the needs of the wielder. Why now did the compass believe she needed to close the hole more than she needed to find Aterra?

The others didn’t seem to hold it against her—but they also didn’t have a lot of options. After a few hours, they went back to the inn. Juliette and Luc went to get them a midday meal, leaving Rose sitting at a table in the main dining room with Carter.

Carter had been quiet all morning. She inwardly tensed, waiting for whatever he would say. “I’m sorry for ignoring your request yesterday.”

An apology? She had not been expecting that.

“Given the village’s reaction to Luc, and the fact that you clearly didn’t know what this place was to him, I figured you would want some space.” Carter sighed. “I thought I was giving you a reputational peace offering, not offending you.” He looked around the room as it filled with villagers also seeking food. “As a new Norden Point, I thought you might want to start with a clean slate with the Suden.”

Not quite an apology then. Rose bristled at the assumption but wasn’t willing to die on this particular hill. She thought back to Luc’s words yesterday. With their fake romantic relationship exposed, she hadn’t known what to call them. His phrasing had suited her, though. “Carter.” She waited for him to look at her. He did so reluctantly when he realized she wasn’t going to continue. “Luc and I are partners until I tell you otherwise. I will forge my own name as Norden Point, and it will be one that stands by the Suden Point, no matter what a particular village thinks of him.”

Carter nodded.

Rose wasn’t going to linger on the topic. “What was your magic doing with the hole?”

He looked guilty. “Trying to close it, like the rest of you.”

“You indicated it had a bottom. It’s not an abyss to you.”

Carter swallowed. “Do you have a question?”

“What is it to you? What can you see?”

His head tilted, considering her words. “You’re quite observant, aren’t you?”

He hadn’t answered her question. She needed to give him something—a reason to trust her. The Vesten coin was heavy in her pocket. She hadn’t had time to study it further, but she suspected it would do her more good with Carter than with her. Maybe it could work as a source to evaluate the Vesten magic while they were away from Compass Lake, but part of her knew she couldn’t figure it out on her own. It was a little wild—its heat flaring inconsistently. So very different from the reserved fae before her. But then again, what did she really know about him? “Can you tell me about your magic?” Rose asked.

“Which part?”

“Well,” Rose considered, “that’s just it. I think I’m confused about the duality of Vesten nature. The shifter and the fire wielder.” Rose wasn’t sure what to ask, but she knew she was missing something. As her words came out, she realized why. The gold felt hot, like fire. But especially with what she knew of Arie, the fire seemed—maybe not secondary, but still only a part of a Vesten. When she thought of Arie, she thought of the shapeshifter. She hadn’t known he had fire magic until a few days ago.

Carter chuckled to himself. “It’s an insightful question. No wonder they say you’re such a powerful weapon-maker. The two parts of the Vesten power are related. I’m guessing some part of your magic struggles to understand that.”

“What do you mean?” she pressed.

He shrugged. “When Lord Arctos gave his magic to create the Vesten, they were both fire wielders and shapeshifters. Like the other gods, he was only trying to give them a bit of his elemental magic, but for him, these two things were literally the same. They couldn’t be separated.” He shrugged again. “The fire may appear a magic of its own, but the heat—it’s a fundamental part of the shift. Some say it starts the shift. I don’t think the Vesten god could have given us one without the other.”

Rose was stunned. She couldn’t believe she hadn’t put that together. If flame and shift were one, how was she supposed to get the coin to do anything? She couldn’t shift. Whatever it did, she was confident it needed to be in a shifter’s hands to work.

Carter cut off her train of thought. “Though I guess you may know differently.” His gaze was appraising, cautious again after what he’d shared.

“Arie and I didn’t talk about our magic until a few days ago. It was an unspoken rule of our friendship. I don’t have some secret knowledge of your Vesten ways.” She paused, trying to get him to meet her gaze again. He stubbornly refused. “I’d like to learn.”

He was receptive to the ask, if maybe surprised by it. His eyes widened briefly, still looking around the room, but he began to explain. “The fire starts the shift. And then, once in a shifted form, I liken it to an animal’s heartbeat as they hunt their prey. Nothing is like being in my animal skin, but it feels close when I use my fire in my fae form. I don’t have an answer for you that could be found in an educational text. I can only tell you they are part of the same cycle to me. I feel most alive when I use them together.”

She nodded at his explanation. It was similar to what she had come to expect. Magic was never simple or straightforward to explain.

She had never seen Arie’s fire, but she’d felt the flame of his existence when he’d momentarily inhabited her as they fought off Aterra. He had been in an animal form, and frankly, that was still all she knew of him. But the heat that ran through him when they shared space was synonymous with life .

“Most alive…” She repeated his words, thinking about what they meant. “That makes sense. Both the animal form and the fire are uninhibited life.”

“Well.” Carter’s gaze shifted. “Uninhibited life might be a stretch, but our power certainly focuses on understanding and appreciating existence.”

She couldn’t quite grasp the meaning between his words. Something was still missing. But she’d learned more from this conversation than she ever would from the coin. In this, she knew that Arie had been wrong, and she needed to find a way to course correct with Carter. He may have been evasive, but he still gave her new information about Vesten magic.

Her magic wanted to explore his—if he’d let her. “I’d like to try to evaluate your magic a little more since we have time. I’m unsure if I have enough connection to the Vesten magic to make you a weapon while we’re away from Vesten house.” He met her gaze without hesitation this time, shock evident in the stretch of his features. She surprised him a bit more as she pulled the coin from her pocket and held it out. “But I’d like to try.”

“Try what—what’s this?”

“It’s yours. Arie wanted me to borrow it, to use it as a source, to help make you a weapon on this trip.”

“Mine?” His mouth moved as he seemed to be sorting through memories. “The coin was what you found? You stole this from Vesten house?” Carter’s eyes widened impossibly further.

“Is it stealing when the Vesten god hands it to you? I think it’s his, after all.”

Carter looked down at it, then back to Rose. He didn’t seem to have an argument against that. But he also still looked stunned to be holding it. “Why are you giving it to me now?”

“I think he might have been wrong in this.” Rose smiled to herself, momentarily wishing Arie were here to hear her. “I think…I can learn more about the Vesten magic from you, not from the artifact. I’m giving it to you as a peace offering, hoping these conversations might continue.”

“And if I don’t want them to?” Carter’s eyes narrowed.

“Then they don’t. All I can say is that Arie wanted you to have a magic weapon, and I’d like to try to make you one.”