Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE

“ Y ou really think now is the time to make a weapon?” Luc’s voice was still groggy while pulling a shirt over his head and entering the Suden workshop.

Rose already had the fire going. She’d been at it for hours. In some recent past, she’d hoped to drift off to sleep for one more night without the responsibilities of a Compass Point, but that was beyond her grasp. At least Luc had given her a few hours of bliss—their relationship so new and begging to be explored. Her magic strained toward him as he walked in. There was a wanting between their magic she’d never experienced before. Hiding her power for the last ten years gave her no indication of whether this was normal between fae lovers. She attempted to refocus on her task, with her mind racing through the next steps to save the continent.

“Yes,” she said, glaring at him. “I obviously do.” Well in the midst of forging, she gestured to the work before her. “When else will we have time to make you a weapon?”

Dawn approached, the darkness on the lake fading. The pair had promised to return to Norden house early to fill in the many blanks they left after the Refilling Ceremony the day prior, but they still had hours.

Luc tapped his finger to his chin playfully. “I thought you didn’t want to make weapons for the Suden Point.”

“That was ten problems ago,” Rose replied, adding the eye-roll his comment deserved.

Slow, careful steps brought Luc across the room. She pretended to ignore his approach, focusing on the blade she was crafting instead. Hammering at her anxieties usually worked for her. Luc was standing dangerously close before she acknowledged him. Pine and cinnamon filled her nose as his magic enveloped them. It was a presence all its own—demanding to be acknowledged. Her back to Luc, the slow smile that curved her lips was hidden. He was releasing his power from the tight hold he typically kept over it. Since acknowledging this thing between them was real, it seemed to strain for her when they were close. Whether it was a conscious decision or not, it was a heady thing to have his power so singularly focused on her.

Part of her wanted him to unleash it.

“You may want to give me some space,” she said. Her words came out breathier than intended as she relaxed into his magic. It was thick in the air around them, tendrils circling and spiraling in all directions. His magic dared her to lean back into it, but she already knew it wouldn’t let her fall.

Raising his hands in surrender, Luc halted his progress, his magic slipping away from her. “Tell me what you need.”

She regretted her request, missing the insistent feel of his magic as it returned to its owner. She took a deep breath before voicing her fears. “I need you to be safe when we go after Aterra and Aiden. I know we can’t guarantee that. So a magical weapon is one advantage I can give you.”

“Okay.” The curve of his lip was soft as Rose glanced over her shoulder at his too-easy concession.

“This isn’t funny!” She set her forging hammer down and ran her fingers through her dark, shoulder-length hair. Her pale skin was covered in streaks of ash and dirt from the hours she had already worked.

She really should have stayed in bed.

“It’s a little funny,” he offered. The tone of his voice coaxing her to relax. “You’re making me a weapon in the middle of the night. Don’t you need me for part of this process?”

Rose wiped the sweat from her face with too much vigor, hating that he was right. With only an hour or two of sleep, she had snuck out to the forge and started working. Certainty drove her here. The certainty that they wouldn’t have time after telling the Compass Points what they faced—who they faced.

Once the Compass Points knew Aterra, the Suden god, was pulling Aiden’s strings, they would want to act quickly to fulfill their duty. Maintaining the balance was their reason for existence. And the balance was in shambles; the mist plague coating the continent proved it.

A thought kept swirling in Rose’s mind. Did the Compass Points even know how to do such a thing? This may be why the fae courts were created, but had they ever been tested?

They were about to find out.

“I do need you,” Rose said a little too quickly. Luc caught the dual meaning in her words, and his soft smile turned into one of her favorite smirks. She rolled her eyes. “I need to feel your magic to finish the weapon. I’m not ready to merge your magic into the blade, but the sooner I know the heart of your magic, the better the weapon will turn out.”

The weapon-making process would be tricky with him. It wasn’t physical, but it was inherently intimate. A wielder and their magic were so connected that knowing one meant knowing things about the other. Things some would preferred were left private. That was part of why she was picky about who she made weapons for. Given the nature of her relationship with Luc, she couldn’t separate the process from her feelings for the Suden Point. She was sure she’d uncover things about him they hadn’t discussed yet, though he seemed unconcerned when she said as much.

“I’m an open book for you, Rose. I’d prefer we have the leisure of time to learn each other, but that hasn’t been our path.”

Turning from the forge and stepping over to the worktable, she crooked her finger, calling him back to her. They would find out together how their relationship would shape this process. There was no one she would rather experiment with.

Luc stepped forward, caging her in, his lithe body unyielding as it framed her. He pushed up his sleeves and his powerful forearms stole her attention, reaching around on either side of her, careful not to lean into the forge’s heat.

“You’re going to be a distraction, aren’t you?” She pulled her gaze from his exposed skin to meet his eyes. The heat in them told her the answer before he responded.

“Only if you ask nicely,” he said, his voice smooth and deep as his hands moved to her hips, lining up their bodies as he pulled closer.

“I’m armed,” Rose noted as she held the metal of the blade she’d been working on between them.

“Threatening me with my own blade?” His smirk was back, and his eyebrow raised.

She shrugged while wrapping it in her wind so as not to actually burn them.

“You’re always a little dangerous,” he said. “That’s what makes it interesting.” He dipped his head around the blade and nipped her neck.

She didn’t stand a chance, and they both knew it. The blade was set aside before things escalated. Soaking in his attention, she let her head fall slowly back. Hands free of the weapon, she propped against the table behind her. Her weight rested against it as she gave him all the access his lips demanded.

He trailed kisses down the column of her neck, nipping her shoulder as he moved. His expert tongue seemed intent on tasting the sweat there. A shiver of anticipation shot through her. His hands explored the skin beneath her tunic as his mouth ventured lower.

“Luc,” came her half-hearted whisper. She didn’t want him to stop. Her body ached for him to learn its every dip and curve. And yet—she needed to focus on making his sword. Even as she eagerly responded to the pleasure he stoked, her mind wouldn’t release the fears about what came next. She lifted her hand, caressing his cheek and settling under his chin, returning his face to hers. “We have work to do.”

“That we do,” he said, holding her gaze. His eyes danced with a wicked gleam in the firelight. Straightening, he asked, “What do you need from me? I admit I don’t know how this works. The other weapons masters I worked with barely needed me for the process.”

“Well, you didn’t get very good weapons from them, did you?” she responded. She hadn’t had enough time to learn how other magical weapons masters were trained. She only knew the technique her mother had taught her, and the strength of her weapons vouched for it.

Revealing the technique would also be new. She had never explained her process to anyone. Rose thought about how Luc had torn down every wall she erected. He learned her secrets and protected them as his own. She could trust him with this.

“I need you to stand by the forge while I work this a little more. Having something small to exercise your magic while you’re there would be helpful.”

He picked up a rock from the ground as he moved where she pointed. Holding out his hand, he set the rock levitating above it. “Will this suffice?”

“Yes.” Rose let his magic twist around her as she returned to the forge. “Give me a little while. The more I lose myself in the rhythm of forging, the more my senses open to the magic.” She shrugged as she continued, trying to lessen the immensity of explaining this process to another. Her gaze darted over her shoulder to check on Luc. Their eyes met, and she knew she wasn’t fooling anyone with the attempt at a calm veneer. His face held nothing but patience, though, as she considered her next words. “At some point, my magic will start to test yours. It interacts differently with each magic it evaluates, so I can’t tell you exactly what it will do.” She raised her eyes to meet his. “I can tell you that it will push until it gets to the heart of your magic—whatever that looks like.”

She glanced at him again. His lips pressed together. He seemed at war with whether to reassure her or let her continue her explanation uninterrupted. “Do whatever you need to, Rose,” he whispered.

Warmth shot through her as his need to reassure won out. “When I get to the heart of your power, I’ll see things, usually flashes of emotion, places, those you care about, beliefs that you hold dear.” She considered how to explain. “It should be similar to when you showed me a taste of your mind shadow magic.”

He nodded.

“I admit, I don’t know if your mind shadow will change how this works—you inherently have the ability to show others scenes from your life. I’m sure that will make itself known somehow in this evaluation.” She turned back to the forge. “I also feel like I have to mention that I’ve never made a weapon for someone I’m so…emotionally entangled with.”

“Is that what we’re calling it?” Luc didn’t miss a beat. The need to confirm his raised eyebrow matching his wry tone was too great. She couldn’t contain her smirk as reality perfectly matched her imagination.

He winked at her. “You can experiment with me.”

He was teasing her, but heat shot straight to her lower belly nonetheless. She rolled her neck out, trying to refocus. “Alright, I’m going to get started. Keep your magic a little bit active, like I said.”

His element continued to hover the rock above his hand. This display was more than a little activity. Most Suden were unable to use the earth to push objects from it. More commonly they dug or broke the land apart beneath them. But Luc’s magic was different. Further proven by the fact that another line of his power wrapped around her as she lost herself in her work.

He was powerful, of course. He was the Suden Point. It still impressed her that he could maintain the two separate actions. Doing both for any length of time should tire him. Rose snuck glances at him as she worked, unable to see signs of stress or fatigue.

Her weapons master magic streaked toward him. An inheritance from her mother and a unique flavor of the talent due to her dual fae lines, it was ethereal compared to the heft of Luc’s magic. That didn’t mean hers couldn’t hold its own. He shivered as it reached him. A thread of her power spun around his outstretched palm.

His magic, cocooning her by the forge, fell back to weave with hers as it investigated. Their magics teased and twisted together. She let them, taking the opportunity to press and search his power as they entwined.

Completing a circle, her power paused as his returned to him—taunting—sinking into his skin and daring her to follow. Luc’s face was impassive. His gaze focused on the rock levitating above his palm.

Eyes fluttering closed, she felt the edges of her power as it enveloped him. Her control slipped as it searched him, skipping across his skin. Her magic wanted him—more so than the usual requirement to make a weapon. And the amount of raw power available to him was its own siren song. She sucked in a breath. Her magic was intent on this next step.

Trying to gauge this experience from his perspective, her gaze raked over him. His eyes tracked hers, but he appeared otherwise unphased. He raised his eyebrow again as her magic snuck deeper into him. He looked down at the exposed skin of his arm where her magic’s touch would be most felt. Intrigue and—was that arousal?—flicked over his features.

She might have called it off with anyone else, but Luc wasn’t just anyone. Her anxiety about their future battles was heavy in her chest, outweighing the unknown of her magic’s need to explore him. If a weapon was the only safety she could offer, she would ensure he had one.

“This next part might be a little more invasive,” she said, giving him one more chance to say no.

Luc nodded his consent. Gazes locked, she let her magic go. It chased the power that had been loosed in the workshop, rushing into Luc and down a dark tunnel after it. Her magic followed his toward the heart of his power. The makeshift walls flew by as her magic pressed forward. They held moving images, voices, and full memories coming to life. She sped forward too quickly to investigate each one. A tunnel made sense for a Suden, she thought as she fell through it, like the pits in the earth they were well known for making.

The images and scenes on the walls were unexpected. She never saw complete scenes or replayed memories from someone’s life. Usually it was snapshots, scents, and feelings. Taking a calming breath, she let herself continue to fall. She knew this would be different. His mind shadow alone would change this process. But his magic was also different. There was so much about it—about him—to learn. The immensity of how badly she wanted to know everything slammed into her.

The rapid descent slowed as her plan took shape. She only needed to learn a little today and could learn a little more in their next session. His power could overwhelm her if she took in too much of it at once. Reaching out to the moving images lining the passage, she plucked one to study closer, holding the corner carefully between two fingers.

The image held a short scene—Luc’s hands in his pockets, head hung in defeat, as he walked toward a door. A female stood in the opening, fists on hips, glaring daggers at him. Something about the image called to her, and Rose’s other hand reached to touch Luc’s face in the image itself.

The image rippled as soon as her magic touched it. Her brow furrowed as she tried to pull away. But she was in too deep. A sharp gasp slipped from her lips as the image came alive around her, pulling her into it.