Chapter 20

CHAPTER TWENTY

T here was no path now as the Compass Points rode their horses slowly through the forest. Occasionally, they would encounter a hiking trail or path they could use, but most days, they made their own way.

Rose and Juliette took the opportunity to speed up the trip north whenever possible. They practiced their magic together, spinning their wind around the Compass Points and their horses’ feet to push everyone forward faster. But Rose still couldn’t find the door connecting her to Juliette in her magic stores. Even when they practiced at their campsites, and Juliette readied herself for Rose’s approach, the wind blowing across her internal lake of power led her nowhere. Juliette was right. They were missing something.

She couldn’t help but feel like they were flailing in their efforts. They had a plan—they were going to Sandrin to try to learn more about their powers and how they were meant to unite before attempting to confront Aterra again—but was that enough? The continent was still slowly falling to the mist plague, and its leaders were going to read books.

When not practicing her wind, Rose tried to understand Carter’s magic. The Vesten Point had just come back from a run in his shifter form. His hair was extra shaggy as he pulled his shirt over his head, coming out of a thicker patch of trees near their campsite.

Rose, Luc, and Juliette were already around the campfire eating. Carter filled a bowl before sitting at his customary spot around the fire. It was funny to her how Carter tended to sit at the western point and Juliette always at the eastern. She and Luc seemed to take turns sitting at northern or southern points. They always sat next to each other, though, so they ruined the appearance of each Compass Point sitting at their cardinal direction around the fire. She liked that they brought change to this group. It was good for them.

In her more dramatic moments, she worried about how none of it would matter if they couldn’t stop Aterra when they found him. The weight of the problem sat heavily on her chest. Combining their magic had to be the answer, but did she have time to keep learning the others’ powers before their next encounter with Aterra? She didn’t know if her exhaustion was from magic use or the days of travel, but she was too tired to act like she knew what to do next.

“I know we’re going to Sandrin to try to learn more, but does anyone have ideas on what else we should try to fight Aterra? I don’t feel like we’re doing enough.” Her fingers instinctively reached for the compass beneath her tunic.

She felt the three other Compass Points look at her. Luc pulled his hand across his face and spoke up first. He was quick to respond. Too quick, as if he’d been looking for an opportunity to talk about this, and she’d handed it to him on a silver platter.

“I think we all owe you an apology, Rose.” He glared at the other Compass Points. “It’s okay not to know, and our next step is to try the Vesten archives to learn more.” He spread out his hands, gesturing to the three of them. “It’s not like we know either. Frankly, we have been at this job longer than you, so we shouldn’t let you carry all the weight of figuring this out.” His gaze met and held each of the other two Compass Points—a silent reprimand for taking advantage of Rose’s tendency to carry the weight of the continent on her shoulders. “I know we’ve made you feel you had to come up with the answers for fighting Aterra, and it isn’t okay. You’ve been the fastest to understand all of this.” He gestured generally to everything around them. “But we forget that you are newer to the power of the Compass Points than we are.”

Rose let out a breath. She hadn’t realized how much she’d needed to hear those words, though they were met with silence from the other two.

The scent of pine and cinnamon started to build, overpowering the smell of their food in her nose. Rose looked at Luc, and to her surprise, so did Juliette and Carter.

Carter coughed into his hand. “Yes, well, we’re sorry for making you feel like you have to carry the burden alone. We’re going with the best plan we have.”

Rose stared at Carter, dumbstruck.

In her peripheral vision, she saw Juliette’s bowl of food shake. Juliette held it steady with both hands and glared at Luc.

“We’ll help you brainstorm to have more ideas ready after Sandrin,” Juliette said. No apology, but even the help offered made her feel it wasn’t up to her alone to solve this.

Rose looked at Luc, who wore a self-satisfied smirk. The scent of his magic eased, letting the smells of the stew and fire fill the space again, but tendrils of it still seemed to wrap around Rose where she sat. She laughed to herself as she realized that he’d created mini earth shakes for each of them until they offered an apology of some kind. Her insides warmed at the consideration, and her shoulders sagged with relief as a little of her stress abated.

She’d been carrying the burden of finding out how to make their powers work together. This was different than what she’d chastised Luc about only days ago. He thought his power alone could solve the problem. Rose thought she was responsible for finding a way to unify the Compass Point’s magic. Both were incorrect. She could lean on the Compass Points—they would all work on the problem together in Sandrin.

A thrill ran through her at the weight lifting. They would help her—though she’d continue to do what she could to ready them the only way she knew how. “Can I try to further evaluate your magic?” she asked Carter.

Luc shook his head at her, a fond smile curving his lip like maybe she’d missed the point of his speech. Ignoring his look, she wondered if it would be easier to learn about Carter’s magic the closer he was to having shifted.

Carter shrugged his consent.

She didn’t wait for him to move closer or for them to build a forge before she sent her magic searching. The repetitive movements helped but weren’t required. Last time, she hadn’t even made it to the heart of his magic—she’d been too distracted by life and death. They could go back to a forge when she was sure she could get to the heart of him.

A light, curling wisp of her magic stretched toward Carter. It circled him—just barely sinking into his skin—feeling for the recent shifter form. Even on the surface, she recognized the inconstant affection, the indelicate grace of not entirely giving your full attention to those around you, and the uncanny ability to see what others could not. She thought of Arie’s black cat form. All the times he licked his paws instead of looking at her when she spoke. The way his head tilted when she saw nothing new in the room. Whatever Carter was, it felt feline.

She pulled her magic back. While still distracted with information about his shifted form, she made it a little further, and she was satisfied for tonight with what she found. At least it connected to something she understood, something about Arie she could relate to.

“What?” Carter asked. “Are you stopping?”

“Yeah, I made it past the surface cycle of life and death. I got a little bit about your shifted form. I think to go deeper, I want a forge again—but we don’t have to set one up tonight.”

Carter reached in his pocket. She was sure the coin was there. “Do you have an idea of what kind of weapon you’ll make?”

Rose smiled. That was a question she did have an answer for. She had already been thinking about the duality of the Vesten nature—Flame and Shift—but the concept of existence, the cycle of life and death, had thrown her at first. The more she thought about it, the more the weapon came perfectly to mind. “How do you feel about a double-headed ax?”

Carter’s lip tugged up at the corner, a smile starting.

“And I think we’ll need a central spike on it, to help show off that third piece of your nature—the one I’m still trying to figure out. But like I’ve said, knowing and understanding are different. I know it’s there, and that should be enough for the weapon.”

At that, his smile was instant. Maybe she was finally figuring out the Vesten Point.

The northern edge of the forest was in sight. Rose was so excited to break through the tree line as it came into view that she missed the signs. It was midday. The sun should have been high in the sky, but it was suddenly dark. Peppermint broke through the familiar smell of the forest around them. What little trail was available could no longer be seen as the mist unfurled, thick and heavy. In the lead, Rose immediately grabbed her sword and sent her wind to push the others back.

“The mist is here!” she yelled.

She hopped off her horse and held her weapon at the ready. She hoped that Luc would get Carter somewhere safe. Luc had her spare weapon, and Juliette had her daggers. Carter would be unprotected.

As if answering her unspoken thoughts, Juliette appeared beside her. “Luc is taking Carter east.”

“Good,” Rose said, moving into a defensive position next to the Osten Point.

Juliette didn’t have her weapons ready, though. Rose spared a glance as Juliette held one of her daggers in her hand. With the other, she reached for a cord that hung around her neck. She pulled a small vial from beneath her dress, filled with a thick, dark liquid that could only be blood. There was no time to react as Juliette’s dagger pricked her fingertip. The Osten Point let her blood well on her skin before mixing a few drops from the vial with hers. The scent of Juliette’s magic filled their space, but another smell she recognized became stronger—peppermint.

“Juliette,” Rose started.

“Later,” she replied, tucking the vial back beneath her dress. She turned her hand over and let the mixture of two bloods fall to the ground. “Zrak!” Her voice was strong, powerful. It was that of the Osten leader who protected her court for a generation.

They stood silently—waiting.

No words came, but neither did the Nebulus. Rose’s eyes darted around them as Juliette continued her ritual. Rose did not doubt this was the ritual she’d mentioned—this was how she communed with her patron. It was clear Juliette had done this many times in her tenure as Osten Point. Her movements were too practiced. Her voice was too steady for this to be anything but a regular part of her duties.

Juliette let a few more drops of blood fall to the ground as she called the Lost God again. “Zrak! I need answers. Why are you doing this?”

No response came, but Rose was sure the mist was starting to dissipate. She wasn’t sure how far north the haze stretched. There were homes between the forest’s edge and Sandrin. She hoped their story would not be the same as the southern village. At that thought, she tried to call her wind. She didn’t know how to ask for secrets—she only received the one by accident. She wanted to send her wind forth, searching for sounds. But she heard nothing.

Confident that the mist had fully cleared around them, she looked to Juliette. “Do you think it took any of the homes north of here?”

“I didn’t hear any cries for help if that’s what you hoped to catch with your wind,” she replied. “We likely won’t know until we get there, though.”

“Juliette, what you did… That didn’t look like the ritual you described. You said it had to happen in a sacred place. And the flashes I saw while forging for you, they made it sound like…” Rose wasn’t sure how to phrase this.

“Spit it out, Rose.”

“They made it seem like Zrak is there with you when you do it. Like you talk to him.”

Juliette studied Rose and finally nodded. “You’re right. This was a blunt-force attempt that will likely cost me. You deserve to know, as it’s why I left Aiden unchallenged as Norden Point when I knew he was unfit.”

Rose sucked in a breath. She had yet to ask Juliette about that directly. She felt the fierce need to protect—the blood— when making the daggers, but she couldn’t connect those to specific events or reasons to leave a false Norden Point in place.

“Zrak may have saved the continent when he came up with his plan for the Covenant,” she started. “But he damned the Osten fae in the process, as I’ve said.”

Biting the inside of her lip to hold her questions, Rose waited for what came next.

“It is a fact myself and my predecessors have had to deal with. When Zrak sacrificed himself, he took the Osten fae’s connection to their magic with him.”

Rose couldn’t stop herself. “But as Luc pointed out, your wind is powerful. The full ritual sustains you?”

Juliette’s smirk attempted to hide her pain. Rose knew enough now to see through the mask. She saw the Osten leader protecting her court. “Yes. It’s powerful because the dampened connection is sustained regularly. There is a portal in the Osten house that takes me to the place where I perform the ritual. I do it regularly.”

Rose couldn’t stop her gaze from roaming back to Juliette’s finger. How many scars did Juliette bear for the blood price to sustain the Osten magic?

Juliette followed her gaze and nodded. “The Osten Points have had to manage the balance of our power this way since a few years after the Covenant, when we realized our magic was fading.”

“And the vial?” Rose asked.

“Zrak’s artifact. I’m told he made four glass vials before he departed, filling them with some essence of the remaining gods’ magic. His—he filled with his blood—knowing what his court would need to do once he was gone.” She pulled the vial back from beneath her dress. “It has always magically refilled.”

“When it gets to the bottom?” Rose asked, looking at the half-empty vial.

“Usually before then. But we have time before I panic about it. One problem at a time, Rose.”

She nodded. “Do you know where Zrak is?”

“The portal in Osten house takes me to caves on the eastern shore. They hold a wild magic. Zrak describes it as a thinning between planes. I can’t cross it, and neither can Zrak, as far as I can tell, but we can communicate briefly when he’s been strengthened.”

Rose opened her mouth and closed it. Another plane sounded like the afterlife—going beyond the veil. To her, that meant death. But Zrak clearly wasn’t dead .

Of course, this would connect to what she still didn’t understand about Carter’s magic.

Juliette continued before Rose could figure out what question to ask. “Aiden, well, in hindsight, it makes sense that it was Aterra—he knew what I was doing. More importantly, he knew where I went, and he threatened to destroy the caves.” Juliette looked away, unable to meet Rose’s gaze. “I’m ashamed to say I put my court’s magic before the continent’s health.”

She took a deep breath and let Juliette continue.

“I’m not sure how much you know about the initial fae courts. I know you’ve heard me make mention of it to Luc. They were power-hungry. The first Suden Point realized our situation and tried to destroy us—to claim Osten house as his own. Judging by Luc’s response to my accusation, I am unsure that Suden Point actually understood the nature of the Osten weakness.” Juliette sighed. “It is irrelevant, though. After that, the Osten Points have been tasked with never letting anyone learn of our situation. Everything I did was to preserve that legacy.”

“Juliette,” Rose said quietly, hoping to pull her gaze. Slowly, so slowly, Juliette’s head turned. Her face was set. A cool mask in place, ready for Rose’s judgment. “I’m familiar with doing what needs to be done to survive. I’d never judge you for it.” She chose her words carefully as she continued. “I don’t know much about the original fae courts, but my parents’ fear of reactions to a mixed lineage was real. It wasn’t something they questioned, only something they knew. I understand how that deep-rooted knowledge can lead one to make difficult decisions.”

“Touché,” Juliette said, wiping a tear from her eye. “I see I understand your parents more than I hoped to.”

Rose smirked. “We make tough decisions to protect those we love.”