Chapter 31

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

R ose couldn’t decide if she was wildly excited that she’d been able to dive back into Luc’s magic without issue or if she was heartbroken on his behalf over what she’d seen. She understood power like his didn’t make childhood easy, but she thought, from the way he was with Aaron, that his family had been supportive throughout. The scene she’d seen last night told another story. Maybe his mother thought she was supporting him in the only way she knew how—by getting him away. Or perhaps she was overwhelmed by his power. No wonder Luc’s expression had been so complicated when he first told her about his mother’s passing.

“It’s okay, Rose.” Luc rode beside her. He must have been watching her thoughts swirl for a while before interrupting.

She looked at him. “I was just trying to see things from her perspective.” Rose shrugged.

Luc’s eyes widened in surprise. “I’m not sure I was expecting that.”

Rose smiled. He probably expected her to be boiling with rage. “I may still land on anger. Please don’t commit me to an emotion just yet,” she replied.

“I think I expressed my opinions on the matter yesterday. It’s never just one thing.”

Rose reached out her hand for his. “I am sorry you had to leave home so young.”

He squeezed her hand, letting it fall quickly since they were both on horseback. “I think it was right for me. I’m unsure about her reasons, but the fae were more accepting of me at the military academy. I’m sure it was because they saw my power as an asset, but…it was still a nice change.”

The Suden there would have started with a healthier amount of fear and respect for Luc. She could see how that would be preferable to kids who grew up with him and were used to getting away with bullying him. Not sure there was a correct answer, she set the thoughts aside. “I’m happy with the progress we made on your weapon yesterday,” she said, changing topics. “I think I only need one more session.”

Luc nodded. “Are you...” He hesitated. “Are you ready to be back at Lake of the Gods?”

Arie landed on Rose’s shoulder speaking to both her and Luc. “ I’d like to know that, too. About both of you.”

Rose gave Arie a sidelong glance. “I’m fine. It’s Luc we should worry about.” She glared at the bird. “If you would prove the power share goes both ways ahead of time, maybe we would be more prepared.”

“ Don’t get mad at me because you’re scared for your”— he waved his wing at Luc, batting Rose’s face in the process— “whatever he is. Your connection has grown stronger in the short time I’ve been gone.” Arie noted.

Rose agreed, but how could Arie know that simply by looking at them? “What does that mean?” she asked.

“Have you even asked Carter yet?” Luc cut off Rose’s line of questioning. She didn’t miss the suspicious look Arie gave to Luc.

Arie flew over to Carter’s shoulder, effectively cutting off Rose and Luc from his conversation.

“How are you handling being back here?” Luc asked.

“Fine.” She shrugged. The village of Bury loomed before them. She said she’d been ready for it but wasn’t sure that was true. It didn’t matter that she had saved the villagers of Compass Lake or helped save other villages in their travels. Her failure here lingered. If she tried to get more information from Luc at the market, would she have believed her weapons were vital to defending against the mist plague? Would it have helped Tara if she had one of Rose’s magical weapons with her?

She urged her horse forward into the mist that still hung over Bury. Luc still had a borrowed weapon, and everyone else had protection. There was no need to hesitate. Her gaze roamed down the path that led to the barn on the outskirts of town. That was where Tara had been waiting for Rose when the mist plague struck. She shook her head. Going to see her sleeping form would do her no good. It would only delay them.

She watched Luc open his mouth—likely to ask if she wanted to see Tara—and close it just as quickly as she’d resolved herself forward. Her shoulders straightened, and her gaze returned to the path before them.

“ Carter, I wonder if I could ask something of you. ” Arie’s voice spoke to the entire group as they trekked slowly out of the village and onto the crater trail.

His enthusiastic nod gave him away. The Vesten Point was far too eager for his patron’s attention. Rose stretched her neck from side to side as she considered what she was about to do.

“ We’d like to test something. I’ll be honest: I don’t know what will happen, and it will be a considerable risk to you. ”

Rose smiled. She shouldn’t have worried about Arie. Of course he would lay it all out for the Vesten Point. Arie wasn’t a power-hungry god or one who dismissed the needs of those around him. He wouldn’t try to use Carter to further his own power permanently. Arie would help them get the proof they needed to confirm Aterra’s plan—before sending Luc into the Lake of the Gods. Assuming he could even access it.

“I can do whatever you need, Lord Arctos,” Carter said.

“I think you should get all the facts before agreeing,” Rose said.

“ She’s right, ” Arie said. “ We want to test the bond between Compass Point and patron god. From Juliette’s ritual with Zrak, we understand that blood has to be shared. If the test is successful, it will enhance my power. I, in turn, can pass that on to the Vesten fae, or I can keep it for myself. ”

“That’s quite a hypothesis. We would prove whether all Compass Points and patrons have the connection Juliette described?”

“You weren’t aware of it, Arctos?” Juliette asked. She’d been listening intently. She seemed so sure it applied to everyone.

“ We never discussed it. We went through many details before creating the fae and in the weeks after. Zrak, especially, prepared me for all manner of contingencies. I’m not sure how well you know him through your connection… ” Arie paused as if waiting for the Osten Point to fill in his gap.

She didn’t.

“ Well, he was—is, ” Arie corrected, “ a planner. He had plans for everything and told them to the god he thought most likely to need them. In most cases, that was me. ” Arie ruffled his feathers. “ I can’t imagine him leaving this loophole without telling us. ”

“Maybe you don’t know the Osten god as well as you thought you did,” Juliette replied coolly.

Arie bristled again. “ That may be true, which is why I propose this test. ”

“Why are you so intent on testing this now?” Juliette’s eyes scanned Arie, Rose, and Luc. She noted as Rose’s gaze trailed to Luc.

Carter ignored Juliette’s question, asking one of his own. “So, you don’t know if it will work, but do you think it will?”

“ I am not sure. I want to think it won’t—but I fear it will. ”

“I’ll do it.”

“Are you sure?” Rose asked. “We don’t know what the outcome will be. Arie could become the next Aterra—seeking his own power and bringing further imbalance to the continent.”

“ I— ”

“Ahhh,” Juliette cut off Arie’s outrage. “You are testing this to see if this is what Aterra has planned for the Suden Point? You think...what? That he will take all of Luc’s power for himself?”

Rose bit her lip. They hadn’t told Juliette and Carter about Luc’s specific hypothesis. Rose told herself they didn’t need to share it until it was confirmed—it was still just suspicion. But with Juliette asking so blatantly about it, she couldn’t evade answering.

“I think it’s more than that, Juliette,” Luc said. “I think he made me precisely because of how power can transfer between god and Compass Point.”

Juliette sucked in a breath. “Made you…”

Rose saw the pieces slide into place, the time Aterra spent among the Suden that Kenna deemed inappropriate. Luc’s unexplained power and lack of paternal claim.

Luc nodded at Juliette’s unspoken conclusion. “We’ll be at the lake soon enough. If I am Aterra’s blood, I should be able to access it.” He paused. “But after that, I’d like to know what he could do with me before heading straight toward him.”

“I said I’ll do it,” Carter cut in again. He glared at Juliette, stopping her from giving a sarcastic reply. He turned his head back to Arie on his shoulder. “May I have some of your blood for the ritual?”

They would do the test once they got to Rose’s island. Rose hadn’t missed Juliette’s talk of wild magic in the cave where she met Zrak.

Arie latched onto it as well. “ If wild magic is required, there is nowhere better than the center of Lake of the Gods. ”

“The center of the lake?” Carter asked. They were on the crater trail, headed toward the lake’s edge. “The island? I thought the lake had a magical barrier.”

Rose smiled. “Our path is just ahead.”

“The lake is just ahead,” Carter said, jumping off his horse as the trail grew narrower.

Juliette’s gaze lingered on Rose before looking out to the lake, landing on the island.

It didn’t surprise Rose that she’d figured it out—she had experience with this mode of transit, after all. “I have a portal just ahead that will take us to the island. That’s where I lived.”

Carter’s eyes widened, but he didn’t object.

She first took them through in groups of two. This was the most fae that had been on the island. She wasn’t sure she liked the feeling. It was her space—hers and Arie’s. While she had been intrigued by Luc investigating her home, she had no such interest in Carter and Juliette’s assessment.

They gave it to her anyway.

“This is unique,” Carter said.

Juliette snorted. “It’s impressive,” she said. “Not that we expect anything less from you at this point.”

“Where are we going to do this? Do we need anything else besides blood and wild magic?” Carter asked, his gaze darting between Juliette and Rose.

“Juliette has the Osten Artifact when she does it. I’m not sure if that is a requirement.”

Carter reached into his pocket. As Rose suspected, the coin was never far from him. “I have the Vesten artifact.”

“Then it is your blood, Arctos’s blood, and your will,” Juliette said.

“What about my will?”

“You have to be a willing participant in this. I don’t know what form it will take for you, but you will feel it in your magic. You’ll have to cede some of your strength to Arctos.”

“What?” Rose glanced at Juliette.

Juliette nodded. “It’s not just strengthening the god’s power, it’s weakening your own—for a time.” She looked around at the others. “We should all know—better than others—that magic seeks balance. If we give power to a god, that power must come from somewhere.”

What Juliette said made perfect sense. It was heartbreaking to Rose in a new way. Had Aterra created Luc to destroy him? To drain his power? Rose couldn’t imagine the result going well for the Compass Point if too much magic was given.

“Let’s stop guessing and try,” Carter said as if understanding the silence that met Juliette’s statement. “Lord Arctos, would you allow me some of your blood?”

Arie transformed into a black cat and quickly nicked his paw, smearing drops of his blood into Carter’s open palm. Carter didn’t hesitate as he cut himself in return, allowing their blood to mix. He placed the coin in the same palm and closed his fist.

“Now I will it?” he asked, looking at Juliette.

“You’ll know in a moment,” she replied, stepping back.

Carter’s body jolted. His knees buckled, hitting the ground. Rose moved toward him, but Juliette grabbed her arm and held her back. “He won’t have control of this the first time. We should give him space.”

Rose didn’t have time to reply as fire erupted from Carter’s hands. In some last-minute instinct, he seemed to force the flame skyward.

The black cat’s tail flicked. It paused mid-swing, the only indication that something might be wrong. Rose tried to get to him. Power flared around them. This wasn’t right.

Arie’s hackles rose, his hair standing on end as he grew before their eyes. Formerly a small cat, his size now matched a bear. But this animal was still wholly feline. Dark brown fur was striped with deep red as it shook itself in its new shape.

“A veil beast,” Juliette said, shock evident in her hushed tone. “But they’re extinct.”

Its tail swished back and forth as it stalked around the Compass Points. The movement of the beast’s tail seemed to count the moments before the predator struck.

“Arie,” Rose called, still held in place by Juliette’s grasp. The feline looked familiar. It was similar to the animal she saw when she made the internal connection to Carter’s magic.

“Carter?” Luc called. The Vesten Point’s pillar of fire was still burning hot.

Arie, in the new animal form, snarled, showing more teeth than Rose preferred, exposing elongated canines perfect for tearing into flesh.

“Carter!” Luc tried again. Carter’s magic didn’t falter at the call. If anything, he seemed to be pouring more magic into it.

“He is funneling too much of his magic into Lord Arctos,” Juliette said. “We need to get him to cut it off.”

The ground beneath Carter shook as Luc took action. Carter tipped from his knees, catching himself with his hands in the dirt. This distraction broke him free of the exchange. The giant feline beast gave pause, his tail halting mid flick.

“Arie?” Rose asked cautiously.

“ Yes, yes, I’m here, ” he said as he sat back on his hind legs and seemed to shake off the magic, like a cat shaking off drops of water. Rose felt the power Arie shook off as it made a beeline for Carter. The Vesten Point seemed to stretch and flex as he reabsorbed it. Arie shrank down to the small black cat he started as and began casually licking his paw. The action was so at odds with the beast previously before her, she couldn’t help but laugh.

“Everyone okay?” Luc asked.

A chorus of nods answered him, though no one seemed ready to put the experiment into words yet.

“Is a veil beast the same as a veil cat—the animal responsible for ferrying spirits beyond the veil? I thought those were myths,” Rose asked.

“You should know by now that most myths are rooted in some kind of reality.” Carter gestured to the necklace chain that held her compass. “But yes, they’re the same. While definitely feline, most found veil cat too tame a name. So, most know the animal as a veil beast.”

“Juliette, did you say they were extinct?”

Juliette nodded. “I believe the Lady of the Veil killed them all in an attempt to more tightly control her plane.”

“So why did Arie turn into one?”

Arie in cat form glanced at Carter, his yellow-green eyes piercing. Rose could have sworn he smirked before going back to licking his paws.

“I guess it was the boost of power,” Carter said cagily. His gaze darted to the ground. Rose was sure he wasn’t telling the whole truth, but she wouldn’t push it. They had proven what they needed. The sharing of power could be done between any of the Compass Point-patron pairings.

They knew Aterra’s plan.

The group went their separate ways momentarily as they tried to collect their thoughts. Rose followed Luc as he meandered to the lake’s edge.

“Luc,” she called.

He stopped and turned. His hands were behind his back, almost as if he’d been hoping to sneak away but got caught.

She put her hands on her hips but didn’t say a word.

He sighed. “Now that we know that worked, I just thought, maybe, I could get to the lake’s edge and test the next part without”—he gestured around—“everyone watching.”

She couldn’t fault him for that. “I’m not sure I’ll let you sneak away until we finish this sword. I’ll feel better knowing you have it.”

“I’ll feel better having it with me.” His power circled her as he spoke. She was sure his magic would be pleased to have a part of hers with him. It seemed to caress her skin in unspoken agreement.

“Let’s see if the others are settled. I’ll tell them we need a little time to finish your weapon, and then we can find Aterra and end this.”