Page 27 of Compass Points
He needed her to make magical weapons. But he also wanted to know her? He saw the pain she carried? Those words didn’t seem necessary for a fake relationship. They were confusing. She’d disregard them, but the emotions he showed her seemed to match, and magic was much harder to fake than words.
Her thoughts were interrupted by the twang of an arrow released from a bow. She turned to see a bolt flying directly toward her. She didn’t think as her whole body twitched slightly, and her wind magic, reacting on instinct, pushed the arrow off course.
After not even a moment’s contemplation of what had just happened, Rose was faced with another sound. Screams no less alarming but infinitely more terrifying wrenched her ears. Rose searched the scene, trying to piece together what was happening.
Someone had shot at her.
They’d missed with a bit of help from her magic.
Her gaze turned behind her to Luc. Was he hurt? Was he the one now screaming? His eyes met hers, red-rimmed and fierce.
He was unharmed but certainly not unaffected.
Her mind kept spinning as the screaming continued, but muffled. If he wasn’t screaming, who was? She watched Luc’s eyes leave hers and return to the ground beneath a tree just off the main path. He hopped off his horse and walked toward it. The dirt was disturbed, as if it’d been recently moved. The screams quieted as she noticed the earth continued to push itself down, flattening the area.
“Luc,” Rose called, her eyes following him as he moved, her mind catching up with what happened as she picked up the telltale scent of cinnamon and pine—Luc’s magic.
“Luc,” she said, still disbelieving. She hopped off her horse and followed him over to the mound of dirt. She grabbed Luc’s arm as the screams started to quiet, but she couldn’t break through whatever rage he was in. His eyes still boring into the mound, the red ring around his irises unwilling to recede.
“Luc, we need to question him,” she said as she put herself in front of Luc. His eyes had to look at her instead of his target. The sounds from the pile of dirt had quieted. She hoped she wasn’t too late. She risked her wind power again to send some likely needed air underground as she saw Luc’s eyes turn from red back to dark brown.
“Shit,” Luc cursed under his breath. “I’m not sure they survived that, but I’ll dig them back up.”
Rose nodded as Luc started to unearth the archer. She sighed in relief when she realized the archer’s chest was still rising and falling.
“Who sent you? What were you after?” Luc pressed as he lifted the archer from the pit with his magic. His hood fell back to reveal a grey-haired man.
“I was just after your money.” The man coughed and sputtered as he likely tried to readjust to breathing normally.
“Money?” Luc wondered aloud. Rose watched his eyes roll in an exaggerated fashion. “Why were you trying to take it?”
“I was a farmer, but my village was taken by the mist plague a few months ago. I was out of the village for the day when it came.” The man looked off into the distance. His eyes filled with tears as he continued to cough. “I just don’t know what else to do. I can’t go back to my village, to my family.”
Rose saw a frown flicker across Luc’s face as he rolled his neck slightly.
“Go to the village just north of here. They have a temple that should be able to help you. If I hear any reports of thieves on this road, I will come back myself.”
The man swallowed loudly as he nodded, turning almost immediately to walk in the direction from which Luc and Rose had come.
Rose snapped her mouth shut as she evaluated what she was witnessing. She’d seen the terrifying Suden Point in action, willing to destroy someone who had shot at her. She knew he would have killed the man if she hadn’t stepped in.
She’d returned to her horse, deep in thought, when Luc interrupted them.
“That arrow should have hit you.” His words were unassuming, his tone was anything but.
She remembered the smooth timbre of his voice from their first meeting at the market stall.
“That man should have also been dead when I dug him up. You were right to stop me, I lost control, but I wasn’t just burying him. I crushed the earth down on top of him too.” Luc shook his head as his eyes locked on Rose’s. “He definitely shouldn’t have had enough air to survive.”
Rose didn’t know if he told her this to try and scare her, but he stated it as if it were simply a fact. She couldn’t bring herself to fear his magic. She might fear what he’d do with her secrets, but she didn’t fear his power.
She knew what it was to carry more power than those around you.
“Are you asking me something, Luc?”
Luc gave her a catlike grin.
“Rose, why are you stopped?”Arie arrived in bird form again, landing on her shoulder.
