Page 21 of Tangled Power
“This isn’t helping,” Rose tried again. “You’re just testing your magic against mine.” She sighed, realizing what she needed to do. She would have to break this standoff. Instead of challenging the cyclone, Rose let herself be sucked into it. Relaxing into Juliette’s magic, she let it lift her feet from the ground. Luc groaned loudly from somewhere in the distance, probably at her recklessness. Her body spun in time with the circling wind. She caught a glimpse of Carter watching fromsomewhere over Luc’s shoulder, still keeping his distance from the activities.
The cyclone didn’t expel her—that was already good progress. Testing the flexibility of the wind tunneling around her, Rose shot her magic into the storm, matching the cadence of Juliette’s.
Their winds spun together, Rose lifting and falling within the storm as it moved.This.This was what she’d been looking for. She wasn’t sure how this would help to fight Aterra. She didn’t think they had found some weapon to use against him, but she had never used her wind with an Osten fae. She hadn’t known what it would feel like—and she loved it.
Juliette slowed her cyclone, setting Rose gently on the ground. “That was risky.”
“A lifetime’s worth of repressing my wind magic. I can’t believe I’ve never felt something like that before!” A smile lit up Rose’s face from ear to ear. She didn’t realize what she was saying until the words were out.
Juliette’s eyes widened briefly before she wiped the expression from her face—not fast enough for Rose to miss the change. Rose swallowed thickly. She didn’t want Juliette’s pity. “You may say you don’t care about mixing fae lines, but I assure you it’s not a common perspective,” Rose snapped. “My parents taught me to hide my Osten lineage from a young age. It was the only way they knew to protect me.”
“Your wind is very healthy despite your parents’ poor choices.”
Rose bristled. She wasn’t willing to hear a Compass Point speak ill of her dead parents. Her parents had loved and protected her the only way they knew how.
Juliette, seeming to realize Rose was about to explode, explained. “They did you a disservice. That’s all I mean. I can never know their experience or why they chose to teach you tohide your wind. I expect it was from a position of fear, as you say—from a desire to keep you safe. I’m only pointing out what you already know. Magic needs to be used to flourish.”
Juliette looked around the clearing. She stepped closer to Rose to make this part of the conversation more private. “If rumors are correct, you even suppressed your water magic. I knew it, at least, would still be strong, given your ability to claim the Norden Point seat. I suspect you’re also quite powerful with your wind.” Rose started to speak, but Juliette interrupted her. “Trust me, I can tell. With both of those powers raging through you, it was dangerous for you to bury them the way you did. No matter how one tries, that kind of power can’t be suppressed.”
Juliette’s glance moved to Luc with her last sentence. Rose wondered how well-known Luc’s ascension had been. Had the others known that a Suden child of so much power could not control it in the south?
“It will find a way to make itself known,” Juliette finished.
Rose stretched her neck to the side, trying to evaluate her reaction. Her body bristled again at the comment against her parents. At the same time, she understood what Juliette was trying to convey. Arie had said she inadvertently poured her wind into her weapons. Was that her power making itself known?
The Osten Point would have tested all manner of Osten fae, especially over her tenure in the position. She was complimenting Rose’s magic while criticizing her parents’ fear. Hadn’t Rose herself recently questioned why they let her live with such fear for so long? Hadn’t she also ultimately thought it the wrong call, considering the continent’s state and what she might do to help?
“I’ll thank you not to criticize my dead family when you compliment me.” Rose wasn’t ready to hear anything negativeabout her family from Juliette, but she wanted to take the peace she seemed to be offering over their shared Osten magic.
Juliette nodded. “Again?”
Rose gave Juliette a come-and-get-it gesture as the smell of sage and citrus rushed toward her.
CHAPTER TEN
Exhaustion settled over Rose as she slumped to the ground by the fire. It was good that her wind was getting to flex, but training with the Osten Point herself might be more than she bargained for. Her water magic rolled through her, like waves begging to crash on the shore. She’d need to let her water have a turn soon. Luc handed her a bowl of the meal he and Carter had prepared.
“So, are we any closer to being ready to confront Aterra?” Carter asked as he scooped a spoonful of stew into his mouth. He had disappeared for a little while as they practiced, going into the forest that abutted the mountains and returning with meat. No surprise that his animal was a hunter, but what kind of shifter was he? It was rude to ask, and he had—unsurprisingly—offered no information.
At least Juliette opened up about what Osten could generally do with their power. It wasn’t some big secret, Rose supposed, but it was new information to her.
“We have to start somewhere,” Rose echoed what she had told Juliette. “We have to be comfortable enough to use our magic around each other before we face Aterra. That’s what Juliette and I are doing.” She tensed, waiting for them to yell ather or tell her she wasn’t fit for her position because she hadn’t laid out an exact plan. Moments passed in silence as everyone continued eating. Rose sighed softly—sometimes, more than half the battle was in her own head.
“You said we go south tomorrow?” Juliette asked.
Rose couldn’t believe they would let such a big question go unanswered. What did it matter which direction they went in if they didn’t know what to do once they found their quarry? “Yes, south.” She couldn’t bring herself to voice the more significant concern. The others had said their magic would know what to do when it was needed. Arie agreed. If no one else was worried about it, she would just continue to familiarize herself with each of their powers the only way she knew how.
She swallowed thickly. Taking action was her preference. Even if they assumed their power would work in a given way when it faced Aterra, they needed to test what it was capable of before then. Her shoulders scrunched as she thought about how to approach what she wanted to do. She had to tread carefully. Juliette would be most willing to listen to her, given their work together today. Carter, certainly, still didn’t trust her.
“I was thinking,” she started. “Though my and Juliette’s magics began working together today, I don’t know how that will help us, given we’re the only ones with overlapping elements.”
“It was a happy thought, then,” said Juliette dryly.
She focused on the Osten Point. “I just thought…I should try to evaluate your power. To try to understand it outside of how it connects with my own.”
“You want to make me a weapon?” Juliette gave her a searching look.
Rose couldn’t quite decipher the emotions flitting across Juliette’s face. She saw caution, understandably, but there was something else she didn’t recognize. Rose tried to sound casual. “Yeah, I do.”
