Page 47 of Tangled Power
“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 edgeof 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 weretoo 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.”
