Page 49 of Tangled Power
“Luc.” Carter’s voice broke into his thoughts. Panic tinged the edges of his call.
“Yes.” Luc risked a glance behind him as he continued to jog. The mist was following them.
“Let me down. I think we need to move a bit faster.” Carter’s head was tilted back as he watched the mist catch up to them. Luc noted his gaze still darted between the mist hanging on the ground and something higher up. “No, a lot faster.”
Shit. Luc’s magic dropped Carter, and they both took off in a sprint. They put distance between themselves and the dark mist threatening to envelop them. Carter, more familiar with running through the trees, kept turning his head and calling out their progress.
“We’ve got some good distance now. Wait—it looks like it’s retreating.” He paused, slowing down, and mumbling to himself. “Why are more coming?”
Luc stopped and turned. Carter was right. The mist wasn’t just retreating—it seemed to dissipate, just as it had whenever he and Rose cleared an area of Nebulus in their past battles. He scratched his head as he tried to imagine what was happening. He let out a breath as he concluded Rose and Juliette must have won their battle. He gestured to Carter as he went to investigate. “Stay there,” he directed.
“Wait—” Carter called.
Luc paused mid-step and turned to face Carter. The Vesten Point’s gaze was roaming all around them as if there was an audience that only he could see. His gaze wandered similarly to the way it had around the hole Luc had created in Loch. “Carter…”
Carter’s head tilted. “Okay, you can go check.”
Luc shook his head. Maybe he’d been spending too much time on the road with the Vesten Point. Especially if he was noticing this much about him. Moving back through the haphazard trail he’d just cut through the trees, Luc saw no sign of the mist. “Carter, I think you can join me.”
Carter was beside him in no time. “What happened?”
“Rose and Juliette must have held off the Nebulus.”
“Hmm.”
Luc started to walk back. Carter put his hand on his arm, turning Luc to face him. “Thank you for taking control of the situation back there. You were right. I did freeze.”
“No problem. We’re on the same team.”
“You are the last I’d expected to hear say that.”
Luc met Carter’s eyes. “Whatever Aiden, or Aterra, had on you…I’m sure it wasn’t an easy decision. We all have our limits. I suspect Aterra found yours.”
Carter nodded.
“Don’t beat yourself up too much for it. A literal god was blackmailing you.”
“You sound so casual about it, Luc,” Carter said as they started walking again. He seemed eager to continue the conversation but not to have to look at Luc while they had it. Luc shrugged and met Carter’s pace.
“You’re not the one I’m mad at.”
“What, you’re mad at Aterra?”
“Well…yeah,” Luc said. He paused. If he wanted Carter to be honest with him, he might as well take Rose’s tactic and try it himself. “But I’m also mad at myself.”
Carter’s head turned toward Luc as he kept walking. “Why is that?”
Luc sighed. “I told myself that everyone was just looking for someone to blame, and I was an easy target when they talked about how the mist plague wasn’t attacking Aterra’s villages. I never thought that it could be a real pointer to the problem we were facing. I’m angry that I couldn’t do more to protect the taken villages. I’m angry I tried to scare someone I thought was a village shop girl into putting me in contact with a magical weapon master as my one path to success.”
“You lost me there.”
“It’s a long story, but suffice it to say, I was flailing in trying to figure out what was happening on the continent. I was desperately working to save those who fear me and blame me… And maybe they’re not even that wrong.”
This territory was way too vulnerable for Luc’s comfort. He was the one who couldn’t look at Carter now as he said these words. They weren’t exactly secrets. The secret was that Luc acknowledged them. He thought about them, even when he gave the appearance of shrugging them all off. Rose was the only person who seemed to realize that they might bother him. It was one of the many reasons he—his magic flared in his chest as he stumbled over the thought. He grabbed his shirt, trying to make room for him to breathe. He hadn’t fully acknowledged his feelings yet, but his magic was aggressively on board.
Carter didn’t seem to notice as he charged on in the conversation. “I can see spirits,” Carter blurted out. “Especially those at the threshold of the veil.”
Thoughts about his feelings for Rose left his mind as he turned to face Carter. They both stopped in their tracks. “Come again?” The threshold of the veil? As in, those about to go beyond the veil? Were they talking aboutseeingthe afterlife?
