Page 17 of Bound Paths
“Oh, so you can speak,” Andie replied. “Why are we here?”
Cee spun to glare at Andie. Blood still dripped from Cee’s arm—the cut she’d made in Nona’s home. “We’re following Nona’s spirit,” she said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
Andie shook her head, wondering if she’d heard her sister correctly. “Following…”
“Nona’s spirit,” Cee finished for her. “It led us here to this beast.” Cee gestured across the river.
The language affronted Andie. It wasn’t a beast. The animal was most certainly a giant cat. She shook her head, focusing on her twin’s words. “Why are we following Nona’s spirit?” Andie asked.
“If we’re to comfort our people as they pass, we need to know what happens to them.”
“Cee,” Andie started. She didn’t want to sound callous, but she wasn’t sure it mattered where their people went when they died. She couldn’t entirely ignore her piqued curiosity at the cat before them though. Andie wanted to learn what it was here for, how it was connected to Nona’s passing.
“Andie, you have to see this,” Cee whispered. She was once again staring just above the animal’s head.“Here,” she said, shoving a dagger into Andie’s hand. “Cut yourself.”
Unsure where this was going, Andie did as she was told. She made a small cut, letting a few drops of blood fall directly to the continent as she offered a little of herself. The problem was, she didn’t know what she was asking for.
She focused on Cee’s words, Nona’s spirit. As her blood fell in gentle drops, she asked to see Nona’s spirit; she hoped that was right. Before she could question herself too much, the land responded. Magic surged around her, and a sheen of magic slid over her open eyes.
Nona’s spirit was exactly where Cee was staring.
More surprisingly, Nona’s hand rested on the scruff of the giant cat’s neck. Nona was scratching the animal even though she no longer had a physical form.With feline grace, the animal crouched back on its haunches, preparing for a leap. Spirit Nona’s hand tangled further into its fur.
“Where are they?—”
“Nona can’t swim!” Cee yelled, cutting off her question. Andie was sure Cee would realize her error momentarily. It didn’t matter if Nona could swim—she was already dead.
Instead, Cee ripped the dagger back from Andie and plunged it again into her skin. Cee seemed to dig deeper this time. She didn’t communicate with the land the way Andie did. This felt like a brute-force attempt at simple magic.
Only it seemed to be working.
Andie wasn’t sure what Cee was doing, but she felt the magic. Something like a golden lasso looped around Nona’s spirit as the animal jumped into the air. Andie saw the jolt when the lasso drew taught. The magic tugged Nona’s spirit back, separating it from the animal. The cat turned and snarled in her twin’s direction, but it seemed unable to stop what had already begun—even as Cee’s lasso stole its cargo. The animal disappeared with a pop beyond something fluttering in the air above the river.
Cee had a hold on Nona’s spirit. The spirit struggled against the golden lasso, almost like she fought to follow the animal. A chill crept over Andie’s neck as she recognized this.
What had they done?
It was too late now—the feline was gone. They couldn’t send her through the fluttering veil-like space nor drop her into the cold rushing waters below. With another burst of magic, Cee tugged hard, pulling the spirit back toward the riverbank, aiming for a tangle of bushes to provide a soft landing.
“Got her,” Cee said to herself, not seeming to notice the horror Andie was experiencing.
Neither was prepared for what happened next.
It could only be described as consuming: The bush consumed Nona’s spirit.
No noise was heard, but the bushes rustled violently as the plants absorbed Nona’s essence. Andie’s hand covered her mouth. The leaves swayed, and the branches rustled as if they were licking their lips after a tasty meal.
Then, the bush sprouted. Branches, leaves, and flowers shot out in all directions as the plant grew at an unnatural pace. The flowers bloomed, the leaves shed and regrew, and the bush went through multiple cycles of life in only a few moments. Finally, it stopped moving but didn’t return to a more expected size.
It had grown—even faster and larger than what Andie had done to the field.
The sisters watched in silence. They stood together until they realized the sun would soon set.
“We need to get back to the village,” Andie said, unsure what to say about what they’d just witnessed.
There was no denying the bush grew from magic, but it wasn’t truly blood magic—or wasn’t only blood magic. It was magic provided by a spirit’s sacrifice to the continent. Goosebumps rose on Andie’s skin as she wondered if Nona wanted to make this sacrifice.
The image of Nona struggling against Cee’s magical lasso was burned into her mind. Andie feared she knew the answer.
