Page 24 of Bound Paths
Andie narrowed her gaze. “I thought we didn’t tell anyone about this test,” she said.
“Relax, Andie. I didn’t. I just told them we were testing some magic and asked if they’d like to contribute.”
Andie didn’t like this. It was too much blood, and the villager’s generic offering wouldn’t have had clear intentions. The magic would be unpredictable. Cee ignored all of these arguments as she poured the blood out onto the ground.
Even without the spirit, the magic responded immediately.
The offering was hefty, and the power returned more than Cee was ready for. She breathed deeply to steady herself as magic rolled through her body. She aimed the granted magic at the spirit. With a final glance at the hastily planted seedlings, Cee unleashed the magic toward the spirit as it jumped with the animal.
The gold lasso wrapped around the spirit, and Cee tugged. Hard. She pulled with everything she had. Cee gasped as the spirit and the feline tumbled back.
Panic crossed her face as she turned to stare at Andie. She didn’t know how to let go.
The magic was too much, too powerful, too all-consuming. No attempt to release what she’d grasped would help her lack of control. Andie tried to think quickly. How could she intervene without Cee accusing her of ruining the test?
“Do you want me to?—”
“No, don’t do anything, Andie. I’ve got this.” Cee’s face once again masked her panic—though her hands still shook with nerves.
Andie bit her lip. Cee was so driven to know what the spirit could do for the village. Andie respected her determination to try and prevent others from an early death. But Cee was willfully ignoring the fact that the feline hadn’t gone beyond the veil this time. She’d pulled it back along with the spirit.
The pair, lassoed by Cee’s magic, careened toward them. Cee seemed entirely focused on sending the spirit toward the seedling. Andie couldn’t tell if the spirit went where Cee directedit. The veil cat found them first. It was set on a collision course with Cee, but her gaze was still firmly focused on the seedlings.
“Cee!” Andie yelled, jumping between her sister and the feline.
The animal slammed into Andie. She didn’t blame it. Andie suspected it was defending the spirit. The feline’s magic collided with the blood magic Cee and Andie were wielding.
The animal’s magic was strong. Feelings flooded Andie as their magics collided. Andie had been right—the feline was responsible for the spirit. It wouldn’t let Cee take it. Andie recognized its protectiveness, a more violent version of what Andie felt when Nona’s spirit had been fed to the plant.
Similarly, Andie realized it was the same protectiveness Cee felt for their villagers. They were in a no-win situation. Andie was ready to give up. She was prepared to let the veil cat win.
“Andie, I’ve got you,” Cee shouted, unleashing the untethered magic onto the situation. “It won’t take you from me!”
The wielder’s will directed blood magic, and Andie’s magic still flowed from seeking the ability to see spirits. But her intention was changing. Andie knew after only moments, she was inexplicably on the veil cat’s side. There were no winners here. The villagers were experiencing a plight they didn’t deserve, but that didn’t mean the spirits should be taken from their afterlife.
Andie wanted to help the veil cat.
Cee’s cry focused solely on not letting the veil cattakeAndie. The magic from the excess of blood spilled was still unwieldy, holding the veil cat to the continent. That left an unlikely option for Andie to guide her own magic. She wasn’t sure she could explain what happened next. Something within her started to shift.
She fell to all fours, and a growl unlike any she’d ever heard ripped through her throat. Hair covered her body, and her fur stood on end as she prowled out from behind the tree. Feline Andie turned quickly, searching for Cee, or the original animal. The veil cat was no longer visible, but another new animal stalked out from behind the tree in its place.
Andie knew it was Cee.
An insistent press somewhere in the back of her mind told Andie someone wanted in. Unsure how she knew what to do, Andie opened the link with less than a thought. Cee’s voice came flooding in.
“What are we?”she spoke directly into Andie’s mind.
“I think we’re veil cats now,”Andie replied. The name sprang to her mind—Andie couldn’t say where it came from—but it felt right.
“Veil cats?”Cee asked.
Ignoring her sister’s question, she asked her own.“What did you do, Cee?”
“What do you mean? I didn’t want it to take you…then I didn’t want you to be stuck somewhere without me.”
Andie sighed. Cee’s protective instinct reared its head at the oddest times.
“So, we jump through the veiled hole above the river, now?”Cee asked. Andie could feel Cee’s excitement. Her head whipped back toward the experiment. The spirit still floated above the ground. Cee must have gotten distracted by the veil cat’s attack.“We can go beyond the veil and see if more spirits exist to test with.”
