Page 28 of Bound Paths
He shook his head again.
This was as good as anywhere else for her test. “I need to check for the connection to Luc.” She chanced closing her eyes to let her magic search the place. Convinced they were safe for a moment, Rose left her physical body defenseless as she dove inward—to the heart of her magic.
She went straight to her internal lake of power. The cool breeze of her wind guided her to the lake’s edge. She looked into the water, unsure what to expect. Would the tunnel into his power reappear now that they were in the same realm?
The tunnel still wasn’t there.
Something tightened in her chest. Not phantom magic pains—but pure, simple panic. Something had to be here. He was beyond the veil—and now, so was she. This should be no different than when they were both on the continent, and his magic was ready and willing to support her whenever needed.
Where was it?
Her stomach churned, threatening unrest. Before she knew what she was doing, she dove into the lake. Maybe she couldn’t see the tunnel into his power from the angle on the beach. She gave herself any and every excuse as she swam toward the bottom.
She wanted to stomp, cry, and scream when she reached the sandy floor of the lake. It wasn’t there. He wasn’t there. She shut her eyes tightly, trying to hold back the stream of tears.
Opening her eyes, she focused on the next steps. Though she didn’t understand it, she knew the answer lay with the shiny black stone from her encounters. It had been hidden beneath the lakebed. She dove down deeper, her hand reaching out and pushing away the sand to reveal the hidden material.
The black stone was here.
She swam up a little higher and used her magic to push the sand around the lake bed, revealing more strips of the onyx. It spidered through the entirety of the lake. This was how it had been in the dream that wasn’t a dream.
The onyx stone matched that of the Suden Point’s artifact. It was firmly entrenched within her lake of power. The memory of Luc’s voice called to her, telling her she already knew the answer to all her questions.
Her connection to Luc must have changed.
An image flashed through her mind: the shape of a hand reaching up through the stone floor, the floor stretching around it like a glove. The pulse in her magic strengthened as her mind considered how to let him in.
“Acknowledge what it means, Rose.”The words echoed those she’d heard previously. What she needed to acknowledge was on the tip of her tongue—something she knew to be impossible.
A sharp nip pulled her back from the heart of her magic. She opened her eyes in the meadow. Still in veil cat form, Carter prowled protectively in front of her. She saw a tear in her leggings where he must have scratched her to get her attention. She only had to glance up to understand why.
Six veil cats stalked opposite Carter.
“Didn’t you say they were extinct?” Rose asked.
The veil cat’s hearing must be better than she thought as a chorus of growls echoed across the arbitrary line Carter had drawn between them.
“Not the time. I understand,” Rose whispered. “What do we do?” She shook her head. Carter couldn’t answer that. She needed a different question.
The pack didn’t attack. Rose wasn’t sure how much Carter had tested them. He paced before her, tension heavy in each step. Rose readied her magic. Even if they didn’t attack—they didn’t look friendly. She cursed inwardly. She needed time to figure out how to let Luc in if the black stone was a new connection point to him.
The veil cats didn’t cross the line Carter’s pacing defined, but they were not secure enough to continue her experimentation. What were the veil cats doing? How were they here?
The answer to why they hadn’t attacked came a second too late. They were waiting for something. For someone.
Someone worse than the pack of deadly felines was coming.
As the thought clicked into place for Rose, something triggered Carter. Snapping at her hand, he signaled her to hold his fur again. He seemed loath to give the veil cats his back. Once her hand was secured in his fur, he started walking them backward towards the river.
Rose narrowed her eyes, trying to see what he saw. Something beautiful and terrible moved in the distance. The pack of veil cats growled again, showing their teeth. This must be the last warning. Her wind and water were ready to defend against whatever—whomever—was coming.
The figure on the horizon charged toward them. Even on horseback, at such a distance, Rose could tell she was a force to be reckoned with. The horse moved unnaturally fast—faster even than when Rose pushed her horses with her wind magic.
Power rippled from the woman as she entered the meadow. The veil cats growled again; not a warning—a call.
Rose instinctively knew who this was: their leader.
Beings with a lot of power surrounded Rose regularly. But her senses tingled as she evaluated this new threat. Her power surpassed Luc’s—maybe even Arie’s—but it was different, too, more connected to the magic of this place. The hair Rose clung to at Carter’s scruff stood on end. His hackles rose, but she couldn’t ask what he sensed.
