Page 30 of Bound Paths
She picked herself up momentarily to see Cee kneeling beside her. The spirit was gone.
“Are you alright?” Cee asked.
Andie didn’t know how to respond. The wound on her arm must have reopened on her journey. It didn’t hurt, but blood dripped from the gash she’d made to follow the spirit.
“Cee, you can’t take the spirits from here,” she said, her voice, trembling from the exertion, a poor reflection of her certainty.
“We can talk about it later,” Cee said, “Just breathe.” She patted her sister’s hand and pulled her head onto her lap.
“No!” Andie shouted. “The spirits belong here. We can’t take them if they want to stay.”
“What’s this about, Andie?” Cee asked. “You know we need more than your blood magic to save the village.” Her brow furrowed in contemplation. “Oh, do you not want another magic to be able to save us? You want to be the hero?” She tilted her head.
“I don’t want my blood magic to be what saves us, but I refuse to disrupt these spirits’ afterlives without their consent.” The blood continued to drip from Andie’s arm. Each drop hit the ground like a silent promise. She would fight Cee on this. It was bigger than saving their village. This was about preserving whatever came next.
A thrum through her veins drew her gaze to the ground. As her blood dripped into the meadow, the land seemed to suck each drop beneath the soil. It differed from how the land on the continent reacted to her offering. This felt like land accepting a promise she didn’t realize she’d been making.
“Afterlife?” Cee considered. “Is that where we are?”
They were the last words she heard from her sister before magic—not unlike blood magic—flooded Andie’s veins, and darkness overtook her.
Andie blinkedas she took in her surroundings. The ground was no longer hard and covered in grass. It was plush—soft. Her skin was warm, bundled in a pile of heavy blankets. She was inside. She searched the room to understand where she was, what had happened, and where Cee was.
“You’re awake.”A voice spoke into her mind. Andie pushed the blankets aside and propped up on her elbows to evaluate the speaker. No one was there.
“We’re down here,” the voice said. It was then Andie noticed the echo to it, like the voice was a chorus of many. She looked down. A host of veil cats lay by the bed. One of the cats sat up as if sensing her gaze. Its yellow-green eyes didn’t blink as it stared at Andie.
“Where is my sister?” Andie asked aloud. She inherently knew the cats could hear and understand her.
“She is safe,” the cat said to her. “She’s in the room next door.”
“And do veil cats sit at the foot of her bed?” Andie asked.
The feline’s whisker twitched. Andie would call it an attempt at a smile if she didn’t know better. “How do you know what we are?” it asked.
Andie didn’t know. She said as much. She’d felt the name when she shifted into one. It felt right—she hadn’t questioned it.
“We figured as much,” the veil cat said.
“Do you speak for all of them?” Andie asked.
“Sometimes,”he said.“My name is Orion, and this is your pack.”
“My pack?” she said, affronted. “I’m not a veil cat.” She didn’t like this cat telling her they knew things about her.
“We beg to differ, but we’ll give you time to sort that out.”Orion started licking his paw and swiping the wetted fur over his ear.
“Am I a prisoner here?” Andie asked.
The veil cat stopped its cleaning.“What makes you think that? You’re in a well-appointed room; we cared for you the best we could. This should be royal treatment for a human…”The cat had sounded sure of itself initially, but Andie could feel its doubt by the end.
She decided to ignore the nagging feeling in the back of her mind that told her to question why this cat wanted to give her royal treatment. A different question popped into her head. “We didn’t die, right?”
“Neither of you are dead,”the cat replied,“though we cannot guarantee your sister’s safety if she tries to take a spirit from its resting place.”Orion’s voice was still smooth—elegant—but didn’t hide the hint of malice.
The cat paused before proceeding.“You feel the same…do you not?”
How could he know that?
