Page 85 of Bound Paths
Rose couldn’t disagree there. She and Arie had lived together for a decade without either admitting what they were. Rose, the rightful Norden leader, and Arie, the Vesten god.
“What about my Vesten Point?” Arie baited him. Don’t you think I deserved to know your plans for him?
“Now he’s yours?” Zrak laughed darkly. “I heard the Vesten Point’s secrets. One of them being that he feared his patron had no use for him!”
Arie’s gaze finally left Zrak’s, fixing on Carter. His face seemed to soften momentarily in regret. Then he shook his head, the flame of his anger overtaking any gentler emotions. “He didn’t need me. Rose did...no thanks to you,” he added.
“You could never imagine the responsibility. The weight of knowing these secrets. Of piecing together the paths we could take, but knowing there was only one chance of preventing another natural disaster.”
Arie pulled his hand down his face. “We might have if you’d shared it with us. But I guess we’ll never see how that could have turned out.” He turned to walk away. Aurora took his hand, but before they left, she had her own words for Zrak.
“Do what they want, Zrak. Don’t make us get involved further. You’ve meddled to get us to this point. Let them finish this. Tell them everything you know. They don’t deserve what we’ve left for them.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Zrak didn’t put up a fight as the Compass Points led him back to Norden house. Arie had been angry, yes, but Rose suspected it was his final disappointment that moved Zrak. The straight-backed, stoic god was gone. In his place was the Lost God, who appeared to finally reflect the name.
Carter went to get Juliette since he was the fastest. Rose hoped Carter would catch her up on the walk to Norden house. Juliette had more reasons than most to be upset with Zrak. Learning he had kept another power of the Osten a secret might push her over the edge. And that didn’t begin to contemplate if she would inherit the power with Zrak’s return to the continent.
“I don’t know what else you want from me,” Zrak said as he looked out the front window over Compass Lake. His back was to Rose. She was the only one in the room with him. Arie and Aurora made noises as they moved around the house, but so far, they had refused to enter the library. Aurora must be trying to calm Arie down. Rose hoped Aurora won him over soon. They both needed to join them when the Compass Points returned. No matter Arie’s anger or disappointment, he should still hear what Zrak had to say.
“We just need the information you have,” Rose said. “What are we supposed to do with Aterra? We can’t hold him indefinitely.” Rose ran her hand through her hair and tied it back as she spoke. She had more questions than she realized. They still had a lot of ground to cover.
“You mean your bound partner can’t hold him indefinitely,” Zrak said as he gestured across the lake to Suden house.
“I wonder how our relationship is relevant in your grand plan,” she replied sarcastically.
“That, Rose, was one of the most fascinating secrets I’ve heard in my existence. It gave me hope that the idea of the Compass Points might work.” Zrak lit up just a little as he spoke. It was the most genuine he had sounded yet. Rose decided to try to leverage it.
“One set of bound fae put you on this path?” She waved her hands around them. “This plan to mess with all of our lives?”
“Not just one set.Theset,” he said enthusiastically. He was like an explorer recounting his discovery. “The Norden Point and Suden Point. Not only from different courts but the rightful leaders of each.” He finally turned from the window, and his gaze narrowed as he focused on her. “It seems so normal to you, given how your relationship with the Suden Point evolved—but I assure you, it is anything but.”
“My and Luc’s relationship is our business—not yours. I’ll not have some god claiming credit for us.” Rose didn’t want to think of how many secrets Zrak knew. How many must have come his way from the present and future in order to build his plan. She was unwilling to be considered a feather in his cap.
“You miss my point. I freely admit your relationship was and is outside of my control.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “Just imagine you had all these options to right the imbalance of the continent. Some involve untold devastation, others bickering leaders, and still others violence and loss.” He sighed. “Bickeringleaders was the best choice I had—but knowing that one day the leaders of the Norden and Suden courts would defy convention and fight for what they knew they had, enough to save the continent? It made my choice simple.”
“And you know what Luc is?” Rose asked. They hadn’t dwelt on it, but her mind kept circling the fact that Luc was a demigod. She felt his presence in her mind as Zrak responded.
“It would have been risky, loosing a demigod onto the continent, any way you look at it. But knowing the demigod was the bound partner of the Norden Point made things clearer.”
“How so?” Rose pressed. She knew this would be the answer to what they sought with Aterra. She just wasn’t sure she was going to like it.
“I’ll do whatever is needed, Rose. You know that.”
“That is exactly what we won’t be doing,”Rose shot back.“We’ll see what this god knows. What he thinks you can do. And we’ll discuss our options.”
Rose could feel Luc’s smirk through the bond.“Of course, love,”he teased her, but she didn’t care. The sound of the wordloveon his lips, even through their bond, was enough to send shivers through her body. She took a deep breath. He would not be the self-sacrificing idiot again.
“That—”
“If you tell me that is for me to find out, I will drown you in Compass Lake,” Rose said. Her water magic was stirring before she could decide if the threat was a real one.
Zrak held his hands up in surrender, though she noted the twitch of his lip as he did. This was not funny. Zrak was less than helpful to them in everything they tried. What good was hearing secrets of the future if he did nothing with them? She supposed that wasn’t right. He thought he was doing something. He just wouldn’t share the information with those who needed it.
“If Luc is a demigod…he has to at least be able to counteract Aterra’s greed and provide balance within the Suden.” She paused, considering. They didn’t want to repeat Zrak’s mistakes. Whatever they did with Aterra, they didn’t want to leave the Suden’s magic diluted. “That would position him as a god, though, not the Suden Point.”
“It’s a good thing I prefer Mr. Norden Point now.”
