Page 87 of Bound Paths
“My Nebulus caused their sleep. I won’t further explain my reasons. You know it was the only way I had to bring all of you together. To correct it—to awaken those impacted—is similar to holding a god in check.” He looked knowingly at Rose. “I understand you learned how to harness that ability amongst yourselves.”
“We could have removed it the entire time?” Rose couldn’t believe it was something so simple. Her mind raced as she thought about correcting the problem now. Her heart plummeted in her chest again. They couldn’t fix this until they had Luc back. The problem of Aterra still eluded them.
“Not quite,” Zrak said, halting her thoughts in their tracks. “It’s not only the power to hold a god you need, but a sacrifice—like the sacrifice made to right the original imbalance.”
The Compass Points looked at each other slowly, sure they misunderstood him somehow. A sacrifice—like Zrak was supposed to have done? How would they merge their powers to wake those sleeping if one of them had to sacrifice their existence? Their haunted looks must have alerted Zrak to their confusion.
Zrak coughed. “No, sorry,” he said, wiping his hands in the air as if to erase his words. “Not the exact same. Just a sacrifice from each Compass Point—something important to each court.”
Rose tilted her head. What had Juliette said? Nothing was ever easy with him.
“What’s the sacrifice exactly?” Carter asked.
“That is for you to decide.” It seemed his favorite refrain. “As you said, you four—the Suden Point included—will be the ones to clean this up. You’ll have to give something of worth or power as an offering to restore the balance.”
“Gods dammit, Zrak!” Juliette lost her internal struggle. “Why have you left us in this position?” Pages flipped in the open books on the table. The curtains in the window where Zrak stood blew in a gust. Juliette was losing her grip on her magic.
“Would you believe me if I told you this was the best possible outcome?” He sighed and rubbed his brow. He had to know that wasn’t enough. “Every other option I had left the continent destroyed.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Rose wasn’t sure what to make of Zrak. As much as she found him insufferably frustrating, he seemed to genuinely care about the outcome for the continent.
The idea Rose and Luc had started to shape needed to solidify before they acted. They needed one more conversation with everyone before proceeding. Rose wouldn’t risk not bringing Luc home again.
She left Juliette and Carter to harass Zrak and searched for Arie. He was pacing in the hallway as if he’d been trying to decide whether to enter the room.
“Are you going to come in?” she asked, closing the door to the Norden library behind her.
Arie’s eyes narrowed. “Is he still there?”
Rose laughed. “Where do you think he would have gone?” She turned back to look at the closed door. “You can hear him in there.”
“I don’t know. Who knows anything about him?” Arie’s voice started to rise.
“I know you’re angry with him, but maybe you should cut him some slack.” She glanced at the library door again.
Arie’s eyes widened. “Why?”
“We’re all guilty of trying to solve this thing on our own. You, by protecting me and ultimately guiding me back to Compass Lake. Me, thinking I had to find out how the Compass Points would hold Aterra. Luc, taking Aterra off the continent...” She sighed. “We’ve all had plans.” She shrugged. “Zrak’s plan may have more information than some of ours did, but the only certain thing is our plans don’t work when we don’t share them with each other.” She ran a hand through her hair. “I only figured out how the Compass Points could work together when I explained what I was doing. It was difficult for me to give everyone all of the facts. Just like it was difficult for you to share who you were, and that was after only ten years.” She looked at her friend, making sure he heard her. “Zrak has been making his own plans for as long as the continent has existed. He’s not used to explaining himself or sharing information. His habit will be harder to break.”
“If he were anyone else, I’d agree with you. But Zrak…” He sighed. “He was supposed to be the best of us, planning for the future we all wanted for the continent.” Arie ran a hand through his hair.
“Don’t you think this might be you putting him on a bit of a pedestal?” Rose asked quietly. “Why did you believe that of him but not yourself? He’s no more infallible than you are. In fact, he’s made many of the same mistakes you have.” She laughed.
Arie glared like he didn’t find her comment all that amusing. His lips formed a tight line. He looked like he would respond to her jab—something about being a god and never making mistakes. It was only weeks ago he’d apologized to her for not sharing his secrets. He had acknowledged when they spoke after her first battle with Aterra that he’d made a bad call. They were all guilty of trying to make plans and solve the problem independently. “You might have a point,” he mumbled.
“Of course I do. I’m the Norden Point,” Rose said, mocking Arie’s usual phrase.
“Do you know what you’ll do with Aterra?” he asked. “That’s the only reason I contemplated going back in there.” He gestured toward the library. His brow was furrowed, and he looked worried. Rose never saw him seriously show concern over her actions. Arie, like Luc, seemed to think her capable of anything.
“I think so,” she said. “Come back to the library. Let’s talk it through.”
“You think so?” his voice rose again, but this was a more familiar exasperation. “You’re going to lure me back into the library with a half-baked plan?” he asked. “And we still haven’t discussed how you will balance Luc’s power in his position as Suden Point when he returns to the continent.”
She nodded. “I know, Arie.”
Arie raised his brows. “You’re far too calm about this. Threatening the Suden Point’s return should have had you cursing us all.” He tilted his head.
