Page 92 of Bound Paths
Rose tried to tell herself they’d done everything they could. They’d prepared for every outcome. Luc had survived being struck by this once before. Aterra had survived when Luc struck him with the same magic.
The breath left Rose’s lungs as Luc’s body shook, absorbing the power. He took another step to get away from his father but crumpled to the ground.
“This place has its own magic—more than the continent,” Aterra said. “I have the artifact and the Suden Point’s blood and…” They all watched as Luc stood again. A blank sheen covered his dark brown eyes, making Rose deeply uncomfortable as Aterra finished speaking. “Now I have his will.”
Luc nodded and said, “Take what you need, Father.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Aterra’s brow creased, his confusion evident as he pulled harder on Luc’s magic to get the power boost he’d plotted for. With every moment that passed, he tried to dig deeper into the magic. His confusion was understandable. Rose had seen how easily the power flowed when the process worked, as the Compass Points had tested between Arie and Carter.
Aterra had done everything right. As he said—he had the artifact, he was in a place of great magic, and he’d stolen the will and blood from Luc.
The problem was—Luc was no longer Suden Point.
Rose used Aterra’s momentary confusion to ready the Compass Points’ magic. She dove into her lake of power. The connections to Carter and Juliette were easy to find. The tree trunk tunnel that mirrored the passage on Vesten property, and the windswept doorway that mirrored the entrance to the portal at Osten house.
What would this new connection look like?
She stood on the shore of her lake and looked for something new. Luc was still connected to her through her lakebed. That onyx presence wasn’t going anywhere—it was a part of her now.Even in his crumpled state, as he fought off the magic of the Suden ring, his power was sure and steady beneath the waters.
This connection point would be like Carter’s and Juliette’s, outside of the water, on the shore. Only now, searching for a new one, did she realize how intimate it was that even Luc’s initial connection, the tunnel, was in her water—the very heart of her magic.
She should have known from the beginning that their connection was something different. Maybe she did.
“We were always something different. Something the continent wasn’t ready for—but what it needed nonetheless.”She smiled as Luc’s voice pierced her thoughts. He must be waking.
The earth shook beneath her feet. When she looked up, a hole appeared past the southern shoreline.
Rose ran to it. It was deep, and she couldn’t see a bottom. She hoped this harkened back to Darren’s feelings about the hole in Loch, and wasn’t a way to tear through the heart of her magic. She smiled to herself—her connection point with Darren, would start with his perception of Luc. She peered into the hole and sent her magic gently into it, requesting whatever he was willing to offer.
Darren’s magic shook the ground in acceptance. They were ready.
Rose released the breath she’d been holding as she left the heart of her magic, and Luc returned to himself. The slight curl of his lip into her favorite smirk was its own kind of reward. He pushed himself up.
“He’s all yours, love,”Luc said.
Aterra shook his head as he noted the tilt of Luc’s head, a signal he was mentally communicating with Rose. He clenched his teeth together as he finally realized something hadn’t gone his way.
“What did you do?” He glared at Rose like this was all her fault. She shrugged, unbothered, though unwilling to waste Aterra’s momentary confusion.
Rose ignited the connections to the Compass Points. She reached into the heart of her power and pulled their magic together. Water, wind, fire, and earth magic rushed through her, meeting in a central stream of magic directly pointed at the Suden god.
They’d done this in the cavern below Mount Bury. They’d held a god but had nowhere to put him. Luc had made a decision for them by taking Aterra here—beyond the veil. Rose respected his decision. It was the best they had at the time. But Cassandra was right. The veil wasn’t a dumping ground for the continent. The realms were connected, as Carter had argued. Both realms needed to be balanced for everyone to thrive on the continent and in their afterlife.
That worked for Rose. They had a new plan for Aterra. He wanted to strengthen his own power. He tried to rule whatever land he occupied. They would give him no land to occupy, making it impossible for him to plot. They would put him in a space where no one resided.
The idea had come to Rose slowly. Although her and Carter’s journey proved the space between realms was vaster than it appeared, the shared memory of Luc’s journey gave her the initial spark. The space between the continent and beyond the veil wasn’t easily traveled by any party.
Rose thought again of Zrak’s words about her and Luc’s relationship being the key to his choices. It was, in more ways than she could truly understand. Luc had thrown himself into the void without knowing how to cross beyond the veil. He didn’t have the innate skill that Carter’s veil cat did in understanding the paths between realms. No, it was Luc’s connection to Rose that drove him forward. He knew where his bound partner was,and though she knew what it cost him from the memory he shared, he knew to cross; he had to walk away from her.
He had to walk through the emptiness.
He had to cross the expanse of nothing.
Rose was glad he did because it was the perfect place to store a god who strove to be all-powerful. He could be all-powerful over the nothing between realms.
Rose glanced at Carter as the combined power of the Compass Points poured forth, pushing against the deflection Aterra attempted.
