Page 93 of Bound Paths
“What did you do?” Aterra roared. His magic pushed against theirs, but Rose understood it better this time. She also understood that this place wasn’t helping him like the wild magic at the Lake of the Gods had. “Why didn’t the power transfer work?” Aterra growled, his head swiveling from side to side as he assessed the threat of the Compass Points.
He moved again, reaching for Luc with the ring but finding himself held in place. His power flared, and the dungeon quaked with his rage. Stones crumbled, and loose rocks scattered, but this was far from the power he’d displayed beneath the Lake of the Gods. Aterra’s power had limits here. It would have limits where he was being taken as well. The space between worlds had no earth to manipulate. His element would be meaningless there.
Rose pushed the stream of magic within her even harder as Aterra reached for Luc again. Even if it was pointless, she couldn’t stand the thought of this father who’d abandoned him trying to further abuse his connection.
“Are you going to tell him? Or should I?”Rose asked through the bond.
“Consider it one of the first gifts I’ll give you,”he said.“The first in a long line of ways I’ll make this up to you.”She smiled as he teased her. As much as she had enjoyed him on his knees,crawling to her in the heart of her magic, there was no ledger between them.
“One doesn’t preclude the other,”he said, hearing her thoughts and winking at her across the room.
“It won’t work,” she shouted at Aterra. A smile grew as she said the words that would bring his plan crumbling to the ground. “He’s no longer the Suden Point.”
“What do you mean? Of course, he’s the Suden Point! He’s the most powerful Suden on the continent! I made sure of it!” Aterra roared. The ground shook beneath him as his magic struggled against Rose’s hold.
“But I’m no longer on the continent,” Luc said with his wicked smile. “And I felt it was a dereliction of duty not to have a Suden Point in my absence. I wanted to ensure we had a leader incorruptible by your plans, a leader who would do what needed to be done for the Suden people and the continent.” Luc gestured to Darren, who held his gaze briefly, accepting his words with his own nod—his own acknowledgement of what he would do.
“Ready Carter?” Rose asked. Aterra may be weaker here, but sweat still dripped down her brow as she channeled the magic of the Compass Points to hold him.
He stalked closer to Aterra but didn’t shift. Rose would lose his power through the connection as soon as he did. They needed Aterra to be immobile, and they would only have seconds to make this work.
Luc seemed to realize what she needed. While the Compass Points’ hold leashed Aterra, he yanked the ring off his father’s finger. “I’ll be taking this back.” He didn’t hesitate, repeating the motions from under Mount Bury. With the ring on his finger, he stabbed Aterra with the already outstretched point. The same point Aterra had tried to use against him.
Aterra froze momentarily.
Carter growled as he fell to all fours in his veil cat form.
The magic around them changed as Cassandra allowed Carter the freedom to move within the castle walls.
Carter wrapped his mouth around Aterra’s leg, and Luc grabbed Carter’s scruff. For a brief moment, Carter’s yellow-green eyes searched the room as if looking for the best path to cross. He stared at the cave wall next to the cell. His gaze pierced the stone. Then he jumped, the passage to the continent opening before them as it had above the river and out on the plains. The veil cat didn’t hesitate, pulling the Suden god and demigod along with him.
The hole didn’t close, but they were running out of time. Luc’s move to stun Aterra would only buy them so long.
Seconds that felt like hours later, Carter returned—alone. Luc was placed in the Osten caves, and Cassandra was here. Together, they would close off this passageway between realms, sealing Aterra’s fate. Rose remembered Cassandra’s words: “You must know I can’t do it alone,” she’d told Carter. The Vesten Point seemed ready to do whatever he’d bargained for as he stalked to Cassandra’s side in his animal form.
The Lady of the Veil’s hand went to his scruff. Instead of jumping into the passage, Rose felt a pull of magic.
Cassandra had said she couldn’t do it alone. Carter had said he was at her service. As the magic flowed in the castle dungeon, Rose knew he offered himself to bolster whatever magic Cassandra needed. Power flowed between them. Rose had only ever seen this much power exchanged when the Compass Points merged their magic. She swallowed and hoped Carter knew what he was doing.
She was familiar enough with Carter’s magic that she felt it heating the room as Cassandra pulled so hard his element took over. The cyclical nature of flame and shift had never been more evident to Rose than in this moment. Carter’s power flared hot like his element and cooled like a spirit falling into the icyriver surrounding these lands. His magic twisted with whatever Cassandra’s power was, and it seemed to both burn and freeze the hole between realms as it started to seal.
Aterra roared as he awoke from the ring’s strike in the darkness. She heard his yells but didn’t feel his earth magic at all—there was nothing to use against them where he was. The pathway through the wall Carter had opened continued to seal with the combination of his and Cassandra’s magic.
“I’ve closed it here. He won’t be able to get through,”Luc said through the bond.
“He’s done it,” Rose said, alerting Cassandra and Carter.
Cassandra’s fingers dug impossibly further into Carter’s scruff as she requested more magic. The veil cat growled, setting off a chorus of noise from the pack of veil cats standing guard around the Lady. With this final pull on the connection between Cassandra and Carter, the pathway sealed.
They had done it.
Carter shifted back into his fae form. He looked as if he would reach for Cassandra momentarily—his hand outstretched—but it gently fell to his side as he looked at the mark on the wall their magic had created.
Even though it had only been the two of them, and Luc on the other side, the symbol on the wall looked strangely like a compass. It was a circle with locks over the four cardinal direction points.
Rose wanted to believe it would hold. More than anything, she wanted to see what Luc had done on the other side.
“I’ll be back,” Carter told Cassandra, realizing the group needed him to leave.
