Chapter 19
Evelyn
We relocated to a table with Lord Arctos. My spine straightened at the fact that everyone stared at us. Word had spread that the Vesten God was in Sandrin. Most still considered it a novelty that he appeared on the continent at all.
It did nothing to ease the tension that crept into my shoulders. The tavern had been near empty when Ambrose and I walked in. It had still been the end of the workday. Now, the whole place was filled. I hadn’t even noticed. I’d been too invested in my conversation with Ambrose.
I couldn’t believe all the ground we’d covered.
His father’s accident had occurred while experimenting with mulberries?
He’d told Gabriel about me at the Records Office?
The facts didn’t overlay well with my picture of the library’s golden boy who wanted to see me and my rogue experimentation methods gone.
Lord Arctos looked at me expectantly, holding out a chair at the table for me to sit.
How long had he been waiting? The dull roar of patrons around us swallowed my “thank you” as I sat.
While I was happy for Seraphina and her booming business, I wasn’t sure this was the best location for this discussion.
Anyone might have been listening. Ambrose and I needed information on the blood magic connection between the gods and their Compass Points.
It was supposedly a secret, but Lord Arctos didn’t appear worried. He ordered a drink and food immediately from Mina like he’d been waiting all day for this very moment. “Luna has been raving about this place. It better be as good as she says.”
“You had us come here because Luna recommended it?” I asked.
He nodded. “What else are you supposed to do in a new city?”
Ambrose cleared his throat. “This city isn’t exactly … new to you … is it?”
Lord Arctos gave him a flat stare. “You may be surprised to learn that the dining establishments in a city change over hundreds of years.”
I raised my glass to my lips to hide the smile that threatened when Ambrose’s ears pinkened with the chastisement.
“So, what were you two discussing? Any progress on breaking your own little connection?” He looked directly at me.
I felt Ambrose’s gaze on my cheek, and parts of our conversation flashed back through my mind, warming me from the inside.
What was I supposed to say about our progress?
I’d shared more than I intended—about Mom, and finding my father.
How much had Ambrose meant to share? We wouldn’t know if it worked until we physically separated.
“We’re trying something.”
Lord Arctos glanced dismissively at his fingernails. “What are we trying?”
On a deep sigh, I explained. “We are trying to work through the magic. If we complete the magic’s original objective, it won’t be needed anymore.”
Something lit in Lord Arctos’s green eyes. They flicked to Ambrose. “And has everyone come clean about their intent?”
I honestly had no idea how he knew that, but I guessed it didn’t surprise me that he did.
Ambrose, on the other hand, sputtered. “How do you know we both had intent?”
Lord Arctos leaned back in his chair in a sprawl that would have looked lazy on anyone else, but somehow Lord Arctos always appeared formal. “I’m a god.”
This time, I glared at him. “It’s a real question. The information could help us.”
He sighed, clearly bored again with the conversation. “The magic connecting you, I can see it tied in the middle.”
Ambrose and I stared at each other. My brain was stuck on the fact that Lord Arctos could see magic.
Again, he was a god. Who knew what he was capable of?
He seemed to enjoy dropping magical facts like little sprinkles of whimsy in a dull conversation.
Either way, I was glad when Ambrose finally spoke.
“You can see the magic connecting us?”
He shrugged. “Yes, and if anything, the knot has tightened. I’m not sure what you’re doing is working.”
I opened my mouth to continue questioning that, but he cut me off.
“I asked you both here to talk about the next steps in my problem. Although it’s not reassuring that you’ve failed to solve your own.”
I rubbed my temples. This conversation was giving me a headache.
“The Osten God wanted me to share more information with you if you figured out where the magic was enacted on your own. Even with your own situation”—he waved his hand between us—“you were quick to identify the creation of the fae as the origin. So here is what I know: His intent was to share.”
Lord Arctos spread his arms like he’d dropped some all-powerful truth at the table. Ambrose and I stared at each other, blinking. His intent was to share. I wasn’t sure what to do with this particular piece of information.
“We need more,” Ambrose said.
Lord Arctos pursed his lips. “Zrak is the one who concocted the magic to create the fae. I thought you were a history expert, but since that assumption is proving incorrect, let me hand you the details.” He cleared his throat like he was preparing to enrapture us with storytime.
“The gods created the fae to keep our power in check. It was about balance. We had made enough mistakes with our power, we needed a group on the continent that could—”
I rolled my eyes at the Vesten God and cut off his lecture.
“Yes, yes, one doesn’t have to be the library’s golden boy to know this story.
Even I know it. In addition to making the fae, you also sacrificed one of yourselves to further tip the scales in the continent’s direction.
Hence, our confusion at your referencing the Osten God. Wasn’t he the one sacrificed?”
The Vesten God smirked. “Don’t worry so much about the why or how of the message. Just know that the message is factual. Zrak was to sacrifice himself after the creation of the fae, and therefore, he intended for magic to continue to be shared between him and his creation when he was gone.”
I guessed the spirit of the intent was what mattered.
Lord Arctos indicated it was sharing. Yet, what he and Gabriel had described in the briefing was something more akin to taking.
It wasn’t an enormous leap to realize one of these beings with immense power must have sought more than Zrak’s original intent.
A god or a Compass Point must have wanted more power than they were allotted and so decided to leverage this seemingly benevolent connection to do so.
The whole situation left me unsurprised and a little disappointed.
This was why we couldn’t have nice things.
“So…” Ambrose attempted to pick up the thread. “If Zrak’s intent was to share magic, do we know what each of the other gods’ intent was? Presumably, you each gave some of your blood to create your fae courts?”
Ambrose was much kinder than I was. I had already concluded what had gone wrong in the magic—I assumed the worst of the participants.
Though I was unfortunately confident in my assumption, as a researcher, I knew Ambrose’s method was the right one.
My hypothesis was just that until it was proven or disproven.
Lord Arctos looked unimpressed with the question. “We each followed Zrak’s lead. He told us what to do, how to create the fae.”
“Essentially, any one of you could have realized there was room for interpretation and shoved in your own intent?” I asked.
The tapping of Lord Arctos’s fingers on the tabletop was his only response.
Thankfully, our food was delivered, granting the Vesten God a brief moment of excitement at his first spoonful of beef stew before we had to return to the nefarious intent of one or more of his peers at the creation of the fae.
“Luna was correct. This is delicious. She really should be the one writing that recommendation column, not Vincent.”
I laughed. That recommendation column was her favorite thing to read. It was what had brought her and Vincent together in the most roundabout way. I was sure she’d love to hear Lord Arctos consider her an expert in recommendations.
Ambrose and I also tucked into the food we’d ordered.
As we each took a moment of silence, I considered our options.
If we didn’t know the other gods’ intents, could we try to work through the magic?
If the hidden intent was … intentionally to take …
was there a way to work through such magic at all?
Furthermore, if Lord Arctos didn’t think that what Ambrose and I attempted for our own magical connection was working, what chance did it have on the gods and Compass Points?
There was still another option.
“What about an anchor?” I asked. We hadn’t fully explored that possibility. Lord Arctos had been incredibly ambiguous in our questions about the object used in his ceremony with the Vesten Point.
Ambrose’s brows lifted. “We would need more information about the object used in your ceremony. What was it? Where is it now?”
“I want you two to go to Compass Lake,” Lord Arctos said as he took another sip of his drink. “You’ll find all the answers to your inane questions there.”
“Excuse me?” Ambrose asked, pausing the progress of his spoon to his lips. Something twitched within me as I noticed how full they were. Unfortunately, he chose that precise moment to look at me. My gaze darted away, hoping he didn’t notice I’d been staring.
“I want you two to go to Compass Lake. You have all the information you can find on this matter from the library. The Vesten Point can answer these questions for you. Then the only thing left to do is test. If I know anything about this magic, it’s that location matters.
A place of importance to the magic itself.
That means we need to test at Compass Lake, where the creation of the fae happened. ”
“You’re sending both of us?” I asked.
Lord Arctos smirked and seemed to glance at some imaginary thread between us, although it wasn’t so imaginary to him. “I doubt you could separate even if you wanted to.”
I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned back in my chair. “We’ll test on you and the Vesten Point?”
He nodded, taking another bite of his stew. “It will give you both face time with Carter. Then he can decide who he wants as his historian.”
I didn’t appreciate Lord Arctos’s smirk, given as if to remind us that the historian position still hung in the balance between us. He was enjoying this whole thing entirely too much.
“When do we leave?” Ambrose asked.
“Tonight. You should be able to make it to the Crossroads Inn this evening, and then I can meet you at Vesten House tomorrow. I’m assuming the two of you can move faster up and down the mountain leading to Compass Lake in your shifted forms than on horseback.”
Ambrose was looking at me with a hint of concern.
I shared his worry, but I didn’t want to discuss it in front of Lord Arctos.
My inability to call my veil cat on demand was not something the Vesten God needed to know.
Ambrose must have read my determination in the hardening lines of my face. He glanced away, thoughtful.
All I could do was try. Either I would shift, or Ambrose would get to test the Vesten Point and Vesten God without me. I ignored the growing anxiety bubbling in my stomach. With a nod to Lord Arctos, I replied, “That works for me.”
Ambrose rolled his eyes at me before he responded. “That works for me, too.”