03] ES) Firestorm

by Shannon Mayer

  PRAISE FOR THE ELEMENTAL SERIES

  "I love Shannon's Rylee Adamson series . . . and I was wonderfully surprised that I loved her Elemental Series even more!"

  -Denise Grover Swank USAT & NYT Bestselling Author of the "Chosen Series"

  "I could not put it down and greedily consumed it in one sitting!"

  -Books In Veins

  "I think Larkspur aka Lark is the new heroine to watch out for . . ."

  -Coffee Book Mom Reviews

  “What a fantastic start to a new fantasy series! I love a strong female lead and we were delivered that in spades with Larkspur . . . This story is fast paced and exciting right from the start. I can't wait to see what comes next!”

  -Boundless Book Reviews

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  To all those who have dived without hesitation into Lark’s world. Thank you for believing in me as a writer, and in Lark as your new heroine. Firestorm couldn’t have come about without Tina Winograd, Jean Faganello (aka Mom), Lysa Lessieur and Damonza (cover art). Thank you for helping me bring yet another story into the light. Or in this case, into the flames . . .

  CHAPTER 1

  agma’s hands dug into my arms, pinning them back at an angle sharp enough that my shoulders threatened to pop out of joint. Around us, the redwoods of the Rim swayed, the trunks groaning as the wind pushed at them. In the distance a long howl of a wolf made me think for just a moment that maybe Griffin would come back and help Ash and me escape the hold the Salamanders—aka fire elementals—had on us. But there was no sound of running pads on the ground, no snarl of a wolf as he attacked our captors to help free us.

  I shouldn’t have been surprised. A month past, Ash and I had gone into the fire elementals’ home, the Pit, in search of a cure for the lung burrowers that were wiping out our people. We’d been turned away, but I didn’t take no for an answer. Ultimately, we did find the cure, and our family was saved. But the cost was high and there were several deaths. All at the end of my spear. For a time, I’d thought we’d escaped punishment.

  I scanned the forest looking for any sign of movement and saw none; there was no one coming to our rescue, no one coming to tell the Salamanders to let us go. Though we were in the Rim, we were once again on our own. Apparently even my father had given up on me, handing us over to Queen Fiametta and the Pit after specifically telling me he would never do that to any of his children. How quickly things changed in my life and my understanding of those around me.

  Again.

  Turning my head slowly, making myself not react to the pain, I glared at Maggie.

  “Maggie, we’ve already said we’d go with you.”

  She snorted, her orange eyes narrowing. “Magma, not Maggie, we are not friends.” Her fingernails cut into my bare skin, and trickles of warm blood slid down my upper arms into the crooks of my elbows. “A liar like you can’t be trusted, so I think we’ll be doing things my way.” The other three Enders with her laughed, but I didn’t even look at them. They were not my problem at the moment. She tightened her hold on me as if to emphasize the point that she was indeed in charge.

  I made myself smile through the throbbing ache in my upper back and shoulders and took a shot in the dark. “Your fellow Enders don’t think much of you, do they? Letting me slip into the Pit, then escape while you just stood there and watched must have really set you down in the ranks. Especially since I’m just a lowly earth elemental.”

  From the right of me, Ash let out a low groan. “Lark, don’t push her.”

  But it was too late for taking the words back, and I wouldn’t have anyway, not after everything Ash and I had been through in the Deep. After surviving the world of the Undines—water elementals—I wasn’t sure I had it in me to be patient or forgiving of anyone who didn’t have Terraling—earth elemental—blood running through their veins.

  Maggie, Magma to me now if I let her have her way, let out a low rumbling hiss, the sound reminiscent of a bellows in a forge. “When they execute you, the smile on my face will be the last thing you see.”

  I looked away from her, but the scene around me didn’t give much hope. The Enders surrounding us were dressed in black from head to toe, their ensembles completed by their long black cloaks, and three-foot-long narrow black clubs that hung from their belts. Unlike our Ender clothes that consisted of dark and light browns, a vest and pants, the Enders from the pit were covered up entirely. Right down to the thick black boots they wore. If it weren’t for their varying shades of brilliant red hair, they would have been monotone from top to bottom.

  The Ender holding Ash glared at me and I realized I knew him too. We’d met before. “Match?”

  He’d been with Maggie when they’d met us at the door of the Pit when all we’d wanted was help from their healers. He’d fought us, as had Maggie, and that started what ultimately led me to kill not one or two, but four of the Pit’s Enders.

  “Don’t talk to me,” he growled, baring his teeth at me. “You aren’t getting away from us this time. Your sentencing is going to be swift, and even your king can’t deny us this right.” I realized, as he glared at me, that Maggie wasn’t the only one who’d been made to look like a fool.

  Maggie’s words, and his finally, sank into my mind. The sentence for one Ender killing another was very simple. Death at the hands of the offended party, which in my case was the Pit. Magma dragged me forward a few steps alongside Ash. He caught my eye. “Just follow my lead.”

  Match cuffed him in the head, hard enough to split the skin over his left eye. “Shut your filthy mouth, Terraling.”

  Ash’s mouth twitched and he glared at Match. “Brave boy now that you have all your friends with you.”

  Match grunted as if he’d been punched. “I warned you.”

  The Ender slid his long black club from his belt and swung it toward Ash. As the club fell, I leapt toward them, dragging Maggie with me a few steps before she let me go. My right shoulder popped out of joint with a tearing crunch but it didn’t stop me. Momentum took over and I crashed into Ash, sending us both to the ground as the club whipped over us. Match let out a roar and I scrambled to stand upright, whimpering as my shoulder socket twisted again.

  The other Enders seemed surprised. As if they couldn’t believe we’d fight back. “Ready to run?” I asked, as I tried to think past the throbbing ache in my shoulder. I backed away from the Enders, pushing Ash with me. If we could get moving, we had a chance at outrunning them.

  “Your father said we should go with them without a fight—”

  “And you think that’s a good idea?”

  Ash didn’t answer and I knew I was right, we both did. My father was not in his right mind; he hadn’t been for a long time. And until the mental wounds Cassava inflicted on him healed, we couldn’t trust him.

  We truly were on our own.

  A slow building anger started in my belly and spread outward to my hands where the iron manacles clamped my wrists. I fed the power of the earth inherent to me into the iron, pulling the ore apart, molecule by molecule, until they fell to the ground at my feet.

  Maggie stared at me and the curl of red lines, indicators of her power climbing her hand, was the only warning I had that she was about to blast us with her element. Fire danced from her hands and onto the ground around us creating a perfect circle. I flicked my hand and the earth covered the fire, putting it out as easily as breathing.

  At least easy enough when I was angry and I could reach my power. Without anger backing me, I couldn’t tap into the earth and the power within it. A flaw I didn’t know how to change.

  “Maybe in the Pit you rule, Maggie. But not here.” She glared at me, and I backed away, bumping into Ash. Except it wasn’t Ash.

  It was another Ender
from the Pit, one I didn’t know. He dug his hand into my busted up shoulder, his fingers scooping into the open joint. I screamed, unable to stop the sound from escaping me anymore than I could stop myself from dropping to my knees. The world swayed as the Ender put more pressure on the joint. The sounds of people yelling, and the rush of bodies around us was about all I could make out.

  There was a flash of green and gold and suddenly Fern, my father’s current wife, stood in front of me trying to stop Maggie and the other Enders from the Pit. Her belly swelled with what would be a younger sibling for me, but even so, she fought for us.

  “I am the queen here and I forbid you taking my Enders!” she snapped, pointing at Maggie.

  Goddess love her, she was trying. Another voice rose in defiance and I could hardly understand what I was seeing.

  Coal stood next to Fern, his back to me but I would know him anywhere. My on-again-and-currently-off-again lover whose hand I’d been forced to cut off in order for him to survive the catastrophe that was the lung burrowers. The last I’d spoken with him, he’d gone more than a little crazy. Something that happened often to those elementals who lost a body part.

  Yet there he was, fighting for me. He put his remaining hand on Match’s chest and shoved. “She’s mine. No one is taking her from me.” Well, there went the warm and fuzzies.

  I looked around again, now no stars dancing in front of my eyes. Ash was flat on the ground, his face pressed into the dirt. He wasn’t fighting back though and I knew I couldn’t get us both out of this mess on my own. The pain had overridden the anger and I couldn’t reach my connection to the earth any longer.

  The Ender holding me down squeezed again and I rolled my head back to stare up at him. His red hair was lighter than the others’ from the Pit, almost a blond if not for the distinct red undertones. “Think you can ease up?”

  He grinned at me and I was reminded of Eel, an Undine I’d faced in the Deep who had a penchant for hurting people. “Nah, I like you on your knees in front of me, little Terraling. You look good down there.”

  I tried to pull away but he bore down and the world darkened for a moment as the pain consumed my consciousness.

  There was screaming and yelling and I struggled to lift my head because even that movement tweaked the tendons and ligaments I’d torn. Coal picked up Fern and carried her out of the way. His eyes met mine in a brief flash of green. “I’m sorry, Lark. I can’t save you.”

  I let out a breath. “You never could. This isn’t anything new.”

  His face hardened, and behind me, the Ender laughed. “Oh, a spunky one. I hope your trial goes for weeks. You know, I’m one of the guards from the dungeons. I’ll be taking care of you. Personally.”

  How was I not surprised?

  Things seemed to slow for a moment, and the sound of my heart hammered in my ears as the leather clad Enders parted. My father walked toward us, but I had no hope in him saving us. I’d lost faith in him a long time ago.

  “I wish to have a word with my Enders before they go to their punishment,” he said, his normally rich voice holding a distinct tremor to it. Maggie grunted.

  “If you try to free them, we will not stand for it.”

  He waved her off as if she were a buzzing gnat, and stopped in front of me. Slowly he dropped to a crouch so we were eye to eye.

  “Your Majesty.” I bowed my head.

  “Ender Larkspur. I have tried to save you from yourself, but you seem inclined to find trouble wherever you go.” Around us, the Enders shifted their feet, and one even laughed.

  My father drew a breath and the sound of the air in his lungs was a wet rattle. “The mother goddess has commanded you face your destiny in the Pit without interference from me. She has a task for you there, a life to save.”

  I raised my head and really looked at him as the finality of his words settled on me. His skin was pale under the perpetual tan and his eyes seemed fogged over; even his clothes hung on his frame. My heart lurched. Had one of the lung burrowers somehow been missed?

  As softly as I could, I spoke. “Are you ill?”

  He bowed his head so our foreheads touched and his words were for my ears alone. “I believe I am dying, Larkspur. There is no cure in this world for what ails me. I do not know why Fiametta sent her Enders for you, as she swore she held no grudge against you or Ash.”

  He lifted a trembling hand and cupped the back of my head, holding us tightly together. “Child, be strong, and know that I sorrow for the wrongs done to you, for the first time I see them clearly. I am grateful this illness has come upon me; the fever has wiped away the lies Cassava built in my mind. I will see you when we both walk the far side of the Veil, though I will pray you will not make that journey for a thousand years.”

  Throat tightening, I couldn’t speak past the growing lump. Tears tracked my cheeks as he stood and made his way to Ash.

  “You have one duty left to you, Ender.” He touched Ash on the shoulder. “You know what it is.”

  Ash’s jaw ticked and he gave a slow nod. “It will be done.”

  The king’s hand fell from Ash’s shoulder and Fern ran to him. “You have to stop them.”

  He didn’t stop walking, but his words reached me still. “I have done all I can. They must face this alone.”

  The Enders closed ranks as my father disappeared, Fern clutching at him and Coal following. If nothing else, I would at least be able to say they tried to save us.

  Ash lurched forward, and the Enders all focused on him as he grappled with Match. The Ender behind me did nothing but drive his fingers deeper into my shoulder socket.

  “You aren’t going anywhere, Terraling. At least, not anywhere you want to be.”

  The scuffle in front of us died down and the Ender’s hand on me tightened right before a flash of black caught the corner of my eye and a club smashed into my skull sending me into oblivion.

  The queen’s chamber was dark, but that didn’t matter. The person whose memories I saw was able to move around with an easy stealth, avoiding the furniture and knickknacks that would give his—and I was sure it was a man’s memories I saw—movements away.

  “Damn, woman,” he growled, “where the hell did you hide it?”

  He scoured the room that I could only see in glimpses. It was built in the shape of an octagon, the sides a smooth black stone reminiscent of the clubs the Enders from the Pit used. A bed lay in the middle of the room, spires of black rock curling upward as the four posts and a sheer material that sparkled even in the darkness, draped between them, woven like a spider’s web. If I could have shivered, I would have but trapped in someone else’s memories left me no ability to move.

  “Here we go,” he bent near the bed and moved as if to shimmy under it when the sound of sheets sliding about snapped his head up. Peering over the edge of the bed, he stared at his queen. Her red hair was the color of fresh blood, which only accentuated the pale creamy tones of her skin and the deep blue of her eyes. An unusual color in the fire elemental bloodlines. She sat up, the sheet slipping down and pooling around her waist, baring her breasts to the warm air.

  “What are you doing in my chambers, Ender?”

  He swallowed. “My queen, I wish only to serve you.” She could fry his ass in an instant and they both knew it. Her ability with lava was unheard of in all the records of their people. For her, the lava was alive, like a beast she’d tamed and would do her bidding even so far as to defy the laws of nature.

  There was only one way he might be able to get out of this alive. As renowned as her ability with the lava was her insatiable libido. “I would serve you in whatever manner you desire of me.” His voice turned husky and he made a bold move, sliding his hand across the sheets to brush his fingers against her bare skin. The top of his hand was scarred, an old wound that hadn’t healed cleanly. Four jagged lines that drew down from between his fingers to the base of his wrist.

  She arched an eyebrow. “Whatever manner I desire?”

 
He bowed his head, breathing in the smell of her sheets, wondering if it would be the last thing he ever saw. “My queen, I am yours to command.”

  Her fingers dug into his hair and pulled him toward her. “Then pleasure me, Ender. For it has been years since a man was bold enough to brave my chamber without an invitation.”

  He dipped his head taking her mouth in his own as he pressed her to the bed. So he hadn’t found what he was looking for, and his mentor would not be happy, but this was better. With easy access to the queen’s chamber, he wouldn’t be forced to sneak around. He could get all the information his mentor needed, and together they would take Fiametta down. If he got to ride the queen before she was toppled, all the better. She’d never suspect him.

  Slipping out of his black leathers he slid under the covers with the queen, his mouth and hands everywhere bringing her to her peak in a matter of minutes—

  I let out a groan as I slipped out of the memory, the lingering lust the memories stirred clinging to me. As a half-breed, the child of Spirit side allowed me to see into other people’s memories when we Traveled together. So even though the memory wasn’t a surprise, I still was left disoriented.

  A quick glance around showed that except for Ash, Match, and one other Ender who was a woman, we were alone. Whoever’s memories I’d seen had already left the Traveling room so I had no clue who he was.

  Undertones of perfumed cherry blossoms tugged at me and I slowly sat up. Back in the Traveling room in the Pit was not a place I had ever wanted to be again. The walls were rounded, as if we sat inside of the world and looked out from the center. If only I could get my hands on a single armband, I’d be able to get both Ash and me out. I glanced around the room, but there wasn’t a band to be had. Damn it.

  “They’ve been moved since the last time you were here, Terraling.” The nearly blond Ender swung through the doors and into the room. “So don’t think you’ll be getting one and skipping out. You have an appointment to keep.”