03] ES) Firestorm

by Shannon Mayer

  Her tone trembled. “He has a year left in our home.”

  There were no more words as we approached the singles section. It was remarkably quiet.

  “They are all kept very busy. It helps with the male aggression to keep them tired.”

  “I saw him, in the throne room when we were brought in.” I peered around, wondering which place belonged to Cactus.

  Or maybe he lived with a woman. The thought was odd. Cactus had been a player from the beginning, chasing the pretty girls and stealing kisses whenever he could. I had a hard time seeing him settling down anytime soon.

  Smoke stopped in front of one of the many doors. Made of a light green granite, the surface was cool even in the heat. I would have said it was beautiful, except unlike the other doors, it was . . .disgusting. Covered in patches of ash, and some sort of dark brown mud, it looked as though Cactus had never wiped it off. The rest of his home was no better, the place was like a human garbage dump, as if whoever lived there was collecting crap just for the sake of piling it in front of their house. I looked past it to the next door down the way, hoping I was wrong in my suspicion. “This is his home?”

  She nodded and Peta let out a low hiss. “Disgusting man.”

  I couldn’t disagree with her.

  I took a step forward and stopped, imagining walking in on him and his latest conquest. Erring on the side of caution, I called out, “Cactus?”

  There was a scuffle of feet and then he poked his head out of the doorway, saw me, and frowned. “Lark, what are you doing here?”

  Confusion filtered through me and on its heels sharp irritation. “Well, I was brought here to be executed by your queen. So . . . yeah, I didn’t have much choice in the matter, fool.”

  He shook his head, his dark red hair slicked back as if he’d come from bathing. With his green eyes, it was easy to see why the ladies flocked to him. Except for my disastrous foray into the Pit that had started this whole fiasco, I hadn’t seen him since we’d been children. I realized I really didn’t know if I could trust him. I didn’t even know if he’d helped or deliberately made it harder for us—Ash and me—to survive our last visit. I took a step back, suddenly reconsidering my decision to ask him for help.

  Smoke let out a soft snort. “You could at least show us some manners, boy.”

  His jaw tightened. “It’s really not a good time.”

  I knew it. “Too many women in there? It’s not like I’m going to be shocked, Cactus.”

  His mouth tightened farther and I wondered at how I’d possibly upset him. He’d bragged as a kid that he’d have all the ladies fawning over him one day. So now he had what he wanted, what was the issue?

  Beside me Smoke snapped her fingers. “Cactus, this is ridiculous. Invite us in. You do not want to have this conversation outside.”

  He swiped a hand over his face, clearing away the irritation, replacing it with a false smile that almost trembled. “Would you like to come in?”

  I no longer did, but I had to find a way to get Ash out alive and that meant I needed all the help I could get. Even if Cactus wasn’t the man I thought he should be.

  Stepping through the doorway, I didn’t know what to expect. Filthy, dirty clothes everywhere, food piled up and rotting. My imagination did not prepare me in the least.

  I had to blink several times to really grasp what I was seeing. His house was an explosion of greenery and flowers, smells that took me back to the Rim. From the ceiling, plants and flowers curled down, covering every inch of exposed rock. The walls were blanketed in ivy and blackberry vines heavy with perfect black fruit. Under our feet the moss was so thick I could believe there was no stone beneath us. Down the wall, a trickle of water ran, feeding the plants and tiny flowers, the sound a perfect, soothing echo in the small space. Was this why he didn’t want us to come in?

  I closed my eyes and breathed in. “Cactus, this is amazing.”

  “You like it?”

  I opened my eyes to see him watching me, his look carefully guarded. “Like it? It’s just like home.”

  A slow breath escaped him. I glanced at Smoke to see her eyes wide. “How did you manage to get all this to grow?”

  “Oh, I still carry a little of my connection to the earth,” Cactus said softly, his hands brushing against a fern at his side. It leaned toward him and in that moment I knew something was terribly wrong. He shouldn’t have been able to use so much of the earth’s power. That was why his mother sent him to the Pit so many years ago; he had no power in the earth. That was the major drawback to being a half-breed. They were often weak not just in one of their bloodlines, but both. That Cactus had shown any strength at all was a miracle.

  Yet if that rule held true, how could this be? How could he draw on both his bloodlines? Or maybe he was like me, an anomaly with that ability.

  “Cactus.” Just his name and his eyes lifted to mine. What I saw made my mouth dry. He was terrified. “Smoke, would you leave us please?” I never took my eyes from his.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Peta and Cactus can look out for me.” I spit out the words fast, knowing the longer Smoke was there, the more fear built in Cactus. Smoke touched my arm and I forced myself to turn from Cactus to meet her eyes. I put a hand over hers. “Thank you.”

  Her eyes were tight around the edges. “Lark. You may not have an execution over your head but there are those who would still see you dead. An accident can happen all too easily as you have already seen.”

  “I will heed your words.” I squeezed her hand and she stepped back, pausing in the doorway, her eyes flicking over the greenery.

  “You are right to hide this, Cactus. The queen . . . she is strange about other powers in her home. But your secret will be safe with me, you are not the only one who hides.” She placed a hand over her heart and then kissed her fingertips. A slight breeze lifted her hair and swirled from her hands, out and around the ferns. Another half-breed, like us. Without another word, Smoke stepped out of Cactus’s house.

  Peta leapt from my shoulders onto the mossy ground. “Dirt Girl, is your home like this?”

  “Parts of it.”

  “I could handle being your familiar if this is what my paws get to be on.” She lifted her feet up and down in exaggerated steps several times.

  Smiling, I turned back to Cactus. He took three strides and wrapped an arm around my waist. “I’ve waited all my life for this, Lark.”

  He dropped his head and pressed his lips against mine.

  CHAPTER 6

  is hands slid up my waist to my back, tugging me closer. All my childhood feelings for him that I’d thought were gone and dead, blossomed under his touch. I could almost feel him laughing as he kissed me, his lips and tongue teasing my mouth. Making me want to laugh with him despite the fact that I was in the Pit, Ash’s life hung in the balance, and someone tried to boil me.

  That was Cactus, his love of life was infectious, but sometimes it got in the way.

  I put my hands on his shoulders and turned my face. “Cactus, don’t. Please.”

  “You aren’t with Coal anymore. I heard that through the grapevine.” He reached out and touched a hanging bunch of grapes to the right of us, a smile on his lips. I laughed softly.

  “Stop. You’re right I’m not with Coal . . .”

  He raised an eyebrow but didn’t let go of me with his other hand. “But?”

  I didn’t know what to say or how to explain Ash, because even I didn’t really know what was going on there. “I’m just not . . .I have to focus on getting Ash and me out of here. And I need your help.”

  His eye green eyes lowered then slowly rose to mine. “And we can have this conversation after?”

  I couldn’t help the laugh with those puppy dog eyes he was laying on me. “Fine. We’ll have this conversation after.”

  He let go of me and glanced to the floor. “What are you doing with the bad luck cat?”

  Peta let out a low growl. “I’m her familiar, prick.�
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  His eyebrows shot straight up. “Truly?”

  “Yes. Listen. I need you to focus. Can you do that?” I asked, hoping I could get him to be serious for at least a few minutes.

  “For you, Larkspur, princess of the Rim, of course.”

  “Princess?” Peta spit out the word with enough shock to make me blush.

  “”Bastard child,” I said.

  Cactus grunted. “The only bastards in the Rim were your siblings and Cassava.”

  Taking me by the hand he drew me deeper into the house. The greenery he’d been growing wasn’t any thinner the farther back we went. If anything, the walls were thicker with the growth. “Cactus, how are you hiding this?”

  He stopped in front of another door and slowly pushed it open. “I have to get out of here too, Lark. Whatever you’re planning, I’m in. Because if I don’t escape soon . . . Smoke is right. Fiametta is a hard ass and the fact I can do this much with the earth will either make her want to kill me or use me more than she already is.”

  I followed him into what I belatedly realized was his bedroom. “Cactus, I said we’d discuss our relationship later, but I didn’t mean a few minutes later.”

  He held up his hands, finally letting go of me. “It’s safer back here. Less chance of someone listening in.”

  Peta trotted forward, the white tip in her tail twitching several times as she sniffed the room. “He’s right. The green stuff blocks the echo of voices the queen’s spies could listen to through the rock.”

  Too much information at the same time made my head hurt. “Echo through the rock?”

  Cactus flopped onto his bed, the woven vines and thick moss giving under his weight. He tucked his hands behind his head, his lean muscular body a rather inviting picture. He gave me a wink as if the fool knew what I was thinking. I fought the heat that rose in my cheeks. He spoke as though he hadn’t noticed though. “Echo in the rock. The queen has Listeners who use the residual fire molecules within the rock to spy on her people. The plants muffle our voices.”

  I sank to sit on the bed beside him. Peta jumped into my lap and I put a hand on her, finding once more a comfort in her presence I hadn’t expected. She looked to my face. “Dirt Girl, you can’t save them all from their own queen. If you want to get your fellow Ender out, then that’s what we need to focus on. What Brand asks of you could work in your favor.”

  Scratching one finger under her chin, I watched as her eyes closed and a low purr rumbled out of her. Her eyes popped open and she glared at me. “No amount of chin scratches will change what I suggest.”

  Cactus sat up. “If you need to get Ash out, then we need to play by the rules. Fiametta is a stickler for them. Which is why I hide this.” He waved his hand as if to encompass the room. “She has stated that half breeds can only exist here if they don’t touch their other half without her permission. Which isn’t an issue for most since there are very few who can actually do anything.” He ran a hand through his slicked back hair.

  “But when did you find you could reach so much of the earth?” I found myself dropping my voice. Knowing Fiametta could be listening in was downright creepy.

  “When I hit puberty. It was like something inside me opened and suddenly I could make things grow. And as you can imagine, a talent like that is valuable here.”

  “So Fiametta probably wouldn’t banish you.” I frowned, running the possibilities through my head. “But she’d force you to work for her, like a Planter?”

  “Worse,” Peta said softly. “She’d tell everyone he’d died and then keep him for herself, deep within her palace.”

  I stared down at Peta. “You know that for sure?”

  She nodded. “You remember Loam? That was why he was in the Deep, to find weak Undines he could bring back with him for Fiametta. They draw the water up through the earth, bringing us the clean water we need. Same with the Sylphs, they funnel the fresh air and oxygen that the mountain and lava devour.”

  “Mother goddess,” I breathed out, the enormity of what Peta and Cactus were telling me overshadowing the fact I had to find a way to get us out of the Pit. Fiametta was using slaves? The Undines used human slaves, but that was . . . different. Maybe it wasn’t. I squeezed my eyes shut. Slavery was forbidden amongst all four elemental families. How in the seven hells was Fiametta getting away with this?

  “They aren’t slaves,” Peta said. “They sign a contract stating they will be cared for if they do as they’re asked. If they don’t then they will be killed.”

  Cactus choked and his eyes widened. “That is just slavery with a contract.”

  Peta nodded. “Still, it is a loophole the rulers here have used for years. They all do it, just to different degrees.”

  “That’s not true in the Rim,” I said. “There is no slavery there.”

  Two sets of green eyes turned my way and I didn’t like what I saw in them. Pity and disbelief.

  My jaw tightened. “There is no slavery in the Rim, but I’m not going to argue about that right now. We have far more pressing matters.”

  The urgency of my task suddenly seemed overwhelming. I had to get us out of the Pit before anything could be done about the slavery Fiametta was enforcing.

  All four of us had to be free of the Pit and the inherent dangers within it.

  “Peta,” I scooped her up so I could lift her to my eye level. “Are you really with me? Can I trust you with my life?”

  Her cat lips dipped in a perfect frown. “The mother goddess assigned me to you herself. It is my job to help you stay alive.”

  “That’s not what I’m asking.” I stared into those green eyes as the idea that had formed within my mind grew. Peta knew the Pit, probably better than Cactus, and she was all but ignored because of her status. Which made her the perfect spy. But so much of my plan depended on being able to trust my familiar. “Peta, are you with me?”

  She blinked several times before she answered. “You’re going to be the death of all nine of my lives, aren’t you?”

  “I hope not.”

  She snorted and her ears twitched. “I am with you, Dirt Girl. What are you going to ask of me?”

  “Can you get into the Ender Barracks? There is an Ender with a scar on the top of his right hand. I need to know his name.”

  She squirmed out of my hands. “What does the scar look like?”

  I squatted beside her, and turned my hand palm down. The scars on my hand from Peta grabbing me had faded to silvery lines. While they were not ridged like the ones the Ender sported, but they were similar enough. “Like my scars only thicker, like a bigger cat maybe clawed him.”

  Peta looked at me, her eyes narrowed to mere slits making it impossible to read her. “He should be easy to find. Why do you want him?”

  “He’s a traitor to the queen. If we give him to her, I think we should be able to bargain for Ash’s life,” I said. Cactus gave a low grunt.

  “You do not know her very well then.”

  I looked at Peta. “And what do you think, cat? You think the queen will not bargain?” It wasn’t my only option, but I needed a way to buy Ash time. Time I needed to find a permanent way out.

  “Cactus is right. She won’t bargain.” Peta shook her head, her ears twitching. “But it might buy us time if you offer her a traitor on a platter. She likes nothing more than to wield the Lava Whip herself on those she deems deserving of punishment.”

  I didn’t want to ask what the Lava Whip was. I could easily guess. A shiver ran down my spine. “Time is better than nothing. See if you can find the Ender I described to you. But be careful.”

  Peta bobbed her head and ran down the hallway, her tiny footsteps eaten by the moss. I bit my lower lip and closed my eyes. “Cactus, we may all end up in the fire if this goes wrong.”

  He stood, moving to my side and draping an arm across my shoulders. “We all end up in the fire at some point, Lark. But if anyone can get us there sooner, it’s you.” At my incredulous expression, Cactus fell back on
to the mossy mattress. “I’m kidding, Lark.”

  I plopped onto the springy edge. He sat down beside me and brushed a hand over my hair, so gently I barely felt his touch; it was more a sense of knowing him, and his intentions. “You’ve always been special, Lark. When I heard about Cassava’s trickery . . . and how you faced her down with nothing but a spear; that you saved your entire family, I wasn’t surprised. After that some of my memories came back.” The last was said in a near whisper.

  I swallowed hard. “You remember the day in the meadow?”

  The day my mother and brother were killed.

  He nodded, dropping his head to press it against mine. “I think maybe Cassava blocked some of my abilities too, keeping me weak. The longer I was away from her, the longer I was here in the Pit, the stronger I got.”

  A shudder danced along my spine and I let myself relax against him. “I’m sorry she hurt you too.”

  His hand rubbed along my back. “Meh. I’m tough for a fool.”

  Laughing, I turned to face him, but the laughter died quickly. “Smoke said something that might save Ash faster than finding a traitor. Something that Lana confirmed whether she meant to or not.”

  Cactus leaned back on his elbows, his eyes thoughtful. “If anyone has an inkling of a rumor, it’ll be Smoke. People don’t see her. They treat her poorly because she’s a half breed.” He jerked upright. “Wait, you saw Lana?”

  “She was at the water. It was not a good scene.”

  I leaned back beside him and we lay down at the same time, staring up at the ceiling and the wisteria that hung like pale purple bunches of grapes, the scent of the flowers flowing around us. “Smoke said something about the Enders who were killed. That maybe it wasn’t the injuries we—I—inflicted but something else. And Lana confirmed it. She said she saw her husband that night. He was fine and healing, and the next morning he was dead. His wounds opened and left to die.”

  Turning my head to the side I stared at his profile, but he didn’t turn to me. He kept looking at the ceiling. “The question is, who would want to hurt them?”

  That was the question I was asking myself. “I don’t know. Does Fiametta have anyone vying for her throne?” I was thinking of my trip to the Deep and the battle for the crown that had nearly taken my, Belladonna’s, and Ash’s lives. I was really hoping that wasn’t the case again. Two powerful battling fire elementals was not something I wanted to get in the middle of.