Her eyes were sad, and for a moment, I wanted to reach out and strangle her. “You did this to him.”
“No, Raven did,” she said softly. “Ash was dying, and without our intervention, he would have bled out on the mountain. Viv was close. She knew Ash’s importance to you and was going to twist him to her own uses. This was how Raven chose to protect him. If he’d just healed him, Ash would have been taken by Viv and you truly would have lost him. This was the only way for him to even have a chance at coming back to you.”
Her words had the ring of truth. “Damn it.” I bowed my head even as I reached up and carefully touched Ash’s back, feeling him there. If I stayed where we were one second longer, I would lash out. I could feel the rage building from the soles of my feet up to my throat.
Because there had been a great deal of time between then and now that Raven or Cassava could have brought Ash back. As soon as they were away from Viv.
“She would have known, Lark,” Cassava said, as if reading my mind. “She sought him out. He was the one, she knew, who could break you. The one you would have done anything to save.”
My jaw ticked hard and I struggled with the words. “You’re saying you kept him like this to what? Protect me?”
Cassava nodded. “Yes.”
Pain lanced through me, pain that Ash was trapped… all to keep me safe. I could not look at Cassava another second longer. I called Spirit to me and bent it around us, taking us away from the Rim. And yet again, the memories of another’s mind caught me off guard as we rode Spirit away from her words. The scenes that tugged at me and held me tightly were not Peta’s, but Ash’s as we swept away from Cassava, Griffin, and the Rim.
*
I saw Ash flying, and felt the joy he had in it, the feeling of wind over his wings and the sense of freedom he carried with him in those moments. The hatred for Cassava in the beginning of his time with her, and then the growing understanding as she poured out her heart to him, explaining everything. He was her only companion in all those years, her only connection to a world she was trying to save and he fought her words. He fought her truth. And then finally succumbed to it.
He accepted his fate to be chained not only to Cassava, but as an eagle forever. To never truly be free.
*
I broke out of the memories and onto a sandy beach I knew very well, the beach where Cassava told me my little brother was buried. This beach was where Bella and I had stood on my first mission as an Ender. To protect my sister as she went into the Deep as a diplomat so many years ago. The first time I’d let my rage take hold of my power and created a tsunami that had almost killed us both.
Was it because Bramley was somewhere near, that I’d found my first true grasp of power here? Another time I would have looked for his grave, but not right then. Not when I was shaken by the memories that had danced through me.
Ash’s memories were disjointed and scattered like those of someone who no longer knew how to think like a human, and that made my legs shake as though I’d been running for days. “Peta, what do I do?”
Peta leapt from my shoulder and glanced back at me, her big green eyes full of sorrow, her paws sinking into the sand. “I don’t know. I think… I think that only the mother goddess could help now.”
I bowed my head, and Ash jumped off and bounced on the sand, lifting one taloned foot and then the other.
“Mother goddess…” I didn’t get any further than that.
He will return to you as a man, Lark. But not yet, not until your task is completed.
“My task is to free your children, and now Olivisha is dead.”
There is more than one way to give a soul freedom.
Silence after that.
“You heard her?” I looked to Peta, who nodded.
“I did.”
“Ash,” I reached out and slid my hand over his back, “will you trust me to bring you back? To wait a little longer?”
He dropped his head, hopped forward, and pressed his beak to my cheek as a soft trill slid from his throat. A tear crept down my face. “Thank you.”
“Now that you have that settled,” Peta cleared her throat, “what are we doing here?”
I dropped to my knees. “I’m not sure, exactly. I just know I need to find the original elementals. Talan says he can’t, that only Viv knows where they are.”
“And?”
I bit my lower lip. “I have an idea, but you aren’t going to like it.”
She rolled her eyes. “Let’s hear it.”
I gathered my thoughts, putting them in order. “If I use Spirit to Travel directly to Viv—”
“You’re right, I don’t like it,” Peta said.
“Let me finish.” I swallowed hard because I didn’t truly like the plan either. “If I go to Viv, grab her, and use Spirit to Travel with her, I can see her memories. Maybe I can force her memories of where she hid the others to show me.”
Silence met my words. I looked down at Peta to see her eyes half shut. “The theory is good, but if it works, why not just Travel directly to each of the elementals then that are hidden? If we can Travel directly to a person?”
I blinked several times. “I thought about that. They are in oubliettes, blocked from the world and their power. How could Spirit find them then?” Understanding flowed through me. Spirit was what held the world together, all the pieces, all the connections like muscle, tendons, and ligaments holding the bones of a body to one another.
“Damn it,” Peta whispered. “She will kill you on sight. You know that.”
“Yes, I do.” I lifted Ash from my shoulder, taking his weight onto my wrist. His eyes were unblinking as he watched me. As though he was silently judging me. “Go to Finley. Bring her here, my love.” I swept my arm upward, giving him a boost into the air. His wings swept down in a great draft, the feathers brushing against my face like the touch of his hands.
I would not cry. I could not. “This has to happen fast. I will go to Viv and you will wait here on Finley.”
“Why?” Peta stuck a paw out and jabbed me with her razor claws. I winced and crouched down to her.
“Because if I am wrong, you are the only one who knows what is going on. And I don’t think Viv will kill me, not yet. I carry Olivisha’s flame and life, and she needs it.”
“That is banking a great deal on a guess,” Peta spat at me. Irritation and fear slid through our bond.
I held a hand out to her. “Peta, I will come back.”
She hunched her shoulders. “Damn you for leaving me behind again.”
Her words cut into me worse than her claws. I jerked back as if she’d slammed a paw across my face. “Peta, it’s not like that.”
“It is. And you know it.” She sat on the sand and closed her eyes. “Go then, if you’re going.”
I hated that she was angry with me. But I knew I was right about this. I needed to Travel with Viv without worrying about accidentally leaving Peta somewhere if Viv separated us, or by getting her memories instead of Viv’s.
Mouth tightly in a thin, hard line, I backed from her as I called up Spirit and wove it through my body. I thought about Viv, about how her true form looked, and I released Spirit, letting it snap through me and take me straight to the elemental who wanted nothing from me but my death.
I didn’t have far to go.
I blinked and was inside the Deep, in Finley’s private quarters. I was two steps behind Viv as she bent over Finley.
“You will destroy the humans on the water, shedding their blood to the very last drop.” Lines of pink swirled around Viv and Finley both.
Finley nodded. “It will be done, mother goddess.”
I leapt forward and slammed into Viv, weaving Spirit through us both and sweeping us away from the Deep. The original elementals, where have you hidden them? I screamed the question in my mind as I took us far across the world, into the deep snow of the Himalayas.
Her memories floated to me, slowly, in pieces.
Of all she
’d done to hurt the world in her misguided beliefs that she should rule.
Of hiding Olivisha deep within the lava flows on the island of Hawaii.
Of making her pact with Talan to have access to his power.
I gasped as we emerged from Spirit holding us tightly, standing thigh deep in the icy snow.
I didn’t give Viv a chance to do anything, but swept us away again to another place. I did what Raven had done, flying us along over and over, each time screaming the same question at her mind.
But she caught on, blocking me.
You will never get it from me.
I redoubled my efforts, hammering at her mind with everything I had.
Time slid by and my energy began to flag. I knew I was going to be in trouble. At the next stop, I let her go, spun away and sent myself back to the sandy shore near the Deep.
I landed on my knees, then fell forward to my hands as well. I gagged several times, dry heaving because of the exertion.
“What happened?” Peta asked before I could even gather myself.
I shook my head. “How long was I gone?”
“An hour, maybe more.” Her fear for me cut through the state I was in. I held a hand out to her and gathered her close to me. Ash was with her on the sand, but he did not close the gap between us.
“I’m sorry. I had to try.”
“I know, stubborn dirt girl,” she whispered.
I burst out laughing. I couldn’t help it. “You haven’t called me that in a long time.”
“Maybe I should start again.”
I struggled to sit back on my ass and rubbed a hand over my face. I held a hand out to Ash and he hopped onto my wrist. From there, I set him on my shoulder. “Finley wouldn’t come, would she?”
He shook his head side to side, his eyes never blinking. A sigh slid from me.
“Well, I can find Viv easily enough, for what good it will do us.”
“But then why doesn’t she just come after you? I mean, if you can go to her directly, why doesn’t she just do the same with you, or Talan or Raven for that matter?”
It was a good question. “I don’t know.”
It hit me then that I’d found Viv inside the Deep. I rubbed a hand over my face. “Peta, I’m going to try something.”
“Wonderful,” she muttered. “Now I know how a guinea pig feels.”
I wove Spirit around us, and took us directly to Finley.
The leader of the Deep was still in her private quarters. Her eyes were slightly fogged over and she sat on the edge of her bed. The deep blue skirts swirled around her legs almost as if they were water itself. I crouched in front of her and gently wove Spirit into her mind.
“Finley, you must not kill the humans. Don’t start a war with them.”
She jerked away from me, coming out of the fog in an instant. “Lark, what are you doing here?”
I repeated the words, pushing harder with Spirit. I didn’t truly know what I was doing and the last thing I needed was to harm my friend.
“You are being manipulated,” I said. “And I am trying to show you the truth.” I held my hand out to her, knowing in the past just my touch was enough to break the hold of Spirit on someone.
But not this time.
“She said you would try to stop me.” She threw the words at me. “You have turned from the mother goddess, Lark.”
She swept her hands out and I saw the intention in the lines of power.
Finley was going to drown me.
CHAPTER 21
I had a split second to decide how to handle Finley. I could try to use Spirit on her again, or I could fight her.
Spirit was not going to work. The ties Viv had wrapped around her were obviously too tight. Sadness and grief flew across the bond between Peta and me. We both knew what was going to happen.
“Ash, fly!” I called out, and he launched from my shoulder into the ceiling rafters.
“Don’t make me fight you,” I whispered to Finley. Because I knew… I knew this time there would be no bringing her back. If I lost, she would go on to wipe out the humans as she’d been commanded.
The water of the Atlantic Ocean swept in through her window, coming for me.
I dove for Finley, tackling her to the ground, softening the stone to encase her within it. At least, that was the plan.
The water blasted me off her, lifted me and held me in midair in a bubble of the cool liquid.
Finley’s voice was clear, echoing through the water like a microphone. Peta was in her own bubble of water away from me. Her eyes narrowed as she fought to swim to the edge. I knew she was not worried about getting a breath of air so much as she was worried about taking Finley out.
Tears streamed from my eyes, mixing with the salt water. This was not what I wanted to happen. This was not how it was supposed to end. Finley was a good queen. A powerful queen who didn’t deserve to die.
I didn’t want to be the one to end her reign.
I closed my eyes as the water pushed in on me from all sides, the pressure increasing on my ears, chest, and limbs. My eardrums burst and my heart began to falter under the lack of oxygen. But I had one thing Finley did not. I knew the name of the elemental who’d created this power.
Realm.
Just his name, nothing else echoed out of me, forming bubbles in the water.
Finley was still speaking, but her voice was growing dim, fading as spots of darkness blackened my vision.
A part of my brain whispered that it was always destined to come to this for me. Water would be my death.
Realm. Again, I mouthed his name, the last of my breath leaving my body.
I blinked, and below me, Finley was unmoving and the water around me no longer pressed down on my body.
A presence slid through the water. I twisted where I was to face him. He floated in front of me, the scene below me frozen as it had been in the hot springs below the Spiral. His body was powerfully built, but lean, and his skin was the lightest of greens, his eyes brilliantly blue and his hair that same shade of violet as Finley’s. His fingers and toes were webbed, but even so, he didn’t seem to have to move much to stay where he was.
His voice was clear, as clear as if we were not floating in water. “That you know my name is interesting. Not interesting enough to keep you alive, but enough that I am curious. That I would speak to you before you die.”
I stared at him, gathered my strength and asked the one question I hoped would help him see my cause. “Realm, are you going to let me and Olivisha die?”
He jerked back through the water as if I’d struck him. “You have two of our true names… you are of that demon spawn’s ilk then?”
I laughed, bubbles floating away from my mouth. “No, I am against Vivica. Olivisha… she gave me her power to use. For a time. Until the false mother goddess is dealt with. She fears Viv too greatly to stand against her.”
“And me?” He spread his webbed hand against his bare chest. “What is to be done with me?”
“I would free you if I could find you,” I said. I glanced at the bubble Peta was in. Her eyes were on us, and I could see she was keeping close tabs.
“I don’t even know where she stuffed me,” Realm grumbled. “She knocked me out, and then when I woke, I was in an oubliette.” His eyes were not on mine any longer, but on Finley. “That one is a good queen, of that much you are right. But you cannot break the hold Spirit has on her. Not without killing her.”
I didn’t fight the tears. It wasn’t like he could see them. “She is my friend; I’ve known her since she was a child.”
“And so you do her a great disservice to leave her in the care of that bitch who is breaking our world apart.” A sigh slipped from him and he swam closer to me. “You know my name, and Ollie trusted you. That is enough for me. Take what power I have left and do your best, child of the earth.”
He kissed me then, not on the forehead as Olivisha had done, but on the lips, catching me off guard. His hands swept up to hold my
face and the caress of water over my entire body turned from pain to a sweet pleasure that left me wanting. Realm pulled back. “Beautiful soul, ah, I see now what Ollie saw in you. Stand in my place against the bitch who confines us,” he murmured. I found myself following him through the water, wanting, needing that sensation of connecting again. He gave me a lopsided grin, his lips calling to me. “You are dangerous… another time, perhaps, child of the earth.”
I held a hand out to him. “Wait.”
He did as I asked. “Yes?”
“How, how are you and Ollie able to come to me when your bodies are caught in the oubliettes?”
“You were in an oubliette more than once. Did your spirit not find a way to watch over the world?”
I nodded. “But I could not affect anything.”
“But you could have given your power to someone, if the situation was right. Immersing yourself within my power allowed you to reach me as nothing else would have. Did you burn for Ollie?”
I nodded again. “I did.”
“And she found you strong enough. You have her life, and now mine. Do not waste them.”
I blinked and once more I was alone in the water. Only now its power was mine and it no longer fought me, but begged to be used. Begged. Like a man on his knees holding tightly to me, wanting a kiss.
The image was so strong, I would have smiled if not for what I knew was going to happen next.
I pushed the water away from Peta first, because I was not sure she would carry the ability with it as she had done with Fire.
She dropped to the floor and raced toward Finley. Finley stood there, shocked as the cat shifted in mid-leap, tackling her to the floor as a snow leopard.
I was dropped and landed in a crouch. “Peta, hold her.”
Peta had her mouth on Finley’s neck, her canines digging into the soft flesh. I stood and strode to them.
“Finley, you have been deceived. That was not the true mother goddess who gave you orders. She has bent your mind, twisted the truth.”
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