“Lark!”
Dolph’s voice rang and I spun to him.
“Stay back! Get the Undines away from here!”
I didn’t know what Viv might try, but after the failure with the Salamanders, I had no doubt her next effort would not be so benign.
He saluted me and was gone, running back the way we’d come.
“Mistress, she is killing me!” the demon roared.
I ran toward the fight, pulling on fire once more. Now that Viv no longer held it, this was my best weapon against her.
I held up my hand and lava pooled in my palm. I flung it at Viv, aiming for her head. She ducked and a wave of water rushed in from the open windows, putting the fire out with a hiss.
Get the stone, Lark. Call it to you, Realm said, and I could feel him standing with me, his hand on my ass of all things. What was it with my damn kinky family? No time for those thoughts now, I had work to do.
I held my fingers out, wrapping them in the blue lines of power that represented water and beckoned the blue sapphire to me. In a sparkling blur, it rushed to me. I caught it with one hand as the demon let out a screeching howl and fell to its side, its body disintegrating even as it collapsed.
“Your pet could not stop me. You cannot stop me.” Viv was breathing hard, but her eyes had not lost the gleam of madness.
“You have already lost,” I whispered, and I knew it was true. I wove Water through the sapphire and returned the power to Realm, and in doing so, took it from Viv. She was down to two elements now.
But she either didn’t realize it—which I doubted was the case—or she didn’t care.
“You are not stronger than me, Lark.” Viv spat the words and was gone once more.
And I followed.
I should have known it would not be so easy, that she would have a trick up her sleeve.
CHAPTER 25
I followed Viv, Riding Spirit, locking onto her rather than a place, and letting the element take me to wherever it was she had gone. Once more we were back in the mountains where the Eyrie existed.
And Viv was waiting for me.
I blinked into existence as she thrust a knife into my belly, gutting me in a swift and vicious move that would have made any Ender proud. She yanked it out and held it up, the blade dripping.
“You see?” She leaned in close. “Even I know there is more than one way to skin a cat.”
I blinked up at her, grabbed a hold of her face and squeezed until her jaw cracked. She screamed and my fingers dug into the oozing flesh.
The final stones tumbled from her fingers and into the snow. I let her go, fell to my knees and grabbed them.
“I may die, but not before I end you.” I clutched the stones in one hand, and the belly wound in the other.
With all the strength in me, I crushed the stones, shattering the last of their power that was held within.
Viv screamed, her head thrown back as she arched away from me. What was it like, having the elements torn from you? I fell backward, cushioned in the snow as I stared up at the slow-moving clouds. I knew I had to finish her. I knew it was not over, not yet.
I rolled to the side and looked where she knelt staring at her hands. I wove Water and Air around her, the two elements coming to me easily now, as though somehow I’d proven myself to them.
I drew air and water from Viv until she was nothing but a husk.
Take them all from her, Talan said. Strip her of everything, for until you do, she will be able to hide away and regain strength.
“I took some from her already.” I groaned the words.
No, you must take her body and reduce it to the elements. All five must be broken away. That was Frost, his voice reassuring.
I bowed my head and pushed to my knees with one hand. Across the snow, Peta bounded in huge leaps, her green eyes wide with fear. “Lark!”
I waited for her, and took her push of energy to heal up the worst of the belly wound. At least I would not have my guts spilling on the snow.
“We are almost there, cat,” I said. “Almost there.”
With Peta at my side, I stood over Vivica.
She reached for Spirit, and I did too. Only I was faster.
I raised Spirit and wove it around her in a maelstrom of power, so fast and hard that she was lifted from the ground. With every shred of strength I had in me, I slammed Spirit into her, cutting her off from the two elements she had been born with.
Her scream rent the air, echoing into the mountains, and an answering cry coursed back to us. The sound of running feet, but I cared not.
I let Vivica drop to the ground, as helpless as any human who’d ever lived. She stared at me in shock, her face gaunt from loss of water, her skin pulled tightly so she looked like nothing more than a skeleton. “Impossible,” her thin lips whispered.
“That is not the word to use with me.” I was proud I could speak past the tears that dripped down my cheeks, past the pain eating me from the inside out. My family was dying in the Rim, Ash was gone, and I was afraid that without all of them, there was no reason to stop the humans.
What was this world without love? Without the ones who made you whole?
From the side of the mountain rushed the furred bodies of the Yeti tribes. I knew they existed, even if I had never met them.
One stepped forward, saw Ash, and fell to his knees with a howl.
“No, not my friend!”
The other Yeti looked uncomfortable, but they didn’t back away. From my side, Peta called to the big snow monster.
“Norm.”
He lumbered over to Ash’s body, crouched, and put a hand on Ash’s face. “Who, who did this to my friend?”
Peta’s eyes looked past me to Viv. “That one.”
Norm spun around, his face twisting into a grimace that made him the fearsome creature of lore I’d been taught about as a child. More deadly than ogres when they were riled, the Yeti were creatures of death.
I held a palm out to him, stopping him. “She is my kill.”
His eyes dropped to me, the snarl on his face not lessening. “He was my friend.”
“Ash is my mate,” I said, refusing to speak of him in past tense. “He is the other half of my soul.”
Peta let out a hiss. “She’s running.”
I kept my eyes on Norm, knowing that Viv would not get far. I’d reduced her next to nothing. “Catch her, and bring her to me alive.”
He grinned. “Now that is a prank I like.”
He was off in a flash, flying past me on limbs that stretched out easily on the snow.
I walked slowly to where Ash lay. I went to my knees and pulled his upper body into my arms. I buried my nose against his neck and breathed him in.
Peta did not try to get between us. She never had. I held him while I listened to Viv scream and the Yeti, Norm, snarl.
“He is dragging her back. You must finish this.” Peta put a paw on my arm, drawing me to the land of the living.
I gently laid Ash on the snow, smoothing out the hair on his forehead. I had no words for him because I didn’t know how to say goodbye. I didn’t know how to let him go.
I stood, pushing to my feet.
Norm shook Viv hard. “I think I broke her back. That’s a good prank, isn’t it?”
Her body flopped like a marionette with cut strings. I could heal her if I wanted, and have him hurt her over and over.
That wasn’t me, even if I was good at killing.
I drew a breath, the icy air steadying me. “Mother goddess, what is your will?”
Viv frowned; perhaps the only movement left to her was her face. “You would call me—
The true mother goddess spoke and her words reverberated through the mountains. Her death is assured. End her life, Larkspur. Rid the world of one who has caused so much harm. I hold my children again, and their power will not be lost to the world. Their children will live on even though they no longer walk the world.
Viv’s eyes were wide. “Mother godd
ess, you mistake me. I meant no harm. I meant only to rule in your name.”
Norm shook her hard. “Shut your filthy mouth, liar, liar, pants on fire.”
I walked over to her. “Your sentence has been given.” I put my hand out and used Spirit to pull her soul apart, the same way I’d done with the gargoyles and Finley. “You will be cast back to the elements. It is a far kinder death than you deserve.”
Piece by piece, she unraveled in front of me until there was nothing but a pile of sand. Her death was quiet and about as anti-climatic as it could be. “You deserve no fanfare,” I whispered. “You deserve to be forgotten like the leaves that fall from the trees to be replaced by others.”
I stared down, feeling all the original elementals’ power coursing through me, untapped and waiting.
A big mitt dropped onto my shoulder, the warmth from it shocking and showing me just how cold it was here.
“Ash was my friend.”
I looked up into his eyes. “Thank you for being his friend.”
He bobbed his head. “We could bury him for you.”
“No, I will take him home.” I would bury him next to my mother.
The ones I loved most would keep each other company in death.
I put my hands over my face and sank to the ground.
A pair of arms wrapped around me, and then the dark warmth of a cloak and the weight of Peta being placed in my arms. “Lark, we can go home now. They need us there,” Raven said.
The world shifted and we were gone.
CHAPTER 26
Raven gave me a gentle push, sending me deeper into the Rim. “I am going back for the others.”
The others. Ash’s body, that was what he meant, and his son, if his son was still alive. Peta clung to me, her body swaying on my shoulder as I stumbled forward. The Rim was a bloodbath still.
They called to me, my family, my blood, my people.
I wove my way amongst them, healing people where I could, burying those I couldn’t. I found River at the center of the Rim, Bella clutched in her arms.
I knew before I even stopped that Bella was gone.
That I’d failed her.
River looked up at me, her eyes awash with tears, rage twisting her features as she saw me. “You could have saved her!”
She rushed me and I didn’t try and stop her. She tackled me to the ground and I rolled out of instinct more than any care to truly fight back. I deserved her hatred.
“Lark!” Peta called to me. “She’s not gone.”
River leapt off me and I crawled across the dirt to where my sister lay, Peta’s head pressed to her chest. “Her heart beats, slowly, quietly, but it beats.”
I didn’t hesitate, just put my hands on Bella’s face and wrapped her in the power of Spirit.
Easy, Lark, not too fast. Talan’s voice whispered across my skin.
I slowed the flood of power as I repaired the damage to Bella’s body. She’d been caught in the blast of something from the humans, and it was only her iron-strong will that had kept her alive… Her skin flushed pink before my eyes and she took a big breath, her eyes fluttering open.
“Lark.”
I pulled her gently into my arms and just held her. We clung to each other, the last of our family. River put her arms around her mother, and I slipped an arm around my niece’s shoulder. She stiffened and then softened against me.
The four of us were the last of my immediate family.
“Is the baby okay?” Bella whispered the question to me as her hand slid over her belly.
“Yes, your baby is okay.” I sat back on my heels and looked her over.
Someone cleared their throat behind us.
We all turned at once to see Raven, Ash in his arms. Bella pushed to her feet first, instant rage in her eyes.
“You bastard, what are you doing—” She cut off short and gasped. “What have you done?”
I stepped between them. “It wasn’t him, Bella.” I didn’t want to get into the truth of who and what Raven was and why he’d done things the way he had. I didn’t want to explain what had happened. I didn’t want to… feel anything.
I went to Raven, taking Ash from him.
“I can carry him for you,” he said, his blue eyes all seriousness and filled with sorrow.
I shook my head. “No, but come with me. Please. All of you.”
The three of them fell into step around me, a small entourage to the cemetery. I walked through the vine-covered archway, straight to my mother’s grave. I went to my knees and laid Ash down carefully.
Peta sat beside me, tears streaking down the fur of her cheeks. “So much loss.”
I closed my eyes. “I’m going to release him to the elements.”
Peta nodded. “He would have wanted that, to be set free.”
I put my hands on his face, and leaned in, brushing my lips against his one last time. “Be free, my love.”
Slowly and with as much care as I could, I wove the power of Spirit through his body, breaking down what made up his flesh and bones piece by piece until nothing was left but a pile of Ender clothes and the earth he returned to.
A sob inched its way up my throat as I clutched at the shirt he’d been wearing. I wanted nothing more than to lie down next to him and—
Child, I need you still.
The mother goddess’s voice rumbled through the earth. Raven, River, Bella, and Peta all stiffened.
I pressed my hand to the ground and shook my head. “I have nothing left, and I will not sacrifice what remains of my family.”
No, child, there is one last task. You are the Destroyer. I need you to do what you were born to do—stop the humans at this moment. Their war has started and the damage is beyond my ability to heal on my own.
The image that erupted inside my head was one of fire and explosions, of death and chaos on a scale my mind struggled to comprehend. The bodies of the humans piled up like firewood, the soldiers with guns, the children crying in the streets, tugging on their dead parents’ hands. A groan slid from my lips. “This cannot be.” But the images didn’t slow. I saw elementals fighting to stave off the power of the human weaponry, but it wasn’t enough. They were dying too. I saw the natural wonder of our beautiful planet crushed under the heel of fear and greed and power.
Tears slid down my cheeks now in grief not only for Ash, but for this place we called home. “What would you have me do?”
A second image slowly formed in my mind like a flicker of pictures through a book. The earth as I knew it from far above, a photo shot from one of the humans’ space stations. Then slowly the world broke apart, the continents divided and reformed to create a new earth. One I no longer recognized.
“That will kill so many,” I said.
If you do not reset our planet, there will be complete annihilation. None left to rebuild. Death will occur, yes. But there will be hope, as well.
I wanted to deny the mother goddess, tell her we could form an army of elementals and stop what was happening, but I knew it would take too long. There were so many already dying.
Viv had set things in motion, and even she wouldn’t have been able to stop this madness.
A hand settled on my shoulder and Raven crouched beside me. “You can do this, Lark.”
“I don’t think I can,” I said. “I may carry the five elements, but what the mother goddess asks of me, it is—”
Raven smiled at me. “Impossible?”
I leaned my head on his shoulder, a bitter laugh escaping me.
Now it was clear that the path I’d been on my whole life had brought me here. All I’d learned, all that had been cast in my way, at my feet. I reached out for Peta and she crawled into my arms. I held her tightly.
“What say you, cat?”
A tiny cry slid from her lips. “Lark, I do not know. For the first time, I am at a loss. We have been so busy chasing Viv, trying to stop the madness, that the world’s trials passed us by.” I knew what she was truly saying. Maybe we could
have stopped it if we’d taken time to notice it.
I drew a deep, shaking breath. “I do not know that it can be done.”
Raven cleared his throat. “The first steps have been taken. In order for the world to be reset, the Veil had to be destroyed first. That is why I had Pamela call the Lynchpin through and back to the land of the living. He’s done his part. Now… now we need you to do the rest.”
He speaks truly. The Veil held a piece of the world together that was tied to the elementals. The bonds have been released, and you have the strength to save our world. The levels of the Veil are spread throughout the world now, as it was always meant to be.
“Save the world, by destroying it,” I said.
Yes.
Just that one final word. Yes.
Holding Peta tightly, I stood. What would Ash do? What would he think was right?
I closed my eyes and let myself sink into my own mind.
Peta pressed her nose against my throat. “He would tell you to follow your heart.”
“That he would,” I said.
Bella touched my arm, drawing my eyes to her. “I stand with you, Lark. We all do. The mother goddess has called on you.”
I looked to Raven and he nodded, as did River.
I drew another deep breath. “Raven, I… I need to speak to all the elementals.”
His eyebrows raised but he didn’t tell me it couldn’t be done.
“Now?”
I nodded.
“Now.”
CHAPTER 27
I stood in the cemetery of my family, my feet firmly planted into the ground. Between Ash and my mother, I knew I would find no better place to call on the power I would need to do this.
Raven stepped up beside me. “What do you want me to do?”
I shook my head. “Nothing yet, perhaps nothing at all. I don’t really know.” Peta lay herself across my shoulders so her tail wrapped around my neck. That little bit of warmth slid through me. I was not alone. I’d lost Ash and a huge piece of my heart and hope for the future, but I was not alone. The five original elementals were still with me, guiding me. Another small comfort with what I was facing.
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