A flash of color, red and tawny brown, caught my eye as Red dove from above, his claws outstretched, a scream erupting from him as he slammed into my father’s face. Blood and feathers flew into the air, the sound of flesh tearing blindingly loud in my ears.
Basileus screamed, the vines softened, and I ripped them from me. My father swung his fists at Red, before he grabbed him around the neck. “You stupid bird, I should have roasted you along with the other two.”
Good goddess, had he killed Karhu and Hercules?
Red went limp in his hand and I felt his despair as if it were my own. He might have shifted his bond to me, but it was for one reason only.
A familiar would never be able to attack their charge. It was impossible. And so he’d done the only thing he could, and gave himself to someone else. To me.
My father bore down on Red’s thin neck, a crack resounding through the air. The bond between Red and me shimmered, and dulled. I ran at them, sliding across the ground to tackle Basileus. I hit him in the midsection, flipped him over backward. Blood from the wounds on his face splattered my arms, the world slowed. Red flopped to the side, boneless.
I slapped a hand against my father’s neck, and his pulse slowed under my fingers.
His eyes cleared, and his lips trembled. He looked around him, saw his hawk and let out a strangled cry. He gently lifted Red and cradled him to his chest. “Oh, my friend. My friend, forgive me,” he whispered as Red’s life faded. I scooped the bird from him with my free hand and lifted him to my face, pressing my cheek against his.
“Red, I can heal you.” I offered, already knowing his answer. Because it was the answer Peta would have given.
“No. Let me be free with him. Let us fly together . . . as we were meant to.” He closed his eyes and was gone. The bond between us dissipated, and I felt its loss, even though it had only been minutes he’d been mine.
As the feeling of being connected to Red blew away on a whisper of unseen wings, grief roared through me in its wake. I wasn’t sure I could do what was being asked of me. I wasn’t sure I could end my father’s life. He took Red’s lifeless body from me and tucked the bird once more to his chest.
“He is right. Let me be free of this madness, Lark. Let me go.”
Bella approached from behind, tears streaming down her face. “Lark, is there any other way?”
I stared at my father, wanting the answer to be different. Wanting desperately not to have to make this choice. There was no power in this world that would cure a broken mind, a madness bound up in Spirit and fear, in death and manipulation.
“No. He is right. There is no other way.”
Father held his hand out to Bella. “You are the queen our family needs, Belladonna. Do not forget it.”
He took her hand and pressed it to his face. “Forgive me for my weakness, daughter.”
She fell to her knees and pressed her face against his. “Father.”
I closed my eyes, the only privacy I could give them to say their goodbye.
“Lark, do not hesitate,” he said. I opened my eyes, the tears making it difficult to see clearly.
“I won’t.”
“I don’t mean only with this, but in your life. Don’t hesitate, child. Fear has held you back, the desire to fit in so strong in you, it is blinding. You were never meant to fit in.” He brushed a hand along my cheek. “You were meant to burn brighter, to lead the way through the darkness our world faces.”
Keeping one hand on his neck, I slipped a dagger from my belt and glanced at Bella. “Are you staying?”
“I will not let you do this alone.”
She put her hand over mine as I clenched the dagger. Our people slowly gathered around us, crying softly, tears slipping down cheeks as they saw . . . what? The love of a family destroyed, coming together in the last second. Perhaps.
His eyes closed, and a smile crossed his lips. I thrust the dagger forward, Bella’s hand gripped tightly to mine. There was a moment where the image in front of me wavered, and fogged at the edges where I thought perhaps I was dreaming, and I would wake covered in sweat still in my redwood tree house. That the day was a nightmare to be brushed off along with the sleepy dirt in my eyes.
Basileus jerked once, blood bubbled over his lips and his last breath escaped him in a slow exhale that splattered blood on both my face and Bella’s. His heart beat once, twice, and then stilled. Jaw ticking, I pulled the dagger free and wiped it on his shirt. “It is done.”
Shaking, Bella stood. She spoke to our family, the words white noise in my ears. Something about letting the past go and reaching for the future.
Peta crouched beside me.
I put a hand to the earth and opened it up under him, burying him right there, at the foot of the Spiral. There were a few murmurs that I stilled with a narrow-eyed glance.
“Bella, if you are coming with me, I’m leaving now.” My words were hollow, without inflection. The truth of what I’d had to do sunk in slowly. I’d killed my own father. Even though Bella’s hand had been on the dagger, I knew it did not lay on her.
I shook my head. I would not grieve. I would not let it take me into the grave with him.
A red head of hair moved through the crowd, and in seconds Cactus stood in front of me. His nose was still swollen, but his green eyes were soft with emotions I did not want from him. Forgiveness being at the front, love close behind it, compassion somewhere in the mix.
Peta tugged at my leg. “He could help in the Pit. You know that.”
Damn, she was right.
“Lark, I’m sorry about . . .” He didn’t seem to know how to say he was sorry I had to kill my own father. Not like that was something he could find on a Hallmark card.
I held a hand up. “Don’t. There is nothing you can say to make this better. But you can help me.”
His eyes brightened. “Anything. You know I’d do anything for you.”
I swallowed back the words that almost came out. Like why don’t you do as I ask and leave me alone? “I need you to go to the Pit. See what the atmosphere is like, and see if you can get close to Fiametta. See if you get any glimpse of Blackbird.”
He frowned, and slowly nodded. “I can do that. Are you going to tell me why?”
I didn’t need the tightening of Peta’s claws on my lower leg to keep my mouth shut. “No, I can’t.”
Peta chimed in. “Business of the mother goddess.”
“Oh. When will you be there?” He took a step toward me, and I glared at him, stopping him.
I shook my head and winced at the aches and bruises from the near-strangulation I’d endured. “I’m not sure. Soon, though. You’ll have to find a way there. The armbands aren’t working.”
“I’ll take a plane,” he said. “I’ve done that before.” His words surprised me. It was easy for me to forget there was an entire human world out there. And that Cactus had no problem interacting with it.
“That’s good.”
Worm shit, our conversation wouldn’t have been more stilted if the words themselves had been frozen. I turned my back on him.
“Shazer!” I called out.
“I am here.” He trotted toward me from between the Ender Barracks and the Spiral. “Where do we fly first?”
“The Deep.” I hoped that it would be easier to deal with Finley. Hope being the relative word. With a long-standing friendship, there was plenty of reason for me to visit her, and for her to let me draw close. Bella’s daughter River had ties to the Deep as well, which was another reason.
Bella touched my arm. “I am ready.”
Damn. I was hoping she would stay behind to grieve properly. “Let’s go then.”
Shazer went to one knee. “Your Majesty.”
Bella hurried to his side and mounted, her pale green skirts bunching up but still managing to cover most of her leg, though I noticed Shazer looking. I lifted my hands to him and he winked.
“She has nice legs, don’t blame me for looking.”
Once a male, alw
ays a male, apparently.
Bella stared out over the crowd from Shazer’s back. “In my absence, Niah and River will oversee the running of the Rim. Look to them, and know I am going on the business of the mother goddess, to do her will, to keep the Rim, and our world, safe.” Apparently she’d overheard Peta’s words. If nothing else, the crowd murmured and nodded at her declaration.
What surprised me though was who she left in charge. Seemed I wasn’t the only one who the announcement shocked. Niah was at the back of the crowd, tears still running down her face even as her eyes widened and she shook her head. Bella nodded at her. “Yes, Niah. You.”
“Good luck, Niah.” I lifted a hand to her, and she raised one in return.
“Be careful, Lark. Things are not as they seem, not even now.”
I shrugged. “They never have been, old one.”
I leapt up behind Bella, Peta right behind me. She put herself between Bella and me, curling up in the puff of Bella’s voluminous skirts.
No words were cast between us as Shazer galloped across the Rim, gaining speed before he leapt into the air, his wings driving hard to lift us all.
I reached forward and put my arms around my sister. She clutched my arms to her as the sobs broke through, her body shaking with the force of them.
“Lark, we killed him. I know we had to, but I—”
“No, this is not on you, Bella. It was my dagger, and I did it.”
I leaned my head forward and pressed it to her back, no cries escaping me. No other words I could give would comfort her. The truth was we’d had to do it, and she knew that.
Maybe Peta was right, maybe I was too hard.
Then again, I was about to go up against three elemental rulers in their places of power while madness rode them.
Weakness was not something I could afford.
CHAPTER 9
e only flew a few hours before night fell, and Shazer landed at the edge of a cleared field. “With a quick break, I could fly through the rest of the night without another stop.”
“No, Bella needs to sleep. We’ll stop for the night,” I said, dismounting and then holding a hand out to my sister. She took it and slid from his back with a wince but she shook her head. “No, I think we should keep going. I’m fine. A short break will be enough.” She paused and rubbed at her backside. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been horseback riding.”
Shazer snorted. “Pegasus riding.”
She blinked up at him and smiled. “Right, Pegasus.”
Above us, the night sky twinkled, black and splattered with stars. I looked at Bella. She still had our father’s blood on one cheek. I motioned with my head for her to follow me. The sound of a creek drew me.
Beside me, Peta eyed the fireflies that flickered here and there. I rolled my eyes. “Go for it. I won’t tell anyone.”
With a funny mew she leapt into the air, batting at the bugs. They were almost as fast as her, though, and darted away as she pounced and chased. I smiled and looked up. Bella watched me, a smile on her lips, too.
“She’s like a kitten still.”
“Sometimes. Other times she seems the oldest soul I know.” I pushed through the long grass and down a small embankment to a shallow stream. I stepped into the creek and sunk to my knees before splashing my face and arms. Pink swirls of dried blood washed away in the shimmers of dark water that shone in the bright moonlight, curling through the current and then gone as if they never were.
Bella stepped into the water beside me, her skirt caught up with one hand. I took the edges of the material and held it for her as she cleaned her face and arms. In silence we stepped out onto the embankment and headed to where Peta lay crouched in the long grass. She’d shifted into her leopard form.
I gave a short laugh. “You think you can catch the bugs when you’re bigger?”
Her ear flicked at me but otherwise she didn’t move. In an explosion of speed, she shot twenty feet into the air to snag a bug, slamming it with both paws.
Bella burst out laughing and I joined in. “Damn, reflexes like a cat.”
Peta turned and faced us, lifting her lips so we could see her teeth.
And the glowing firefly in her mouth, lighting her up like a human’s Halloween pumpkin.
I choked on the laughter, unable to believe that she hadn’t squashed the bug completely. She opened her mouth and the firefly flew out, bobbled once, and rose into the air. Peta licked her lips. “Bet you two can’t catch one.”
“Challenge accepted!” Bella laughed and ran into the long grass. I stood and stared.
“We’re on a deadline, Bella. I can’t be playing—”
Shazer butted me from behind. “Go play.”
Peta nodded. “Go play.”
Bella stood in the middle of the fireflies as she spun and looked at me. “Afraid you’ll lose?”
I took my spear from my back and slowly swirled it in front of me. Through the bond to Peta, fear and sadness rolled. I drove the spear into the ground, haft first. “You are going to be sorry you said that.”
The tension in the air heightened and I let go of the spear and ran into the long grass after Bella. She spun and ran from me, and the tension was broken as we did our best to grab the fireflies from their nightly dance.
Screeching and laughing, we raced after the tiny bugs as though we were children and not full-grown adults. Peta dodged between us, knocking us down more than once, often right as we got close to capturing our intended prey.
A flash of white streaked by, Shazer with his neck outstretched as he snapped his teeth at a firefly that struggled to stay out of reach.
Bella gasped for breath and clutched at her sides. I stood next to her, breathing hard, not sure exactly why I was playing when I should have been off saving the world. Stopping Blackbird from getting the stones first.
“Because if you have nothing to fight for, saving the world doesn’t mean much, does it?” Peta sat on top of my feet, warming them. She looked up at me. “The world, and all it is, has to mean something to you again, Lark. You helped the Tracker save the world from the demons. But that wasn’t really you. You did it because you had to. This time, it’s your choice.”
“Mind-reading cat,” I muttered.
“What do you expect? I’m special.” She grinned up at me.
I waved a hand to catch Shazer’s attention. “We need to go.”
He trotted over and put his nose against my chest. “I hate to say the pussy is right, but she is.” He blew out a hot gust from his nose, warming my skin as Peta warmed my feet. She took a swat at him.
“Don’t be vulgar.”
“I’m not.”
“You are too, and you know it.” She frowned up at him.
He shrugged and went to one knee as Bella approached. Flushed from running about, she mounted with ease. “I think Peony was right, I need to stop trying to fit into the same size as when I was sixteen.”
I snorted as Peta and I leapt up behind her, Peta once more worming her way between us. “I’m glad you don’t try that when you are in your leopard form.”
“Me too. You’re not all fluff, you know,” Shazer bit out as he galloped across the field.
Bella crunched forward and slapped his neck. “It’s not polite to talk about a lady’s weight.”
He grunted as he leapt into the air. “When you start being a beast of burden, you get to say whatever you like about the size of people’s asses.”
She gasped, Peta let out a growl, and I rolled my eyes. “No comment about my weight?”
“Goddess, no, you’d probably cut my wings off.”
There was a moment of uncomfortable silence and then I laughed softly. “True enough, I might.”
“You wouldn’t.” Bella twisted to look at me, her hair swirling out around her. I shrugged.
“Well, not on your behalf, I wouldn’t. I saw you naked earlier, remember? No hiding your ass from me.”
Her jaw dropped and horror flickered through her
eyes. “Am I that fat?”
“Goddess, no, I was teasing!” I leaned forward and patted her on the head as though she were the younger sibling and not me. “You don’t look any different to me than you did when I was a child, Bella. Still the big sister I want to be when I grow up.”
Tears filled her eyes and she blinked them away. “That’s the nicest thing you could have said.”
“Well, I’m nothing if not full of sugar and spice.”
Peta snorted. “Heavy on the spice, I think.”
Shazer snorted. “Are you three going to have this hen party the entire time? My ears are on the verge of bleeding.”
“Yes,” the three of us answered in unison. Peta purred softly between us.
“This is how it is meant to be.”
I knew what she meant, but it scared me. I wrapped my arms around Bella again and we clung to each other like children fending off the night together. I only hoped that was not what reality turned out to be.
We flew through the night, and early the next morning we were over the southeastern seaboard. The Deep lay in the section of the ocean the humans nicknamed the Bermuda Triangle.
The water was brilliantly blue below us, and I could see a good distance into it. Triangular fins popped up here and there. Bella shuddered. I held tighter to her. Neither of us had the greatest memories from our time in the Deep.
“You were there, after River was born?” I asked.
“Yes.” Just one word, but that was all that was needed. She’d done it to keep her daughter safe from her psychotic mother, Cassava.
The sun had climbed only a few degrees when we dipped through the sky toward the white beach of the Deep.
Shazer landed lightly, with only a single hop, on the beach at the eastern edge. The sand was so white, it almost glowed. The spires of the main holdings rose into the bright sunlight, glinting as though they’d been shined just this morning.
“We need to make this happen as fast as we can, once we do it,” I said, finally speaking out loud the plan that had formed as we’d flown. “There are ambassadors here from every family. There were none in the Rim. Once we take the stone from Finley, the other ambassadors will have time to get ahead of us and warn Fiametta and Samara.”
Rootbound (The Elemental Series, Book 5) Page 8
