Rootbound (The Elemental Series, Book 5)

by Shannon Mayer

  A soft laugh rolled through the air, the laugh of someone I knew all too well. “My sister is playing possum, my love.”

  Worm shit. I jerked my hands, breaking the loose tie Ryk had done. I rolled to my knees and faced Samara.

  I barely glanced at her, my eyes instead going to the man at her side. Raven’s black hair was slicked back, and his blue eyes were as bright as ever. Full of laughter.

  Or maybe that was madness.

  “Sister, sister. Did you come to congratulate us?” Raven tucked his hands behind his back. As though we were on good terms.

  I frowned as I slowly stood. “Congratulate you on manipulating a queen and making her your whore?”

  The crowd sucked in a collective breath, and Samara’s Enders began a low rumble.

  I continued. “Congratulate you on hiding your true motives yet again as you attach yourself to a powerhouse?” I put my hands on my hips. “You were always a coward, Raven. I should have seen it sooner.” He had to have the smoky diamond already, which meant he would be even more dangerous than before.

  His eyes didn’t narrow, didn’t tighten with anger. “You don’t understand, Lark. We are not so different, you and I. I’ve been pushing you, trying to get you to see what has to be done. To train you.”

  I burst out laughing. I couldn’t catch the sound before it escaped me. I bent over, I laughed so hard. Sucking in a deep breath, I finally calmed myself, though I couldn’t keep the smile off my lips. “You were training me when you sent Enders to try and kill me in the Deep?”

  “Yes.”

  One attack accounted for.

  “And when you manipulated Scar to attack me?”

  “Yes.”

  “And when Father attacked the Rim?” Goddess, let that not have been—

  “Yes, then too. I knew you wouldn’t actually be killed. You’re too strong for that. I’ve been trying to help you. He asked me to.”

  “Father asked you to?” I was confused. Why would Father have asked Raven to help me?

  Raven shook his head. “No, not anyone related. Come on now, don’t be thick, you’re smarter than this.”

  My mind rolled. He asked Raven . . . oh hell . . . “You don’t mean . . .”

  “Please, you can say his name.” He gave me a half bow, mocking me.

  “Talan.”

  Raven grinned. “You see, I don’t need to manipulate you, Talan’s doing it enough for the both of us.”

  I was not truly surprised. I knew there were two people working against me, but for Peta’s sake a small part of me had hoped Talan was not involved.

  I took a deep breath. Shazer and Peta landed a few feet behind me with a thud and a ruffling of feathers. The crowd gasped and pulled back, a low murmur rolling through them.

  The last time they’d seen him was when I’d sunk the Eyrie, and it had been momentarily. We’d not stuck around long enough for anyone to really be star struck.

  Samara sucked in a sharp breath. “Pegasus? I thought we were seeing things before. We thought you were an apparition in the aftermath of the destruction.”

  Shazer snorted and trotted past me. “My queen. I did not have time to chat last I was here.”

  I stiffened where I stood. He brushed past me as if I didn’t exist. Peta whispered to him as they passed me.

  “The necklace.”

  It felt as though the Sylphs had stolen my air as I watched him trot forward and bow at Samara’s feet. She fluttered a hand to her chest as her eyes filled with tears. What in the name of the mother goddess was going on?

  “If you are here, then our world is coming to an end,” she whispered.

  “I don’t believe any of that horse shit,” he said, flicking his head up once, but otherwise remaining on his bent knee. She approached him slowly, and it was only then I truly saw her.

  The way she walked. The heavy slow steps, the swell of her belly, the way she cradled herself.

  I whipped my head to the side and glared at Raven. He grinned and shrugged like a little boy caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

  To fight with Samara was one thing; to battle her for the stone when she was pregnant—and obviously close to her time—was another entirely. He was banking on me being soft.

  I hardened everything in me and slowly shook my head. His grin slipped, the silent communication only siblings had making my thoughts clear.

  I would not back down. I would not hold back.

  Samara shifted, drawing my eyes back to her. “Pegasus, the legends speak of you coming home.” Her hands fluttered to her belly. “Of you being the messenger before the world is broken again. Is . . . that why you are here?”

  Each word she spoke was weighted with a fear that was nearly visible in the thin mountain air.

  “Nope.” He lurched forward as he moved to stand, his muzzle grazing the flat of her chest. She didn’t flinch, but closed her eyes as if she were in awe of him.

  His velvet lips brushed her skin, and a sigh slipped out of her. He grabbed the necklace, the smoky diamond dangling from it, and reared back, snatching it from her neck.

  The stone glittered as it sang through the air.

  “Don’t say I never gave you anything,” Shazer crowed as he spun, spreading his wings and essentially blocking Samara from seeing what he’d done.

  I took two steps and held my hand out for the necklace.

  Easier than any of the other retrievals, and no one got hurt.

  And that’s where I was so very, very wrong.

  CHAPTER 19

  aven whipped a hand out as the stone flickered through the air. “I think not.”

  The stone froze, above my head. I could have easily jumped and grabbed it. Could have fought him right there.

  I lifted an eyebrow, though my heart pounded. I knew I couldn’t beat him. We’d been down this path before. Raven was too strong; he had too much power in all five elements for me to face him again. But he didn’t need to know how I felt.

  “No? You need another boost of power to face me?”

  He grinned, his eyes damn well sparkling. “Oh, I think you and I both know how that will end. You on the ground. Me sparing your life. Or not, maybe. I don’t know exactly how that part would end.” The necklace floated slowly to him. Shazer lunged for it and Raven flicked his fingers at the Pegasus.

  His legs were sucked down into the stone as he leapt, the momentum of his body bending him forward. The snap of bones as he fell rent the air. He didn’t scream in pain, but grunted as he slumped. Peta snarled, leapt from his back and shifted. She crouched in front of Shazer, snarls rolling from her lips.

  Raven snorted. “You want to play, kitty? Then let’s play.”

  He grabbed the diamond from the air and snapped the fingers on his other hand. The stone disappeared, and Raven shifted. Literally shifted.

  His body contorted, twisting in the blink of an eye into a monstrous grizzly bear. He was double the size of any regular grizzly, but worse, he was fast. Fast like a cat, with the power of a bear. He dropped to all fours and strode toward Shazer.

  I knew without a shadow of a doubt he intended to tear Shazer apart. And he would go through Peta to do it. If I had to choose, I would, and it would always be her.

  “Peta, back off!”

  Samara cried out. “Lark, what is happening?”

  “Not now, Samara, let me deal with one thing at a time.” I pulled my spear from my side, already knowing how useless I was going to be. Peta darted around the side of Raven, slashing at him with her wicked claws. He roared, and was on her in a flash, a huge paw glancing off her hip. I called on the power of the earth to hold him down. To pin him.

  Nothing happened. “Goblin shit.” This was not the time to lose my connection to my elements, and I didn’t have time to figure out why.

  I ran at him, swinging my spear in a huge arc. I brought it down the back of his rump. The blade bounced off as if it were completely dull.

  I called Spirit to weave around Earth.
r />   Again, nothing happened. What the hell was happening? I felt it then, in the space of a heartbeat. The same languorous sense I’d only received around one person.

  Talan.

  He had to be blocking me.

  “I’m blocking you both, to be fair.” His voice spun me around. He stood against one of the pillars. “To keep things even steven, as the humans say.”

  “It’s not even!”

  “Yes, it is.” He spoke as if he was urging me on. “Meet him on his terms, Lark.”

  I stumbled. On Raven’s terms? I wasn’t a shape shifter. I stared at Peta as she darted around Raven, landing blows, but unable to truly take him on her own.

  Power of the heart, child. You have that. Use it. She is your soulmate for a reason. Littermate might be a better term.

  The voice of the mountain rolled through me and I dropped my spear. Peta’s image flooded my mind and I grasped hold of it, believing the words of the mountain. Believing I was more than I’d ever known.

  The shift took me like lightning; between one step and the next I was no longer on two feet, but running on four. Flashes of gray and white on my legs were all I saw as I leapt toward the mountain of brown fur, a snarl ripping out of me. The rush of power coursing through me was like nothing I’d ever experienced, like nothing I’d ever known.

  I landed on his back and gripped with all four feet, clinging to him like a monkey grips a branch. He roared and swept a paw back for me, but I was too high up for him to reach.

  Peta dodged his intermittent blows as I dug in, biting through the thick hide as I sought his spine. A glorious battle rage rolled through me, a blood lust that blurred my thoughts until only a single image of his death burned inside my mind. I buried my fangs into him over and over as he bucked and writhed under me.

  His body humped and we swung to the side. I dove to the other side, away from him as he rolled to his back in an attempt to squash me.

  I leapt to stand beside Peta.

  “Lark?”

  I nodded, not sure I was able to speak like she could.

  The smoky diamond was somewhere within his fur, I was sure of it. But where? I narrowed my eyes.

  I ran at him while he fumbled on his back. Fast and powerful he might be as a bear, but he was also heavy on his back like a turtle flipped over. At the last second, I jumped, landing on his soft underbelly. I dug my claws in, pricking the skin like cutting through lard with a scorching-hot knife. He grunted under me and I tightened my hold. One good swipe and his innards would spill out.

  Peta stalked beside us, speaking for me. “The stone. Your life for the stone.”

  Raven flexed as if he’d move and I slid my claws in further, tearing the flesh slowly. His eyes flicked to me, then back to Peta. He roared, but couldn’t move without being mortally wounded, and he knew it.

  Apparently it was true: I wasn’t the only one blocked from using their elemental powers. At least Talan was fair in his own twisted way.

  Raven’s body trembled under me, and for the first time I saw fear in his eyes. Without his powers behind him, he was no safer than any other low-level elemental.

  He shifted back to his elemental form, clothes intact, but I clung to him, my teeth bared. Still on his back, my claws were buried in his pale belly, blood bubbling up around the punctures from the three-inch-long daggers attached to me.

  “The stone,” Peta bit out. “Or she’ll gut you right now.”

  A part of me wondered how far he’d push things, the other part wondered that Samara didn’t help him. Then again, the Sylphs had stood by and let Cassava and me wreak havoc on their home without interference. He lifted one hand and slid it into his pants.

  Just as slowly, he pulled his hand out and from it dangled the necklace. I leaned forward and grabbed it with my teeth. But I didn’t take my claws from Raven.

  His eyes widened. “You made a deal.”

  I tightened my claws on him, my thoughts raging. He’d been the cause of so much death, so much destruction. He was the reason I’d broken Keeda’s mind, the reason I’d had to kill Vetch. He’d forced my hand to kill our father.

  I glanced at Peta and nodded, the bond between us tighter than ever. She spoke for me. “You are hereby sentenced to death, Raven, as is Larkspur’s right as an Ender and protector of the Rim.”

  I braced myself. He closed his eyes. “I know, Lark. I know.”

  Electricity blasted through me, sent me flying off Raven in a burst of light and pain.

  I tumbled through the air and slammed into the ground next to where Shazer lay. Stunned, I lay unable to move as I processed what had happened.

  “Samara, she stopped you,” Shazer said. I glanced at him, saw the agony in his eyes. I could heal him.

  “Get your shit done, fix my legs later.” He grunted and closed his eyes. “Damn this body; you keep having to heal me and my fragile bits.”

  Raven stood, though he was far from steady and the blood ran freely from several wounds. He wobbled. “You surprise me, sister. I didn’t think you had it in you.”

  I thought about standing on two feet and the shift slid through me as if I’d been doing it all my life. A feeling of desperation rolled through me as I reached once more for my connection to Spirit and Earth. They sang through me, hot and wild. A sigh of relief slipped from me.

  Raven smiled at me, but it was weak. “Before this goes any further, I think you should meet someone.”

  He took a few limping steps toward Samara. She backed up, holding a hand out to him. “Stay where you are. I saved you only for the sake of our child.” Wind powered between them, blowing his hair back and out of its perfect slicked coif.

  “Samara, please.” Lines of power coursed up his arms, a vibrant pink that gave him away. “You love me.”

  Her eyes softened and she relaxed once more. “I do love you. You’re the father of my baby.”

  My gag reflex lurched at the sickeningly sweet words.

  “Raven, your mommy dearest, Cassava to be clear, can’t be too happy you’ve left her for someone younger.” I took a step, beckoning Peta to come to me. I didn’t want her any closer to him than she had to be.

  Raven shrugged, but his eyes were far from worried. In fact, they looked downright happy with the way they sparkled. Happy.

  This did not bode well.

  “You have the stone, but I have something to show you. Something I have on loan from my mother.” He held one fist up over his head and let out a long, high-pitched whistle. There were no lines of power on his arms, no indication that he did anything but whistle. And yet, something in his stance, the look in his eyes told me I wasn’t going to like what he had to show me.

  The whoosh of wings drew my eyes upward. A bird rushed downward, a huge big bird. What the hell was Raven’s game now?

  The bird, an eagle I could easily see now that it was close, landing on Raven’s arm.

  “Do you like him? I must say Mother was rather clever when she captured him.”

  I glanced at Peta, who shrugged.

  Shazer gave a low groan. “Lark, don’t give him the stone.”

  “I’m not.” I clutched the smoky diamond tighter as if it would otherwise slip from my fingers.

  Raven grinned, the blood on his face and belly still dripping, but he acted like it meant nothing. “No, I think you’ll give me the stone. I think you’ll give me all the stones you have.”

  None of this made sense. None of it.

  I took a step. “You are sentenced to death, Raven. This ends.”

  “You aren’t strong enough to kill me. You had your chance.” His free hand touched his belly gingerly. “And you let it slip by.”

  He patted the eagle on top of his head, rather roughly. More like hitting than patting. “A nice, golden eagle. Lovely. Much better than he was before, wouldn’t you agree?”

  Golden eagle.

  When it is done, I will help you find your golden eagle.

  The mother goddess’s words went off li
ke a bomb inside my head. Not possible, this was not possible.

  “No.”

  “You can say no all you want.” Raven continued to smack the eagle I refused to think of as Ash. “But the truth is the truth.”

  The eagle turned honey gold eyes to me. I would know those eyes and the feel of them on mine if I were blind.

  “No.” It was the only thing I could say, the only word I had left to me. Ash had to be a shifter, then, that was the only other answer. Even though I knew I was wrong the second I thought it.

  “To answer a coming question, no, he’s not a shifter. Mother confined him to this form, though why she didn’t just kill him I can’t fathom. Then again, it will work in my favor now, I think.” He flexed his arm and sent Ash back into the sky. The eagle circled once, let out a piercing cry that struck through me, and winged away.

  “He was delivering a message for me. He’s Mother’s messenger boy now. But I would give him to you, for the stones.” Raven grinned.

  Time paused, the world slowed, my heart stopped beating, I couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe or think. I had two powers to me, two elements that were mine. And one of them would allow me to control Raven.

  I grabbed hold of Spirit and held it like never before.

  I was ending this.

  Now.

  CHAPTER 20

  aven’s eyes widened. “What are you doing?”

  I slammed Spirit into him, using it like the weapon it was, digging it into his mind. He stumbled back and shook his head, tried to lift a hand, red lines of power coursing over his skin. Fire at his fingertips.

  “No.” I threw the word at him and he lowered his hand, horror finally replacing the smug look on his lips.

  Spirit grew in me, filling me as fast as I flung it at Raven. I wanted control over him, I wanted him to break into a thousand pieces at my feet and beg for his life. Beg to be forgiven so I could tell him it would never happen. Then and only then would I kill him.

  “Larkspur, this is not the way.” Talan stepped between Raven and me. I felt Talan’s hold on Spirit, felt him trying to slow me down. I flicked a hand at him, and the ground bucked under his feet, sending him to his knees. I thought it would break his concentration. I was wrong.