In front of him stood a middling-sized woman, probably a couple of inches shorter than me. She was curvy, even while looking like she could kick some serious ass. Her red hair was buzzed short and close to her head, and her eyes were the strange orange that only came through in the Salamander lines. As a fire elemental, I knew her temperament would be the opposite of her element. That was their way, to cover that heat with a cold exterior. Like a mountain sitting on top of a lava pit, waiting to be unleashed if provoked. She wore black leathers that covered her from ankle to wrist, the buckles and straps as black as the leather.
The last was an Undine—a water baby—though I would never say that to his face. His hair was a pale green and his skin was iridescent to the point I could see his blue veins clearly in his neck. He had eyes the green of seaweed, which was fitting, I supposed. His leathers were a deep blue with swirls of green that worked up the legs, and it didn’t look like leather, but something else. I squinted, trying to get a bead on the material.
A whisper over my shoulder, one of the other recruits, said, “Shark skin. Hurts like a bitch if you have to rumble with them hand-to-hand.”
“Good to know.”
All three of the other Enders were hard; muscled to the point where I wondered how they got in and out of their leathers. At least our Enders had a vest as a top, which made it easy to get in and out of. Or at least, I assumed.
I shook my head, knowing my thoughts were scrambled because of the fatigue and minimal hours of sleep. As the Sylph turned, I stepped forward, my eyes meeting his. A scar ran down the left side of his face, puckered and pale from years gone past. His stormy blue eyes widened and his face paled to match his leathers.
“Ulani.”
He breathed my mother’s name and I froze, staring up at him. “Who are you? And how do you know my mother?”
He blinked, a shadow falling over his eyes. “Everyone knew your father’s whore. He took her with him everywhere.”
Whore. The word shot through me, and anger like I hadn’t known in my life surged up. It was one thing to call me useless, to throw rocks, and tell me I was about to be banished. But to have another elemental who wasn’t even in our family besmirch my mother?
A sweet, hot rush of anger lit my nerve endings and I held onto it, let it burn through my fear.
“Nobody talks about my mother like that,” I growled, advancing on him. The world faded away. All I saw was the Sylph who didn’t back away from me. I jammed two fingers into his solar plexus. “Apologize.”
The word echoed in the room and with it, the tension rose. He sneered down at me, but it was the curl of sweat dripping down his hairline that fascinated me. If I didn’t know better, I’d say he was afraid of me.
“Apologize!”
His Adam’s apple bobbed. “I spoke out of turn.”
Around us there was an audible drawing of breath. I stepped back. “Good enough.”
I spun on my bare heel, digging it into the earth, a feeling of euphoria floating over me. I’d made him back down. Without ever lifting a finger. Holy shit on a green stick, what had I thought I was doing? And where had that come from in me? I caught Granite’s eye and what I saw there shook me. Shock and fear.
What was going on?
The others in the room got moving, as if nothing had happened. The Ender from the Pit, Maggie, took the lead. “Come on, you little pukes, I’m here to teach you how to deal with a fire elemental on the off chance you may encounter one on a Hunt.”
We lined up and she strode in front of us, her orange eyes seeming to glow from within. “Does anyone know what it would take to fend off a Salamander?”
Mal stepped forward, one hand on his hip, cocky as ever. “Water, of course.” He snorted and looked at the other Seeders, who didn’t back him up. His grin faded.
She barked a laugh. “Really? Get in the pond, puke.”
His face twisted in a sneer, but Mal did as he was told. At least the water had been cleaned. He swam out to the middle of the water, ducked under and slicked his hair back, then floated on his back, splashing about like a child.
Idiot.
I moved to the side so I could watch Maggie’s face. Was there anything to give away what she was going to do? I squinted, and stepped closer. There, in the center of her iris, a flicker of light. Mal let out a gasp and we all looked to him. Below his feet, at the base of the pond was a steady, pulsing glow.
He tread water, trying to look below him to see what we could so clearly observe. “The water, it’s warming up.”
Maggie snorted. “You’re an idiot. No wonder your family is the weakest.” She flicked her hand and the glow spread, steam curling off the water, and Mal let out a yelp. She was going to cook him alive.
My jaw tightened and I stared at her. “And it’s no wonder your family isn’t invited to play with others.”
She whipped around, her teeth bared. “Who do you think you are, royalty?”
The other recruits snickered and the only other girl in my group, Blossom, put her hand up. “Actually, she is. Even if she is a bastard.”
Maggie laughed softly. “The bastard of the king? We’ve heard rumors of you, that you have no power with your element. That true?”
No point in denying it. I held myself straight. “Yes.”
She walked toward me, though it felt more like she stalked me, circling around. “Interesting. So it’s going to be all hand-to-hand and weapons for you then, and hope to the seven hells you can manage with that.”
I nodded, but refused to turn and watch her. Something slammed into me and by the feel of the imprint of it on my lower back I knew it was her foot. I hit the ground, rolling to my feet as fast as I could, despite the pain stabbing me through my back and kidney.
“Perhaps you might make it, your reflexes aren’t bad.” Maggie shrugged and turned her back on me. Dismissing me as a threat.
Goddess, I wanted to smash her, wiping that smug look right off her fat lips. Shock filtered through me. I was not a violent person, had never thought about hurting anyone. Not even Cassava. One day in the Ender’s barracks and I was contemplating wrecking another person’s face. And making a Sylph back down, with a rage I had never known I’d possessed.
I wasn’t sure how I felt about the changes in me, but I knew whatever the cause, I had to keep moving forward with this course of action. I had no choice. I would become an Ender or I would become an outcast.
Letting a slow breath escape me, I dusted myself off and watched as Mal pulled himself from the now bubbling water. His eyes met mine and he gave me a nod. I returned the gesture. The distraction had given him enough time to get out of the water without any permanent damage, something another elemental could easily do to one of our own. Hence, the ban on using our abilities against other Enders. But when it came to criminals and traitors, we needed to know how to handle the possibility.
The Undine, Dolph, stepped forward and the water stilled. “There are many things that can kill an elemental. But using our abilities against one another is a surefire way to hurt and maim. An injury from another of our kind can easily be lethal. Consider that as you train. Always use restraint when you use your abilities toward another Ender. Your abilities are to be fine tuned, not used as a hammer.”
No problem there for me.
The rest of the day was spent working with the three elementals, learning to work around their abilities, finding ways to subdue without hurting. Which pretty much meant I was screwed.
Granite pulled me aside. “Watch what they do, and at the end of the day, I want you to tell me how you could have dealt with them.”
“You don’t actually want me to spar with them?”
“With what? You have no strength with the earth, Lark. You need to figure out how you could deal with them using only your hands, weapons, and mind. The other Seeders are learning how to combat another elemental that comes at them using their talents with whatever element they are born to. Though this may be their last line
of defense, it is a line you won’t ever be able to cross.”
I walked around the combatants as they fought, able to see the telltale sign when Maggie, who we learned was short for Magma, was going to pull on her abilities. That flicker in her eyes showed up a few seconds before she unleashed her fire. A tell, a sign that she was going to open up her fire. Would it be the same for all Salamanders or just her?
I looked around for Granite to ask him, but he was on the far side of the room, instructing Blossom as she worked with Dolph in the pool. All the other Enders had left.
Except for Ash.
“Well, no time like the present to see if we can work together,” I muttered, then walked to him, taking a small amount of pleasure in watching his eyes narrow.
“I have a question.”
“Ask Granite.”
“He’s busy, and you’re just standing here doing nothing,” I pointed out.
“I’m making sure you don’t try to kill anyone.”
The laugh burst out of me, and I bent at the waist, it hit me so hard. “Really? You see me working with anyone here? Nope, that’s right, I’m useless, remember?” There was more than a dose of bitterness with that last word, but I didn’t care. “Do all Salamanders have the same tell?”
His frowned at me, his honeyed eyes thoughtful. “Tell? What are you talking about?”
“That flicker in the corner of Maggie’s left eye. It comes just before she taps into her ability. Are they all the same or will it change with each person?”
His eyes slowly widened. “What are you talking about?”
I swallowed, wondering if maybe I was a freak in more ways than one. “Here, I’ll show you.”
He followed me to where we could watch Maggie working with another of the recruits. “In the lower corner of her left eye, near the tear duct. There’s a flicker, there!” I pointed as the telltale burst of light in her eye flickered a full second before she unleashed a lash of flame in the form of a whip.
Ash had me point it out again and again, and each time I did, the flicker grew until it was both of her eyes that glowed. “How are you not seeing this? Are you blind?”
He grabbed my arm and dragged me over to where Dolph worked now with Mal. “Look at him; do it again.”
I watched Dolph, narrowing my eyes. There was nothing I could see, at least, not at first. But then, there, around his hands was a shimmer, like water flowing. “Left hand,” I whispered. Ash’s grip on me didn’t lessen, but I didn’t care. I was getting excited. If I could see when another elemental was about to blast me, I could become an Ender. I didn’t need to be able to touch the earth’s abilities.
I stared at Dolph’s hand until the shimmer moved up his arm, all the way to his shoulder. Like with Maggie, the more I focused on him, the easier it was to see when he was going to unleash. Ash dragged me over to the Sylph, whose name I hadn’t yet caught.
“What’s his name?” I asked as I stared at the Ender’s eyes and hands, looking for his tell.
“Wicker, but to his friends, Wick.”
Words floated through me from a dream that wasn’t a dream, after all. My reality shattered with those words, and I felt something in me crack open, a shell that had been holding me together, keeping me from who I was meant to be. A flash of light behind my eyes, a pink burst of color that left me gasping. Left me with nothing but the truth of my dream.
“Wicker, kill the baby first, and the girl last.”
Chapter 8
Fainting was not something I thought would ever happen to me, but there I was, flat out on the floor, staring up at the ceiling. The expression “two worlds colliding” never had more meaning.
Next to me, Granite crouched, his mouth moving, but I heard nothing. Could see nothing but that moment in my dream—no, my memory—where the Sylph stole Bram’s wind and stopped his heart.
Wicker had killed my baby brother. I sat up, and the closely gathered Enders gave me room.
“Lark, what happened?”
A slow boiling rage, like the burn of the summer sun as it heats the flesh, crept through me, a thousand times hotter than when my mother had been insulted. This was the rage of justice coming home to roost. “Where’s the Sylph?”
Granite looked over my shoulder and I twisted to see Ash standing there, shaking his head. “Why?”
“I’m going to kill him.”
The room around me swirled and someone grabbed at my arms, but I jerked away from them and ran to where the weapons were kept. I yanked a spear down, it wasn’t mine, but it would do.
“You can’t kill another Ender, Lark! It’s a death sentence!”
“I don’t care, let me go!” I fought against the hands on my arms, the fingers prying mine off the shaft of the spear. “Let me go!”
Granite gripped my arms hard. “What did you see, Lark? You looked at him, and your eyes fogged over. We thought . . . he’d done something to you.”
A scream worked its way up my throat, bursting out in a mix of rage and pain, grief and regret. The dream was real; it had been real all along. Something inside me had broken open, to reveal that I wasn’t the kind, sweet planter girl I’d always thought. What I knew instinctively was blood lust roared through me and I fought those who would keep me from killing Wicker.
Punching and kicking, I jerked my body hard, yanking someone with me. I wasn’t even seeing faces as I did all I could to free myself. “I’ll kill him, I’ll kill him!” My words, my voice, but it was like watching a play being acted out in front of me. Ash had my arms pinned behind my back and Granite was yelling in my face, slapping me to get my attention.
“Lark, stop! Have you gone mad? Your father will send you away. He’ll banish you!” Slap, slap, slap. Which only enraged me further. That crack inside me opened a little more for just a moment, and then Ash was dragging me, his arms hooked under mine, my back pressed against his chest.
“Let me go, you bastard.” I threw my head back, trying to connect with his nose. He dodged me, and I tried another tactic, dropping my weight to the floor and then spun to one side. Ash stumbled over me and ended up on top of me, holding me to the floor. With a grunt, he raised his right hand up and let fly with a punch that stunned me.
But not for long. I heaved him off, thrusting and twisting my hip, shoving him from me with my long legs.
“Battle it out,” Granite said and I didn’t understand, didn’t care. Ash was in front of me and I wanted nothing more than to choke the life out of him.
He spit a wad of blood and saliva that hit the floor with a wet splat; maybe I had managed to connect a blow. “Come on, little cuckoo, let’s see what you’ve got.”
I swung wildly at him, my fists missing as Ash kept dodging out of my way, which only sent me deeper into my rage.
And then he hit me again, and again. Fast as a cobra, he slid toward me in a crouch, and delivered a sharp jab to my left side, stunning me for just a second. He moved to step back out of range and I brought my right hand down on his left shoulder as hard as I could.
Something cracked under my hand and I didn’t know if it was him or me. I couldn’t feel anything, couldn’t think of anything except that he stood between Wicker and me. The fight, and it really wasn’t much of a fight, lasted only another two minutes. With a roar, Ash tackled me and we tumbled backward into the pool.
The water whooshed over my head, filled my ears, nose, and mouth as I fought against his hands that held me under. We hit the bottom and I kicked off, shooting to the surface where I sucked in a lungful of air, gasping and coughing out the last of the water.
Ash surfaced a few feet away, water dripping down his face, his eyes watching me carefully. “Done?”
The water had snapped me out of whatever madness had dug into my soul. Wicker was gone. I would have to find another way to get to him. I wiped my face with my left hand. “Done.”
We swam to the edge of the pool and Granite offered me his hand. I gave him my right hand, and then whimpered. It hadn’t
been Ash who had cracked under the blow. The bones in my hand protested Granite grabbing them.
“Thought I heard a crack.” He slid his hand up over my wrist and yanked me out of the water. “You going to tell me what that was all about?”
I sniffed and smoothed my hair back from my face. Ash stood to one side of me and with him there, listening, I couldn’t find my voice so I shook my head.
I knew what they would say if I told them Wicker had killed Bram. I knew from experience that people would say I was crazy. But this time, I didn’t doubt myself. In the past I’d always doubted, I’d thought I was crazy.
Now I knew the truth of my past.
I just had to prove it, I had to keep what I knew to myself until I could lay it all on the table, could lay out the evidence and the players so there would be no denying it. I swallowed hard and shook my head again.
Granite frowned at me. “Nothing?”
Ash cleared his throat. “You don’t go into a killing rage for nothing. We all have our secrets, but unless you actually pass the testing and manage to become an Ender, you don’t get that privilege. Especially if you’re trying to kill another Ender.”
From the corner of my eye, I saw a flicker of green light dance along Granite’s fingers on his right hand, seconds before the ground shifted under our feet, smoothing away the training area. “Ash, leave it be. We’re done for the day.”
It was only then I realized every single Ender available had been watching, and of course, all the recruits too. They’d all heard me melt down, all seen me fight and lose to Ash. Humiliation burned hot along my skin and it took everything I had not to look down, to keep my eyes up. I would not be ashamed.
More than one Ender narrowed their eyes when I looked their way.
“I said,” Granite growled, “we’re done for the day. Except for you, Lark. You stay here with me.”
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