Ash

“Why did you not use Spirit on me?”

He shrugged. “A part of me likes you, Ash. I want to believe we could have been friends at one point. As it is, I will help you this one last time . . . my mother never left the Himalayas.”

“Not possible,” I said, denying his words. “There has been no disturbance of the world there. No breakdown of the elements.”

Raven laughed. “There have been more avalanches than ever before, and they’ve claimed the lives of several humans so far. I do what I can to tamp down the chaos, but even I can’t stop it completely.” His eyes flickered to half-mast almost as if he were seeing something only he could see. “And she is battling with the Yeti. Apparently they don’t like it when people chain up snow leopards.”

I blanched as Norm roared. The two of us took off through the night as the world around us exploded in fire and blasted rocks. The witch behind us was powerful, but I would not want her anywhere near my bed. I wished Raven luck with her.

What was I thinking? Maybe they would kill each other when they coupled and I’d have done in two violent birds with a single stone. The problem was I doubted that my luck would take me that far.

Norm was ahead of me and I struggled to keep up. “Norm, stop!”

“He said she’s fighting with my family and she’s got your snow leopard on a chain. I have to help them!” he cried out, spinning so I could see the sheer terror on his face. The utmost pain anyone could feel—his family was potentially being decimated as we spoke.

“We will, but we can get there faster if we use this.” I held up the chakram, the golden edge catching the light. “We need a plan. This is no prank, my friend. This is serious and both of us could die along with your family and my friend.”

He nodded, the tears freezing on his furry cheeks. “What are we going to do?”

“We’re going to go back the mountains, right to where the avalanche was,” I said, already seeing the place she would hide out. Right under my nose, hidden from me by my own blindness. I was a fool. She’d left only to be healed by Dhan, but I’d continued as if she would run from place to place like any banished elemental. I’d been led on a damn goose chase and had fallen for it like I’d been raised as an Ender yesterday. Damn it all.

I held the chakram to my forehead and then swept it downward, touching the ground at my feet. From one snow-filled vista to another; the only difference was that dawn rose above the Himalayas while in Romania, we stood in the darkness of the night. Behind us, a battle raged, the trees cracked and the ground shook. Raven had his hands full with that one. Again, I could only hope they killed each other. That would be the best outcome. If nothing else, he would be kept busy and that meant he would not interfere with my dealings.

I stepped through the Veil and did not have to ask Norm to keep up with me.

He lifted his nose into the air as the Veil slashed shut behind us. “Fires, I smell fires and burning meat.”

I smelled it too, and I didn’t like it as it stirred the old memories once again. I shook them off, but they clung to the edges of my mind.

“Cassava was in Miko’s cave. She influenced both him and Niah into sending me on this wild goose chase. I’m sure of it.” No, that wasn’t quite right . . . Niah hadn’t looked like Niah . . . her image had wavered. Was it possible that it hadn’t even been her?

Truth, child. Truth. You have been led by the nose. The voice rumbled through me and I felt the power in it. The power of the mother goddess.

“Why?”

We cannot see the hearts of our people as we once did. You found your way back to where we slept; we have waited for you. We felt you. You are the half destined to re-ignite the fires of legend. Now, we give you our strength. You will need it. You are our warrior, Ash of the Rim. We have chosen you to guard the one we will place at the helm of our world.

The words rocked through me and with them a rush of strength and power like I felt when I’d faced the banished elementals—where they slept. “If I hadn’t gone, in my youth and now, to where the hurricane raged, you would not have known me, would you?”

“Who are you talking to?” Norm dropped a hand on my shoulder, as if I were the crazy one.

I shook him off and listened for an answer.

It came, slowly. You woke us, as Larkspur has woken us. We needed the strength only the Destroyer and her destined mate can create. If you had not stepped onto the land of our forced slumber . . . we would not have found you in time.

The voices fell silent and I did not ask more questions. I tapped into the earth’s power, letting it roll through me. I could sense another Terraling in the distance, sense her using the earth to kill, and could feel its reluctance to her demands.

“Why wouldn’t Cassava just kill me?” I asked the question out loud because there was something hiding in the answer that I knew I would need.

“You don’t know why?” Norm asked.

I shook my head and put a hand on the back of my neck. “No, I don’t.”

“Then we have to think about it. I know. We have to think slow. Like me.” He clapped a hand on my shoulder and pushed me to my knees in the snow as he sank down beside me. “We have to be smarter than the average Yeti.”

The problem was my mind did not want to go forward. It was stuck on a cycle and all I could think about was killing Cassava, of finding her and lopping her traitorous head off. I closed my eyes and did the only thing I could think of.