CHAPTER 17
The thing was, water in general had not been kind to Peta nor me in all our adventures together. Maybe it was the feline nature in her, and the answering feline shifter nature in me. But water and what resided in it had always been an issue from the minute I’d stepped into the Deep the first time.
“Shit.” I spat out a mouthful of salt water with the word.
Raven was beside me and he took my hand. “We’re going back to the boat, right now.”
There was a tug and a pull in my middle and I blinked several times because I went from floating in the water to standing in the boat with very little motion. He’d ridden Spirit away from danger. But he’d left someone behind.
“Lark!” Peta screamed my name from out in the water.
“You left Peta!”
I moved to dive into the water but Raven stopped me. “I’ll get her.”
He was gone, literally disappearing in front of me and then he was beside Peta in the water. She climbed onto his shoulder as a flurry of triangular fins swam around my girl.
Shaking, I didn’t dare breathe. One of the sharks was going for them, mouth open, teeth jagged with death written all over them.
A blink and Raven was back in the boat. The shark bit down on nothing, flicked its tail and headed for the boat.
Peta leapt from Raven to me and I clutched her to me.
Talan put a hand on my arm. “Raven, follow us to the shore.”
“Wait, what about Shazer?”
My words were lost in a moment of fuzziness in what I understood was Riding Spirit with Talan. Something I knew I needed to learn more than ever.
Before I could do more than take a breath, my feet were on solid ground once more. Though I didn’t know for how long. And by the flora and fauna I could see around the edges of the beach, we were nowhere near the Deep and the coastline there. Talan had taken me somewhere else entirely.
“Where are we?” I backed away from him, still holding a shivering Peta close to my chest. Thank the goddess Peta’s bond with me made it so she didn’t count as an extra body.
“We are on the shoreline of Spain. It is a grounding point Raven knows about. Why he wouldn’t bring you here in the first place is beyond me,” Talan snapped as he began to pace the sand. A few minutes later, Shazer appeared in the sky, Raven on his back. Talan stiffened.
“That Pegasus is not coming with us.”
“Viv made him. He can help us find her,” I said, irritation flowing through me.
Talan spun around. “Yes, and she can find us through him. She knows he is your pet. She knows you care for him; that is why she gave him to you. He may be your friend, but he could cost us everything. He may have already.”
Peta struggled in my arms as I just stared at Talan. “He… I think he is right, Lark. You know it yourself; you can find me anywhere if you truly search for me.”
She was right, but that didn’t make me feel any better about what it was Talan was saying. “Then we free him from his bonds now. We send him back as the elemental he was so long ago.”
Talan drew a slow breath and nodded. “All right. But it will show her your hand yet again. The more she knows you are capable of—”
“Doesn’t matter now,” I said. “She knows we are her enemies. She knows I am the one who will find and free your siblings. Does anything else really matter?”
Talan and I stared at each other as Raven and Shazer landed.
Talan nodded. “I’ll get a witch who can help us.”
Raven stiffened at those words but Talan disappeared before he could say anything. “Shit.”
“Why shit?” I glanced at him, unable to look at Shazer.
“I don’t want my daughter hurt any more than she has been.” He rubbed a hand over his face.
Pamela… of course he would worry for her.
There was a space of only a few minutes before Talan was back, dragging a woman with him. Correction, a witch. “Let me go, Tal, my daughter will panic if I’m not home when she wakes.” She jerked her arm from him and he let her go. I stared at her wondering if we’d met. She had long dark hair and dark eyes, and if I were to guess her age, I would place her in her mid-thirties. She wore a long skirt that swept the sand and a peasant blouse as though she was still living as a witch from the medieval era. I arched an eyebrow. “She’s strong enough?”
The witch pulled herself up. “I am one of the most powerful witches this world has left, so you better hope I be strong enough for whatever this one wants.” There was a Scottish undertone to her words.
Talan beckoned her forward. “I’ve known Meghan for a few years and she knows the spell we need.”
She pushed up her sleeves. “The horse is the one trapped?”
Shazer snorted. “Pegasus.”
She went to his side and put her hands on his neck. “Which one of you be helping me do this?”
I stepped forward and Shazer stepped away from her and me. “What the hell is going on?”
“We’re giving you back your original form,” I said.
He gave me a frown, his eyes narrowing. “You still need my help, Lark.”
I closed my eyes. “Viv can find us through you. We need to break the bond between the two of you.”
He snorted. “Well, that is just plain shitty. You sure about that?”
“That is why I kept you penned up and sedated as I did,” Talan said.
Well, there was that question answered at least. I let out a breath. “Meghan, I will be the one helping you do this. Do you have any words of advice?” I needed to learn how to do this if I was going to save Ash. If I was going to bring him back from being a golden eagle.
“You feed me your power. No witch is strong enough to truly do this on her own, but with an elemental backing them, the theory is it will work.” Her eyes were on mine. “The only question is, will you be strong enough?”
I gave her a smile, not taking offense at all. She did not know me. “I think I’ll manage.”
She glanced over her shoulder and then leaned into me. “A word of caution. What has been done for too long, cannot be undone without a cost. Remember that.”
I gave her a nod, and brushed her words aside.
I wished later that I’d taken more care with her advice.
I moved up beside her and Shazer took a step toward us. “I’d like a minute alone with Lark before we do this.”
That surprised me, but Meghan backed as did the others. He dropped his head so his nose rested against the skin of my collarbone, his lips moving across it as he spoke. “I do not know what will happen when you turn me back to my former self, Lark. I… I am afraid that I was cast into this shape as punishment. I don’t remember who I was and it took me many, many years to find the ability to speak.” His lips tickled me, but I kept still.
“You will still be my friend, Shazer. Though I suppose you may recall your real name and I must learn to call you by it.” I smiled. “This isn’t goodbye. If you pissed off Viv then, you were her enemy, and I am her enemy so we’ll be all good.”
His dark eyes were still worried. “What if it kills me?”
I swallowed hard. “Talan would have said something, wouldn’t he?”
Peta trotted forward. “I overheard him, and he has a point.”
He dropped his nose to her. “I knew I liked you from time to time, pussy.”
She batted a paw at his nose. “The shift after this long could kill him. We aren’t talking about a few years, or even only ten or fifteen. We’re talking about a few thousand. I heard what Meghan said.”
“This isn’t helping,” I said. I swallowed hard, thinking. “Talan, tell me we can do this safely.”
“It can be done safely,” he answered, smooth as butter.
Peta put a paw against Shazer’s lower leg. “This needs to be Shazer’s choice, not Talan’s. Or even yours.”
I nodded, reached out and touched Shazer just behind his ear. “It is your choice; she is right about that. Do you want to return to your previous shape if we can do that?”
He was quiet a long time. “I don’t know. Alive and stuck like this, I am still alive at least.” A flicker of fear flashed through his big dark eyes. I pressed my head to his.
“I understand.” I would miss him, but if Talan was right, then Shazer would have to go. Much as I hated it.
I stepped back from him and turned around. “It’s not happening.”
Meghan lifted an eyebrow. “The wee pony is right to be scared.”
Shazer stomped a foot behind me and I held an arm out to stop him from charging her. “Not without reason. He’s held this shape for thousands of years; no one truly knows what will happen if it’s taken from him. Or if he’d even survive it.”
Talan stood a solid twenty feet from us and even at that distance I could see the irritation in his face, the flick of muscles along his jaw.
Talan stalked forward. “He is a liability that you cannot see because he is your friend!”
We were nose to nose, neither of us backing down. I refused to give up on Shazer.
Behind me, he butted his nose into my lower back.
“Lark. Let them try then.”
“No, you said you didn’t want to.” I didn’t look back at him.
“Let them try.” The resignation in his voice cut through my heart.
Talan shook his head. “She will never forgive me, but I will hold you to those words, Shazer.”
My eyes widened and the power of Spirit whirled around him.
I went to my knees, frozen in place. “Talan, don’t you dare!”
Raven ran across the beach. I heard the first pulse of wings, but I knew it wasn’t enough.
Seconds later, Shazer followed Talan to a place in front of me. Raven was on his knees, too, and Peta sat as if frozen.
“This is what will happen if you try to bring someone back. Someone who does not have the heart to shift. Someone like your Ash.” Talan bit the words out.
He flicked his hand at Meghan and she went to his side, trembling.
“Talan, do not do this,” she whispered.
“This is a lesson she will learn. That no one can be trusted. That her friends are not with her. That she cannot do everything.” His eyes hardened. “Learn this lesson well, Lark. Seeing as you would learn nothing else from me.”
What if Viv had put a booby trap inside of Shazer, too, like she’d done to the gargoyles? I could only hope the same trap that had lain in wait for me would take Talan. But somehow, I doubted it.
Meghan stepped up beside him again and reached around his middle, shaking. “One hand on the heart, one hand on the head.” She placed her hands accordingly and bowed her head. “You put your hands over mine, Elemental, then open your power to me.”
I looked Shazer in the eye and he winked at me. “Lark, this is not your fault.”
Talan stepped into position, reaching around Meghan. “It is her fault, for being childish. For being stupid. You lose those you love when you think you know it all.”
I realized then that Talan did not expect Shazer to survive.
“Talan, stop! I will learn.”
“Lies.” He breathed the word. “You are right, Lark. You only learn one way. Pain. Suffering. They have always been the best tools.”
“Please, stop!”
My words fell on deaf ears. I fought the bonds he’d placed on me like never before. Talan was not my friend. He was not trying to help me, but hurt me.
And he was going to murder Shazer.
Shazer began to breathe harder, the air flowing in and out of him in huge gulps as though he were running. His body shivered and his skin twitched, but I could see nothing changing.
Meghan shook her head. “Tough one. Talan, do you be sure?”
“Do it, witch.”
Shazer grunted and I kept my eyes locked on his as I frantically pulled at the threads of Spirit around me, but it was like fighting air.
“You hurt him, and I will kill you, Talan!” I screamed the words, panic and rage fueling them and my efforts. I focused on the threads on my mind and body.
I told myself a lie I was determined to believe. The bonds were nothing to me. The power of Spirit could not touch me as long as I held tightly to the earth.
A soft voice whispered through me from the ground, the voice of the true mother goddess.
Your mother’s unique gift was her ability to see the lines of power. See them on yourself, Lark. See where you can cover them with other lines of power and your connection to me.
Something clicked inside my head as the words opened understanding in me.
The lines of pink that held me touched the earth in places.
Like a brilliant flash of light, I understood how I could circumvent Talan’s hold on me. The lines of power from the earth were there, just waiting on me. I slid them up and over the lines that held me down, and the power of Earth flowed through me, even when I was blocked as I was right then. I funneled it through my body and smothered the lines of pink that kept me from moving.
Released, I shot to my feet and ran at them.
Meghan barked at me, “Move now and he’ll die for sure. There be a chance yet!”
I froze where I was mid-step. “What?”
“We can’t stop the spell or he will surely die,” she breathed out. “We must finish now.”
Shazer grunted, sweat rolling down his face, his flanks trembling.
Talan stared at me, his eyes wide. “How did you free yourself?”
“He dies and I will kill you.” The words were hot and fueled by more anger than I’d ever felt in my life.
My son… he is trying to help you, Lark. Even if he is going about it the wrong way.
“Then your own connection to Spirit will be lost.” He smirked at me. Fucking well smirked.
I smiled back. “Then so be it.”
He paled.
Power hummed around us, yet I could feel none of it.
“Meghan, if I add my power, will that help?”
She shook her head. “No. Be quiet.”
Biting my lower lip, I watched as Shazer’s skin thinned and his body began to shift, his wings drooped and the feathers sloughed off one by one. Tears slipped down my cheeks. They were literally pulling him apart, a piece at a time.
“Please, Meghan,” I whispered. Caught between rage and fear, I still had hope that Shazer was strong enough to pull out of this.
“I’m trying,” she bit back. “This don’t be easy, Elemental.”
I clamped my mouth shut and just watched.
Raven cleared his throat. “Little help?”
I didn’t look back at him. “Earth dampens the lines.”
He gasped and in seconds was at my side. “Shit. How did you figure that out?”
I didn’t look at him. I kept my eyes on Shazer even when Peta pressed against my legs. She, too, carried ability with the earth.
And now all three of us were immune to Talan’s and Viv’s machinations.
Shazer’s body shrank and shifted, bones cracked, and then the Pegasus I knew was gone, and a man lay in the sand at our feet. Meghan stumbled away from me and I dropped to my knees to cradle Shazer’s upper body, his long white hair spilling over my arm.
A Sylph, Shazer had been a Sylph.
I put my hand to the side of his neck. “Shazer, talk to me.”
“Magnus,” he whispered. “My name was Magnus and Viv cursed me because I sided with those who banded against her. I led the rebellion, and now I leave it in your hands to stop her.” He opened his eyes, soft gray eyes like the underbelly of a storm cloud. He lifted a hand to my cheek. “Lark… you are the one we’ve waited for.”
His hand slipped down and I caught it, clutching his fingers. “Magnus, don’t you dare!” I pushed a pulse of Spirit into him to heal whatever was wrong, but I could find nothing. “Raven, help me!”
There was a flurry of movement and then Raven was there on the other side of Magnus. Raven put his hands on the Sylph’s chest. “His heart isn’t beating.”
“Get it started again.” I barked the order even though I knew in my own heart… I knew what I was seeing. Shazer was gone, his life snuffed out by attempting to give him his real form.
Peta wrapped a big paw around me and tugged me away. “You can’t bring him back, Lark.”
A sob slipped from me and I put my hands over my face. I cried for Shazer. I cried for his willingness to be the test subject and I cried for what it meant. “I knew it. I knew this would happen.” Why hadn’t I stopped this when my instincts screamed there was no way it would work? Something had told me, and I’d not listened. I’d wanted to know it was possible.
“Lark,” Raven said, “Talan is gone.”
I jerked my head up.
Both Talan and Meghan were indeed gone. “A coward always runs when they finally realize they are out-powered.”
Raven nodded. “He knows he can no longer hold you down. He won’t come at you again.”
Shaking from head to toe, I wasn’t so sure Talan was done with us.
“This was another lesson,” I whispered. “One that cost us a dear friend. Talan will not stop. I just think we won’t see him coming.”
“He did something, though. He saved Ash’s life,” Raven said.
I blinked up at him. “What are you saying?”
He swallowed hard. “Ash as he was—a man—is lost to you. And I don’t think you would have believed it if you hadn’t seen Shazer die.”
I closed my eyes and leaned over Shazer’s—Magnus’s—body. Tears slid from my face and onto his. “Goddess, please…do not leave me now.”
There was silence for a few beats and then the presence of the mother of us all surrounded me, spilling upward from the earth.
Child, you have a long road yet ahead of you. There will be many losses; this is only the first. Though I wish I could spare you this pain.
Still on my knees, I called the earth to slide open and take Shazer’s body—Magnus, I should say—into his final resting place.
“Goodbye, my friend.” The words were bitter on my tongue, salted with my tears and grief.
I closed my eyes, still able to see the fear in Shazer’s eyes as we’d shared one last look. He’d known, too, death was coming for him.
“What do I do next? How do I find Viv?”
I will guide you as much as I can, Lark, in other matters. But I cannot tell you where she is, for she hides from me. But remember Magnus was not the only one bound to her.
Peta pressed her body against the side of my thigh. “What does she mean by that?”
I looked up at Raven. “Who else is bound to Viv?”
Cassava. The name was not spoken, yet we all knew it. Once again, it came back to if we could find Cassava, we could find Viv.
Maybe.
“She always goes home, to the Rim,” Raven said quietly. “She goes to the cemetery.”
“To be with my mother,” I whispered. “Then we will go there next. We will find her and she will help.”
Raven lifted his eyebrows high. “You would force her?”
I gave him a tight nod. “If I must. We are at war, Raven. There is no choice now but to do what we must.”
I could almost hear Shazer laughing at me for sounding far tougher than he’d ever thought I was.
I clenched my teeth against the flood of tears that threatened at the back of my eyes, and forced words through my throat.
“Raven, are you going to teach me how to Ride Spirit now?”
He hesitated but only for a split second. “Yes.” He was at my side in an instant. “In fact, I think we should go now. Talan could come back, and honestly, I don’t want to pit myself against him just yet.”
Raven grabbed my hand, I scooped up Peta, and the beach was gone between a single blink and the next. A part of my brain tried to tell me it wasn’t possible, but I could see the threads of power Raven used to move us through space to Ride Spirit. It wasn’t just Spirit, though that was the dominant color. All five elements blended together to bend the world to his will, to allow the movement from one part of the world to another.
I stared at his hand, not bothering to look around. “Like the Traveling bands, Peta is a part of me so she doesn’t count as an extra person?”
“Correct,” he said.
I nodded to myself. “Do it again.”
“No instruction?” The surprise in his voice didn’t bother me.
I shook my head. “No, just do it again. I want to watch it done.”
He took us to another place, and another and another, and each time the pattern became more visible. The places varied, but I barely noticed them. I wasn’t being stubborn about him not giving me instruction. The fascination with the colors and what the elements could do when they were blended was what had me totally wrapped up, and I’d always learned by seeing. And… it allowed me to forget about losing Shazer for a space of time, to help push away that grief. Another time, I would say my real goodbyes, but not now. Too much was at stake. I had to learn. I had to be ready for what was coming.
I had to be ready to face Viv in all her terrible glory.
It wasn’t until Raven went to his knees that the hypnotized feeling left me and I looked up from his hands. “How long were we Riding Spirit?”
“Maybe twenty minutes. I’ve never done that many movements one after the other.” He was breathing hard. “You think you’ve got it?”
I nodded. “Yes, I do. I’m going back to the beach where Talan was, Raven. Are you coming with me?”
He slumped further. “You want to fight him now? Lark, that time will come. Let’s find Cassava first.”
“I don’t trust him. He’s lied too many times, and I don’t care how often I am told that he’s done it for my good. For all you or I know, he’s been working with Viv,” I said softly. Peta came to me.
“It will be a fight to the death,” Raven said. “And we have bigger things on the plate. Remember?”
I didn’t want him to be right. “Damn it. Then we will go to Cassava.”
“You mean the Rim,” Raven said.
“No, I mean Cassava.”
I held my other hand out to Raven. He sighed. “You can’t travel to a person, only a place.”
“That’s what you think,” I said.
He opened his mouth, but it was too late. I was already weaving Spirit around my hands, calling up Earth and blending it and then carefully reaching for the other elements. They weren’t mine to beckon, not really, but if I understood what I’d seen with Raven, Pamela, and Talan as they’d used it, Spirit could offer me a small connection with the other elements. I didn’t question what I was doing, just gently asked the other elements to aid me, to give me their strength so I could travel through the world. Raven sucked in a sharp breath and we were gone from wherever it was he’d taken me to a place that was not the beach. Somewhere else further flung than that.
I’d locked onto Cassava, the image of her, and let Spirit take me right to her feet.
Which would have been good if she’d not been in the middle of talking to Talan.