Rootbound

“How is it, Ender Ryk, that you, the greenest of my Enders, managed to stop her, the one who decimated our mountain?” Samara didn’t sound like herself. Her voice had a strange wispy tone as though she was out of breath while being angry.

“She attacked Aryl and Vista. She turned her back on me and I was able to take her down.”

“Yet, she still took out Aryl and Vista? You weren’t able to save them too?” Samara crooned the question.

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.