Rootbound

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.

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.