CHAPTER 19
The unnatural fire surrounding the Spiral ate it up and broke it down like no other flame I’d ever encountered. It was as if the fire itself were alive, and had a mind of its own, a desire it could not quench. As if it were a monster that would devour all in its path.
I’d dealt with monsters before. And I wanted to believe I could face this one, too, and come out the other side. At the last second before I took that final step, I called Peta to my arms. I wouldn’t lose her, not now. She burrowed her face against my neck. “I am afraid, Lark. The flames are no longer kind to me.”
Her words resonated through me. The flames were not kind. The lash of the lava whip and the pain it produced was all too real, and a memory that still woke me from my sleep shaking and screaming.
And here I was rushing in full tilt.
All I kept thinking was that I had to do this. I had to find Bella and I had to find the flame within me, whatever the hell that was. Was I a fool for trusting Cassava? Had she played into my fear for her daughter and my willingness to throw myself into danger for her? What if Cassava was playing again for Viv and this was the perfect way to eliminate me? All the questions raced through me one after another. I could answer none of them.
But my heart said she wasn’t playing me falsely. Not this time.
Now there was nothing I could do but cast myself into the fire and pray to the mother goddess that I would be strong enough. That I would be found worthy by an element that had shown me only pain. That Cassava had been honest with me for the first time in my life.
I leapt through the first wall of flames, expecting to come out on the other side and maybe find a place within the Spiral not burning.
I was so very wrong. There was no break in the heat, nowhere to go, nothing to feel but the heavy embrace of flames and heat over my entire body, cutting through me, melting through my clothes. I drew breath to scream Bella’s name one last time and gulped in a live flame that scorched my mouth and burned a path through my lungs.
The pain in my body was in overdrive. It hurt everywhere. I could not identify just one part of it. My skin charred, my fingers were melting at the tips, my lungs seared from the inside out, and through it, I heard only one thing. I heard Peta suffering in my arms, crying out, writhing but not moving to leave me. She would die with me if I didn’t find a way to show my strength, if I didn’t find a way through this.
Goddess, help me.
I kept my eyes closed as I pushed to my feet and stumbled farther into the Spiral, my lungs burning for more than one reason. Each time my foot picked up off the burning floor, I left behind layers of skin and flesh and I cried out, only to have a little more air stolen from me. I didn’t get far. I didn’t even know just where I was headed exactly until I felt the stairs under my feet. Stairs that led to the hot springs.
I let my body tumble down the wooden framework. They cracked and groaned under me, the flame having eaten out the underpinnings of the structure. I crashed through the wood and fell, landing on the sand that surrounded the hot springs. I’m not sure I even truly understood why I felt the need to go there. Eyes closed, seared shut, I heard her cry out my name. Though, how she recognized me I had no idea.
“Lark!”
I would have answered back but my lungs were collapsing. The fire on the sand curled up my legs, eating away everything I was. Bella was screaming and I went to my knees. Peta was silent in my arms and I knew she was slipping from me, her heart slowing. I managed to crack one eye open, tearing at the edges.
Peta’s body was charred, her fur gone, ear tips and tail blackened to a stub.
My ending was now. There was nothing more I could do. Just let her live. Take my life and let her live, she is strong enough. Mother goddess, let my Peta live. Save her so she can save Bella.
The words were gathered in my mind and I sent them out with Spirit, a final plea to whatever power resided in the flames. Let Peta live. She could get Bella out. She was a child of the flame, a familiar that had resided within the Pit, with the power of the Salamanders. Let her live.
Please, goddess, let her live.
I blinked and stood. The pain was gone as suddenly as it had started. I stood in the fire still, but there was no heat. Peta sat on my shoulder, her body no longer charred, but whole and free of wounds. Bella was across from us, frozen in place, trapped behind a wall of flames as she stood in the water of the hot spring. Her arms were stretched out to me as tears seemed to have stopped on her cheeks.
“Mother goddess, it can’t be,” Peta whispered, and I turned in the direction she looked out over the water.
An elemental stared back at me. Her hair was the red of blood in all its vibrancy and her eyes were the color of flames, flickering from yellow through to blue and back again. Slim, her body had a whip-like shape that, as she stepped in my direction, gave her movement as if a flame itself. “It has been a long time since a half-breed child of Earth and Spirit has come to me and asked for a connection. The last bound me in an oubliette and locked my power into a stone.”
Cassava had been right, then. This was the moment I needed to see through.
I swallowed hard because everything rode on this. Not only my life, but Bella’s and Peta’s. My family’s lives. I went to my knees, slowly. Peta leapt from my shoulder, sat beside me and bowed her head.
The original elemental of Fire stepped across the water and approached me slowly. “How do I know you will not do the same with the power I give you? She thought to save the world. Those were the words she used to convince me then, and I was the fool for trusting her.”
I kept my head bowed. “I have no such words. The world is ending.”
She laughed and the sound cut through the air. “Then I should just let you die, if the world is ending anyway.”
I did lift my head then. “You were fooled by Viv. As was I. As were all your siblings.”
Her body tensed and the color of her eyes flared hotter. “My siblings were taken as well?”
I nodded. “I seek to free you all. To stop Viv. Because it is not the world she seeks to save. She seeks only her own throne, power over the humans.”
Her eyes flickered, softening to a pale yellow. “The humans should be ruled.”
Shit, I hadn’t expected that.
I drew a breath. “I want to save my sister. I want to stop Viv. I can only do that if you are free. Take the wounds from me, and tell me where you are being kept. I will find and free you.”
She stood in front of me now, her eyes hard on me.
“Call me by my name and I will give you the power you seek. Because I see in your heart you are not like Viv.” She reached out and touched my shoulder where the branding of the lava whip had begun. A tingle slid through my skin.
“I do not want your power,” I whispered. “I want only to free you.”
She bent at the knees so we were face to face. “And that is why you are the perfect one to get the last of my power, and my life, too, little Terraling. You do not seek it.”
“Your life? I don’t want you to die.” I stared at her in growing horror.
She smiled. “My life has not been much of a life for many, many years. If you freed me, I believe my fear of Vivica would be too great to truly face her. You, on the other hand… you have the courage to see this through.”
We stared at one another, the seconds passing by.
“What about all the Salamanders, won’t they die if you die?”
She gave me a wink. “Trust me that they will live. While I am their progenitor that does not mean they need me to keep living, because my life will be wrapped with yours.”
“And if I die?”
She smiled. “Set the power free.”
A shudder went through me. “You truly will not allow me to free you?”
“This will free me, Larkspur. This moment my body will die, and I will be free to rest in my mother’s arms at last.”
I closed my eyes, thinking how it would be to have my own mother hold me once more. I nodded. “Olivisha. Ollie to Talan.”
She smiled softly. “Yes, my name is Olivisha.”
I blinked up at her, feeling the need to be formal. “Olivisha, will you allow me to be a guardian of the flame for a little while?”
“Take it, and save your sister, your cat, and our world, Larkspur. Your heart is transparent and I see no malice in you despite carrying Spirit. The power I give you will rival that within the stone, for I give you my life. Vivica should have never released my flame on the Spiral, it will be her undoing.”
She bent and kissed me on the forehead before I could ask her what she meant with that last line.
Power and heat flowed through me, lighting me from the inside, filling the dark places with brilliant flames and heat that was no longer foreign to me. Names floated through my skull, names of those siblings still lost.
Realm, child of the water, and Matarrah, child of the air.
Their names and the burning in me that was Olivisha’s life, and now mine, swirled through me with so much strength, I knew without a doubt I held more power in Fire than Earth now.
And that terrified me.
Fear is a powerful tool, Olivisha’s voice floated through me, it will keep you from being frivolous with the power I’ve given you. Use it wisely, child of the earth.
I blinked once, sand brushing away from my cheeks. I was lying on my face in the sand.
Bella’s screams echoed in my ears. I gasped and sat up, flung my hand out and watched as lines of red raced to my fingertips. Calm was the only thought I had. To calm the flames, to bring them into check. They were not needed here.
They died down wherever I looked and I drew them into me, drew their power into my body. It was like feeding a starving bear. The more I took, the better the flames obeyed and the more strength I held. The room cleared and Bella stumbled out of the water, sodden and singed, but otherwise unharmed. I caught her in my arms and held her tightly.
I looked to my side, my thoughts on Peta even as I held Bella. There my cat stood, staring up at me with those jewel-bright green eyes, her body healed as though she were never burned, never on the steps of death’s door. “Olivisha, is she really… gone?” Peta looked around, as if she would indeed see the original Salamander still standing there with us.
I nodded. “Yes.”
Bella clutched at me. “Lark, how are we going to get out of here?”
“I can get us out,” I said, “and I have to bring the rest of the flames into check.”
My sister sobbed into my shoulder. “I prayed that the mother goddess would send you to save me, Lark. I heard her voice. She said you were coming, that you would never fail me.”
I took her by the hand. “We have to go now.” I pulled on the power of the earth and pushed the sand into solid stairs. We raced up, taking them two and three at a time, Bella cupping her small belly with one hand. Peta was ahead of me. “I can calm the flames too, Lark.”
“Do it,” I said as I held my hands out, running, putting out the flames everywhere we went. The warmth of the fire was a sensation that made me want more of it. The power was seductive, more so than either Spirit or Earth. We reached the front doors and I doused the flames on them as we stepped out. Peta raced ahead of us, going to the flames farther in the Rim.
Flint ran up the steps and caught Bella in his arms. “Goddess, I thought I’d lost you.”
I put my hand on his arm once more. “You must take the flames into you, don’t try to put them out any other way.”
He twisted to me. “That is madness; that is the way to die!”
“It works.” I shrugged because it probably was madness. I wasn’t a fool to think the rules of using elemental power would suddenly apply to me now. I’d always done the impossible. Now was not the time to start thinking otherwise.
Flint frowned and I opened my palm, showing him the flames as they danced on my skin. “It is the only way, Flint.”
He kissed Bella, and let go of her hand. “I hope you are right.” He turned and strode off to the other side of the Rim. The flames still fought us, but it was at least possible to put them out. The hours ticked by and then they were all extinguished and we were exhausted, dirty, sore and still a lot of people were pissed at each other.
The flames may have been gone, but the anger between the two elemental families was still hot.
Bella sat in the middle of the Rim, holding her growing belly. Her older daughter, River, was beside her, a stance that was all protector. I watched her movement, the way she held herself. “You’ve been training with the Enders?”
“Those that are left.” Her tone was cool. She didn’t trust me, for very good reason, but I couldn’t feel bad about it. I’d done it to protect her. Another drop in the bucket of my understanding about Cassava, Raven, and Talan. Damn it all. I drew a breath.
“I believe Viv is going to bind you all to the Rim. Don’t leave; it is the madness which takes the banished that she is using against us. It’s why the Salamanders are struggling.” I crouched down to Bella while I spoke. “You have to send Flint and the Salamanders back to the Pit.”
“The Pit doesn’t exist anymore.” Flint walked up beside us as filthy as everyone else, and yet he was still obviously their leader. The other Salamanders looked to him, their eyes shining with trust and loyalty.
“The place exists, even if you can’t truly live there. You need to go back until this thing with the false mother goddess is dealt with.”
Bella closed her eyes and nodded. “I agree. We can’t have this fighting amongst our two peoples.”
“And if the flames come again?” Flint bit the question out, anger clearly on his face.
Bella held a hand up to him as she opened her eyes. He helped her to her feet. “Then I will call for you. You must keep your family safe, and you can’t do that if they are losing their minds. I can’t keep my family safe if they are losing their minds, either.”
A shudder slipped through him and he bowed his head. “I do not want to leave you.”
A sense of urgency tugged at my feet. Already my time here was done and I had to leave. “Peta, let’s go.”
The snow leopard raced across the open stretch of the Rim to me, shifting at the last second into her housecat form as she leapt up into my arms. I caught her and she moved quickly to my shoulder. I looked around for Cassava. She was off to one side, quiet, watching, a hood pulled up to shelter her face.
I realized that Bella hadn’t seen her. I arched an eyebrow and Cassava shook her head.
I turned back to Bella and caught her in a hug. “I will always come for you, Belladonna. Do not doubt it.”
She clung to my shoulders. “I love you, Lark. Whatever it is you are doing, come home when it is done.”
I let her go, and strode toward Cassava, shepherding her out of the Rim. Raven had said traveling by Spirit couldn’t be done directly in and out of the elemental homes. That it was a fail-safe to keep Spirit Walkers from causing too much damage.
So much for that thought. Viv was wreaking havoc wherever she went. The only questions were, where was she now? And did she have the pink diamond?
No one tried to stop us as we hurried out of the Rim. There were no other goodbyes, no thank you for saving us. The upheaval was too great and the shock still setting in. “Is this happening in the other families, then, too?” I asked.
My question was directed at Cassava, but Griffin answered as he fell into step beside us.
“Yes, as they leave their homes, they are finding they lose their minds rather quickly. It is a way for Viv to control them, to keep them in one place.” His eyes swept over me, as though I would have the answer to this. “You are a smart one, yeah? Think you can figure out how she’s doing it?”
“Do you know?” I fired back at him. “Because if you do, this isn’t the time for games.”
He shook his head. “I don’t know. If I do, I’d tell you, yeah?”
Cassava sniffed. “Don’t believe everything the wolf says. He’s playing a deep game, too, one I’ve yet to understand.”
I hated that I agreed with her on anything, but most especially this. I wanted to trust Griffin. He’d been the first to help me work past the blocks Cassava herself had put on my power. I fought not to hunch my shoulders. To get to the edge of the Rim would take us less than an hour. I worked over the possibilities of how Viv was binding the elemental families to their homes so tightly. “She was the one who set up the homes like this in the first place, binding us,” I said softly, knowing only Peta would hear me. She wiggled her nose which brushed her whiskers across my cheek. “But how?”
Spirit was the only answer I could truly think of. Spirit was the reason that she—Viv—could do so much. But that didn’t mean anything to me other than knowing the tool. In a way, it was like holding a weapon but not being trained how to use it.
We reached the edge of the Rim in relative silence. Neither Griffin nor Cassava deigned to speak to each other or me. And I was lost in my thoughts of all that had happened so far, all that I’d learned, and all the secrets that felt like they were still there, just under the surface.
“Where do we go next?” Cassava stopped under the canopy of an arbutus tree, the bright red bark standing out like a flag behind her.
“We have to find the last three original elementals. That is the only hope we have of stopping Viv.”
I wasn’t sure now, though. Olivisha had given not only her power, but her life to me. How would waking the others help? Talan and Cassava seemed to think it would take all six elementals to stop Viv.
And now we were minus two.
Unless I stood in her place and my mother’s to face Viv with Olivisha’s siblings.
Certainty rolled through me. That was it. I was going to do double duty with the others.
Cassava stared at me and her eyes slowly crinkled at the edges as she smiled. “If anyone will do the impossible, it will be Lark.”
Unspoken words flowed between us, an understanding that where there was hatred, there was love; where there was love, there was understanding. I pulled myself up. “I have to go on my own, Cassava. You’ve helped me enough.”
She nodded. “Not alone, though, Lark. You have one more you need with you on this journey. One who has been waiting for you. I’m surprised you have not asked for him before now.” She held up her wrist and let out a long low whistle. The cry of a hunting eagle answered her, high-pitched and mournful. I stared into the treetops as he swept toward me.
The rush of wings, the tawny brown and gold body cascading down and then he was there, on Cassava’s wrist, his still golden eyes on mine.
A golden eagle, and the only man I’d truly ever loved trapped within that form forever.
Ash.