CHAPTER 26
Raven gave me a gentle push, sending me deeper into the Rim. “I am going back for the others.”
The others. Ash’s body, that was what he meant, and his son, if his son was still alive. Peta clung to me, her body swaying on my shoulder as I stumbled forward. The Rim was a bloodbath still.
They called to me, my family, my blood, my people.
I wove my way amongst them, healing people where I could, burying those I couldn’t. I found River at the center of the Rim, Bella clutched in her arms.
I knew before I even stopped that Bella was gone.
That I’d failed her.
River looked up at me, her eyes awash with tears, rage twisting her features as she saw me. “You could have saved her!”
She rushed me and I didn’t try and stop her. She tackled me to the ground and I rolled out of instinct more than any care to truly fight back. I deserved her hatred.
“Lark!” Peta called to me. “She’s not gone.”
River leapt off me and I crawled across the dirt to where my sister lay, Peta’s head pressed to her chest. “Her heart beats, slowly, quietly, but it beats.”
I didn’t hesitate, just put my hands on Bella’s face and wrapped her in the power of Spirit.
Easy, Lark, not too fast. Talan’s voice whispered across my skin.
I slowed the flood of power as I repaired the damage to Bella’s body. She’d been caught in the blast of something from the humans, and it was only her iron-strong will that had kept her alive… Her skin flushed pink before my eyes and she took a big breath, her eyes fluttering open.
“Lark.”
I pulled her gently into my arms and just held her. We clung to each other, the last of our family. River put her arms around her mother, and I slipped an arm around my niece’s shoulder. She stiffened and then softened against me.
The four of us were the last of my immediate family.
“Is the baby okay?” Bella whispered the question to me as her hand slid over her belly.
“Yes, your baby is okay.” I sat back on my heels and looked her over.
Someone cleared their throat behind us.
We all turned at once to see Raven, Ash in his arms. Bella pushed to her feet first, instant rage in her eyes.
“You bastard, what are you doing—” She cut off short and gasped. “What have you done?”
I stepped between them. “It wasn’t him, Bella.” I didn’t want to get into the truth of who and what Raven was and why he’d done things the way he had. I didn’t want to explain what had happened. I didn’t want to… feel anything.
I went to Raven, taking Ash from him.
“I can carry him for you,” he said, his blue eyes all seriousness and filled with sorrow.
I shook my head. “No, but come with me. Please. All of you.”
The three of them fell into step around me, a small entourage to the cemetery. I walked through the vine-covered archway, straight to my mother’s grave. I went to my knees and laid Ash down carefully.
Peta sat beside me, tears streaking down the fur of her cheeks. “So much loss.”
I closed my eyes. “I’m going to release him to the elements.”
Peta nodded. “He would have wanted that, to be set free.”
I put my hands on his face, and leaned in, brushing my lips against his one last time. “Be free, my love.”
Slowly and with as much care as I could, I wove the power of Spirit through his body, breaking down what made up his flesh and bones piece by piece until nothing was left but a pile of Ender clothes and the earth he returned to.
A sob inched its way up my throat as I clutched at the shirt he’d been wearing. I wanted nothing more than to lie down next to him and—
Child, I need you still.
The mother goddess’s voice rumbled through the earth. Raven, River, Bella, and Peta all stiffened.
I pressed my hand to the ground and shook my head. “I have nothing left, and I will not sacrifice what remains of my family.”
No, child, there is one last task. You are the Destroyer. I need you to do what you were born to do—stop the humans at this moment. Their war has started and the damage is beyond my ability to heal on my own.
The image that erupted inside my head was one of fire and explosions, of death and chaos on a scale my mind struggled to comprehend. The bodies of the humans piled up like firewood, the soldiers with guns, the children crying in the streets, tugging on their dead parents’ hands. A groan slid from my lips. “This cannot be.” But the images didn’t slow. I saw elementals fighting to stave off the power of the human weaponry, but it wasn’t enough. They were dying too. I saw the natural wonder of our beautiful planet crushed under the heel of fear and greed and power.
Tears slid down my cheeks now in grief not only for Ash, but for this place we called home. “What would you have me do?”
A second image slowly formed in my mind like a flicker of pictures through a book. The earth as I knew it from far above, a photo shot from one of the humans’ space stations. Then slowly the world broke apart, the continents divided and reformed to create a new earth. One I no longer recognized.
“That will kill so many,” I said.
If you do not reset our planet, there will be complete annihilation. None left to rebuild. Death will occur, yes. But there will be hope, as well.
I wanted to deny the mother goddess, tell her we could form an army of elementals and stop what was happening, but I knew it would take too long. There were so many already dying.
Viv had set things in motion, and even she wouldn’t have been able to stop this madness.
A hand settled on my shoulder and Raven crouched beside me. “You can do this, Lark.”
“I don’t think I can,” I said. “I may carry the five elements, but what the mother goddess asks of me, it is—”
Raven smiled at me. “Impossible?”
I leaned my head on his shoulder, a bitter laugh escaping me.
Now it was clear that the path I’d been on my whole life had brought me here. All I’d learned, all that had been cast in my way, at my feet. I reached out for Peta and she crawled into my arms. I held her tightly.
“What say you, cat?”
A tiny cry slid from her lips. “Lark, I do not know. For the first time, I am at a loss. We have been so busy chasing Viv, trying to stop the madness, that the world’s trials passed us by.” I knew what she was truly saying. Maybe we could have stopped it if we’d taken time to notice it.
I drew a deep, shaking breath. “I do not know that it can be done.”
Raven cleared his throat. “The first steps have been taken. In order for the world to be reset, the Veil had to be destroyed first. That is why I had Pamela call the Lynchpin through and back to the land of the living. He’s done his part. Now… now we need you to do the rest.”
He speaks truly. The Veil held a piece of the world together that was tied to the elementals. The bonds have been released, and you have the strength to save our world. The levels of the Veil are spread throughout the world now, as it was always meant to be.
“Save the world, by destroying it,” I said.
Yes.
Just that one final word. Yes.
Holding Peta tightly, I stood. What would Ash do? What would he think was right?
I closed my eyes and let myself sink into my own mind.
Peta pressed her nose against my throat. “He would tell you to follow your heart.”
“That he would,” I said.
Bella touched my arm, drawing my eyes to her. “I stand with you, Lark. We all do. The mother goddess has called on you.”
I looked to Raven and he nodded, as did River.
I drew another deep breath. “Raven, I… I need to speak to all the elementals.”
His eyebrows raised but he didn’t tell me it couldn’t be done.
“Now?”
I nodded.
“Now.”