Windburn (The Elemental Series #4) (16 page)

But we knew it as the birthplace of monsters, a place of mystery and danger even elementals of great power avoided. There was too much wildness in the earth and elements here; too much of the supernatural to be anything but chaotic.

“You sure about this, Peta?” I asked as I pulled the boat forward.

She stood on the prow of the boat, her eyes staring straight ahead. “I may not be a Reader, but I know when a certain path is right. This is the path we have to take if you want to succeed, Lark.”

Cactus leapt out of the boat and helped me pull it the rest of the way up the beach so it was fully out of the water. “You aren’t going to say anything?”

I had a choice. I could give him hell for trying to control me, or I could be honest with both him and myself. I went for the second choice.

I grabbed his face in both hands and pulled him to me. The kiss ignited an instant fire in my body, a flame of love and bonds rooted in my earliest memories. He crushed me against his body until we had to break apart to breathe.

I stumbled back, panting for air. He stood a few feet from me, his hair wild from my hands skimming through it, his eyes dark with a heady desire that still rushed along my skin. “The truth is I love you both. That is all I know.”

Peta groaned. “Why, why did you have to tell him?”

“Because I can’t lie, not to either of them,” I said. “I may be a lot of things, but a liar is not on the list.”

“Fine, but you deal with this little love triangle when we have your father home, and things are settled enough for you to see clearly.” She turned, and stalked up the beach, her long tail twitching like mad.

“I can wait, Lark. For as long as it takes for you to realize I am the one you need.” Cactus grinned at me, and I couldn’t help but smile back.

“So sure of yourself?”

“Lust is not the same thing as love. I don’t care that you bedded him. It doesn’t mean you love him.” He walked ahead of me and I couldn’t help but stare. He and Ash were not so different in height. But the muscle on Ash was thicker from years of fighting and training with weapons. Cactus was leaner, like some of our Runners who took messages.

Neither was weak, but they offset one another. As though one called to my dark side and the other to the side of me that believed fairy tales always ended with a happily ever after.

I frowned as I followed Cactus and Peta, and my thoughts bounced between my situation with the two men, and the situation with my father. I’d almost rather deal with Cassava and my father than decide between Ash and Cactus. My heart had been broken too many times with loss and betrayal to lose another person I loved.

And that was the crux of it: I loved them both in ways I never thought possible. In ways I’d never experienced, not with Coal. My heart stuttered ever so slightly and I gave a silent prayer for his soul. That he would find peace on the other side of the Veil in the arms of the mother goddess. That he would forgive me for not loving him the way he wanted me to. The way I loved Ash and Cactus.

“Keep your eyes open, and tread softly. He didn’t get the name The Bastard for nothing,” Peta said. “We’re close to the glade he uses as his launch pad.”

Around us the trees and brush had grown thick, and the sounds of the ocean had faded to nothing. In all my musings, I hadn’t realized how far we’d come. I looked behind us, and could see nothing but green. No ocean. In fact, we were surrounded by foliage so thick I couldn’t even see the sky. “You get us lost, cat?”

She shook her head. “Of course not. But there are no paths to The Bastard. Would you make one?”

I nodded and did as she asked, tapping into the earth. The power ran up my arms, warm and inviting. A touch of the mother goddess, like a caress of my own mother nearly remembered. The plants ahead of us bent outward, opening a path. I put a hand on Peta’s head. The power of the earth ran through me and into her like a fast-flowing river and she trembled. “I can feel your power under my fur. How is that?”

“I don’t know.” I stepped forward and she moved with me in perfect tandem. A thought occurred to me and I ran with it. I released the earth and the plants closed around us again. “Try, Peta. Ask them to bend for you.”

“Ridiculous. Familiars do not have the power of their charges,” she said, but her words held no real heat.

“Try anyway. Cactus won’t tattle if you can’t. Or if you can.”

“Your secrets are safe with me, kitten.”

She glared at him over her shoulder. “I’d rather you call me bad luck cat than that.”

Kitten. That was what Talan had called her. I made myself focus on the present. “Try, Peta. Try, because maybe there will come a day when you need this connection.” I paused, thinking of how the power felt when I’d touched her. “Run it through me. I think it will work.”

She let out a sigh, but under my hand I felt her eagerness. There was a tentative pull through me, but I didn’t reach for the earth’s power. Around us, the path opened again, the branches pulling back. Cactus stepped up close behind me. “Is that her or you?”

“It’s Peta. Apparently you were meant to be with a Terraling all along.” I smiled, not only because I was pleased but because of the way Peta felt.

She was ecstatic. “I’m really doing this?”

I nodded and urged her forward with my hand, then took it from her back. “Lead on.”

Her green eyes met mine and in the look so much was encompassed. Love, friendship, loyalty and sheer joy. Smiling, I waved at her and she stepped forward, the plants moving out of her way.

“You know this shouldn’t be able to happen,” Cactus said.

I shrugged. “Seems to be a recurring thing with me.”

Ahead of us, Peta dropped to her belly. The sound of voices floated in the night air to us. I lowered into a crouch as I took my spear from my belt and twisted it together. Cactus did the same and we moved forward with quiet steps, moving only the bushes we had to.

Through the screen of the foliage, the flicker of fire danced. A bonfire, by the height of the flames that reached the top of the trees. So we’d found the clearing, but what was The Bastard up to? He had no need of a fire to keep warm.

I crept closer until we were at the edge of our cover, Peta on the right of me and Cactus on the left.

In front of us, circling the bonfire were a number of people. I looked closer, picking up on their auras. Not people, supernaturals. “Count them,” Peta said.

A quick tally told me all I needed. Thirteen—a coven of witches. That wasn’t the disturbing part, though. Thirteen witches, and one more tied to a stake driven into the ground. The captive was male with deep brown hair and a pretty face, nearly feminine in its beauty. He stared around, pulling at the binding. “Let me down, this was not the agreement.” His voice made me jump, the depth of it a juxtaposition with his features.

The other witches ignored him, as if he’d not spoken at all.

Cactus shifted his weight and I glanced at him. His eyes were deadly serious. “If we take them by surprise, I think we could handle them all. He needs our help. We can’t leave him.”

From the glade, a slap resounded in the air. We turned at the same time. A woman stood in front of the man tied to the stake. “Winters, you do not deserve to be freed. The demon asked for you, and that is a small price to pay for his knowledge.”

He shook his head. “You can’t control him. Once he comes through, you will be at his mercy. Trust me.”

She spat at him. “Trust you? Maybe you are the strongest the world has seen, but your mind and spine are soft. Which makes you unworthy of leading us.”

Backing up, she snapped her fingers. The coven swirled around the bonfire and a faint whinny snapped my head around. One of the witches ran toward the stake, a bowl in her hands. The liquid within it sloshed dark in the firelight.

“Peta,” I said. “Is that what I think it is?”

“That’s The Bastard’s blood. I’m sure of it.” Her eyes met mine. “They’re calling a demon forth. If they need his blood to call this particular demon . . . it’s a bad one.”

Worm shit and green sticks. We had no choice. Even if The Bastard wasn’t in trouble, we couldn’t let these idiots bring a demon into the world.

I stood and strode out into the clearing. I flicked my hands at the ground, sending it up in a spray of dirt that tamped down the bonfire. Cactus was right with me, his hands raised.

We were too damn sure of ourselves, though. These were not elementals who played by the rules.

A bolt of pure power slammed into me from the left, sending me through the air. I hit a tree and slid down the trunk. The fight surrounded us, witches flinging spells and Cactus fighting for all he was worth. Peta stayed in front of me, dodging blows and delivering her own.

But all I saw was the heaving side of The Bastard in front of me. His white coat splattered with blood and his wings shivering as though tiny currents rippled through his body. A faint wheeze squeezed out of him.

“Useless elementals, hiding when you should fight,” he bit out, his dark eyes rolling to me as his hooves dug into the ground. Something about him pulled me closer, I knew I should have been fighting to keep the witches at bay, to stop the demon . . . but . . . I couldn’t keep my hands from The Bastard.

I pressed one hand against his muscular neck, and ran the other over his side as far as I could reach. Spirit roared inside me; fear made me hold back. A shudder slipped through him and I felt him slip further into the Veil as if I could see it happening.

Was it worth trying to save him? I had to believe it was; not because of his value to me, but because it was the right thing to do.

If I was wrong, I was willingly giving up a piece of my own soul by saving him.

“Mother goddess, help me,” I said, and opened myself to the power of Spirit.

s carefully as I could, I threaded Spirit through his body. His wounds ran through his belly; they’d split his stomach and spilled his guts onto the ground. I didn’t think about how it would heal, only that it needed to. The Bastard let out a low groan.

Inch by inch, I closed his wounds. Sweat poured down my face and arms as I stitched him together. Equine stomachs were monstrously huge with coil after coil of intestine, and I had to wrap it together. His legs and hooves twitched as I worked, and his wings shuddered here and there. But otherwise, he was quiet.

Around us, fire and magic lit the night air and time passed. Peta pressed against my side, and Cactus knelt down in front of us as he lifted a wall of flame. I didn’t understand what was going on and couldn’t pull back from Spirit. The power flowed through me and into The Bastard until the final portion of his hide was closed and his belly inside.

Slumping, I leaned forward to press my cheek against his ribcage. I had nothing left in me.

The Bastard lifted his head and looked at me, peering through his mane. His tail flicked once.

“You are not an elemental?”

“I am,” I said, though my words were slurred. I knew in a few moments fatigue would win over my need to stay awake.

“Lark, I can’t stop them on my own,” Cactus said at the same time the shrieks from the other side of the glade began. Soul-piercing screams tore the night air as they pitched higher and higher, closer together, until it was a continuous wail with no space for a breath.