Windburn (The Elemental Series #4) (22 page)

“Easy, Lark.” Cactus put a hand on my shoulder. “I don’t think you should connect with the earth here. Neither of us should.”

I blinked up at him. “Why not?”

He crouched beside me and lifted my hands from the stone. “Terralings made this place for the Sylphs.”

I knew that our family had at one time been close with the Sylphs. “What does that matter?”

“Because, Dirt Girl, what you felt in Giselle applies here too. She had Spirit flowing through her from the things Talan had worked on her; the mountain has had Terralings work through it in detail. It makes the stone eager for your touch.”

Frowning, I stood. “That makes no sense. We have helped all the families build their homes in the past. To one degree or another. Why would touching this particular stone be bad?”

Peta trotted to the large bed that dominated the room and leapt up onto it. She sunk down to her chin in the lush blankets. “Oh, this is nice.” She seemed to lose her train of thought for a moment in the physical sensation.

“The Eyrie . . . it is different from the others. The Pit is buried under a mountain close to the fire in the earth. The Deep floats in the ocean, made up of sand and shells. But the Eyrie is built into the mountain, and while it is high within the stratosphere, it is the power of the Terralings that keeps it together. With the connection you have to the earth boosted by Spirit, you are drawn like a magnet to this place. It means you have more power here than anywhere else in this world. It also means the mountain will do as you ask, even if you don’t ask.”

“Shit, I didn’t know that.” Cactus tightened his hold on me, and pulled me closer to him. He let go of my hand and wrapped his arm around my waist. “Don’t touch anything, Lark. You’ll break the mountain in half.”

I snorted. “Please, don’t be a fool.”

Oh, if only that were the truth.

he first day passed in the Eyrie with no clues as to whether my father was there at all. Samara led us around on a tour of the second and third levels. Tiers were built into the mountain with multiple wide stairways leading up and down.

“Night is coming, and I have to go on guard duty.” Samara stopped again at the door to our suite.

“Will you come in for a moment? I have a question I’d rather not ask in the open.” I stepped through the doorway and waited, looking at her while keeping my face carefully blank. Her pale eyebrows ticked upward, but she stepped through the door.

We hadn’t spoken much through the tour, at least not about anything other than the makeup of the Eyrie and what we were seeing. All interesting, but not what I wanted to know.

I made myself ask the question. “Samara, is there any dissension in the Eyrie? Something a person from outside of your family could exploit?”

If I thought her eyebrows had climbed before, that was nothing to what they did then. “Who exactly would want to exploit my family?” Her words were smooth, but there was a hard bite to them. I saw the way her hand drifted to the pointed short staff strapped to her back.

I held my hands up, palms facing her. “There is one from our family, Cassava. She has . . . caused a great deal of strife not only in the Rim, but has tried to usurp the other families in one way or another too.”

Samara’s hand dropped away from her staff. “The queen here is well loved, even by her spoiled daughters. The Enders respect her even with her advanced age. There is no reason for anyone to think she will cross the Veil anytime soon. And as I’m sure you’ve noticed, it is hard to slip anything by her in spite of her eyes.”

Tension should have eased off me with her words, but it did not. If there was no dissension here, why was my father hidden away in the Eyrie? Either Samara was lying, or there was more going on than the Ender knew. I hoped it was the latter; I liked Samara.

“Is that the only question?” She looked up at me.

I nodded. “Yes. For now.”

She backed out and shut the door behind us with a click. There was no additional click of a lock, though. Cactus went to the bed and flopped down with his legs and arms spread wide, his fingers reaching for Peta. “Come here, bad luck cat. I know you want to cuddle.”

She hissed and swatted at him. I didn’t move, didn’t take part in their banter as they swapped insults.

“Prick, if I didn’t know better, I’d think you had a death wish.”

“Well, if I stick close to you, isn’t that what will happen?”

“Why, you miserable lizard!”

“Salamander, cat, get it right.”

I took a step, then another, moving through the room. I couldn’t help but touch the pieces of stone that peered out of the wall. I untied my boots and slipped them off.

The power of the earth curled around me like a pair of strong arms. Peta was right, there was something different here in the Eyrie. Like the earth had more consciousness in this place than anywhere else.

A flick of a tail across my nose made me sneeze. I opened my eyes, not even remembering when I’d closed them or when I’d collapsed to my knees next to the bed. Peta stood in front of me, her eyes crinkled around the edges with worry. “Lark. I think you should wear your boots here. This place calls to you too strongly.”

“It was someone like me, Peta. Someone who carried Spirit and Earth. That’s why it’s like . . . coming home.” I choked the words out.

Her lips curled upward. “Then perhaps when this is done, we come back. Maybe this is where you belong, Lark.”

“I would come with you,” Cactus said. I looked up at him, expecting him to be teasing me. But the look in his eyes was serious, through and through.

“You would give up the Rim for me? You couldn’t; you would have to return there so as to not go mad.”

“I would give up anything for you, Lark. I love you and only you. You have held my heart since we were children. How can you not see it?”

The moment was loaded with longing, with the desire to hold him against my skin and feel his lips on mine. To know if he truly was the one I loved. Or if it was Ash who held the key to my heart.

How could I decide between two men so different, each of them calling to parts of me the other didn’t?

He held his hand out to me, an invitation I didn’t want to turn down. We were here, alone. Together.

Peta put herself between us. “No, I won’t let you hurt her.” Her words cut the tension like claws shredding silk.

“I’m not the one hurting her, Peta. I would never hurt her.” He spoke to her, but his eyes never left mine.

Breathing hard, I made myself stand and put my tall boots on. “We should eat and get some sleep. We have to find my father.”

Cactus’s jaw tightened to the point I thought he would crack his teeth. He went to the table laden with food and spooned a bowl full of stew for himself. I followed his lead and filled a bowl for Peta, and then one for myself. Heavy with curry, the stew had thick chunks of meat and vegetables that had absorbed the flavor. I dipped flatbread into the liquid. “Peta, do you think you could do some snooping? See if Samara is right about dissension? I can’t believe there is nothing out of order here.”

She swiped a paw over her face, cleaning off the stew. “You make a good point. I can stay close to the mountain where there is no need for me to have the Sylph guide.”

I nodded, trying not to feel bad about what I was doing. “I don’t think we have much time here. The queen said we have free rein, but if my father is here and Cassava is with him—”

“Then she might already know we’re here,” Cactus finished for me. I nodded.

Peta stretched her body out, her eyes on mine. I had to fight not to flush under her gaze. “Let me out then,” she said.

I walked her to the door and opened it a crack. She reached back and stuck her claws into my pants. “Lark. He will hurt you. Don’t do this.”

“I have to know, Peta. Spirit spoke to me when I was with Ash. If it is quiet with Cactus, then—”

A sigh escaped her. “I trust you. I do not trust him.”

She stepped out with a flick of her tail and I shut the door.

“Did you get rid of your familiar?” Cactus was right behind me, his hands on my shoulders. He slid them down my arms to my hands, a slow burn flickering in his wake.

I turned my head and stared into his eyes. “I love you both, Cactus.”

“I won’t share you, Lark.”

“Then we can’t do this. Because I won’t give him up.” My own words shocked me, but they came from my heart. I would not give Ash up for Cactus, any more than I would give up Cactus for Ash.

In that moment, I knew I had it in me to love them both, if they would let me.

He tugged me back against his chest and kissed me from behind. His free hands slid under my vest, caressing the skin of my belly. Heat flared where he touched, making me arch against him. I wanted him, wanted his skin on mine and his kisses, his laughter and sweet smile.

I spun in his arms and wrapped myself around him. He stumbled a little under my weight and we both laughed. “Easy, tiger,” he murmured against my lips.

“Easy nothing. Love is a harsh taskmistress.”

“Then I think I should spank her.”

I threw my head back and laughed. He kissed my throat and nipped at the delicate skin, which turned my laugh into a groan.

Stumbling backward, we hit the bed together as we peeled out of our clothes. Every fantasy I’d had about him rushed forward and I took great pleasure as I ran my hands over his bare skin, feeling the way his muscles tensed. He rolled to his side and touched my arm where my tattoo curled. “I should have stopped her sooner.”

The wounds had been the result of the lava whip, wielded by the queen of the Pit. I should have died, but was healed first by Blackbird, which still confused me, and then fully healed by the mother goddess. But I was left with the curling vine studded with thorns that marked every place the whip had touched. I barely noticed it.

“What’s done is done. Unless you want to kiss it better?” I arched an eyebrow at him, surprising even myself. Playfulness was not something I knew in the bedroom. Yet with Cactus, it seemed natural.

Grinning from ear to ear, he bent his head. “As you wish, princess.”

His lips found their way around my body with ease, drawing more than one moan from my own lips.

Cactus lay on top of me, holding himself up on his elbows. “Are you sure? I don’t want you to complain I seduced you and you had no idea what you were doing, in the morning.”

I rolled my eyes. “Keep talking and I’ll change my mind.”

He kissed me softly and lowered himself—

The door rattled with the force of a body being tossed against it and Peta screeched, “Lark, Blackbird is here!”

I jerked away from Cactus and ran to the door, scooping only my spear as I went. I flung the door open and Peta—in her leopard form—fell in. Blood splattered her coat and she was breathing hard. “I’m fine, but you can catch him. End of the hall, Samara has him cornered.”

I didn’t wait for Cactus, or bother with my clothes. My bare feet on the floor energized me in a way I’d never felt when I’d connected with the earth before. I used the power to send me all but flying to where Peta had directed.

At the end of the hall, I slid to a stop as Samara went flying through the air right in front of me. A wild wind whipped down the hallway and held her aloft. She glanced at me, then pointed with her sharpened staff.