Peta’s sadness flowed to me along with a single thought. You cannot change her mind.
“I have to try.” I spoke because the pain in me was too great to hold the words in. “I have to try.”
Finley glared at me. “You are turning your back on your people. We should be ruling the humans and it is time they knew our true power. It is time we took them down to where they belong.”
I shouldn’t have been surprised. Of all the elemental families, the Undines had retained human slaves in the open, almost as though they were proud of what they’d done.
I could barely swallow past the grief strangling me. Would it always be my fate to have to end the lives of those I loved?
I turned away from them and made my way to the far wall where a stack of weapons was spread out. There on the wall was a spear not unlike my own. I pulled it off the wall with a jerk, and spun it once, then looked at it closer.
Correction, it was my own spear.
Talan had put it here? Was that possible?
Anger surged through me. “Peta, I’m going to try to break the hold on her first.”
“There is no hold on me!” Finley screamed. “Guards!”
I flicked a hand at the door, cementing it closed with stone from the floor, and then sealing it with fire so the block was solid, heated to a temperature that locked the doors from all that would try it.
I went back to where Finley lay on her back and I saw just how far in Peta’s teeth had gone. One wrong move and she could kill Finley with barely any more pressure.
I went to my knees and put my hands to either side of Finley’s face. “Let her go, Peta.”
She pulled back and I pushed Spirit through my hands and wove it into Finley’s mind. I found the lines of manipulation Viv had laid on her, found the knots that held them together. Complicated and fierce, the power of Spirit had been overlapped and overlapped so many times, I could barely see where one piece began and another ended.
I dug into the mess, pulling the strands off as fast as I could while still being careful. I felt as though I stood in front of a doorway covered with a thousand years’ worth of vegetation with only my bare hands to remove it.
Well, I’d been a Planter and a nurturer of the earth for the first part of my life. This was no different. I would not let Finley go without a fight.
If I had anything to say about it, I would not let another of my friends die.
I bent over Finley. More and more layers I found within her mind, wrapped around my friend, until I realized there was so much more to this than just a single moment of manipulation. I found the root of the net Viv had laid on the Undine queen.
From the time Finley had been a child, the false mother goddess had warped her mind, feeding her subtle lies that became a part of who Finley was.
“Peta.” I whispered her name. The shock of what I was seeing was too much for anything louder. “I don’t understand. What am I seeing? Can you see this?”
“Oh shit.” Peta sighed the words. The door behind us rocked hard as the Enders of the Deep slammed their bodies against it.
“What is this?” The more I pulled away the threads covering Finley, the less I saw of the girl I’d known, the child I’d saved and loved as surely as if she were my little sister and not from a different family.
“Her life was never her own,” Peta said, putting a paw on my hands. “What you are seeing is simply a creation of Viv’s. She was never Finley, not from a very young age.”
I bowed my head. The door behind us cracked as the seal I’d placed on it began to fail. I bit my lower lip. “If I take it all away?”
“There will be nothing of her left,” Talan said softly. I spun around, anger flying through me. If I hadn’t been elbow-deep in Finley’s mind, I would have attacked him.
“That can’t be,” I snapped at him. “There is always a way to bring someone back!”
He nodded once. “This is what happens when a mind has been manipulated from such a young age, there is nothing left that is real. She was never real, Lark. She has been Viv’s creation from the beginning, just waiting to be used. Just like the gargoyles.”
I glared at him. “What about me then? I was manipulated since I was very young too. Am I not myself?”
Talan shook his head. “Certain memories, certain things were changed in you. Not everything. That is the difference. Vivica manipulated almost every aspect of Finley’s life. We took your memories, but we never tried to change the core of who you were.”
Despite my arguments for Finley’s life, I knew what Talan meant. There would be no convincing Finley to not attack the humans. There would be no keeping her safe. There would be no letting her live. Slowly, I delved my power with Spirit into Finley’s mind searching for the pieces that kept her moving, breathing.
“What are you doing?” Talan’s voice was sharp, and I knew without looking Peta stepped between us.
“I’m ending this,” I said, “with as little pain as I can for her.”
I put her to sleep first and wove for her a memory, one of her own I knew had made her happy, one of the few I could see were her own. A time when she was with her father and mother, when they held her tightly and loved her so, that they could not see the dangers around them. They were happy. They were safe in that ignorance before Viv got her claws into Finley.
I left her memory at the front of her mind and began to pull apart the threads that held her life force together. One by one, I plucked them away, tears sliding down my face with the removal of each.
Killing her didn’t take long. Her breathing, then her heart slowed, and she slumped into the stone. But I didn’t stop there, and behind me Talan sucked in a sharp breath. “Lark, what are you doing?”
“I’m giving her back to her element,” I said. I pulled apart the molecules of her body as I’d pulled apart the gargoyles, a piece at a time until her body shimmered, breaking down into nothing but the water droplets of an ocean, the salty water of tears. Her body slipped from my hands, leaving nothing but a puddle of water and a pile of clothes.
Behind us the door broke open and the Enders spilled in.
Dolph was in the lead, an Ender and friend of mine. He cried out first. “She’s killed the queen.” A wave of water swept up with a movement of his hands.
I held up my palm and stopped it as if it were nothing, as if I’d been using my connection to their element my entire life. “Dolph, be still.”
I placed my other hand in the water that had been Finley only moments before. “Goodbye, my friend,” I whispered. “I am so sorry I couldn’t save you.”
“What has done this?” Dolph choked on the words. “If not you, then who?”
Talan cleared his throat. “The mother goddess is not who we thought she was. She is a false leader. She is to blame for this.”
Dolph dropped to his knees beside me, his head bowed. “She was our best queen…”
I put a hand on his shoulder. “I know. I tried to save her, Dolph. I did all I could.” Despite my grief, there was no guilt in my heart. I knew who to blame for this, and it was not me. Viv would pay for her crimes; I would make sure of it.
Dolph blinked and looked up at me, his eyes full of tears. “You carry our element. How is that possible?”
I drew a breath as I pushed to my feet. “I will carry it for a time while I face the false mother goddess.”
He was on his feet only a second after me. “Then I will stand with you.” The other Enders nodded, repeating his words. “We stand with you, Larkspur.”
Talan moved up beside me. “This is not how it is meant to be.”
Without a thought, I pushed him away, not with my hand but with Water, Fire, and Earth. I wove them into a single blast that sent him flying, slamming him into the wall. “It is not what I wanted, Talan, yet it is how my life is turning out. Your siblings have put their faith in me. They have given me their power to do what I can to stop the false mother goddess. We do this my way, now, from here on out.�
�
The Enders behind me stiffened, their weapons sliding out one by one.
I let Talan go, the three elements in me vying for my attention.
“My siblings.” Talan put a hand to his chest and rubbed at the spot where I’d pinned him. “That cannot be.”
“Realm,” I said and held my hand out, calling water to my palm, spreading it outward and upward until it was a shimmering wall between Talan and me. “He kissed me and gave me a connection to his power, and with it, his life.”
“And Ollie?” The look in Talan’s eyes said it all. He couldn’t believe even what was in front of him.
I lifted my other hand and held it out, a burst of flame circling out and around the water in a twisting tornado that heated the room instantly. “She gave her life also, and with it, her blessing. They are afraid, Talan. They are afraid because of what Viv did to them.”
He went to his knees. Behind me, Dolph reached out and put a hand on my shoulder. “Lark, we have a problem here, and we need a leader to deal with it.”
“I am not your leader.” I brushed his hand off, and he put it back on.
“You are, whether you like it or not. Finley would have wanted you to take her spot in this time of unrest.”
I wasn’t so sure about that.
Below our feet, the Deep rumbled. I went to my knees and shot a look to Talan, frowning. “An earthquake?” No, that didn’t feel right.
He shook his head, his eyes so sad, I almost believed the sorrow in them.
“Humans.”
CHAPTER 22
The ground below us in the Deep shook again, shuddering like a beast stuck with arrows. I drew myself up. I lifted my wrist and Ash flew down from the rafters, landed lightly, and then moved to my shoulder.
“All of this, all of it is a distraction to keep us from going after Viv,” I said.
Talan grunted. “You think?”
“Don’t sass her!” Peta snarled. “You should be helping her, asshole, not making it harder for her to do her job. Whether you like it or not, she, you, and two of your siblings are going to stand shoulder to shoulder against Viv, now.”
Goddess love Peta. I could always depend on her, if no one else.
Dolph made a movement with one hand, two fingers pointed downward and a quick swirl. In a flash, the Enders were around me, a protective ring. “She is our queen now, protect her with your lives,” Dolph said.
The other Enders nodded, their eyes solemn.
Dolph made a motion with his head for me to follow him. I didn’t move. “No. No more lives for mine.” I held a hand out to Peta. “Are you with me for a bit of a ride, cat?”
She groaned. “I hate water, you know that.”
I smiled at her. “It is not our enemy any longer.”
She twitched her ears back and forth and then leapt for my arms. I caught her and put her on my other shoulder.
“Dolph, get the Undines to safety as best you can, but do not leave the Deep.”
He stared at me. “What?”
“Do not leave the Deep. The madness that takes our kind after years has been ramped up to mere hours,” I said. “Get them to safety as much as possible.”
Dolph shook his head and then bowed. “As you say, my Queen.”
It sounded strange from his lips, but I put it aside. I called up the power Realm had given me, wove it through the ocean outside the window and swept it in. A wave hovered through the opening like a surfboard waiting on me. I stepped on it, my feet as solid as if I stood on the earth. I turned to Talan. “After Vivica is dealt with, you and I are going to discuss your training methods and what you did to Shazer.” I couldn’t hold back the anger in my voice, the pain he’d caused me by killing Shazer. Even if Shazer had said yes. “I understand the need to stand together and that is all that is keeping me from doing anything rash. For now, are you with me?”
His jaw twitched once, anger flaring. “I am with you, Larkspur.”
“Then come on. I may need your help.” I held my hand out to him, a show of trust I didn’t truly feel, but Peta was right. Talan would stand with me against Viv.
Carefully, he put his hand in mine and I pulled him onto the wave.
Another flick of my wrist and Ash dropped to me. I settled him on my shoulder; for now, we were together, even if it was not as I would have wished it. I would not leave him behind.
With a single, simple thought I pushed the water out the tall window, which in turn took us with it. Talan swayed and I kept my hand on his, steadying him.
“I hated it when Realm did this,” he muttered.
I wondered if the idea had come through with the power Realm had handed to me.
All thoughts of Realm, though, were washed from my mind as I took us higher with the water, so high that we were above the spires of the Deep. Surrounding the world of the Undines were human warships circling like sharks around an injured, helpless whale. Only we were far from helpless.
A deep, cold rage began to churn in my belly, a rage that was not my own.
Realm might as well have been egging me, and the power he’d given me, on.
“Easy,” I whispered to the power in me. “Easy.”
I might as well have brought some of Realm with me. I could sense him as strongly as if he stood by my side. I clutched Talan’s hand a little tighter. “Your brother’s power is not what I expected.”
“No, he was always a bit of a hothead. Strange, considering he was full of water,” Talan muttered. I could feel his eyes on me, but I kept my eyes on the warships. I needed to find the one with the main leader. We hovered where we were for a minute while I looked over the ships. I finally settled on the biggest with the most guns and men.
“There, we will start there.”
“Wait, what?” Talan howled the words as I snapped my fingers and we dropped down the water as if it were a giant slide. Our bodies picked up speed, faster and faster as we approached the ship. Guns were trained on us; I could almost feel the heat and smell the black burn of gunpowder. I snapped my fingers a second time and the water kicked us up into the air at the last second so we hovered over the deck of the warship.
“Peta, shift,” I said. We needed to make an entrance. We needed the humans to see we were strong enough to take them out if we chose.
We dropped through the air, Peta shifting as she leapt from my shoulder, Ash taking flight and circling our heads with a screech. The three of us landed hard enough to dent the metal of the ship’s deck. I stood from a crouch and brushed off my clothes as if I had all the time in the world. When I finished, I addressed them with a voice I’d heard only my father use. Commanding, imperious.
“Where is your leader?”
A burly man pushed through the throng. “I am Admiral Epson. We have orders to wipe you out.” He yanked out a gun, fast for a man of his size, and pulled the trigger. I snapped my own hand up and sent a blast of fire to meet the bullet midair. The flames were so hot, the metal munition melted and fell to the ground.
“I think perhaps you should have a discussion with me before you decide to follow through with your orders,” I said, venom in my voice.
As I spoke, I sensed a great… change in the world. My connection to the earth flared, screamed, and flickered. I slammed a hand into Talan. “Viv has Frost.”
He groaned softly.
We were running out of time, but I had to deal with this now.
“Admiral Epson. Let me be very clear. I could destroy all your ships and kill all your men without breaking a sweat. Whoever sent you on this mission did so to make sure war was started between your people and mine. We do not want war. But if it comes to us, we will defend ourselves, and it will be you left on the bottom of the ocean floor.”
His eyes narrowed and sweat slid down the sides of his face into the high collar of his stuffy shirt. “I have my orders.”
“And they are wrong,” I snapped. “Continue arguing with me and I will sink this ship, right now. I will end this conversati
on and go to the next in line to see if he has more brain cells in his fat head than you do. Because apparently, you are not grasping the severity of the situation.” With each word, my voice rose in volume. Fury and fear tripped through me, feeding the emotion with every syllable. “There is more at stake than a few lives. This is the world we are battling for. I am battling the one who would cause war, the ones that would enslave you and your men. Would you stand against me or with me?”
I could have used Spirit to impress on him the importance of my words, but I couldn’t make myself do it. Either he grasped what I was saying or he wasn’t worth my time.
He swallowed hard. “I cannot disobey my orders.”
“Then hold off. Stay where you are, but send in your torpedoes no more,” Talan said. “Give us time to prove that you have been played falsely.”
Admiral Epson looked at him, then slowly bowed his head. “Time. I can buy you some time. Twenty-four hours.”
It wasn’t a lot, but it would have to be enough. I had to believe it would be. I nodded and flicked my hand again, lifting the boat out of the water, holding it on the edge of a wave. The humans screamed and clutched at the ship. “If I hear of any breach of your word, I will sink your entire fleet. Are we clear on that?”
The admiral’s face paled. “Clear as a bell.”
I let the ship slide slowly into the water. “We will be back in fewer than twenty-four hours.” I brought a wave over the edge of the ship, holding it steady so Peta and Talan could step onto it next to me, then carried us back to the Deep.
“That was an impressive show,” Talan said. “But how tired are you now?”
I gritted my teeth and took us to the center of the Deep, depositing us on the steps of the doors that led into the throne room. I sent the wave away and sagged as I released the power of the water.
“Exhausted. But if I hadn’t done that, they would have fired on the Deep for sure.”
Talan nodded and then shook his head. “Are you sure Viv has Frost?”
Frost, the Original Terraling, the one who stood at the head of my family. I didn’t know how to tell Talan the full truth. “She doesn’t just have him, she’s killing him.” I paused at the doors with my hands against them. I bowed my head and searched out my connection to the earth. The feeling of coming home, of being where I belonged was no longer there.
elemental 07 - destroyer Page 19