“Harm a single hair on her head and I will find you and make you wish your mother had never taken that second look at your father.”
Laughter. “Duly noted. But I will protect her as if she were my own.”
Rylee didn’t exactly relax. “And you will make sure she comes back to us.”
“That will be up to her. She’s not the child she looks.”
Rylee nodded. “I know. Doesn’t mean I won’t ram both my swords up your ass to see if I can cut your throat from there if you fuck with her.”
Raven stepped back and gave a slight bow. “I must go. She isn’t patient from what I’ve seen, and I forced her to stay behind.”
Liam laughed softly as he took a quick breath of air. “Sure, you did.” He winked out of the eye closest to me. I pulled back from the edge of the house as Raven swiveled in my direction. “Damn it, Liam,” I whispered as I pulled on Spirit and Rode it back to the forest away from the clearing.
The forest was still as quiet as when I’d left. But I was breathing hard as though I’d been running. I needed a moment to gather myself.
I dropped to a crouch and waited for the adrenaline to ease off. I needed to be calm. The minutes ticked by and finally I knew I had to move, time to go back to the clearing and see if Raven caught me or not.
That was not exactly a pleasant thought.
I stood and smoothed out my clothes, made sure I didn’t have any of the shrapnel stuck to my pants. I ran a hand over the sword handle protruding from the sheath strapped to my back. All good there, at least.
I picked my way through the forest, letting my feet take me where they would. It was only when I neared the clearing that I picked up my pace.
Raven stood in the center of the clearing, his hood down as he did a slow circle. I stepped out of the trees and made myself rush over to him. “Did you find out what happened? Are they okay?”
He arched an eyebrow at me. “Really?”
I managed to keep my tone even. “What do you mean?”
“I can smell the smoke on you, Pamela.”
Well, shit, so much for not cocking it up.
I squared my shoulders. “They are my family. I had to make sure they were okay.”
“And I did that,” he snapped.
“Oh? And did you see the two men with guns who tried to shoot Mai and the babies?” I snapped right back at him. “You didn’t, I did. You need to understand that I will always put my family first.”
He drew a slow breath. “I should hold to my word and not train you.”
My heart plummeted but I would not regret going back. I would not regret saving Mai and the babies. “Fine. I understand.” I spun and walked away, fully intending to go back to Rylee. But not yet.
“Where do you think you are going?”
“You said I had an aunt in the area. She’s a witch. I’ll take what training I can from her then.”
There was silence except for the dull crunch of the undergrowth below my feet as I walked away, for a good ten seconds. Then a grunt of exasperation behind me.
“She’ll kill you,” Raven said.
“She wouldn’t be the first to try. And as you keep pointing out, I’m stronger than her, than any other witch,” I fired back and kept on walking, picking my way through the forest. I wasn’t even sure if I was bluffing or not. A part of me wanted badly to meet my aunt, even if she did try to kill me. That desire to know where the blood in my veins originated was a pull I couldn’t deny.
A burst of laughter erupted behind me. “Stop, stop, I’ll teach you. Damn it all, you are a stubborn one.”
I turned, swept my cloak out behind me and raised an eyebrow. “Why the change of heart?”
“Well, for one, your aunt on your mother’s side is a complete psycho of a witch.” He shook his head, then rubbed a hand over his hair. “You would never get her to teach you, even if you beat her in a duel. The other reason is far simpler. You remind me of your mother.” His eyes softened for a moment, and I wasn’t sure why, but it warmed me. Until I remembered the memory my mother had chosen to leave me. The one thing she’d wanted me to see of her. A memory of her death, so I could get revenge.
“I’m not sure that’s a good thing,” I said.
“We’ll find out soon enough, won’t we?” He crooked a finger at me.
I shrugged but didn’t move toward him. “So have you decided if I’m strong enough yet?”
He narrowed his eyes as if deep in thought, but I had the feeling he’d already decided whatever was going on in his head. “You took to the Spirit travel well, that’s excellent. But for what you want to do, we need more than that. For bringing your first love back from the dead, we need a little help in that direction. Even I have not tried that.”
I didn’t say anything, just waited for him to explain.
He drew a breath as if he’d been expecting me to jump in and demand an explanation. I might have been trained by Rylee, but I wasn’t her. I could hold myself back if I really wanted to. Though, I will admit, it was an effort.
Raven turned and paced toward the center of the clearing where the flat rock peered from the edges of the moss. “You see, there is a book we will need. An elemental book of spells, to be exact.”
“I have a spell book.” I reached into my carry-all and pulled the small leather book out. I fanned the pages until I found the spell in question. Holding the book open, I handed it to Raven. “Won’t this work?”
He frowned as he stared at the spell, and then let out a snort. “This is necromancy. You don’t want to do this, trust me.” He ripped the page out of the book. “Your loved one comes back inside their body, rotting, and their mind eaten away by worms. No, what we are going to do,” he handed me the book, “is far more complex than this.”
Deflated, I took the book back and tucked it into my carry-all. There were other spells there that I didn’t want to lose. I looked up at Raven. “So this elemental book of spells. Why don’t you get it then?”
“It’s being guarded by a fair number of elementals at the moment. Elementals who are not exactly happy with me, and while I could just kill them all, that would be wasteful.”
“Right, I’m sure that’s the reason,” I muttered under my breath. Once more, I was reminded of Faris and his mercurial ways.
Raven gave me a nod. “You, though, can slip past them. They don’t care about witches and won’t be trying to stop you. In fact, I’d be surprised if they even noticed you. Your age will help you there, too. They won’t see you for the threat you could be.”
I dropped my hands from my hips, stupidly pleased at the compliment. No, I thought, don’t let him get under your radar like that. Still, I needed him and it didn’t hurt that he thought I could do this. I made my way to his side.
“Where is this book supposed to be, then? Or is that part of the challenge?”
He dropped to a crouch over the flat piece of stone and produced from under his cloak a piece of chalk. By the flickering light of the fire, he drew a few lines and I saw quickly that it was a map he marked out for me. “You don’t need a map really, but I want to be sure you know where you are going,” he said.
The drawing looked like the coastline of some place . . . but not North America. And not the western side of Europe. I squinted at the lines and the small island that he’d circled. With speed he drew another map beside it. A mountain surrounded by trees. Something about the place made my heart pick up speed and sweat break out along my spine. A visceral response I couldn’t control.
“This is where you need to go.” He rolled the chalk in his palm. “The mountain is no more. It was destroyed not long ago.”
“Where is the book then?”
He tapped his piece of chalk on the drawing of the mountain. “Beneath what is left of this lava, in what the elemental world knew as the Pit.”
CHAPTER 6
THE PIT . . . IT was a place I’d never been, yet I knew about. Rylee had gone into the Pit to save Belinda—the half-b
reed elemental. The Pit was a place of fire and lava and danger. And I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted anything to do with it if the things I’d heard were true.
I stared at the drawing, anxiety flowing through me. “In the Pit? Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“But it doesn’t exist, so how can the book be in there?” I had a bad feeling about this and a creeping suspicion I knew what he was going to ask of me. I held my breath while he spoke.
“The room that the book is in was wrapped in spells, covered in strong protection to keep it intact in case something like this ever happened. You will have to go through the earth to find it.”
I blinked several times, not sure I’d heard him right even though I’d already guessed as much. I pulled my thoughts together. Rylee told me that with every salvage there were a few questions to ask, not only to buy you a bit of time, but to help understand just what you were facing. Question one.
“Why not Ride Spirit right into that room?”
“That is the only limitation of using Spirit as a form of travel. It cannot take you directly into the elemental homes.”
Question two.
“Is there a time limit to the retrieval?”
His eyebrows shot up. “No. You will either be able to get the book or you won’t. Take as long as you like.”
There was something else, I could see it in the way his mouth twitched at the edges. Time for question three, and perhaps the most important one.
“What else are you not telling me?”
He shrugged. “There may be some active lava you have to deal with as well. I’m really not sure how you will get past it.”
And there it was.
I drew a breath and slowly nodded. Question four was always the name of the child Rylee was going to salvage. But this was no child I was going after. “All right. What is the book called?”
He seemed to consider me a moment before answering. “Breaking the Veil.”
I stared at him. “I don’t like the sound of that.”
“That’s the book you need to bring your boyfriend back.” He stood. “Get the book and bring it to me. We’ll go from there.”
Still in a crouch, I stared at the chalk drawing on the rock. I brushed my fingers of one hand over it. The Pit.
I tugged my thin cloak around me with my free hand and closed my eyes.
“Go to the edge of the cherry trees, Pamela.” Raven put a hand on my shoulder and my eyes popped open. “Any closer and you’ll end up right on top of what could be active lava.”
I looked up at him. Was he actually concerned about my welfare? I doubted it. He was using me, I was just a tool to him, and more than anything, I needed to remember that. He was a charmer.
“Take your hand off me.” The words were cold, as icy as any time I’d heard Rylee get pissed. He stepped back, a look of surprise on his face. It was gone as quick as it showed.
“Try not to die, would you?” he said.
I frowned at him and pulled the element of Spirit to me, wove it through my skin and Rode it through the ether. The problem I had with Raven was that part of me wanted to trust him, and the other part wanted to keep him at the point of my sword. That was not a good combination when I needed him to teach me.
Two blinks of time passed and I was through to the other side of the world. I stared out from under the edge of my cloak as though looking through a lens. Above me a mass of skeletons reared and creaked in the wind, their clawed hands tangled above my head. I held my breath, fought not to move for fear they would see me. Slowly, I took in what I was really seeing. Trees, dead and stripped of life, most likely from the lava flows. I pressed my hands to the ground below me, a need to feel grounded overwhelming me. Or perhaps it was my instinct that I was acting on, a knowledge deep within me even I didn’t understand.
A throb of warmth curled along my skin like the beating of a heart, steady and strong.
Child, what are you doing here? It is not safe for you, little witch, the gentle voice whispered inside my head, comforting and safe.
“Who are you?” I asked the question though I could feel the direction of where the voice might be from. Or who she was.
We are the earth, the sky, the water, the wind and the flame. We are the spirit that carried you here.
I swallowed hard. “Mother goddess?”
From some, we are known as that. We are all. We are one.
“I have to go into the Pit. The library contains a book—”
We know of what you seek. You are key to the cleansing of the world, little witch. Go with our blessing. While you walk in the Pit, it will be as if you are of the blood of the Salamanders. The flames and the fire will not harm you. The blessing will last only one hour from the time you set foot in the Pit below.
I had to pinch my lips together to keep from crying. Never in my life had I felt so loved than in that moment and I knew the voice that spoke did indeed care for me. A shudder slipped along my spine.
“Thank you.”
There is a life for you to save here, little witch. A life tied to yours. A life we have kept for you.
“Who? Why?”
There was no answer and I slumped into the earth a little. I didn’t want to leave. I wanted to stay in that embrace of someone who understood me through and through, who saw my dark and my light and loved me no matter that they were not always balanced. No, that wasn’t fair. Rylee loved me like that. But she was not my mother in this world, but my sister.
This was the mother I’d craved since I’d first realized I had none.
I pushed to my feet. “I am yours.”
We know. Now go and find your destiny.
The heat I’d felt through the earth propelled me forward and I ghosted through the trees. My cloak swirled behind me, the hood pulled low over my eyes. There was a sense of dreaming, like I wasn’t really there. Like I didn’t exist in this place. I tried to shake it off, but it persisted.
The trees around me thinned, then disappeared until they were nothing but stumps, and then nothing at all. The ground grew thick with hardened lava, black as night and stinking of sulfur and death. Still I walked; the tension around me rose as I prepared to face an elemental who would stop me.
But maybe it was an elemental I was to save? The mother goddess had said a life that was tied to mine . . . could it be Lark? My heart picked up speed and the surreal nature of the moment was gone in a flash. I broke into a run at the thought of Lark hurt and needing my help, my worry spurring me on. I searched the area, spinning round. I needed higher ground to see the lay of the land.
A lump of soil curled out of the earth, broken and piteous even as it rose above the flat destruction. I headed for it. I scrambled up the side and as I pushed off with my feet, lava flowed out from the gouges I created. Fear sliced through me, but there was no sensation, no mind-rending pain.
Whatever protection the mother goddess had given me, it was thorough—but now I was on the clock. One hour was all I had. I ignored the lava and kept climbing.
At the top of the heap—what I realized was just a pile of rocks and lava—I stared at the field around me. The mountain, or where it had been, was now obvious. It had fallen into a true pit, the sides broken inward and swallowed by the earth and the heat that had lain in it. Nothing but darkness stared up at me. What I stood on was the top edge of the pit. That was the inner ring. The next ring outward was the blackened earth I’d covered to get to this vantage point. It looked to go for a solid mile outside the center of the mountain. Next came the stumped trees for a short distance and then the dead ones.
But there was no life, no sign of birds or animals. Not even an elemental guarded the place as Raven had said there would be.
Did I dare call out?
Time to throw the dice. “Hello? Is anyone here?”
A cry echoed back to me, the sound both pitiful and terrifying. Pain-filled, a cry for help. I spun a slow circle trying to hear where it started. Movement at the far side of
the mountain grave drew my eye. Black on black, it was hard to see exactly what I was looking at, but whatever it was, it was alive. Barely. I ran down the side of the tiny hill I’d stood on and around the edge of the pit.
My mind shot to Alex, how his black fur would have blended into the dead earth. My mind knew it would not be him.
But my heart hoped that somehow he had found a way back to me.
Ahh, how my heart hoped I would find him there, a grin on his face.
I slid to a stop near where I’d seen the movement. “Where are you?”
The ground seemed to come to life and a pair of pale blue eyes, the eyes of a husky dog I’d seen once, stared up at me out a midnight black face.
I stared hard, but I wasn’t sure what I was looking at. The body was small, the ears were missing . . . no, they were burned off. A gasp escaped me as I dropped to my knees. An animal, barely big enough to fit in my arms. But what kind of animal, I couldn’t tell. The fur was charred off, the skin was blackened and blistered, the paws were mere stubs. Pain was all I could see, suffering beyond measure, and my heart broke.
“Oh, gods.” I reached out carefully. Healing was something I’d learned but it still scared me. I put my hands on the small body, the back and head. The creature opened its mouth and hissed at me.
A cat? What the hell was a cat doing in the middle of a lava flow?
It didn’t matter, though I doubted this was the life the mother goddess had meant. I mean, it was just a cat after all. But still, I couldn’t leave it, not when I could help. I blended my powers together to bring the healing from my hands into its body. Sometimes I closed my eyes when I healed, but not this time. No, this time I watched as the skin closed and the ears slowly grew back, as the paws reformed and the fur began to sprout like watching grass erupt from the earth in fast forward.
In moments, there was a fully formed, if smallish, light peach-colored striped tabby cat in front of me. All shades of orange with cream splashes on his toes and face. Big, oversized ears swiveled in my direction and then pinned back to his head.
“I am not a him. I’m a girl.” She snapped her teeth at me, and then let out a long hiss as she backed away.
Pamela (The Rylee Adamson Epilogues, Book 3) Page 5