Elementally Priceless (11 page)

I tried to spin, grabbing for anything solid, panic swallowing my ability to remember what I could do.

Magic rammed into my lungs and stole my air. Unable to breathe, I fell backward, arching my body as I fought to get just a simple lungful. All this for a child I didn’t know and a girl I’d just met. “Forgive me,” I whispered as the power in me readied to unleash. If I was going to die, then the rest were coming with me.

A hand touched my face and the spell, and darkness, dissipated in a single, sweet gulp of air.

Rylee grinned down at me and then winked. “I’ve got this.”

Wait, what the hell? I sat up as Rylee ran to the Shadow Walker, her blade out.

“Piece of shit, you and I have something to discuss.”

His eyes widened and swirled backward. “You are not just a Tracker. My spell, how could you survive?” The Shadow Walker seemed truly befuddled. It wasn’t often that a Walker was denied his ability to kill with the flick of a hand.

Rylee shrugged. “Just lucky, I guess.” She lunged at him with the sword, the blade going through the corporeal form. He laughed and then stopped, his hand going to where the blade pierced him.

Lifting it away, blood dripped from his fingers. “Impossible.”

“Holy hell,” I whispered, he was right. That was impossible. Shadow Walkers didn’t have blood to be spilt. How could he be bleeding? Rylee didn’t know, of course, she stepped back and took another swing at him. He dodged the blow, but barely as he staggered to one side. Around us the world erupted in shadows as 
all
 his minions swarmed to their master’s aid. Three headed for the young Writer. The kid let out a moan and covered his head, knowing as I did he was done in.

I couldn’t get to him in time. This was turning into a mess of Pompeii proportions.

“Rylee, kill him quickly!” I yelled as I pushed to my feet, stumbling away from the shadow closest to me. It reached for me and I pulled the earth around me in a shower of dirt and rocks, breaking up the shadow’s form. It would work for a moment to keep me safe, but not long enough to get us out alive. I jerked the earth around the kid’s chair and rippled it in a wave, drawing him to me. I grabbed his waist and threw him over my shoulder. I could save the kid now. Maybe.

“Rylee, if you have an idea, now’s the time to implement it!” I yelled as I ran for her side.

She gave me a half grin over her shoulder. “You got it.”

With no more words, she 
sat
 on him. Like pinning down an unruly kid.

“How the hell do you think… .” I stopped and looked around. The shadows had faded back to the wall, and the Shadow Walker had gone very still underneath Rylee. Like he truly couldn’t move.

“We’re going to leave now, and we’re taking Jonathan with us. If you are good, I’ll let you have your power back.” She tapped him on the face and by the look in his eyes, she somehow blocked his ability to use magic.

But that wasn’t possible. Unless… unless she was an Immune. Understanding slid over me in a wash. That was why the siren couldn’t spell her the way he’d wanted, why the Shadow Walker’s death spell hadn’t killed her. I didn’t have long though for that realization to sink in.

Red let out a screech. “We have incoming elementals, Lark. You are running out of time.”

“Perfect,” I muttered, icy fear flowing down my back. I’d thought my leaving Death Valley would have gone unnoticed a bit longer. Or at least, I’d been hoping. If my father had sent several elementals after me, that was not good. Only thing worse would be if he’d come himself. Hells bells, I hoped that wasn’t the case, but I wasn’t sticking around to find out. “Rylee, we have to go right now and you have to trust me.”

She leapt off the Shadow Walker, ran to us, and grabbed the kid’s hand as I let him slide from my shoulder.

“My book, please, I can’t leave it behind.” His crossed eyes pleaded with us both. Rylee ran to the table, scooped up a book and then ran back to us.

I took her hand. “Hold your breath as long as you can.”

Rylee nodded and the kid closed his eyes. I held onto them both and prayed to the mother goddess that she would show all three of us mercy. I’d never tried to take anyone with me through the ground, but I needed to get them out and I needed to buy us time.

“Please, let us all get through this, Mother. She is the world’s only hope, and the child deserves a life outside this prison.” I whispered the words, then held my breath, waiting, hoping I truly wouldn’t be forsaken. The air around us tightened and I knew the elementals were close. Maybe we weren’t going to make it out after all.

The ground softened, and the last thing I saw was Rylee’s eyes widen a split second before they slammed shut.

And then earth swallowed us whole.

Rylee

I WILL SAY
 that traveling underground, holding your breath while trying not to freak the fuck out is not as fun as it sounds. Jonathan tugged and pulled at my hand, and I clamped down, knowing I was hurting him. But no way was I letting go. Sand and grit pushed on my face, drove into my nose and ears, and about two seconds before I finally lost it, we burst upward onto a lawn of green grass.

Gasping and choking for air, I rolled to my side. Jonathan was on his knees, coughing and wiping his face, and Lark stood as if this was an every day occurrence. We were outside Caesar’s Palace once more, though I was happy to see we weren’t in the same area where Lark had put Caleb’s body.

“Remind me not to let you make the travel plans again,” I said as I pushed to my feet.

Her lips quirked. “We’ve got to move. The other elementals will be right behind us.”

“Are they hunting us?”

Jonathan grabbed my hand. “I need something to write on. Right now.”

I shook my head. “Not going to happen, kid. Bigger problems than—”

“Here.” Lark took the book out of my hands and gave it to him along with what looked like a piece of charcoal from her bag. He took the charcoal and bent at the waist, using his thighs as a desk.

“I thought we had to move?” I leaned on the tip of the sword, pushing it into the grass at my feet.

“We do. But he’s a writer of prophecy and all their ripples and deviations. When the mood strikes him, he needs to have the tools to write.” With far more patience than I had, she waited and the seconds ticked by. I tapped my foot against the sword, feeling the noose tighten around our necks. Jonathan scribbled words with such intensity his upper body shook, his grip on the charcoal squeezing to the point his fingers indented it. Even though I wanted to help him, he was a creepy, creepy little dude.

Finally, the kid eased off and straightened, a big sigh slipping from him. “Okay, we can go. We will all survive, you know.”

Lark didn’t waste any time. She scooped him up, tucked the dragon-skinned book into her bag, and then motioned with her head for me to follow her. We ran to the road, the traffic far heavier than when we’d gone in. Crossing to the other side, it was only a matter of minutes and we were on the back of a big truck speeding out of Las Vegas.

The wind pulled my words away, but Lark heard me. “What about Red?”

“He’ll be fine. He didn’t break any rules.”

“But you did.”

She nodded, her eyes hooded, and I thought maybe I saw a spark of fear. If Lark was afraid, that was not good. Not good at all.

Jonathan scooted across the deck on his butt, closer to Lark. “What are they going to do to you?”

She leaned against the cab of the truck and closed her eyes. “The oubliette awaits me.”

I didn’t know what that was, but by the way her voice cracked, the punishment was bad. “All because you helped a kid?”

“And ignored a demon. And ignored my boundaries. And used the full extent of my abilities. All of which are big no-nos in my world at the moment.”

I frowned, trying to understand. “But it was for the good. You didn’t hurt anyone who didn’t deserve it.”

She let out a bitter laugh. “Doesn’t work that way in my world, kid.”

I bristled. “I’m not a kid and fuck it all, it should work that way.”

“Life isn’t fair, Rylee. Especially not when you try to buck the system that wants to control you.” Her eyes opened slowly and she looked straight at me, as if seeing through me. “I’m betting that whoever they’ve sent after us will wipe your memory. But try to remember this. The world will beat the hell out of you if you let it, I know from experience. But I wouldn’t trade any of the choices I’ve made. Because in the end, I have to live with myself. Same as you have to live with yourself. Always follow your heart. No matter who tries to convince you otherwise.”

I swallowed hard, for some reason a lump formed in my throat. “They aren’t going to kill you, are they?”

Jonathan scooted closer to Lark until his head was on her shoulder. “No, they can’t kill her. She needs to be at the final battle too.”

His words trickled down my spine setting off a sense of déjà vu that I couldn’t shake. “What battle?”

“Don’t worry about it.” Lark tipped her head back and stared at the sky. “It’s a ways off yet. Years away.”

That didn’t really soothe me, didn’t make me feel better. Instead, the anxiety of the unknown only grew. Not that I could do a thing about it. Jonathan went to sleep against Lark and she seemed to be sleeping too, though I doubted she actually was. So I stood guard, watching for signs of something chasing us. Hoping that maybe we’d made it out without detection and knowing more than likely we were in deep shit.

Giselle was right, I shouldn’t have gone off on my own.

Lark

The truck took us to the outskirts of Death Valley, close enough that I knew Rylee and Jonathan could keep up, even with the scorching heat.

Rylee leaned down and popped one side of the trucks tires with the sword, forcing him to the side of the road. Beauty of the sword, it not only didn’t break, but it didn’t get pulled from her hand either despite the force of the pull on it. The three of us hopped off the flat deck, while the driver cursed and yelled, not even seeing us with the camouflage I wrapped around all of us. Last thing we needed was the local law enforcement to show up and put their noses into our business.

“You live here?” Jonathan squeaked out, already turning into the twelve-year-old he should have been, shedding the mantle of a Writer. At least for the moment. I looked around, trying to see the place as he would. Barren, desolate, a few scrub brushes here and there, bright blue sky and heat that sizzled off the ground in waves. Yeah, it wasn’t exactly what you’d call ‘homey’.

“Trust me,” I said, crossing onto the hard packed earth and off the pavement. “It wasn’t my idea.”

They followed me into the desert, and while neither complained, I saw they were having a hard time.

Not that it mattered to Rylee, she kept up her litany of questions as we walked.

“How many elementals are there?”

“A lot.”

She paused. “No, I mean how many variations?”

“Five.”

She kept pace with me, sweat dripping from her jaw line. “I get the four basics, earth, air, fire, water, but what’s the fifth?”

That was where things got tricky, I didn’t want to tell her too much. “Spirit.”

“What the hell can spirit do?”

Suddenly, I didn’t want to talk anymore, because for one thing, I knew in my heart she was going to get her memory wiped clean, but the other part was I didn’t think it was time yet for her to understand. Lucky for me, we were interrupted.

Or maybe, not so lucky.

The wind picked up at the same time the ground began to shake. Two barely visible figures appeared ahead of us. One was a solid form I knew all too well, his long beard and sad brown eyes flicking over me with a true sorrow only a parent could possess for a child gone wrong. The other was not so soft, at least not in temperament. A wind elemental I didn’t recognize and who was likely looking forward to pitting himself against me. Looking to build a reputation by taking down the ‘Destroyer’. Damn, there were days I really hated that title.

“Hang on.” I grabbed Jonathan, keeping him from falling to his knees. Rylee braced her legs and put a hand in front of her face to keep the sand from blowing in her eyes. I just stood and waited.