Windburn (The Elemental Series #4) (31 page)

Aria reached up to my face, her hand trembling. “No, Destroyer. Our families need you yet. You must stay alive, even if you are cast out for doing the things the Glow asked of you.”

A scream snapped my head up. Samara had an arm locked around Stasha’s neck, but the queen’s daughter slipped out at the last second.

I watched them closely, noting something right away. The lines of power I expected to see on their arms as they dueled were missing.

“Are they not allowed to use their element?”

Ender Boreas stepped up beside me. “Not in a battle for the crown.”

Peta shook her head, clearly as surprised as me. Though we were not to attack one another using our elements, the right to rule seemed as though it should be all or nothing. Especially after what had happened between Cassava and me.

“Is this the way of Sylphs?” Peta asked.

Boreas looked down at her. “There has not been a new queen in thousands of years. We don’t know what our way is.”

I stared at the combatants. Stasha’s arms lit up as she reached for her element. “Samara, she’s going to steal your air!” I yelled.

My words seemed to set off an explosion within the remaining Sylphs. Most turned their faces away, as if they couldn’t bear to see what was going to happen. But seven ran toward the two combatants.

Call it a hunch, but I doubted they were going in to help Samara. I couldn’t leave her on her own.

“Cactus, with me!” I yelled as I leapt away from the queen toward those who rushed Samara and Stasha. Samara might hate me, and the goddess didn’t want her as a queen. But I felt the truth as only Spirit could show me. Samara would be the one to protect and raise the Sylphs like no other.

We ran across the broken rocks, fighting to keep our balance. My spear was somewhere in the mountainous rubble and I had no time to find it.

Hands and fists it was, then.

I caught the first Sylph around the waist in a tackle that took us both to the ground. Our fall knocked the wind out of him, if his gaping, flapping mouth was any indication. “You stay there. This is not your fight.” I pointed at him as I scrambled up and ran for the next Sylph closest to me, a woman who stood a few inches taller than me. She spun as I approached, her hands raised and lines of power lighting her pale skin up as she lifted me from the ground.

From her left side, Peta crept along the ground. “Put her down, or I’ll turn you into a kitty toy, air bag.”

The Sylph startled and her hands lowered. “Samara is the lowest of the low. Her blood is as far from royal as one can get without being a half-breed. She cannot rule.”

I closed the distance between us. “I completely understand.”

She smiled at me and I slammed my fist into her jaw, dropping her where she stood. “I understand you are as small-minded as the rest of the elementals.”

Shazer was right; all of them were assholes.

Cactus took out two of the other Sylphs. Normally I knew it wouldn’t be so easy, except we weren’t facing Enders. We were facing everyday Sylphs. Which begged the question, why weren’t the Enders defending Samara?

I turned to see them standing in a circle around Aria, protecting their dying queen.

A triumphant yell brought my head around. Samara stood over Stasha. The queen’s daughter still lived, her chest rose and fell, but her face was a wreck of blood and bits of bone. The shuffle of feet on rock turned me the other way and I swallowed hard. “Cactus, I think we’re in trouble.”

Peta crept toward me. “What in the world would make you think that, Dirt Girl?”

I grimaced. “Just a guess.”

The Enders pulled their weapons as they approached Samara. I stood, putting myself between them. If it was the last thing I did, I would defend her. She was royalty, no matter what the other Sylphs thought.

“Enough,” Samara said, her voice raised and full of threat. I held my ground, but the other Enders kept coming.

“Not good.” Peta’s tail lashed from side to side.

There was a moment where I thought the inevitable was going to slide by.

The Enders leapt as a unit, and I braced for the impact. But it came from a direction I did not expect. A wickedly cold wind snapped down off the remaining peaks and slammed into all of us. The Enders were tossed through the air and Cactus, Peta, and I were hammered into the ground. My cheek hit so hard the skin split and the warmth of my blood shocked the icy cold of my skin. I clung to the rocks as the temperature dropped and my breath misted around my face. Peta somehow managed to get beside me, scraping along the rocks until her fur tickled my face. Her eyes were squinted shut against the blasting wind. I wrapped a hand over her back and buried my face into her thick coat.

Minutes ticked by. I know, I counted each one. If I didn’t do something, I was going to freeze in spite of Peta’s efforts to keep me warm. Which meant Cactus was in even more trouble.

I rolled with difficulty so I could see behind me. Samara stood with her head thrown back, her short hair rippling in the wind. The lines of power wrapped around her arms, legs and torso, more than I’d ever seen before on another elemental.

Cactus was only a foot away from me. I held my hand out to him, pulling him close. The only person we were missing was my father. Peta picked up on my thoughts, yelling into the wind to me. “He’s by the old queen.”

As far as I knew, there was only one thing I could do. No one else seemed inclined to try and talk sense into Samara. Angling myself, I faced Samara while still lying on my back. I took a breath and stood, letting the wind catch me and throw me toward her. The speed of the wind slammed me into her so hard we went tumbling through the air three times ass over head before we hit the ground and the wind fell.

Her eyes were glazed and her lips were blue. “Destroyer.”

“Yes.” I slid off her and sat up in a crouch. “Sorry about that.”

She blinked a few times before she put a hand to her head. “I can’t let you go without doing something. They will think me weak.”

“Do what you must,” I said, pushing myself to my feet. “Only let me get my father home.”

The Sylphs rushed forward, all of them this time. But there was no malice in them. Apparently her show of force was enough to convince them. They fell at Samara’s feet on their knees, their hands raised above their heads and their eyes closed. I pushed through the crowd carefully until I was beside Aria and my father.

His eyes met mine first, and there was a tiny bit of clarity there, a hint of the man he’d been before Cassava had manipulated his mind. Before hope could truly spring forward, his green eyes narrowed and distrust replaced any emotion I might have seen there. Beside him lay the emerald stone, as if it had dropped from the heavens. Yet it had been in Cassava’s hand when last I’d seen it. I scooped it up as I crouched down, tucking it into my vest.

“How did you find me?” my father asked.

“I used a Tracker.” Exhaustion made my words soft.

His eyes narrowed farther, and his words were heavy with disappointment. “Using a supernatural? We will discuss this when we get back to the Rim.”

He shook his head, but unlike the shame I normally felt, there was nothing but fatigue. Ignoring him, I went to my knees beside Aria. Her eyes met mine and she smiled. “Give her the stone. She will need it.”

I glanced over my shoulder to where Samara walked through her people, touching them gently on the heads and shoulders. Connecting with them. “She kicked ass without help from anyone else.”

“She is the strongest of us. I’ve always known it. But wild, ah, she is wild like I was when I first took the throne.” Aria slipped the smoky diamond from her neck and handed it to me. The stone shook from the trembling in her hand and I folded my fingers over it.

Boreas, the only Ender who hadn’t charged Samara, went to his knees beside his queen. Tears trickled down his cheeks as he took her free hand and held it to his chest. “Mother, do not leave us.”

“Ah, my boy. How I love you. Protect her. She needs your strength and loyalty. And maybe even your love.”

He dropped his head to her chest, his shoulders shaking. His defense of her, his fierce loyalty, it made even more sense. Though her daughters did not love her the way they should have, her son obviously made up for them. To see their bond made the lack of bond with my own remaining parent that much more painful.

I buried my hands into the rocks. One last thing before we left. My mother’s spear . . . I wasn’t leaving it behind. Using the power of the earth, I searched through the rubble, seeking the weapon and pulling it toward me. The ground bulged and spit up my spear, right into my hand. Peta rolled her eyes. “Shouldn’t be able to do that either.”

I pushed to my feet and stepped back, unable to stay any longer.

“Larkspur, you have an armband?” my father said, stopping me.

“No.”

“You can use one of ours. I want you gone.” Samara’s voice cut through anything I might have said. She pointed at one of the Enders. He handed her an armband made of pale smoky quartz that mimicked the diamond I held in my hand.

There was no globe to use, though, no way to point ourselves home.

“We need to leave. Now.” My father’s grip was tight on my forearm, and his fingers dug into me.

“In a minute—”

“You would defy me?” He seemed truly confused.

I shook his hand off. “I need to speak with Samara before we go.”

Samara wore no crown; she still wore her Enders leathers . . . yet she was the queen. I could see it in the way she held herself, the tip of her chin. Even the blood splatter on her leathers that spoke of the fight for the throne. I’d made the right choice. Even if the mother goddess didn’t like it.

I bent a knee and lowered my head. “I will not fight you.”

The Sylphs around us sucked in a collective breath. Cactus let out a single soft word. “No.”

Through my bond to Peta, I felt her concern. And her pride in me. That was enough to keep me where I knelt. I no longer cared what my father thought of me. I would follow my heart.

“Look at me,” Samara said. I slowly raised my head and lifted my eyes to hers. “Only because Aria spoke your sentence do I not kill you where you kneel. Leave from this place, Destroyer. Never return. Your life will be forfeit if you ever place foot in the Eyrie, wherever it may be.”

I stared up at her. “That’s it?”

Her eyes narrowed and every muscle in her body seemed to tense at once. “I will not go against her last words. I would like to take your heart from your body and cast it from the highest peak. But I won’t. For her.”

That was more along the lines of what I’d been expecting. I held the smoky diamond up to her. “A last gift from your queen.”

She frowned and took the jewel from me. She knew what it was, but her face gave nothing away.

My father approached from behind, and clamped his hand on my shoulder. “Take us home, Larkspur. The Rim awaits.”

Samara handed me the armband and our fingers touched for a brief second. Her eyes met mine and I saw all the emotions I too felt. Anger, fear, relief. She and I were too alike in too many ways.

“Good luck, Samara. You’re going to need it.”

I looked to Cactus, seeing how much I’d hurt him both in body and spirit. He was bruised and battered, blood trickled from his lip, and yet he stood there, waiting for me. “I’ll take my Cactus first, then come back for you, Basileus.”

Cactus’s eyes softened and he smiled. I’d called him mine.

“No. You will not.” My father pushed me down, and the ground softened to squeeze my legs.

“I love him and I am done leaving him behind!” I snapped.

“He is a half-breed who does not belong in the Rim!” my father roared, and I flinched as though he’d hit me. He might as well have.

“Lark, I’ll go with Shazer. Wait for me,” Cactus said. His eyes locked on mine, and the smile in them was enough. “It will be okay, Lark. Just go.”

With my hand on the armband, I paused for a moment. I felt as though I’d betrayed Cactus . . . again. Peta, once more in her housecat form, put her front paws on my bent knee.

“He will be all right. The Bastard will take him home faster than you realize.”

I looked at the armband. “This won’t get us home.”

My father put his hand over the band and took it from me. “It will tune to me. It is a secret of the bands. They always take a ruler home.”

He twisted the armband counterclockwise and the world dissolved around us in a rush of air.

And I was sent hurtling into my father’s memories.