Ash (The Elemental Series, Book 6) (24 page)

lunged toward him. Or at least I tried to. What I ended up doing was nothing more than a scuffle on my knees, my fingers twitched, and I bared my teeth as if I would tear his throat out.

“You bastard.”

He tipped his head to one side. “Aptly put.”

With a snap of his fingers, I lost sight, and the sound around me was muffled as though my head had been shoved under water.

I clung to Lark’s image, and with that tenuous hold, I kept some of the control at bay, enough to hear what they spoke of.

“This was not part of the plan,” Talan said.

Cassava snorted. “Nothing ever goes to plan, you should know that by now. You sent him on this goose chase; you said it was important. I could have taken him when I took Peta.”

“It was important. You can’t see it, but I can. He’s connected with power he never had before. Both male and female halves of the earth needed to be awakened. He’s done that. His part is played out and we need him no longer, Planter.”

“Shut your mouth,” she snarled. “I am not a Planter.”

“Ah, but you were. You saved him once, I saw that in your memories. Is that why you balk at killing him now?”

Cassava was the one who balked at killing me?

She drew in a deep breath. “I . . . he is one of mine, Talan, and as such his life is mine. Not something you would ever understand, Walker.”

“His death will serve to strip Lark of her support, you know that. As I said, he has played his role. Lark loves him, he woke the earth, he even helped Raven to find the witch. Now he is here and his death is the last piece.”

She was silent a moment. “And Peta? What of her?”

“I will take Peta from here,” he said. “She should never have been taken from me.”

He’d been the one to send me after Cassava. He’d told me that he and I were on the same side, and yet here he was helping her. The two-faced shit-hole, I would kill him with my bare hands.

“You can heal his mind. Do it. The manipulation over the years is breaking him down and making him unstable, and I need him whole,” she said.

“No.”

“Do as I ask, Talan! You swore you would aid me.”

“And you swore to me you would not hurt Peta, and now I’ve lost her again,” he snarled, his eyes flashing with an anger that went deep. I could see it in him. He was barely holding back from attacking her.

But why wouldn’t he just use Spirit on her? The only answer was that she’d learned a way to protect herself from being manipulated.

Just like I had begun to with images of Lark. Hope flared through me and I pulled all the memories of Lark to me that I could. Every aspect of her that made her the beautiful elemental she was, inside and out.

The bonds on my mind slipped and I lunged for the sword at my feet. Spinning, I brought the blade up, knowing I had a choice. Cassava, or Talan.

Which one would die and make the world safer for Lark?

Even though I doubted it with all I heard, I still drove at Cassava. I sent the sword toward her, and she tried to avoid me, dodging to the side so the blade pierced her through the thigh. A scream shrieked out of her, bouncing around the small space. I scrambled, yanked the blade out, and swung it behind me, blindly hoping for a hit on Talan, too.

He grunted as the tip slid through something and caught in the bone. I yanked it out, spun fully around and brought the sword up, intending to knock him out so I could kill him slowly. I caught him under the chin with the handle of the sword, hitting him so hard his teeth cracked. His eyes rolled back and he fell, slumping to the side, hitting his head a second time on the table.

I turned to Cassava, strength and power flowing through me from the soles of my feet. The mountain around us trembled as I drew on the power that was mine through my birth, through my blood, and my soul.

“Cassava. You have been sentenced to death as a traitor to the Rim.”

She stared up at me and I saw for the first time that she was truly afraid. This was the moment. I held the power of the earth, keeping it to myself, keeping it away from her. I could see that she was trying to do the same, trying desperately to grab the power. But it was as if the earth had shunned her.

“That is not possible,” she whispered, horror making her words soft.

“Anything is possible,” I said, thinking of Lark. Of how she’d done things everyone had said were not within the scope of her abilities. Yet she’d done them, trusting in the earth around her. And now I did the same.

I held my sword up and swept it down, straight for her neck.

“Peta will die,” she cried out, and I jerked the weapon back, missing her by a hairsbreadth.

I held my stance, half crouched, a blade ready to spin back to remove her head. “Speak.”

“Peta is down at the fires. She was not meant to die, but I could not stop her.” I glared, and Cassava smiled slowly. “She is dying and you will not find her in time without me.”

I drove the sword into the hard-packed ground, grabbed Cassava by the arm and hauled her to her feet. “Then I suggest we find her. Now.”

I shoved her out of the door, grabbing my sword as I went by. With only a glance back at the still-prone form of Talan, I pushed Cassava along, though she was slow with the wound in her thigh. I didn’t care that we were both naked. The bite of the icy wind was welcome on my fevered skin. I felt as though I were in a dream that I could not escape, a place of madness that I would wake from any moment.

What was real.

What was false.

I didn’t know any longer.

But the waking never happened and I was forced to continue forward, dealing with the fierce and ugly reality of the world.

The fires raged high, burning the flesh and fur of the Yeti. A flash of movement drew my eyes to Norm as he fought to get a wounded Yeti away from . . . from what was it? My eyes struggled to comprehend what I was seeing. What was killing the huge supernatural creatures.

The rakshasa demon.

It stood in front of us, whispering dark incantations as it swept its huge horned head from side to side. Its face was nothing but eyes, there was not even a mouth or a nose to break up the hundreds of tiny blinking orbs.

Norm waved at me, his eyes wide. “Rakshasa isn’t helping; he’s hurting the Yeti!”

I had a choice. Either I trusted what I’d heard in the mystic’s cave, along with my memories, or I let myself believe that I was only meant to kill Cassava. That path would lead to my death, I knew that now. That was why Talan had set me on it. Cassava didn’t want to kill me, but she would not allow me to kill her. He’d been forcing her hand.

I tugged her up so we were nose to nose. “If you truly don’t wish to kill me, then help me stop the demon.”

Her eyes flickered and she nodded. “How?”

I let her go and tapped into the earth, recalling clearly what Granite had said. “Sandlings.”

With a flick of my hand, I created ten Sandlings at once. Cassava gasped. “You are not that strong.”

I didn’t look at her. It wasn’t just strength; it was the time I’d spent practicing creating them between the Veil while I rotted in the dungeon.

Cassava stepped beside me and called four more Sandlings. The rakshasa tipped its head to one side and swiped a clawed hand at one of them. The Sandling fell apart, and then came back together on the other side of the demon.

The beast roared and spun. I snapped my fingers and my Sandlings rushed it, attacking with weapons hewn of rock and stone. Cassava flexed her hand and sent her four Sandlings.

But the demon was no stupid creature. “I see you, elementals.”

He leapt up and over the Sandlings, landing in front of Cassava.

She screamed and the demon caught her up in his one hand as the Sandlings beat at its back.

“Ash!”

I did not want to save her . . . but I could not yet be sure she wasn’t on my side. Which meant I had to do something. The rakshasa spun and danced with her high above its head as it continued to battle with the Sandlings. They would buy me the time I would need.

I spun and bolted back the way we’d come from the mystic’s cave.

“You coward!” she screamed after me.

I ignored her.

I burst back into Miko’s home. Talan was gone. If there was ever a coward, it was him, manipulating people from the shadows. I dropped to my knees and dug through the clothes until I found the chakram. Gripping it in one hand, I raced toward the fires. If I could get rid of the demon, we could find Peta. I was sure of it. I snapped my fingers and the Sandlings fell around the rakshasa. Slowly, the demon turned to face me.

I held up my hand. “I can send you anywhere in the world you choose, demon. Tell me where the snow leopard is and I will let you take the woman with you.”

Its eyes focused on me and it spoke from its belly. “I like that deal.”

“No, Ash! You can’t. I am your queen!” The panic in Cassava’s voice made me smile.

“I can, and I will.”

“Prove it,” the demon said.

I touched the blade to my forehead, thinking of the ocean. I swept the blade downward, touched the earth with it and then brought it back up. The Veil opened into the middle of the ocean, the sound of lapping waves and cries of gulls floating through to us. “Anywhere you choose.”

“The deal is done.” The demon strode forward. “The cat is under all the Yetis.”

From behind him, I saw movement. Norm. I shook my head ever so slightly. “Well,” I said, “this will be a lovely prank, don’t you think? Can you imagine if someone were to push you through the opening, causing you to stumble and fall?”

The rakshasa tipped his head. “You elementals are a strange bunch.”

Only one thing left to do. I thought about the seventh level of the Veil. I’d never been there, but I knew it was the deepest level, the one where the demons were kept away from the world. Only fools and power
-
mad rulers drew them through, thinking they could use their powers for their own. What had Miko been thinking?

“Ash, do not do this. All I’ve done, all the pain I’ve caused has been to help Lark. She needed to be strong.” Cassava was limp in his grip. “Lark and Raven are the only hope this world has of surviving what is to come. I had to make her strong enough. This was the only way. Remember that.”

Her words held a ring of truth I did not like. The demon spoke. “I want to go to Paris.”

That was a bit of a surprise. “It will be dark there, yet.”

The rakshasa snorted. “You think I’m afraid of the dark?”

I shrugged, sweating despite the cold. “No. But put the woman down first. I’ll push her through after you.”

With a grunt
,
the demon dropped her and I swept the blade through the air, opening the Veil perfectly . . . straight into the seventh level of the Veil.

“That is not Paris,” the demon snarled.

“Norm!” I yelled.

Norm rushed forward and shoved the demon hard, sending him flying through the cut in the Veil. The demon roared, its hands reaching for me. I stepped out of the way, but somehow it managed to get one of its tongues wrapped around Cassava’s legs.

She screamed as she was dragged toward the opening. Without much thought, I brought the circular blade down, slicing through the tongue. Saving her.

“We are even now,” I said. “A life for a life.”

She shivered where she lay and nodded.

The Veil snapped shut and we were alone in the place of death. Norm crouched, shivering. There was a groan from the pile of bodies.

Norm scooted over and dragged Miko from the stack. “I am a fool . . .” He coughed and spit up blood that splattered his silver and gray fur. “I thought the rakshasa would stop him from taking her.”

I crouched beside him. “What are you talking about?”

“Talan,” Cassava said. “He wants Peta back.”

Miko nodded. “Peta . . . she must not go with him. We had to stop him, but he controlled us. Controlled all we said and did. The rakshasa . . .”

“Was a last-ditch effort.” I closed my eyes and shook my head.

“So many of my family are gone. So many dead,” Miko whispered. “All my fault.”