Ash (The Elemental Series, Book 6) (25 page)

I touched Norm on the arm. “I’m sorry, my friend. But I need your help. The snow leopard is buried under the dead, and she may still be alive. Will you help me? Please.” I all but begged him.

He nodded and I turned away from Cassava, thinking it was safe to do so.

Norm’s eyes widened as he looked over my shoulder, and I spun, but I was too slow. The blade ran me through, my own sword taken up and used against me.

Norm howled and grabbed me, tugging me backward as Cassava laughed softly, a tear trickling down her cheek. “Peta slipped my bonds, you fool. She’s a cat; you can’t leash a cat indefinitely.”

A blur of black and white shot from the darkness. “Truth, bitch. For once you speak it.”

Peta tackled Cassava to the ground, snarling and slashing with her wicked claws. I slumped in Norm’s arms. He petted my head, smoothing my hair back. “You’ll be okay, friend. You’ll be okay.”

I knew I wasn’t, though. I knew a fatal blow. The blade had angled up through my belly and into my chest cavity. Without a healer, I would die. Not today
,
though, tomorrow or the next, as the wound festered and grew gangrenous. I glanced at Miko with the faintest of hopes . . . but he was as me, close to the Veil.

Peta cried out, and I forced myself to sit up. She lay on her side, and the last thing I saw was the tip of her tail as the ground swallowed her whole.

Cassava stood slowly, her body raked from top to bottom, flaps of skin hanging off and blood flowing freely. She swayed where she stood and then slumped to her knees, falling to one side. “Ah, to have it all go to hell now, it is ironic,” she whispered and then was silent.

The crackle of the flames behind us was the only sound besides my labored breathing. I put my hand to the ground and beckoned the earth to spit Peta out. She emerged, covered in filth and spitting mad as she whipped around to Cassava. “That bitch!”

“Peta,” I called to her and she hurried to my side, her green eyes going from rage-filled to horror.

“Ash, we have to get you to a healer.”

I shook my head. “Tell Larkspur I love her, that she was the only one I ever loved in all my years.”

Norm sniffed. “I think you should tell her.”

Peta nodded. “The Yeti is right.”

She stiffened and glared into the darkness, a low growl rumbling over her lips. “You bastard, I’ll kill you too!”

She moved as if to leap and then froze as a sharp snap of air caught her up and then pinned her to the ground.

I didn’t have to look to know it was Raven. “You didn’t really kill her, did you?” he asked.

I stared at Cassava’s prone form. The rise and fall of her chest was slight, but it was there. “No, she’s not dead.”

“Good. Because we need her yet, Ash. All of us do.” He crouched in front of me. Norm tightened his big arms around me as if he could keep me away from Raven.

“You survived the witch, then,” I said. He grinned and nodded as though we were two old friends reminiscing over long-ago memories.

“We came to an understanding. Something I hope you and I can now do.”

I coughed, spitting up blood. “I’m dying, what do you want, forgiveness?”

“Perhaps.” He put a hand on my shoulder. “Just remember, you are not the only one caught in this madness. You are not the only one who will be caged. Talan is playing a deep game, as is Cassava.” He waved a hand forward and the witch from Romania joined him.

Caged. What the hell was he talking about?

“It will take both of us to change him.” She ducked her head, a wash of white-blond hair spilling forward. Her eyes were as blue as the sky above us, and the air fairly crackled around her.

“I know.” Raven took one of her hands and they pressed their other hands over my heart. I stared up at them. What the—

There was a twist in my belly, as though the blade had been jammed in again, and Norm was shoved away from me. Raven spoke softly.

“This is the only way to save you from yourself, Ash. The only way to help Lark now. She needs you, no matter what Talan thinks. He does not know her like you and I do.”

From myself? What madness did he speak now? A thousand breaks in my bones shattered me apart, tearing my mind from any thought of survival, of revenge, or the sweet embrace of the mother goddess. As if lightning had been bottled inside me, my body jerked and danced to a tune I could not hear. To a command I did not understand.

The witch whispered words of a spell. “Bone to wing, blood to air, sword to claws, find your true form.”

Peta cried out and there was a thump of pure power that sent out ripples through the air. I blinked, the injury was gone. Had they healed me? Yes, that much was true.

I was seeing the world from a different view, and I struggled to understand. My vision was sharper, clearer, no longer fuzzed with pain. I stretched my arms out . . . not arms. Wings, covered in tawny brown and gold feathers.

I opened my mouth and nothing but a high-pitched screech came out. I clamped my mouth shut with a click.

Beak. Wings. I flexed muscles I didn’t know I had, digging my talons into the ground below me.

“What have you done?” Peta cried out. Raven put a hand on her head as she made a move to bite into his thigh.

“You will forget all this. Ash is missing, Peta. He was banished and visits the Rim here and there. You will believe this. You must go now, before Talan finds you. You must be there for Lark when she comes from her banishment.”

Her green eyes clouded with sadness and she whispered, “Ash is missing.”

My heart sank. There was no real power against Spirit.

He sent her away with another word and I watched in despair as she left me there on the mountain. Yet . . . she was safe. In his own way, he’d saved her. I twisted my head around to stare at Raven, and let out a screech.

The witch stood and wiped her hands on her cloak. “That is powerful magic you have, Raven. Together we could be unstoppable.”

He winked at her. “Perhaps.”

Norm howled to the moon and Raven went to him next. “Take your people and move to the Eyrie. The Sylphs await you.”

Norm shook his head. “You turned my friend into a bird. That is
not
a nice prank.”

Raven startled. “So, you cannot be influenced? Norm, you must trust me. You will be safe with the Sylphs. Your family will be safe.”

“What about my friend?”

Raven glanced at me. “He will be safe for now. He is doing what he came to do. He’s saving those he loves.”

The Yeti let out a sigh. “Okay, but I don’t like it.”

We watched as Norm gathered the few remaining Yeti and left the rest to burn.

Raven shook his head, speaking as though Norm had never interrupted him. “I cannot explain it all to you, Ash. But . . . Peta needs to be there for Lark when she finally is free.
Needs
to be. That cat has as much a role in our world being saved as you and I do, but Talan is blind to that.” He held out a wrist to me and I launched into the air from the ground, my wings beating desperately.

If I could get far enough away, I could find someone to undo this curse on my body. I was no shifter, I was not meant to be . . . whatever it was he’d turned me into. I climbed into the low
-
hanging clouds before it felt as though a chain tightened around my neck. I fought the pull, fought the bonds dragging me to earth once more.

I fell as if I were a stone, my wings suddenly buckling under the pressure. This was not happening.

I was in hell.

Two big furry hands caught me, softening the blow. “I got you
,
friend. Here, you stay with Raven,” Norm said. I trembled as he handed me back to the elemental who’d done this to me. Unable to speak, unable to break free, I didn’t know what to do.

Where to go.

“I know this is confusing.” Raven bent over his mother and ran a hand over her skin. Her wounds healed, though she didn’t move. “I have to go, Ash. I leave you in her care.”

I struggled then, thinking he had to be kidding. This had to be . . . a prank.

Raven shrugged. “You don’t have a choice. You will go with Cassava. I will take Lark to her when she is ready.”

When who was ready? Cassava?

Or Lark?

Was this some sort of test, or was I just part of an elaborate scheme to place Lark where they wanted her? That thought rolled through my head and I realized that it was true. That all of this, from the moment I’d stepped foot into the king’s throne room and demanded that he set Lark free from her banishment, to my journey through the mountains, to the separation of Peta and me . . . it was all an elaborate setup.

Raven put a hand over my clawed feet and pulled me upright, then set me on his shoulder. As if I were his pet. I wanted to peck his eyes out, claw his face and . . . I could do none of that. Whatever bond he’d put on me held me still. He didn’t speak another word to me. Instead, he and his witch, Cassandra, discussed the possibility of merging their powers. How they could bend the elements to them, how they could accomplish great deeds.

I bowed my head, finally accepting the truth. He’d bested me.

The hours passed. Cassava rose and asked about me. Not Ash, but the bird. Raven said he wanted to give her a way to communicate with him, and handed me over to her.

She cooed softly to me and stroked a hand down my back. “Beautiful. Golden eagles have always been a favorite of mine, Raven. How did you know?”

“I took a guess.” He sounded tired, and I looked over my shoulder at him. He shook his head.

“You are not the only one bound. Remember that when the time comes.” He turned and walked away, his footsteps echoing into the darkness.

“Now,” Cassava bent and picked up the chakram from the ground. “Where shall we go, pet? Somewhere warm, I think. You know, Raven thinks I don’t see you for who you are. I find that amusing. My son has underestimated me again. I know you, Ash. And I think I will like you like this.”

Fear slashed through me. But she just laughed and stroked a hand over my back.

With a quick twist of her hand, she touched the blade to her forehead, then cut through the Veil, opening it to a smooth sandy white beach that made me think of the Deep. I knew it wasn’t, but the warm air blowing through told me we were close. Maybe I could get to Finley . . . and say what? Nothing. I could say nothing.

I was trapped in a body that could not speak. That could not communicate, and only Raven, Norm, and Cassava knew the truth of what I was. I hung my head, tucking it under one wing as she stepped us through the Veil.

I had one hope left. One belief that I clung to with every ounce of strength I had left in my soul.

Larkspur. I had to believe she would find me, that she would free me from this. And until then, I would wait, I would do what I must to survive, because I was no good to her dead. I was no good to her a shivering mess of fear and doubt. I slowly pulled my head out from under my wing and Cassava lifted her wrist, launching me into the air.

“Find Raven, show him where we are.”

Her words released me from the bonds that held me so tightly to her and I sped away, across the water.