Rootbound (The Elemental Series, Book 5) (27 page)

And that’s where I was so very, very wrong.

aven whipped a hand out as the stone flickered through the air. “I think not.”

The stone froze, above my head. I could have easily jumped and grabbed it. Could have fought him right there.

I lifted an eyebrow, though my heart pounded. I knew I couldn’t beat him. We’d been down this path before. Raven was too strong; he had too much power in all five elements for me to face him again. But he didn’t need to know how I felt.

“No? You need another boost of power to face me?”

He grinned, his eyes damn well sparkling. “Oh, I think you and I both know how that will end. You on the ground. Me sparing your life. Or not, maybe. I don’t know exactly how that part would end.” The necklace floated slowly to him. Shazer lunged for it and Raven flicked his fingers at the Pegasus.

His legs were sucked down into the stone as he leapt, the momentum of his body bending him forward. The snap of bones as he fell rent the air. He didn’t scream in pain, but grunted as he slumped. Peta snarled, leapt from his back and shifted. She crouched in front of Shazer, snarls rolling from her lips.

Raven snorted. “You want to play, kitty? Then let’s play.”

He grabbed the diamond from the air and snapped the fingers on his other hand. The stone disappeared, and Raven shifted. Literally shifted.

His body contorted, twisting in the blink of an eye into a monstrous grizzly bear. He was double the size of any regular grizzly, but worse, he was fast. Fast like a cat, with the power of a bear. He dropped to all fours and strode toward Shazer.

I knew without a shadow of a doubt he intended to tear Shazer apart. And he would go through Peta to do it. If I had to choose, I would, and it would always be her.

“Peta, back off!”

Samara cried out. “Lark, what is happening?”

“Not now, Samara, let me deal with one thing at a time.” I pulled my spear from my side, already knowing how useless I was going to be. Peta darted around the side of Raven, slashing at him with her wicked claws. He roared, and was on her in a flash, a huge paw glancing off her hip. I called on the power of the earth to hold him down. To pin him.

Nothing happened. “Goblin shit.” This was not the time to lose my connection to my elements, and I didn’t have time to figure out why.

I ran at him, swinging my spear in a huge arc. I brought it down the back of his rump. The blade bounced off as if it were completely dull.

I called Spirit to weave around Earth.

Again, nothing happened. What the hell was happening? I felt it then, in the space of a heartbeat. The same languorous sense I’d only received around one person.
Talan.

He had to be blocking me.

“I’m blocking you both, to be fair.” His voice spun me around. He stood against one of the pillars. “To keep things
even steven,
as the humans say.”

“It’s not even!”

“Yes, it is.” He spoke as if he was urging me on. “Meet him on his terms, Lark.”

I stumbled. On Raven’s terms? I wasn’t a shape shifter. I stared at Peta as she darted around Raven, landing blows, but unable to truly take him on her own.

Power of the heart, child. You have that. Use it. She is your soulmate for a reason.
Littermate
might be a better term.

The voice of the mountain rolled through me and I dropped my spear. Peta’s image flooded my mind and I grasped hold of it, believing the words of the mountain. Believing I was more than I’d ever known.

The shift took me like lightning; between one step and the next I was no longer on two feet, but running on four. Flashes of gray and white on my legs were all I saw as I leapt toward the mountain of brown fur, a snarl ripping out of me. The rush of power coursing through me was like nothing I’d ever experienced, like nothing I’d ever known.

I landed on his back and gripped with all four feet, clinging to him like a monkey grips a branch. He roared and swept a paw back for me, but I was too high up for him to reach.

Peta dodged his intermittent blows as I dug in, biting through the thick hide as I sought his spine. A glorious battle rage rolled through me, a blood lust that blurred my thoughts until only a single image of his death burned inside my mind. I buried my fangs into him over and over as he bucked and writhed under me.

His body humped and we swung to the side. I dove to the other side, away from him as he rolled to his back in an attempt to squash me.

I leapt to stand beside Peta.

“Lark?”

I nodded, not sure I was able to speak like she could.

The smoky diamond was somewhere within his fur, I was sure of it. But where? I narrowed my eyes.

I ran at him while he fumbled on his back. Fast and powerful he might be as a bear, but he was also heavy on his back like a turtle flipped over. At the last second, I jumped, landing on his soft underbelly. I dug my claws in, pricking the skin like cutting through lard with a scorching-hot knife. He grunted under me and I tightened my hold. One good swipe and his innards would spill out.

Peta stalked beside us, speaking for me. “The stone. Your life for the stone.”

Raven flexed as if he’d move and I slid my claws in further, tearing the flesh slowly. His eyes flicked to me, then back to Peta. He roared, but couldn’t move without being mortally wounded, and he knew it.

Apparently it was true: I wasn’t the only one blocked from using their elemental powers. At least Talan was fair in his own twisted way.

Raven’s body trembled under me, and for the first time I saw fear in his eyes. Without his powers behind him, he was no safer than any other low-level elemental.

He shifted back to his elemental form, clothes intact, but I clung to him, my teeth bared. Still on his back, my claws were buried in his pale belly, blood bubbling up around the punctures from the three-inch-long daggers attached to me.

“The stone,” Peta bit out. “Or she’ll gut you right now.”

A part of me wondered how far he’d push things, the other part wondered that Samara didn’t help him. Then again, the Sylphs had stood by and let Cassava and me wreak havoc on their home without interference. He lifted one hand and slid it into his pants.

Just as slowly, he pulled his hand out and from it dangled the necklace. I leaned forward and grabbed it with my teeth. But I didn’t take my claws from Raven.

His eyes widened. “You made a deal.”

I tightened my claws on him, my thoughts raging. He’d been the cause of so much death, so much destruction. He was the reason I’d broken Keeda’s mind, the reason I’d had to kill Vetch. He’d forced my hand to kill our father.

I glanced at Peta and nodded, the bond between us tighter than ever. She spoke for me. “You are hereby sentenced to death, Raven, as is Larkspur’s right as an Ender and protector of the Rim.”

I braced myself. He closed his eyes. “I know, Lark. I know.”

Electricity blasted through me, sent me flying off Raven in a burst of light and pain.

I tumbled through the air and slammed into the ground next to where Shazer lay. Stunned, I lay unable to move as I processed what had happened.

“Samara, she stopped you,” Shazer said. I glanced at him, saw the agony in his eyes. I could heal him.

“Get your shit done, fix my legs later.” He grunted and closed his eyes. “Damn this body; you keep having to heal me and my fragile bits.”

Raven stood, though he was far from steady and the blood ran freely from several wounds. He wobbled. “You surprise me, sister. I didn’t think you had it in you.”

I thought about standing on two feet and the shift slid through me as if I’d been doing it all my life. A feeling of desperation rolled through me as I reached once more for my connection to Spirit and Earth. They sang through me, hot and wild. A sigh of relief slipped from me.

Raven smiled at me, but it was weak. “Before this goes any further, I think you should meet someone.”

He took a few limping steps toward Samara. She backed up, holding a hand out to him. “Stay where you are. I saved you only for the sake of our child.” Wind powered between them, blowing his hair back and out of its perfect slicked coif.

“Samara, please.” Lines of power coursed up his arms, a vibrant pink that gave him away. “You love me.”

Her eyes softened and she relaxed once more. “I do love you. You’re the father of my baby.”

My gag reflex lurched at the sickeningly sweet words.

“Raven, your mommy dearest, Cassava to be clear, can’t be too happy you’ve left her for someone younger.” I took a step, beckoning Peta to come to me. I didn’t want her any closer to him than she had to be.

Raven shrugged, but his eyes were far from worried. In fact, they looked downright happy with the way they sparkled. Happy.

This did not bode well.

“You have the stone, but I have something to show you. Something I have on loan from my mother.” He held one fist up over his head and let out a long, high-pitched whistle. There were no lines of power on his arms, no indication that he did anything but whistle. And yet, something in his stance, the look in his eyes told me I wasn’t going to like what he had to show me.

The whoosh of wings drew my eyes upward. A bird rushed downward, a huge big bird. What the hell was Raven’s game now?

The bird, an eagle I could easily see now that it was close, landing on Raven’s arm.

“Do you like him? I must say Mother was rather clever when she captured him.”

I glanced at Peta, who shrugged.

Shazer gave a low groan. “Lark, don’t give him the stone.”

“I’m not.” I clutched the smoky diamond tighter as if it would otherwise slip from my fingers.

Raven grinned, the blood on his face and belly still dripping, but he acted like it meant nothing. “No, I think you’ll give me the stone. I think you’ll give me all the stones you have.”

None of this made sense. None of it.

I took a step. “You are sentenced to death, Raven. This ends.”

“You aren’t strong enough to kill me. You had your chance.” His free hand touched his belly gingerly. “And you let it slip by.”

He patted the eagle on top of his head, rather roughly. More like hitting than patting. “A nice, golden eagle. Lovely. Much better than he was before, wouldn’t you agree?”

Golden eagle.

When it is done, I will help you find your golden eagle.

The mother goddess’s words went off like a bomb inside my head. Not possible, this was not possible.

“No.”

“You can say no all you want.” Raven continued to smack the eagle I refused to think of as Ash. “But the truth is the truth.”

The eagle turned honey gold eyes to me. I would know those eyes and the feel of them on mine if I were blind.

“No.” It was the only thing I could say, the only word I had left to me. Ash had to be a shifter, then, that was the only other answer. Even though I knew I was wrong the second I thought it.

“To answer a coming question, no, he’s not a shifter. Mother confined him to this form, though why she didn’t just kill him I can’t fathom. Then again, it will work in my favor now, I think.” He flexed his arm and sent Ash back into the sky. The eagle circled once, let out a piercing cry that struck through me, and winged away.