Rootbound (The Elemental Series, Book 5) (23 page)

As if a signal were given, Fiametta’s death rolled through the volcano in a ripple. Her body sank into the mountain and I took a step back, the slow-growing sinkhole around her body opening further.

“Lark, what are you doing?” Flint yelled.

“This isn’t me. This is the mountain on its own.” I glanced at the ground, as if it would give up its secrets. The hole spread farther and a blurp of lava spit up as Fiametta’s body slid into the crevice. Gone.

As if she never existed.

I spun, grabbed Cactus from the ground, yanked him up across my shoulders, and broke into a sprint. He let out a low groan but otherwise kept his mouth shut. There was no time for niceties. Whatever was happening would swallow us all if we stood still.

Flint herded his people ahead of him, even as I saw the lines on his arms. He turned and tried to slow the lava, but it had a life of its own. “It’s tied to her death somehow.”

“Booby trap,” Cactus mumbled.

I flicked a hand behind us and pulled the stone down. The mountain shuddered and rumbled. “Move it!” I could feel the lava splash against the stone, and begin to creep through the blockage.

The feel of the heat on the stone slowed my feet and I stopped where I was. My eyes fluttered closed as warmth spread along my skin, as though I were the stone and the lava was caressing me. Spirit flared through me and I rolled my head back; there, at the edge of my conscious was something I’d been searching for—

“Lark, run!” Cactus broke my concentration.

Shock and anger coursed through me. “Damn it, Cactus.” I ran forward once more, wanting that feeling of warmth, of a connection to an element that wasn’t my own.

“Sorry for keeping us alive,” he muttered. He was right; if I’d stood there we both would have been swallowed up in the lava.

And I’d wanted it.

That should have scared me . . . and the worst part was that it didn’t. I wanted to feel that heat coursing through me again.

No matter the cost.

he obsidian doors were behind us and we were free of the Pit, but we had to keep moving. Lava flowed out of every crevice of the mountain in gulping spurts as though it wanted to eat us, the brilliant red against the green grass and trunks of the cherry trees not slowing even though it was far from the source. The crack and rumble of falling stone, the splash of boulders crashing as the mountain crumbled. It reminded me all too well of the Eyrie. I glanced back in time to see the top of the mountain sink from view, sucked down with a boom that felt as though thunder rocked the earth.

“Keep running!” I yelled. We were far from safety. With the mountain destroyed, the lava would flow for a long time. Whatever hold Fiametta had on the lava was keeping the Salamanders from even trying to control it.

Ten miles away, the group finally stopped, the lava left behind to devour whatever it wanted.

Flint kept a hand on Bella the whole way, I kept Cactus on my shoulders and Peta watched me from Bella’s arms.

I wanted to ask her about what I’d felt inside the mountain. The sensation of the lava against my skin, hot but not hurting me. As if I were a Salamander. But that wasn’t possible. The ruby lay inside my leather pouch, and even if I’d been wearing it, there was no way the lava wouldn’t have swallowed me whole. It was as unnatural to the Salamanders as it was to me.

Shazer landed ahead of us. “What the hell did you do?”

I slid Cactus from my shoulders and took a deep breath. “I didn’t. Not this time.”

It was only then I realized that none of the Firewyrms had escaped with us. I closed my eyes and went to my knees, the cool grass little comfort against the thoughts that raged in my head. Had they been condemned to death along with Fiametta?

And worse, did I care?

I swallowed hard and opened my eyes. “Bella, you’re okay?”

She nodded. “You got what you came for?”

I touched my leather pouch. “Yes. I don’t want you to come with me now. Go home to the Rim.”

Her eyes narrowed. “You will not order me around. I am your queen.”

I rolled my eyes. “And you’re pregnant.”

Flint went rather still next to her. “You’re pregnant.”

Bella flushed. “I only just found out.”

He pulled her into his arms and the crowd tightened around them, reaching out to touch them both. I looked for familiar faces in the crowd of Salamanders. For Brand and his wife Smoke. For their three boys, Stryker, Tinder and Cano. But they weren’t there.

“The battle with Orion.” Peta trotted across the grass to me. “All five of them were lost in the battle.”

I gave her a sharp nod of acknowledgment but could barely swallow past the guilt and grief that swelled. Once more I had to consider that Talan may have been right. What if I’d not needed to bring the four families into the battle? If I’d not done that, my friends would still be alive.

“Do not doubt your choices now,” Peta said. “Whatever has you doing that is wrong. The world would not have survived without your help. Without the elementals stepping up to help the world. And it was their choice, Lark. You know that. Why are you doubting yourself now?”

“Talan . . . he said things about the battle.”

She sucked in a sharp breath.

I looked her right in the eye. “I think I hate him, Peta.”

Her shoulders slumped. “I know.”

Not that she hated him too, but she knew I hated him. Mother goddess help me if I lost her to him.

Someone tugged at the back of my belt. “I know you all are busy, but do you think you could help me out?”

I turned to Cactus. His injuries were bad, but mostly superficial. I ran a hand over his head. The imprints where Fiametta’s hands had gripped him were healing already. He’d have some scarring, from the burns, but they would fade with time. Even the injury that had caused all the blood was smaller than I’d thought. A gash at the back of his head that was only an inch long and already had slowed.

“You’ll be fine.” I let go of him and stood, already thinking about the Eyrie.

Cactus grabbed my leg. “Lark, please. Heal me. I’m in pain.”

I blinked several times, unsure that I’d heard him right. “It costs me to heal, Cactus. A piece of my soul, maybe more each time. You’ll have some scars, but you’ll be fine.”

His green eyes closed. “Please, Lark. The pain is . . . intense.”

I went back to my knees and put my hands on his cheeks. “I’m sorry you’re in pain, but you will live and heal just fine on your own. Suck it up, buttercup.”

His eyes flew open, all but crackling with anger. “I never thought I’d see the day you’d turn away from helping someone. Especially not someone you love.”

“Loved,” Peta said. “Past tense.”

His hand shot out for her, red lines of power curling to his fingers, the intent all over him.

That he would even dare was the last drop in an overflowing bucket of no more patience.

I grabbed his hand and twisted it backward, the snap of bone clear as a bell in the still air. “Don’t ever try to hurt her again, Cactus. I will choose her every time. Do you understand?”

His jaw dropped, but I didn’t let go of the arm I’d broken. “Do you understand?”

“Yes.” He whispered the word and I let him go.

Standing, I turned back to the crowd. Flint began a slow clap. “To defend a familiar like that. Brilliant, Lark, it’s the way it should be done.”

I held a hand out for Peta and she leapt into my arms. “You wouldn’t really kill him over me, would you?” She blinked up at me.

I touched a hand to her back. “Yes. I would.”

Her eyes widened farther, and through the bond I felt her surprise.

Flint smiled. “Just to be clear, I’ve always liked Peta.”

I stepped away from Cactus and headed to where Shazer waited. “Flint, I doubt that very much. As long as you treat her well now, that’s all that matters.”

“You’d doubt me?”

I turned and glanced back at him. “The charm of a Salamander is legendary. We all know it. I won’t be charmed, Flint. I will take you at face value. End of story.”

His smile slipped and he gave me a slow bow from his waist. “So between you and me, nothing but truth.”

“Between you and me, nothing but truth. No matter how hard.” I didn’t bow back.

His grin grew. “You and I are going to be good friends, sister. I look forward to years of arguing with you.”

I burst out laughing, caught off guard by his words. Bella smiled and lifted a hand, which caught everyone’s attention.

“As queen of the Rim, I welcome all Salamanders to our home as a place to recoup and wait for your home to be safe once more.”

Flint nodded. “Thank you. We will take you up on your offer.”

The crowd shifted, looking from one to another. As if they weren’t sure if they could follow Flint without a trial by fire. The way they chose their leader was sheer strength. Then again, he’d fought Fiametta and she’d been the one to fall.

They would soon see he was strong enough. Or maybe they’d seen enough in the cavern. I shook my head; what did it matter to me who ruled the Salamanders?

Worm shit, I did not want to be a meddler. A tiny voice I recognized as my own piped up.

Too late, idiot.

Bella tipped her head to one side. “We are family, even though we are sustained by different elements. If we do not stand with each other, who will?”

The Salamanders murmured their agreement. Bella and Flint got the people organized, setting them off in groups, sending those who could travel the easiest and fastest ahead of the rest.

None of it really mattered to me; I had a job to do. And Ash to find. His name tightened in my belly. How many days since I’d thought of him? In all the chaos and fighting, I’d barely had time to consider how much closer I was to the mother goddess helping me.

I reached Shazer and ran a hand over his neck. He head-butted me in the belly lightly.

“Is your sister coming with us?”

“It is her choice,” I said. “She’s my queen; I can’t stop her.”

Footsteps on the grass turned me around. I expected Bella. What I got was an agitated and fired-up Cactus.

“You seriously are going to just leave me here?” he spluttered. “Like I’m nothing to you?”

I leaned my head against the Pegasus. “I would rather bed Shazer at this point than you, Cactus. At least I know I can trust him not to try to manipulate me.”

Shazer snorted. “Don’t tempt me, you have a lovely ass.”

I rolled my eyes and slapped a hand against his hide. “Don’t try to help.”

Cactus stared at me, his hair matted with blood, his face burned and his eyes as angry as I’d ever seen them. A sudden thought rolled through my head. His behavior was just off enough to make me think he was being an ass. But what if he had been affected too? Like Scar, Finley, and the others? I reached out to take his hand and he pulled me toward him.

I pushed a pulse of Spirit through him, looking for something that controlled him other than his own thoughts.

Nothing resided in him.

Everything he was doing was just Cactus being a prick. I pulled back, sadder than I’d been in a long time. “Cactus, we are friends, but you are putting even that to the test.”