Windburn (The Elemental Series Book 4) Read online

  I took the boots and slipped them on. They laced all the way up to my knee, the soft leather cupping my calves. Made of a deep brown deerskin, they complimented my darker leather vest. Not that I was looking to be fashionable. I only needed to fit in enough so the humans didn’t notice me.

  Ash crouched in front of me and helped me lace up the boots, his hands lingering on my legs. “Be careful, Lark.”

  “I will.” I touched his head, running my fingers through his hair, forgetting for a moment we were not alone. Behind us the door burst open and Peta fell through. Her white and gray coat was flecked with blood.

  Horror ripped through me. How could I have not felt her injuries? “Peta!”

  “I’m fine, it isn’t my blood,” she panted. Cactus ran to the door and slid a bar through it.

  “Time to go.” Ash grabbed me and spun me toward him. I knew a kiss when I saw it coming and I turned my head. It was one thing to love him, another to rub it in Cactus’s face. His lips caught my cheek and the surprise, then laughter in his eyes made me smile.

  Cactus grabbed my hand and dragged me away toward the stairs and the Traveling room. I let him, but couldn’t take my eyes from Ash as we moved out. How had Cactus not noticed?

  The boom of something heavy hitting the main doors snapped me out of my fog. I shook off Cactus’s hand and stepped into the lead. Stopping at my bedroom door, I grabbed a small leather bag I could tie to my belt. I looped it through and stuffed the trinkets Niah had given me in beside the smoky diamond that controlled air. The last thing to go in the bag was the white stone from the Pit. I didn’t hesitate, just stuffed it in knowing I could trust Niah.

  I took a knife and tucked it into the top of my boot, then backed out and led the way down the hall again. Through it all, the silence from Cactus was as damning as if he’d screamed at me. Apparently he had noticed.

  Beside me, Peta lent me her support, her furred body against my leg. I dropped a hand to touch the back of her neck. What a mess my heart was. Almost as bad as the mess my father had left in the Rim.

  The doors to the Traveling room were wide open. I stepped inside and as always was for a moment awed by what was laid out in front of me. Situated like a globe, the room was completely round. It was as if we stood inside the world, and looked out toward the land and seas.

  “Get that armband off the wall,” I said to Cactus as I reached up and touched the hovering image of the world. Flexing and tightening my fingers, I brought the image of North America closer and closer until I’d zeroed in on the badlands of North Dakota, and then tightened it further to the main, glowing city of Bismarck. Adjusting it ever so slightly, I held out a hand. Cactus set the armband on it and I slid it onto my other arm. Made of highly polished cedar wood, it resonated on my bicep, like a tuning fork. “Hang onto me.”

  “You sure your boyfriend will be okay with this?” Cactus asked.

  I turned my head to look at him. Okay, maybe glare was a more accurate term. “Seriously? You want to have that conversation right now?”

  His jaw flexed. “Is he your boyfriend?”

  “No. Now stop being a fool, Prick, and hang onto me.” I used Peta’s nickname for him and she snickered beside me as she wrapped a big paw around my calf.

  He did as told and I reached up to touch the map over Bismarck with one finger, twisting the armband with my other hand. The world around us slipped away and I was tossed into a memory not my own.

  Mother goddess, I kept forgetting about this hiccup of Traveling. As an added perk of having Spirit as one of my elements, whenever I Traveled with another person I was plunged into one of their memories.

  I hoped for something from Peta.

  I got a memory from Cactus.

  The Rim was not as he remembered it. Beautiful, and flowing with plants and green things, that was the same. But the undercurrent reminded him more of the Pit. The feeling that people were afraid, that they didn’t see their home as safe anymore.

  He frowned and ran a hand through his hair.

  Catching a glimpse of long blonde hair and gently curved hips, he stopped in his tracks. A grin spread over his face. The rest of the world didn’t matter as long as Lark was here with him. Jogging, he tried to catch up with her, but in seconds she was gone.

  The barracks. That had to be where she was headed. He made his way there, nodding to the Terralings who looked his way.

  “Cactus, I need to speak with you.”

  He spun, surprised to see Peta sitting on a log at eye level at the entrance to the barracks. “Bad luck cat, what do you want?”

  She grimaced. “That is not my name, Prick.”

  “Well, until you stop calling me Prick, that’s what I’m calling you.” Childish, he knew, but he couldn’t seem to help himself.

  “You don’t love her the way she needs,” Peta said, shocking him.

  “What do you mean? I love her. What else is there?”

  Peta shook her head. “You love her, but love isn’t enough. Not with her life. Love is strong, Prick. But your love will not be what her heart needs. And certainly not the love you want to put on her. With expectations and rules and how you want her to be. I see it in you. She is not the woman who will settle down and give you a brood of children.”

  He grinned at her, even as he struggled not to let her words affect him. “You don’t know that.”

  “You see, you do not even deny my words.”

  “Why would I? Of course, I would want to have children with her. That is what you do when you love someone.”

  She snorted and started to groom her left paw, wiping it over her ear. “I’m her familiar, Prick. I can feel her heart and her needs. She doesn’t need you.”

  Leaning toward her, he lowered his voice. “I don’t want her to need me. I want her to want me.”

  Peta put her face so close to his he could feel the breath from her mouth. “Desire is not enough. Love is not enough. She will chose the mate who understands her and can help her through the trials she will face. You are not that one.”

  Anger snapped through him and with it the Fire in his blood heated. “I am.”

  “You’re not.” She let out a sigh and shook her head. “Go away, Prick. You are not needed here.”

  The desire to lash out curled through him and he stepped back toward the forest and away from the barracks. Having Lark see him like this, angry and on the verge of losing control, was not what he wanted. All because of a few words that scared him, and made him think perhaps Peta was right.

  He strode away from the barracks. “Stupid cat. You’re wrong. I know you are.”

  Yet, he doubted, and in the doubt he wondered if he was chasing a ghost of the girl he’d known. A memory he’d let grow into a fantasy that didn’t mesh with reality.

  What if Peta was right?

  What if Lark didn’t love him?

  CHAPTER 6

  jerked out of his memory as we popped through to Bismarck, but the emotions it stirred in me would not leave. Breathing hard, I fought the desperation and loneliness that bled through his memory into my heart. I closed my eyes and tried not to think, tried not to feel the guilt of not loving him the way he wanted me to.

  “Hey, you okay there, princess?” He leaned over me, far closer than he should have. I opened my eyes and the blue sky was replaced with green eyes and his trademark grin.

  “Yes, I’m fine. And don’t call me that. I’ve never been a princess, and wouldn’t want the title even if it were offered to me.” I pushed on his chest and he gave me some room. In his white T-shirt, jeans, and dark shoes he looked . . . human. I, on the other hand, looked like what I was—an Ender. But I trusted Ash. If he thought I could get away with looking a little different, then that’s what I was doing.

  Thoughts of Ash brought the guilt back up in a roll not unlike nausea. I forced the guilt away and stood. I would not feel bad for loving Ash. Peta gave me a nod of approval.

  “Why did you really come with me?” I stared at Cact
us and he stared back. His face softened.

  “I know you love him. I know you love me. I want to show you I fit in your life, Lark. That I’m good for you. The only way to do that is to be here. To be where I should have been all these years. At your side.”

  My throat tightened, my ears rang, and I knew he was telling the truth as he saw it. I didn’t think, though, that he’d be happy with what the end result was going to be.

  Peta broke the moment. “Let’s find this Reader. Do you know where in Bismarck she is?”

  I shook my head as Cactus nodded. “How do you know?”

  He grinned. “Griffin gave me something call an add-dress.” He held up a slip of paper.

  I took it from him. “He wasn’t supposed to, was he?”

  “No. But he pointed out we’d probably waste a lot of time looking for the Reader, and apparently he thinks you might try to stall for some reason.”

  Embarrassed, I stared at the paper.

  “Are you stalling?” His words were soft and gentler than I thought I deserved.

  I looked up from the paper and made myself hold his gaze. “I don’t know. I . . . my father needs us to find him. The Rim needs us to find him. Bella needs us to find him.” I paused, took a breath and spit the rest out. “But I don’t know what I want.”

  Oh, those words were hard to admit. Cactus nodded. “So we take our time. I don’t mind in the least.” He reached out, took my hand, and wove his fingers through mine.

  Exactly as I’d done with Ash. I didn’t pull away, though. I stared at our locked hands. “Cactus, I don’t want to hurt you.”

  “You won’t. I trust you to make the right choice.”

  Worm shit. I did pull my hand away then, and looked again to the paper with the add-dress.

  The words really meant nothing to me—some numbers, 569—with a single word, Smith. To a human they probably made sense. I looked around. Where was a human when you needed one? They were usually like ants, swarming about and all but climbing over one another, there were so many.

  We were at the edge of a large square building with a pole in front with a flag on top. The flag was covered in stripes and stars in the corner. I rather liked the look of it.

  “Maybe someone lives in this box.” I took a few steps toward a double set of doors set into the box, and an alarm went off, screeching through the air like a flock of harpies gone mental. I slapped a hand to my side for my spear.

  Peta leapt to my shoulder. “Nothing is wrong. This is a way for the humans to tell time.”

  The shrieking ended as suddenly as it had begun and I lowered my hands. “Why do they not look at the sun’s passage? Why do they need a shrieking siren to tell them the time?”

  What was wrong with them?

  “Lazy,” she muttered.

  The doors to the big building burst open and a flood of humans rushed out, laughing and yelling at each other, shoving and milling.

  It took me a minute to zero in on what I was seeing. They were all teenagers, to the last one. Their life forces hummed around them like a buzzing beehive; they were like bees, not ants. Not unlike a beehive, they kept pouring out of the large boxed building.

  I backed up a few steps until my back was pressed against a large tree that shaded a portion of the road we stood near. “How will we ever find her in this mess?”

  Cactus took the paper from me. “I’ll see if any of them know what this means.”

  Before I could tell him to wait, he ran into the crush of humanity. He wove between them with ease, and with a shock I realized in some ways he fit here. There was no fear in him. But for me the place was overwhelming. “Peta, why is it so hard for me to stand here? I feel like I have all these emotions, and—”

  “That is Spirit. Human teenagers are rolling with emotions: angst, fear, hope, love and hate. You’re getting a rather large dose of it all.” Peta pressed her cheek against mine and some of the anxiety flowed away from me. Having her there was enough to help calm the emotions.

  “I could never live among them, even if I were banished.”

  “Do not even joke about banishment,” she said. “It isn’t funny.”

  “Well, I’d still have you.”

  Her silence was enough to send a chill through me. “Peta, if I was banished, would you not still be with me?”

  “No. Banishment from the elemental world strips you of all your rights and familiars.” Her voice dropped. “I had one charge who was banished, Lark. You do not want that to happen. The madness would take you and then you would end up killing yourself one way or another.”

  “What did he do?” I wasn’t sure I really wanted to know, but the talking helped keep the emotions of the humans at bay. Helped me pretend I wasn’t feeling the press of hundreds of teenagers’ fluctuating feelings swirling through me.

  “He was an assassin of Fiametta’s predecessor.”

  “How successful was he?” I didn’t recall ever hearing about an assassination attempt that had actually succeeded.

  She snorted. “He was banished and Fiametta became the queen. What does that tell you?”

  Cactus spoke with a trio of girls who even at a distance I could see he’d charmed. They giggled and flipped their hair this way and that as they batted their eyes up at him. My mind, though, was still on the conversation with Peta, about her charge who had been banished.

  “Did you know what he was going to do?”

  Peta let out a hiss. “I did not.”

  “Don’t get your tail in a knot. I ask only because I know you. If you’d known, you would have tried to stop him. Right?”

  “Of course.”

  But there was a hesitation in her; she wasn’t sure. Her loyalty ran deep to her charges even when they were idiots. “I will do my best not to put you in that kind of position.”

  Another snort, but she said nothing more. Cactus jogged back to us. “You won’t believe it, this add-dress is right here. This is a school, which means Giselle is somewhere in this madness.” He waved a hand behind him. “The three girls didn’t know her, though. I did ask.”

  Peta’s head swiveled back and forth. “Look for her aura. It will glow like fireflies.”

  I scanned the crowd. “There has been nothing that looks even remotely supernatural.”

  “It’s not like she’s going to have wings and be speaking in tongues, Lark,” Peta said.

  We stood there scanning the crowd for many minutes. Two older humans in suits approached. The one in the lead had mostly gray hair and a bit of a gut. “Can I help you two?”

  “We’re looking for someone, a friend of ours,” Cactus said, his smooth talking coming into play. Perhaps he was the best companion for this journey. Ash would have glared at them and expected them to go away.

  The two human adults raised their eyebrows. “A friend? Do you have a name? This is private property.”

  Something in their tone, the way they held themselves, made me reach out and touch Cactus on the arm. “We’ll catch up with her later. Let’s go.”

  I knew a territorial stance when I saw one. Either of us could have forced the men to their knees and made them beg for mercy, but that was not our way when dealing with humans.

  Cactus gave me a questioning look and I tipped my head. We walked away, but the feeling of being watched lay heavy across my shoulders. “Peta, can they see you?”

  “Yes.”

  “But they can’t hear you.”

  “That is correct. Unless I want them to. And I most certainly do not.”

  We walked away from the school. The crowds thinned, along with the feeling of eyes on us. I glanced back. The two men were gone. I slowed beside a fence that surrounded a large green space behind the building. An open field of perfectly manicured grass but no fruit trees. No garden or flowers. How very strange to have grass, but nothing grazing on it. What was the point?

  A figure darted out of the building, her body ablaze as if she were lit from within. “There.” I pointed as she ran into t
he center of the wide field. I grabbed the edge of the metal fence and vaulted it, Cactus right behind me, while Peta leapt ahead of us, racing toward the girl.

  But we weren’t the only ones closing in on her.

  A swirl of a black cloak ran after her from the building. Blackbird would reach her before us if I didn’t do something. Niah was right: we were not the only ones looking to chat with Giselle.

  I flipped my hand at him, bucking the earth under his feet, but he used the momentum to leap forward.

  “Damn!” I tapped into the earth and redoubled my speed. I had to get to her first.

  Whatever Blackbird wanted with her, it couldn’t be good.

  Whether he was there to take Giselle for his own uses or only to slow me in my search for my father, it didn’t matter. Either way, I had to stop him. A fireball shot past me and slammed into Blackbird, sending him backward in a tumble ass over teakettle. The girl cried out and fell to her knees. Peta reached her first and curled her body around her.

  The Reader was barely into her teens, if her size was any indication. A child. Niah had sent us to a child.

  I went to my knees in front of the Reader, facing Blackbird. “Stay down, Giselle.”

  “Who are you?”

  “Friends.”

  “Friends don’t shoot fire at each other,” she said.

  I didn’t dare look back at her. “True, but he is not our friend.”

  Blackbird strode toward us as though he hadn’t been slammed with a fireball. Then again, he carried all five elements . . . it was hard to imagine what would hurt him. Maybe nothing but cold hard steel.

  “Larkspur, you are really beginning to be a pain in my ass.” Blackbird came to a stop twenty feet from us.

  “Consider the feeling mutual.” I stood and pulled my spear from my side, twisting the two halves together. I pointed it at him. “Time to leave, boy.”

  His whole body jerked as if I’d hit him. A sore point, then? He had to be young; being called a boy would only bother a young man trying to prove himself.

  With a grin I whipped the spear forward. “Tell me something: what do you want with Giselle?”