Windburn (The Elemental Series #4)(6)

He shrugged. “Like always, some things never change.” His eyes softened. “Lark, he wanted to leave. No one forced him.”

“You don’t know that,” I said. “The power of Spirit is tricky. Cassava—”

“No longer has the ring. And it’s still hidden, right?”

I nodded. He was right, Cassava didn’t control Spirit anymore. That didn’t mean we were out of the woods in that respect. “Blackbird could have done it.”

“But why? You’re grasping, Lark. I know you don’t want to believe ill of your father. He is my king, I don’t want to think he’d abandon us. But it’s obvious he has.”

“Then we need to get him back. We need him to take his place and name his heir.”

Ash cleared his throat and looked at his feet. A pit grew in the center of my belly and spread outward with fear.

“Mother goddess, tell me he didn’t name someone before he left. Or if he did, that it was Bella.”

“Documents were brought to me this morning . . . they look like your father’s handwriting.”

“Who did he name?” Bella, Raven, or even Briar would be reasonable.

Ash shook his head as he spoke. “He named your eldest brother, Vetch.”

Whatever hope I’d held out for my father’s mind disintegrated. Vetch was Cassava’s son through and through. There was no doubt in my mind she was behind this. The only choice I had now was to bring my father home so we could keep Vetch off the throne as long as possible.

“Even more reason for me to go. That has to be wrong.” I refused to believe my father was working within all his capacities if he had named Vetch as heir.

Ash crouched in front of me and placed a hand on each of my thighs. “We can weather this storm, Lark. We’ve managed well until now. This is another squall we need to hunker down and ride out.” His hands warmed my legs through my pants as he squeezed my thighs gently.

“I don’t want to lose you, Lark. I feel like this time we might not make it if you leave. If you go after your father—”

“Don’t say that,” I whispered, finding myself leaning toward him. He took a crouched step closer so my legs were on either side of him and he could slide his hands around my waist.

“Your father would not look for you, Lark, and I cannot bear the thought of him taking another piece of your heart and smashing it in front of you.” His hands slid up my back to my shoulders and then down again.

I bent forward and pressed my lips against his, a tiny moan slipping out of me as I whispered his name. My whole life he’d watched over me, tried to protect me and keep me from harm even when Cassava controlled him with the ring. He’d trained me to be an Ender, helped me grow as a fighter and pushed me to my limits at times.

Under all that was this truth: I loved him because he pushed me to be my best. He never let me wallow in my self-doubt.

Tangling my hands into the short strands of his hair, I held him to me as our hands and mouths began a hungry perusal of one another. He tugged at my vest, then slid my thin undershirt over my head, before shedding his own top.

I slid back onto the bed, the sheets soft against my bare skin. “The door.”

He spun, locked the door, and was on me in the space of perhaps a single heartbeat. A laugh slipped out of me. “Eager much?”

“You have no idea,” he whispered into my ear. His teeth grazed its edge as his hands explored my body and I returned the favor. I helped him remove his pants and then mine. Our bodies were hard with muscle, scarred and bruised, yet I felt none of that as he slid into my warmth.

Home. This was home.

Our hearts beat in time with one another, our mouths breathed as one, our bodies tangled until there was no telling where one of us began and the other ended.

In all my years, even with Coal, nothing had prepared me for this feeling of unity. Of knowing the person I was with would always stand with me. Even when he didn’t agree with me. Maybe even more so in those moments.

Trust. Love. Faith. They were all bound in the heat between us.

Ash was one of the few people in my life who knew me, and my secrets, and loved me still.

I linked my fingers with his, reached above our heads and pressed our joined hands against the wall. “Don’t stop.” The words from my mouth in a whispered plea.

The cadence of our joining never faltered, never became frantic as we stared into each other’s eyes. A glimmer of possibility spun in front of me, and I knew it for what it was, even if I didn’t understand it wholly.

Spirit wove through us, showing me what could be if I stayed. If I forsook my father and stayed here, with Ash.

Laughter, love, a home.

A child with golden eyes and blond hair who carried his father’s smile as he held my fingertip with his tiny hand.

Ash’s hands . . . he would fight for me, hold me tight when I fell, lift me in the dark hours. A companion who would never turn from me, or the battles I chose.

The Rim, empty of life, desolate and barren. Our family wiped out.

That last confused me. What would happen if I didn’t stay? If I went after my father? The question spun out another possibility.

Blood pooled on the dead soil, the tip of my spear buried in it to the wooden haft.

Bodies littered the ground.

My father’s face twisted with anger.