Destroyer (The Elemental Series #7)(20)

For a moment, the world swirled in a blend of colors from green and brown to a dusty, dry sand that filled my vision until I could see nothing but the dull brown tones I knew all too well.

We stood on the outskirts of a desert with tumbleweeds and cactus the only things breaking up the horizon. I shivered, unable to catch the movement and stop it. “This is Death Valley.”

Raven looked around. “You sure?”

I twisted to glare at him. “Seriously?”

I’d lived in Death Valley for over twenty years, alone, cut off from my family and Peta. All for a perceived indiscretion. One that had ultimately helped to save the world, but I’d not known that until I’d served almost my entire sentence there.

Images in the distance shimmered and danced in the heat waves that rolled up from the valley floor. A group of people from what I could see. Were they humans or elementals? My bet was on elementals.

I took a step and then another. As the landscape stayed the same, I hurried, breaking into a run. Whatever was going to happen next was not going to be good. I could feel it in my bones like the ache before a storm broke overhead—

An explosion of hardened dirt and rock erupted right in front of me, spraying my body with shards of stone, slicing through my skin in places, drawing blood on my face. I dove to the side and I think perhaps Raven was shouting for me but I couldn’t be sure. My ears were ringing too hard to know if what I was hearing was truly happening or just inside my head. A part of me wondered just how I could be injured if I was only here in Spirit. Then again, Talan had said he and the one he’d taken with him who’d tried to change things had been hurt too.

Lying on the hard-packed hot ground of the desert, I stared at the battle that raged in front of us, the figures coming into clear view as the dust settled.

Viv stood in the center of two dozen other Terralings. Her body was clothed in armor reminiscent of the Pit—black and solid except for a golden cloak that swirled around her all the way to the ground.

“Yield.” Her voice carried across the barren landscape easily. The lines of power on her arm were only just fading, and the chunks of rock in front of me were a testament to her intent. The explosions had been about driving someone, not hurting them.

I’d just gotten in the way.

The one they faced shook his head. “Child, what are you doing?”

Child? Was this her father? Confusion racked me and I lay on the ground, staring.

A single elemental who seemed unafraid of all those she faced. Even I would have been afraid if I’d had to face that many.

Slowly, I pushed to my feet and reached for Raven, finally finding his shoulder. I clamped down hard as the only possible solution hit the front of my brain like a tree slamming into the ground. “Is she going to fight… the Original Terralings?” We didn’t have names for them; they were never spoken in our legends. They just existed, they just were. They were our forebears, legends and myths even to us who were legends and myths.

The Original Terraling held his hand out. “You cannot beat me, Vivica. This is madness.”

“I beg to differ.” She lifted her hand and the ground bucked so violently, we were flung twenty feet before we hit the ground, flat on our bellies.

The Original Terraling didn’t move, wasn’t even pulsed by her show of power. He was steady on his legs as if she’d done nothing. He countered her by holding out his own hand. From where I was, I could see the brilliant green lines of power not only over his arms, but his entire body. He lit up like one of the human Christmas trees. I caught my breath at the beauty of the multi-hued iridescent colors that coursed over his skin and I saw his intention clearly written within them.

He was going to destroy her as if she were nothing.

His hand trembled. “I am sorry, child.” He flicked his fingers at her, the color intensified, and then it died, smothered under a pale glow of pink connected directly to Viv.

I bit my lower lip, held my breath, prayed that what I was seeing was wrong.

Nothing happened. There was no answering of the ground doing as the Original Terraling commanded. Vivica had blocked him.

Raven touched my hand. “What happened? I know you can see the lines of the elements around them.”

“She doused his power with Spirit.”

“Shit.”

I agreed with him but said nothing. The Terralings that ranged around Vivica began to move in a circle around the Original Terraling. Apparently they were working on her orders.

From where I lay, I could see the blood drain from his face, his lips parted as he sucked in a sharp breath.

“Impossible.”

She grinned. “Hardly impossible when you are as strong as I. I was born to rule, born to be the creator of a new age.”

Viv’s men—the other Terralings with her—swept around him with a net that glittered and shined. Dragon scales, from what I could see.

The Original Terraling fought hand and foot. He was good, but he was no match for that many warriors. Once he was caught and bound, Vivica cooed over him and made him go to his knees with a single word.

“Kneel, Frost.”

Frost, that was the Original Terraling’s name? His eyes rolled upward and he stared into her face.

I scooted forward on my belly as fast as I could with Raven following at my side. We stopped only a few feet from where Frost knelt. This close, I could see the tattoos on his body that mimicked the plants and foliage of the world, animals of every sort blending into the different greens and browns of the forest. I squinted. No, they were not tattoos. The marks were not that different from the marks I had on my own body—they were more like a brand, a piece of his skin—a mark given at birth.