Destroyer (The Elemental Series #7)(22)

His eyes were exactly like my mother’s.

His height and build similar enough.

The line of his mouth and nose…

Air suddenly became a struggle to hold inside my chest and it whooshed out of me with my words. “Are you my… grandfather?”

His eyes bugged open and he sputtered before he answered. “Shit, no.”

But his reaction told me I was on the right track, even though he’d answered truthfully. “We’re related through my mother, aren’t we?”

He shrugged and turned away. “All elementals are related. You know that, especially within the family lines.”

The air was charged between us and I wanted to push him to get the real answer. So I went a different direction.

“You are lying about why you did what Viv wanted.” I narrowed my eyes. “It was not just to keep your family lines safe. If you could have stopped her, you would have.”

Talan tensed and slowly closed his eyes. “Damn your perception.”

“Spill it,” I said. “You do me no favors at this point by keeping the truth back.”

He stood there and finally after a good minute of silence spoke. “She had my last surviving son. I did it to save him, though in the end it didn’t matter. He was killed by a rogue elemental.”

His words were lanced with pain and truth.

I still didn’t understand how she could have backed him into a corner and I almost asked. Peta pushed a paw against my leg. “Another time. It is enough that he speaks truly now.”

She was right.

That didn’t mean I was done, though. “You allowed Viv to do all those awful things, then? You allowed your power to be harnessed to the ring, knowing she would use it to hurt others?”

“Well, not before I cursed her.” Talan grinned suddenly as if that made all the difference in the world. “I had a witch help me twist a powerful curse that we laid on Vivica while she slept. My plan was that she wouldn’t know the curse, so would unknowingly end up getting herself killed and our problem would be solved.”

“Didn’t work, obviously.” I pushed to my feet, Peta still in the crook of my arm.

Talan shrugged. “She woke up in the middle of it, took the witch and forced the terms of the curse from her.”

“Of course she did,” Raven grumbled. “Shit, why didn’t you tell me all this sooner?”

“None of you were ready. And I thought it best you and Lark see it together.”

My mind reeled with everything I’d learned. I held up one finger. “So to recap. Vivica bound half of the power of the five original elementals in the rings.”

Talan nodded.

I held up a second finger. “And then she stuffed your siblings away somewhere?”

“In oubliettes around the world,” Talan said. “I’ve been searching for them with no luck, hunting for them for years. If I could free them, the five of us could stop Viv.”

“And the prophecy?” Raven strode around to us. “That had to do with Lark, didn’t it?”

Talan nodded and then shrugged. “Probably, but it could just be a coincidence of words.”

Peta snorted. “Please, you aren’t that stupid, are you?”

Another time I would have smiled at her giving him shit, but right then there was no chance of a smile on my lips.

Talan frowned at her. “Peta, what I know is that Lark is the one to help me find my siblings and stand with us against Viv. But as soon as Viv realizes that, we will be on a deadly time crunch. We find my siblings, and the six of us stop Viv. That is Lark’s calling now.”

“Why only six of us? Why not add Raven in there, too, and really knock her down?”

Talan let out an exasperated sigh. “Because it is a matter of balance, Lark. Viv imprisoned four of the six of us, one died to try and stop her, and she left me half bound to a stone. So, six must stand against her.”

Wait… “Six? There were six siblings? I thought there were only five?” Was there some unknown element? The ramification of that sent a ripple of shock through my limbs and I felt it echoed in the shock bouncing from Peta.

Talan tensed and muttered something rather uncomplimentary about himself under his breath. Peta’s ears twitched but otherwise she was still.

Talan slammed a hand against the wall. “Damn it, this is not the time.”

I waited for him to speak, feeling like for the first time that patience with him would be the key.

The minutes ticked by while he stalked around the room. “Damn it,” he repeated, “yes, there were six, though I hadn’t planned on telling you that just yet. The last born of the five original elements was myself, of course. But Mother… she had what the humans call an oops.”

I almost laughed out loud, kind of a giddy laugh because it sounded ridiculous. Almost, but managed to keep my mirth under wraps. “Okay. So why do I have to stand in the place of that sixth sibling?”

He locked eyes with me. “Why do you think?”

Raven groaned. “Him and his damn guessing games.”

I bit my lower lip. Dead. The sixth sibling was dead. I was taking that sibling’s place.

Talan’s facial features so like my mother’s.

My stomach rolled and I slowly went to my knees as the understanding flowed over me, a cascade of uncertainty and surety at the same time. “My mother?”