Destroyer (The Elemental Series #7)(3)

“On it.” There was no questioning me. From behind, Talan grunted as if I’d slapped him, but he was too far away to stop me.

The scene we raced into was utter madness, but not from fighting. From the emotions running so high. My connection with Spirit tuned me into the raging emotions, the fear, hope, disappointment, and anger swelling amongst the three people in front of me.

The Veil was open on my right. Pamela stood in front of it. She turned her back to Rylee and spoke to someone on the other side of the Veil.

“Come home.” The words resonated through the air, stealing my breath. She was calling someone out, someone who had died. I didn’t think it truly possible, but we were about to find out.

No, you must go, now. You must take her away from this. The mother goddess spoke softly again, yet I heard her and heeded her words.

A large tiger with orange and white stripes tangled with Liam in his guardian form of a monstrous black wolf. A shimmering line linked Pamela and the tiger. They were connected—it looked like Pamela had gained herself a partner in crime.

“Peta, help the cat!” I pointed as I slid to a stop beside Pamela. From the corner of my eye, I could see Peta in her snow leopard form slam into the tangled bodies, barely saving the tiger from having her throat crushed by the massive wolf.

Pamela looked up at me, her hands gripped hard on the sword. Her huge blue eyes were full of tears, both shed and unshed. “Don’t try to stop me.”

“I’m not.”

Rylee gasped and when she moved to come at us, I flicked a hand at her as I called up the earth. The ground swallowed her all the way to her knees, holding her firmly.

“LARK! Don’t do this! She’s letting the demons out!” Rylee screamed, and I could feel the rage and shock in her words slide over me. I shook my head, turned, and beckoned the ground up around the wolf’s legs, tying him in place too.

“I’m sorry, Rylee,” I said. “Time for Pamela to come with me.”

Rylee fought hard to get out of the rock I’d sealed around her, and I knew we wouldn’t have much time. She was strong and she was determined. And I didn’t want to fight her.

I hoped it would never come to that.

I slid an arm around Pamela’s waist. “Leave the sword.”

“The Veil will close,” she said. “I can’t let it.”

I stared into the swirling that was the Veil. I saw the one she was calling forward.

Peta and the tiger limped away from the wolf.

Time was ticking.

“He will either make it or he won’t; there is nothing any of us can do now,” Talan said from several feet away. His voice wavered through my ears, almost a warble. “We all must go. Lark, bring her to me at the top of the waterfall.” An image flickered through my mind and nothing in me could stop the command.

The asshole had just manipulated me with Spirit once more.

Shit.

“It will be done, asshat.” I spoke even though a part of me knew I was falling under his spell again. How was he doing it? I didn’t understand. I was strong enough to throw off the chains during other times Spirit had been used against me.

How was he so much stronger?

Pamela let go of the sword, her fingers sliding off the hilt one by one as she stared into the opening of the Veil. “I… I need to give him time.”

The rock around Rylee cracked and her eyes shot to the Veil, softening as she saw the one Pamela retrieved.

“There is no time,” I said. In that, Talan was right. Either he would make it out of the Veil or he wouldn’t.

I spun with my arm still around her waist. Shazer swept down between us and Rylee, and I caught his mane, pulling my captive and me onto his back with ease. The snow leopard and tiger shifted as they leapt, both housecats landing lightly on Shazer’s rump. The orange cat bled from a few wounds, but that didn’t slow her.

Interesting. I thought that was a gift only of Peta’s to be both a large cat and a small one.

“Oka!” Pamela called out as we were yanked into the sky.

“I’m here.” The now-miniscule orange cat grappled over my back to get to Pamela. She was barely half the size of Peta, even though she was bigger as a tiger. Peta climbed onto my shoulder and dug her claws into my leather vest.

I held the young witch in front of me, then leaned over the side and peered at the scene below.

I could see Rylee as she got herself out of the ground. Talan was there and then gone in a blur of pink lines that coursed over his body.

I doubted that meant I was done with him. Already there was a pull on my body and mind to follow the Spirit Walker to the north. Damn him.

I kept my legs tightly on Shazer’s sides, holding onto him in midair. “Wait.” I wanted to see if the one Pamela had called through the Veil made it or not. I wasn’t sure it mattered, but a growing suspicion told me this moment might be important to our future, even if I couldn’t pinpoint why exactly.

Pamela curled around her cat, and I kept one arm around them both. Shazer glanced back at me. “I have to take you where he wants. He’s got a hold on my body.”

I knew he meant Talan, and my anger spiked. “Mine, too. Do it. I will deal with him there.”

Shazer gave a laugh. “I look forward to that.”

Peta put her mouth to my ear.

“You realize what we’ve allowed to happen?”