Destroyer (The Elemental Series #7)(33)

I filled him in as best I could. About Vivica, about the original elementals, about Talan confining us all there behind the waterfall.

“So now the plan is to find Viv and the original elementals and save them?”

I nodded even though he couldn’t see me. “Yeah, that’s the plan.”

“Don’t know how to find her, do you?” Shazer laughed into the wind as he caught a current and we swept upward over a large forest.

“Yeah, that would be one of the problems. A small one,” I said.

He laughed again, turning it into a whinny. “Well, good thing you’ve got me then.”

I leaned forward. “Not that I’m not glad you’re with us, but why do I have a feeling you mean more than just being a good friend?”

Once more, he turned his head so he could look at me. “Vivica is my creator, you already know that.”

“Right,” I said, and then the realization hit me. “Wait, you’re bound to her still?”

“Not like I was,” he admitted. “But I can still find her. Just like Peta can always find you.”

He could find Vivica.

I knew in my head I should be happy about that, ecstatic even. But there was something under my skin that told me that even with Shazer helping, Vivica wasn’t going to be easy to track down.

She knew we were coming, that we had it in for her.

Without a doubt, she’d be waiting.





CHAPTER 13



Shazer, being bound to Vivica because she created him, gave us a perfect way to track her and possibly save the original elementals. Possibly. We’d at least be able to use it to find the first of her prey, and maybe whichever elemental it was would be able to help us find the others. That was if Talan didn’t catch up to us from one side, and Viv didn’t notice us coming in from the other. Yeah, not exactly what I’d call easy. But that didn’t matter. We at least had a starting point and an end goal.

Find Vivica, make sure she didn’t kill the original elementals, free said original elementals as fast as possible.

After several hours of flying, Shazer found an open field to land in. Oats waved in the breeze in front of us, and as soon as we landed Shazer bent his head and began to eat.

“At least I know why you landed here.” I patted him on the rump as I walked away from him. He flicked me with his tail but said nothing. Raven and I were side by side and I turned to him. “Talan taught you how to manage Spirit.”

“He did.” Raven nodded.

“And could you then teach me?”

“That was my plan all along. But Talan thought you might learn better from him.” He shook his head. “He didn’t confine me when I went to him to train before. He didn’t push me the way he is pushing you. I went to train with him once or twice a year, for a week or two. He’d give me things to work on, and then I’d go home.”

I arched an eyebrow at him, thinking that Talan could have made it seem like he’d been all helpful without confining Raven. “You sure about that?”

Raven laughed. “Yes, because I went back and checked all the memories. He didn’t hide himself from me like he did with you.”

“Why do you think that is?” I asked the question even though I knew there were more pressing things to deal with. I mean, saving the original elementals was no small task, especially going against Vivica. But there was a part of me that knew with Raven helping, we would have a chance. Maybe alone, we couldn’t take her down, but working together, I was mostly sure we’d be able to.

I shook my head at myself. Only a short time ago I’d been ready to kill Raven, and now I called him an ally once more. Life just couldn’t seem to be straightforward in my world.

“I think it’s simply the fact he knew I would come and learn from him if he asked. You, on the other hand, are something of a wild card. If you haven’t noticed.” Raven gave a soft smile. “I went along with Cassava and Talan’s plans for years before I realized it just wasn’t going to work. That everything they were doing would backfire on them the second you found out. Even Cassava was coming around to my way of thinking. But it was Talan we needed to convince, and I couldn’t.”

I wasn’t sure if I liked that Raven could read me so well. He sighed. “Anyway, I do think I can show you the ropes with Spirit. If you want, that is.”

That made me frown.

“Why wouldn’t I want to learn how to use Spirit?”

Raven made a face. “Tell me something, how come you think you’re stronger with your connection to Earth than any other elemental?”

“Because of Spirit,” I answered automatically because that was what I’d learned. Spirit boosted the power in the other elements that resided in an elemental. Raven shook his head.

“No. While I’m sure you can use it that way, it isn’t why you are so strong, or why you can do things no one else can. It’s because no one has ever set limits on you. No one has ever said ‘that’s not possible’ because you’ve always learned on your own. Even back there, you broke through a sleep spell on the Pegasus, that according to Talan was unbreakable. That’s what he told me. And I believed him.”

I frowned and mulled his words over. “Did you even try to break the spell?”