Destroyer (The Elemental Series #7)(35)

Cassava was openly crying, tears streaking her face. “Ulani, there must be another way.”

My mother reached forward and pulled Cassava into her arms. “You are the only one I trust, Cass. You are the only one who has the strength to carry this burden.”

“You would leave your children alone,” Cassava said into her hair.

“I will die for them, willingly, and one day they will understand.” Mom’s voice finally broke and with her tears, I could not stop the flow of mine. “I will give Lark a memory that will allow her to hate you with a passion. She will never know that you will be the one fighting for her from the shadows. She cannot. She must grow and not know her own strength until it is time.”

The two women held onto each other for minutes, their foreheads pressed tightly together. “You will always be my best friend, Cass. The only friend I’ve ever had.”

Cassava turned away from my mother. “I cannot do this. I cannot!”

“I know,” she said, and pink lines of power rippled up her arms. “I know, so I will take the choice from you. Kill me, my friend. As we have discussed, kill me so Lark will hate you, and my children will have a chance at survival.”

Cassava screamed as she turned. “No!”

But she was no match for the power that wove around her, the power of Spirit forcing her to do as Ulani wished. As my mother wished. I couldn’t breathe. They backed away from one another and then the young me and Cactus were awake and the scene spilled out as I had always remembered it.

My mother being killed by the Sylphs, and Cassava taking Bramley from my arms.

But again, there were red lines on the memory. My heart hammered as though someone had taken to drumming on it violently. I screamed the word, “Stop!”

The memory jolted to a halt and I ran forward, tearing the red lines away from Cassava as she held my little brother. He stared up at her face, blue eyes full of fear.

Full of life.

Bramley was alive.





CHAPTER 14



I couldn’t believe the memory I was seeing, the true memory of what had happened when I’d been a young girl. The scene in front of me was unreal in so many ways and yet my muscles, the feel of the earth under my feet, the air in my lungs confirmed that what was in front of me was not only happening, but that I was finally seeing the truth of my past.

“Go,” I whispered.

Cassava handed Bramley off to a figure. Someone I knew.

Aria, the Queen of the Sylphs, held her hands out. “I will keep him safe from her as long as I am able, Cassava.”

Cassava kissed Bramley on the forehead. “These two are our only hope now.”

Aria touched Cassava on the arm. “I know, child. Be strong, the worst is ahead of you yet.”

Cassava shuddered and the memory picked up again with me telling her that I hated her.

I drew a breath and pulled myself from the past. On my knees in a field of oats, I stared at the light brown earth. Sweat dripped from my face and created tiny puddles in a rough circle, but I did nothing. I didn’t move. I couldn’t move.

“How bad was it?” Raven asked softly.

There was more than a little sympathy in his voice. I swallowed hard. “Did you know my mother and yours were friends?”

A scuffle of dirt and then he was right in front of me, on his knees. “What?”

“They… came up with the plan to protect Bramley and me from Viv.” What I’d seen was so fresh in my mind, I couldn’t truly form the words. “But… that means Bramley is alive somewhere.” I jerked my head up and stared at Raven. “He was taken to the Sylphs by Aria. Did you see him there?”

Raven shook his head. “No, I know nothing about him. Are you sure?”

I closed my eyes and looked the memory over again quickly, not allowing myself to dive back in fully but to just look at it from a distance. “Yes, I’m sure. They knew it would be me or Bramley who would face Viv.”

Raven was silent a moment. “So they worked together from the very beginning?”

I nodded. “Yes. My mother sacrificed her life to make Cassava look like she was doing what Viv wanted.”

“And of course, Viv wanted Ulani dead because she was the last Spirit Walker with the right bloodline to produce a child to stop her.” He rubbed a hand over his face. “It makes sense.”

I wanted to vomit. The pain I’d seen in both my mother and Cassava stung me deeply. I had hated Cassava for so long that the idea of her being anything but a monster was impossible for me to accept. Maybe in the past, she’d been trying to do the right thing, but now it was obvious she wasn’t. That she was mad with the power of the pink diamond. “Your mother isn’t like that anymore, though.”

Raven stood and held a hand out to me. I took it and let him help me up. “Maybe not. Then again, she’s not really my mother, so what do I know?”

It took a moment for his words to sink in. “She’s not what?”

He shrugged. “She was trying to create a child that had all five elements. She did it, but was afraid to give birth to that child.”

“Why?”

He shrugged again. “I don’t know. But I knew from a very young age she wasn’t my biological mother.”

“That’s why you slept with her?”