Destroyer (The Elemental Series #7)(5)

It took all my strength not to tell her she was being an idiot, that he was lying to her. But the longer I looked at her, the longer I stared at the shape of her face, the distinct color of her eyes… “Smile,” I said softly.

She let her lips curl upward, and the smile didn’t touch her eyes. Shit, give her blue-black hair and she was a softer image of him indeed.

“The similarity is there,” Peta said. “Enough that I would believe it.”

I frowned.

“And he offered to train you because of your connection to him?” I lifted an eyebrow. “Asking nothing in return?”

It was her turn to frown. “He wanted the sword… but he left it behind back there.”

That didn’t make sense. I knew Raven wanted the sword. He’d tried to get it from me at the Battle of the Veil.

“You believe me about Raven being my father?” Her question caught me off guard.

“I do.”

“And you don’t hate me for it?”

I laughed softly. “Ah, Pamela. Family is complicated. And you are family. I don’t hold your parentage against you. I only worry he will use your obvious care for him against you.”

We were silent a moment. I shook my head. “No matter our connection, you still can’t come with me to Talan. Raven is strong in Spirit, you’re right about that. But Talan has more strength with Spirit than any other elemental I’ve ever met.”

“Even you?” She lifted an eyebrow back at me, and again, I was struck that she really did look like Raven. I’d just never been looking for the similarities before.

I nodded. “Even me. Right now, he is drawing both me and Shazer to him with Spirit. I have no say over it.”

To be fair, I wasn’t fighting the pull to him either. I wanted to face him head on with my eyes open and my strength intact. And when I was done with him, I would go back to the Rim and protect my family. As was my calling in this life.

Her eyes widened. “You can’t break his hold on you?”

I shrugged. “I’m not trying, right now. But I believe he is stronger than me, so it will be a full-on fight when I do attempt to throw his hold.”

Pamela’s eyebrows dropped, so far they nearly touched between her eyes. “I can Ride Spirit away from here. But I can only take one other person besides Oka.”

Confusion slid through me again. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Oh.” She blinked up at me. “Riding Spirit, it’s a way to travel to any place. Or any person. You just,” she waved a hand around in a circular motion, “ride it.”

Irritation flowed through me but I schooled my face so she did not see it. That didn’t mean Peta didn’t pick up on it through our bond.

Peta cleared her throat. “Can you be more specific than that, Pamela?”

The young witch shook her head. “You just take hold of Spirit and feed it into your body and then think of where you want to go. Or who you want to go to.”

Around us the wind shifted, stopping our conversation. The sudden gust blew from the east and snapped our hair around us, tangling the ends. Shazer fought the wind, his wings beating hard to keep us from going off course.

“Shit, this is not natural.” He spit the words out the side of his mouth.

“I didn’t think so.” I twisted around, doing my best to get a bead on who was controlling the wind. A Sylph, no doubt.

But why would a Sylph be here, of all places, and why were they coming after me?

“They’re here for me,” Pamela said. “I helped Raven escape them. I helped him…”

“Escape me,” I breathed out, remembering him disappearing at my feet on the floor of the Eyrie. I’d had him right there, and then he was gone before I could drive home the final blow. I didn’t have to ask why she’d saved him.

Raven was her father, and Pamela had a heart that loved too deeply. She had saved him from me.

A sob caught in her throat. “I have to go. If I’m gone, they’ll follow me. If you need me, look to the north.”

She tightened her hold on her familiar, and lines of pink flowed over her body, bending and twisting in on her, and then she was gone before I could say anything, before I could even grasp what she’d done. It was the exact trick Raven and Talan used to move around.

A gift of Spirit.

But there was no time to take it in. At that moment, I had bigger problems to deal with than figuring out how to jump using Spirit.

“Lark, they’re still coming,” Shazer called out.

“Of course they are. They don’t know she’s gone.” I slid forward, readjusting my seat on his back. The pull to Talan was intensifying, drawing me even though I knew it was going to be a fight.

“Can you stop?” I asked him.

“I’m going to try. Talan’s pull is strong.” He grunted as he slowed his wings so we were treading air.

“I’m going to chat with them, see if I can talk them down,” I said.

Peta snorted. “Like that’s going to work. They’ll think you’re with Pamela and Raven.”

I sighed, knowing she was probably right. Sylphs were not known for their ability to forgive, or recognize that there were more points in a story than their own. Even so, I would try.