Destroyer (The Elemental Series #7)(6)

The Sylphs were sweeping in behind the battering ram of the wind that pushed and shoved at us. “Lark, I have to land, or they’re going to break my wings,” Shazer yelled over the blast of air.

“Do it!”

He tucked his wings in tightly and we dropped from the sky like the horse-sized stone we were. Peta screeched. “Some warning would be nice, nag!”

Her claws dug in hard to the leather shoulders of my vest, but I reached up and put a hand over her back anyway. I could hold on with my legs well enough for myself, but I knew the Sylphs would not save Peta if she fell.

The ground swept up toward us for the second time that day and I held my breath, waiting for that last second lurch that would be Shazer’s wings snapping out and catching us.

It never came.

The wind hammered down on us from above.

“They’ve pinned my wings!” Shazer screamed.

The ground was closer, closer. I reached out to it, softening it, hoping it would be enough. The image in my mind was all too clear.

Shazer hitting the ground, all four legs snapping, his body being crushed under its own weight as it hit the unforgiving stone. I couldn’t let that happen.

I put all I had into the earth, calling it, easing it until it was near liquid.

It was the best I could do.

I could only hope it would be enough. “Hang on, this is going to be a rough one,” I yelled over the wind, my words sweeping away from me.

The split seconds stretched and the ground reared up. Shazer tucked his legs to minimize the impact.

And then we hit and the world turned inside out.





CHAPTER 3



Shazer slammed into the ground and he sunk into the surface, enveloped by the soil and rocks I’d softened.

My efforts were not enough. The snap of bones, of Shazer’s legs being crushed beneath him, his cry of pain. Above us the Sylphs said nothing, and I knew why.

Shazer was a legend to them, the horse that could fly.

And they’d just broken him, sending him to the ground in a heap of broken bones and wings.

I leapt from his back and crouched by his head. “I can heal you.”

His eyes were glazed with pain and furious anger. “I know. But kick their asses first, would you?”

I kissed him on the nose. “Done. Peta, stay with him.”

She bobbed her head, but I was already turning from them to face the Sylphs. Talan’s pull on me had not lessened; if anything, it was stronger.

But my anger was enough to dampen it so I could deal with them. I hoped.

I faced them, anchoring my feet into the earth. “You want to explain this?” I gestured at Shazer. “Or should I just kill you both and be done with it?”

“Destroyer, you are harboring an enemy of the queen. A witch child who plotted with Raven to kill our beloved leader.” The first Sylph was one I knew. His long white hair and frosty blue eyes marked him clearly, even if I hadn’t known him. I’d met him when I’d last been to the Eyrie. Ryk floated down until he was ten feet above the ground. Not only a Sylph, but an Ender for his people. His white leathers were immaculate, almost shining in the light.

To be fair, though, his attitude was a better marker of who he was and what family he came from than anything else. A sneer rippled over his lips as he literally stared down his nose at us.

“There is no one here besides myself and my two familiars. So, you have attacked without provocation,” I crossed my arms, “which is enough to piss me off and reply in kind, sending you and your friend into the bowels of the earth.”

His eyes didn’t waver. “I saw her with you. I saw you pick her up from the badlands.”

I shrugged. “She’s not with me now.”

“Where did she go? Tell us and we’ll let you be in peace,” the second Sylph—one I had not met yet—said. I raised both eyebrows, unable to stop the laughter that flowed past my lips.

I flicked a hand at him and beneath his feet the earth opened a wide black hole that kept deepening as I spoke. “You have no idea what I’m capable of.”

“You would threaten us?” The second Sylph spoke with such incredulity that I knew he had no idea who I was.

“I am the Destroyer,” I said softly. “I will do whatever the hell I want and damn the consequences.” The ground rumbled in response as if in agreement with me.

Ryk shook his head. “You cannot make us go in there.”

I snapped my fingers and vines shot up out of the ground at the speed of a flash of lightning. I twisted my fingers and the vines wrapped around the Sylphs and yanked them into the open hole in the space of only a few heartbeats.

“Well, imagine that,” I muttered as I buried them up to their necks in dirt and rocks. “I did manage to get you into the hole.”

The younger Sylph screamed at me and the wind picked up.

But of course, that was not the problem I would truly face. Ryk pulled the air from my lungs, a surefire way to stop me. If I wasn’t ready for it.

Still connected to the earth, I beckoned it to swallow them whole. They disappeared into the earth with a single gulp as though the ground were belching after a large meal. They would not die; they would be able to get out eventually. But it would keep them busy for a few days at least.

“Ha!” Shazer yelled, his voice cracking. “Take that, flyboys!”