Destroyer (The Elemental Series #7)(61)

“That can’t be,” I snapped at him. “There is always a way to bring someone back!”

He nodded once. “This is what happens when a mind has been manipulated from such a young age, there is nothing left that is real. She was never real, Lark. She has been Viv’s creation from the beginning, just waiting to be used. Just like the gargoyles.”

I glared at him. “What about me then? I was manipulated since I was very young too. Am I not myself?”

Talan shook his head. “Certain memories, certain things were changed in you. Not everything. That is the difference. Vivica manipulated almost every aspect of Finley’s life. We took your memories, but we never tried to change the core of who you were.”

Despite my arguments for Finley’s life, I knew what Talan meant. There would be no convincing Finley to not attack the humans. There would be no keeping her safe. There would be no letting her live. Slowly, I delved my power with Spirit into Finley’s mind searching for the pieces that kept her moving, breathing.

“What are you doing?” Talan’s voice was sharp, and I knew without looking Peta stepped between us.

“I’m ending this,” I said, “with as little pain as I can for her.”

I put her to sleep first and wove for her a memory, one of her own I knew had made her happy, one of the few I could see were her own. A time when she was with her father and mother, when they held her tightly and loved her so, that they could not see the dangers around them. They were happy. They were safe in that ignorance before Viv got her claws into Finley.

I left her memory at the front of her mind and began to pull apart the threads that held her life force together. One by one, I plucked them away, tears sliding down my face with the removal of each.

Killing her didn’t take long. Her breathing, then her heart slowed, and she slumped into the stone. But I didn’t stop there, and behind me Talan sucked in a sharp breath. “Lark, what are you doing?”

“I’m giving her back to her element,” I said. I pulled apart the molecules of her body as I’d pulled apart the gargoyles, a piece at a time until her body shimmered, breaking down into nothing but the water droplets of an ocean, the salty water of tears. Her body slipped from my hands, leaving nothing but a puddle of water and a pile of clothes.

Behind us the door broke open and the Enders spilled in.

Dolph was in the lead, an Ender and friend of mine. He cried out first. “She’s killed the queen.” A wave of water swept up with a movement of his hands.

I held up my palm and stopped it as if it were nothing, as if I’d been using my connection to their element my entire life. “Dolph, be still.”

I placed my other hand in the water that had been Finley only moments before. “Goodbye, my friend,” I whispered. “I am so sorry I couldn’t save you.”

“What has done this?” Dolph choked on the words. “If not you, then who?”

Talan cleared his throat. “The mother goddess is not who we thought she was. She is a false leader. She is to blame for this.”

Dolph dropped to his knees beside me, his head bowed. “She was our best queen…”

I put a hand on his shoulder. “I know. I tried to save her, Dolph. I did all I could.” Despite my grief, there was no guilt in my heart. I knew who to blame for this, and it was not me. Viv would pay for her crimes; I would make sure of it.

Dolph blinked and looked up at me, his eyes full of tears. “You carry our element. How is that possible?”

I drew a breath as I pushed to my feet. “I will carry it for a time while I face the false mother goddess.”

He was on his feet only a second after me. “Then I will stand with you.” The other Enders nodded, repeating his words. “We stand with you, Larkspur.”

Talan moved up beside me. “This is not how it is meant to be.”

Without a thought, I pushed him away, not with my hand but with Water, Fire, and Earth. I wove them into a single blast that sent him flying, slamming him into the wall. “It is not what I wanted, Talan, yet it is how my life is turning out. Your siblings have put their faith in me. They have given me their power to do what I can to stop the false mother goddess. We do this my way, now, from here on out.”

The Enders behind me stiffened, their weapons sliding out one by one.

I let Talan go, the three elements in me vying for my attention.

“My siblings.” Talan put a hand to his chest and rubbed at the spot where I’d pinned him. “That cannot be.”

“Realm,” I said and held my hand out, calling water to my palm, spreading it outward and upward until it was a shimmering wall between Talan and me. “He kissed me and gave me a connection to his power, and with it, his life.”

“And Ollie?” The look in Talan’s eyes said it all. He couldn’t believe even what was in front of him.

I lifted my other hand and held it out, a burst of flame circling out and around the water in a twisting tornado that heated the room instantly. “She gave her life also, and with it, her blessing. They are afraid, Talan. They are afraid because of what Viv did to them.”

He went to his knees. Behind me, Dolph reached out and put a hand on my shoulder. “Lark, we have a problem here, and we need a leader to deal with it.”

“I am not your leader.” I brushed his hand off, and he put it back on.