Destroyer (The Elemental Series #7)(67)

“Good enough for me,” Raven said.

I put a hand out to him and he took it. “In case I don’t survive,” he said, “will you forgive me for all I’ve done?”

I laughed. “Forgiveness was given the second you helped me escape Talan.”

His name echoed between us. A fallen comrade for the sake of giving me the power I needed, and even he had my forgiveness.

We all had done things that we believed were right, all with the same goal.

To stop Vivica.

I strengthened my resolve. “Move to the side when we approach Viv. Do not engage her. If Samara is there, go to her.”

“You want to face Viv on your own?”

I nodded. “I need to.”

Raven pulled me to him, and squeezed me in a hard hug. “You have always been the best of us, Lark. Of that, I have no doubt.”

I shook my head. But Peta laughed suddenly. “And the most stubborn.”

Bowing my head, I smiled. “I can accept that.”

“Wait, we can’t Ride Spirit with four of us,” Raven said.

I gave him a tired smile. “Impossible?”

His mouth hung open and he snapped it shut. “Point taken.”

I held a hand out to him. Ash and Peta tightened their hold on me.

I focused on where Viv was, seeing her face, seeing all of her… and let Spirit take us to her.

Raven’s memories… I did not want to see his past, and yet, it swelled around me in a wave of pain and grief. His training had been brutal at times, forced to develop his strength at a young age. Cassava had been relentless; even though she raised him as her own, he was not. And he knew it. He knew he was an outsider. Which was why he connected with me. We’d both been a part, and yet not a part, of our family. For different reasons, but it didn’t matter. More than all that, though, was a glowing thread that was… he loved me. He loved me not as brother and sister. I closed myself off from what I was feeling, blocking it like I’d never been able to block memories before. But that love was intense and it would not let me go.

The reality of it… explained so much about how he treated me. How he’d fought and yet held back. There had been times he could have killed me, or hurt me badly, and yet he’d always held back. I could argue it was part of the training they thought to foist on me, but I could see it for what it truly was.

Those few heartbeats where we floated through the ether took us inside the Eyrie. We went from the climate-controlled world of the humans to the snow-blasted mountains deep in the Himalayas.

I let Raven go and stepped to the side. Viv was in front of us, her eyes wide. “So you found a way to travel directly to a person? I thought that last was sheer coincidence.”

I arched an eyebrow. “What’s so hard about that?”

Raven moved off to the right, circling Viv. She didn’t look at him. “It is not to be done. Spirit does not like to be used in such a way.”

Both my eyebrows climbed. “No? Or perhaps you are just too weak, Viv.”

We spoke like old friends making a re-acquaintance. If not for the tension in the air that rose higher and higher, I would have believed it.

“You don’t really think you can kill me, do you?” Viv laughed softly. “I carry all five stones.”

I nodded. “I know you do.”

“You carry Earth and Spirit. And while you may be strong in them, it is nothing to what I can do.” She held up one hand. “I hold the original elementals’ lives here,” the stones glittered on each finger. “Kneel before me, Lark, and I will make your death easy.”

Peta leapt from my shoulder, shifting in midair. She landed between us. “Nothing Lark does is the easy way.”

Ash tightened his hold on my shoulder. He was with me, and when we were together, I could do anything I set my mind to.

Another time I would have laughed, but not now, not here.

“This is between the two of us,” I said. “I am the champion the true mother goddess has chosen.”

“I AM THE MOTHER GODDESS!” Her scream echoed through the valley, sending a slow growing avalanche down the hillside behind her. We stood, staring at one another. For I knew that once the battle began, there would be no turning back. There would be no second chance at killing her. There would be no chance to find Matarrah in the flesh, of that much I was sure. But that didn’t mean I couldn’t find a way to her element.

I only had to push Viv to use it on me, and in my heart, I knew I would find Mattie waiting for me within it.

I put a hand to my hip and pulled my spear off its ties, spun it loosely, and then pointed the tip at her. “As an Ender of the Rim, protector of the realm, I find you guilty of murder, treason, willfully endangering the world of the elementals, and manipulation of the vilest kind. It is my right and duty to end your life as I see fit.”

A low laugh rumbled from her. “Oh, please. You have no rights to my life.”

“I have every right,” I said. “And you will die.”

I knew all too well the consequence of engaging her with the elements. We could end up destroying the world, and that could not happen.

That left me one option. To face her in physical combat.

The moment was now.

I leapt up into the air with my spear raised. Ash burst upward taking himself high above our heads, a screeching call leaving his beak.