Peta was beside me, her body shifting into her snow leopard form. She said nothing, but didn't need to. We all knew whose side she would take.
Talan's eyes were hard, and a set of claw marks down his cheek bled freely. "We have to go now. The false mother goddess will come after you. You aren't safe here and you are untrained. That makes you more of a liability than a help."
With my feet on the ground, I anchored myself. I would show him just what kind of liability I was. I opened my mouth to give him hell, to tell him I wasn't training with him, not for one second. It was obvious he was a liar. He could take his training and stuff it up his ass followed by the mountain I was going to jam behind it.
But my connection to the earth stopped me from speaking, stopped me from doing anything but feeling. A gasp escaped me as raw power and a heartrending pain rippled through me in a wave that stole my breath, tensed my muscles, and cut all the way through to my soul. I dropped to my knees and pressed my hands to the dirt, Talan forgotten as I tried to decipher what, exactly, I was sensing. Peta was there in a flash, concern heavy in her bright green eyes.
"What is it, Lark?" She patted my cheek with one big paw.
"Something is wrong with the earth," I whispered, barely able to draw breath through the growing pain. "Something terrible."
Talan started toward me and Peta spun around and let out a long growl. "No closer, boy."
He held up both hands, then crouched where he was. "Can you track the source of the pain?"
I stared at him for a moment. "Our previous conversation is not done."
He gave me a tired, sad smile I didn't like. "Of course not. Just put on hold for a bit."
I didn't dare close my eyes and give him an opening to come at me. I looked to the ground and pressed my hands harder. "Mother goddess."
"She will not answer you," Talan bit the words out. "The true mother goddess slumbers and will until … " He shook his head, seeming unable to finish whatever he was going to say.
I wasn't telling him that he was an idiot. That the true mother goddess was no longer asleep, that I'd woken her. It wasn't my fault she chose not to speak to him.
I opened myself more fully to the pain that coursed through the earth like bolts of lightning interspersed with tiny slivers of … hope? But how could that be? I stood, turned, and let the rippling power pull at my feet. "This way." I broke into a run, Shazer on one side of me, and Peta on the other. I didn't care where Talan was, as long as he didn't interfere with whatever was going on.
I'd been a fool to trust him. I wouldn't make that mistake again.
My blood pounded in time with my heart as I raced across the open landscape that reminded me in some ways of Death Valley. I pushed those thoughts away. I was no longer a prisoner in that place of my past.
My connection to the earth allowed me to use its power to fuel my body. Another wave of strength coursed over me and I doubled my speed. The world was a mere blur. Yet, still, I couldn't see what was ahead of us, what was causing the pain through the earth.
"Can you see what's going on?" I directed the question at Shazer as he pounded beside me. He grunted, spread his wings, and took off.
He was only twenty feet above us, but it was enough.
"Oh, shit," he hollered. "This is bad, Lark. Even I can see that."
Seconds later, I saw what he'd seen and had to agree. Oh, shit was perhaps the worst understatement I'd heard in a long, long time.
Ahead was a scene I wouldn't have believed if I hadn't laid eyes on it myself.
The Veil was open and waves of power rippled off it.
The Veil was made of parallel worlds, in a sense-seven levels to be exact. Each level had a purpose that served the world of the supernatural. The Veil was created to help hold the world together and make a safer place for both human and supernatural beings.
At that moment, the Veil was cut with a sword that I'd made to do just that-open the Veil. The sword was in the hands of a young witch I knew well, one who held a great deal of power despite her age. I'd met her not long ago, and had been so impressed by her strength and natural connection to the elements, I offered to train her.
Pamela was not who I expected to find here, not in the least.
Around her was utter chaos, and yet, she held firmly to the sword, to the opening, as a black beast raced out of it and charged a figure from my past. There was a swirl of a familiar black cloak, and the glistening of light on his blue-black hair.
Raven, my younger brother and the one elemental I would gladly kill given the chance. But it looked like the demon would do my job; it followed Raven as he disappeared right in front of us. How the hell could he do that? The question was peripheral. My concern was for Pamela and what was going on, why was she opening the Veil?