Destroyer (The Elemental Series #7)(28)

"Is it? Lark can hear the lie in people. Am I lying, Larkspur? Did I want to hurt you?"

Every muscle in my body trembled as I knelt there sitting on my heels, Peta clinging to my legs. He took a few steps forward and crouched in front of me. "What would you give to save them all, Lark? Would you give your life?"

"Yes." I stared at him, hating that he was right about not lying.

"Would you give up the life of your parents to save your siblings?"

My gut lurched and I didn't want to answer. I struggled to breathe, but I refused to look away from him. "I could have saved them all if I'd known what I was up against."

"No, you can't. No one can save them all, Lark. I ask again, would you give up your parents to save your siblings? To save Bella and her children? To save the Rim? To save our world?"

I knew the answer, we both did. I would give up whatever I had to if it meant I didn't lose them all.

I swallowed but couldn't get past the growing lump in my throat that threatened to burst into tears. Talan reached out carefully and tipped my chin up with one finger.

"If you could save them all, would you be willing to suffer for them, to have all your joy, all your laughter, all your love taken away if it gave you the key to protecting those who survived?"

Peta let out a long, low hiss. "You're a bastard, Talan. You are her family!" 

He nodded. "I know. But I'm not asking you to give up, to be hurt by anything I have not experienced myself. Are you willing, Lark? Now that you know why it was done?"

I closed my eyes because I could not turn my face from him. A hot tear slipped from one eye, the traitorous reaction of my heart and the lump in my throat. What would I give for those who remained? Would I give up Ash to save Bella? Would I give up River to save her mother? I bit my lower lip and finally opened my eyes. Talan was blurred through the watery vision of my tears.

"How can you set one life above the others?"

He sighed and my body slumped, his hold on me gone. "Because in many cases, that was their wish. Your mother's, your father's …  they knew what they were agreeing to. It was the only way to help you. To keep you safe from Vivica."

I wasn't sure I totally believed him. But there was no deceit in his words, no lies on his tongue. Maybe it wasn't the truth, but he believed his own words.

And for now, I would have to as well.





CHAPTER 10



Talan and I knelt on the rock across from one another deep in the mountain where he'd brought me. Where he was holding me against my will. And while I didn't want to kill him at that exact moment, I suspected it had something to do with whatever influence he'd put on me with Spirit. Or maybe it was because I knew now that he was my uncle, my blood.

None of which did anything to soothe my tumultuous emotions. Peta pulled herself onto my shoulder, her tiny claws digging in for a tight hold. She spoke for me. "Let me get this straight. You did horrible things to Lark all her life, in an effort to …  train her?"

"That's putting it simply," Talan said, his eyes never leaving me. "But yes. When we face our darkest hours, repeatedly, we either become stronger, finding reserves we don't know we have, or we break. I've yet to see her break, and so she was given more challenges. More pain. Still her heart did not crack. She's a better person now than she was as an angry young woman who could not find her power.

"We, all of us, need her to be stronger than she could have ever been if her life had been one of ease. If her father had accepted her. If her mother had survived and protected her. If Cassava hadn't tried to wipe out the Rim with the lung burrower worm. If Ash hadn't been taken from her. All of it had a purpose-pain-filled, but still purpose. What if there comes a time when she must face Viv on her own? What if something happens, if plans go sideways and I am not there with her? Would you have her go into that fight weak?"

He pushed to his feet and held a hand out to me. "I don't ask you to like me. I ask you to trust me that what is coming needs you at your best. I ask you to trust that the cost will be worth it in the end."

Damn him and his words, his truths that I couldn't turn away from. I didn't take his hand, but pushed to my feet on my own.

"You train me, teach me, and we stop Vivica. We make this world right again. And don't expect me to call you uncle."

He looked away. "Agreed."

From across the room, Raven cleared his throat. "You two done?"

I turned to him, surprised by the rush of relief I felt seeing him. After all Raven had done, that I could want to trust him again should have surprised me. But that was the reality of family. You always hoped those who'd done you wrong would come back around. Maybe that was the case with Raven. Maybe we could find a friendship now.