Destroyer (The Elemental Series #7)(68)

I stared at him, gathered my strength and asked the one question I hoped would help him see my cause. "Realm, are you going to let me and Olivisha die?"

He jerked back through the water as if I'd struck him. "You have two of our true names …  you are of that demon spawn's ilk then?"

I laughed, bubbles floating away from my mouth. "No, I am against Vivica. Olivisha …  she gave me her power to use. For a time. Until the false mother goddess is dealt with. She fears Viv too greatly to stand against her."

"And me?" He spread his webbed hand against his bare chest. "What is to be done with me?"

"I would free you if I could find you," I said. I glanced at the bubble Peta was in. Her eyes were on us, and I could see she was keeping close tabs.

"I don't even know where she stuffed me," Realm grumbled. "She knocked me out, and then when I woke, I was in an oubliette." His eyes were not on mine any longer, but on Finley. "That one is a good queen, of that much you are right. But you cannot break the hold Spirit has on her. Not without killing her."

I didn't fight the tears. It wasn't like he could see them. "She is my friend; I've known her since she was a child."

"And so you do her a great disservice to leave her in the care of that bitch who is breaking our world apart." A sigh slipped from him and he swam closer to me. "You know my name, and Ollie trusted you. That is enough for me. Take what power I have left and do your best, child of the earth."

He kissed me then, not on the forehead as Olivisha had done, but on the lips, catching me off guard. His hands swept up to hold my face and the caress of water over my entire body turned from pain to a sweet pleasure that left me wanting. Realm pulled back. "Beautiful soul, ah, I see now what Ollie saw in you. Stand in my place against the bitch who confines us," he murmured. I found myself following him through the water, wanting, needing that sensation of connecting again. He gave me a lopsided grin, his lips calling to me. "You are dangerous …  another time, perhaps, child of the earth."



       
         
       
        

I held a hand out to him. "Wait."

He did as I asked. "Yes?"

"How, how are you and Ollie able to come to me when your bodies are caught in the oubliettes?"

"You were in an oubliette more than once. Did your spirit not find a way to watch over the world?"

I nodded. "But I could not affect anything."

"But you could have given your power to someone, if the situation was right. Immersing yourself within my power allowed you to reach me as nothing else would have. Did you burn for Ollie?"

I nodded again. "I did."

"And she found you strong enough. You have her life, and now mine. Do not waste them."

I blinked and once more I was alone in the water. Only now its power was mine and it no longer fought me, but begged to be used. Begged. Like a man on his knees holding tightly to me, wanting a kiss.

The image was so strong, I would have smiled if not for what I knew was going to happen next.

I pushed the water away from Peta first, because I was not sure she would carry the ability with it as she had done with Fire.

She dropped to the floor and raced toward Finley. Finley stood there, shocked as the cat shifted in mid-leap, tackling her to the floor as a snow leopard.

I was dropped and landed in a crouch. "Peta, hold her."

Peta had her mouth on Finley's neck, her canines digging into the soft flesh. I stood and strode to them.

"Finley, you have been deceived. That was not the true mother goddess who gave you orders. She has bent your mind, twisted the truth."

Peta's sadness flowed to me along with a single thought. You cannot change her mind.

"I have to try." I spoke because the pain in me was too great to hold the words in. "I have to try."

Finley glared at me. "You are turning your back on your people. We should be ruling the humans and it is time they knew our true power. It is time we took them down to where they belong."

I shouldn't have been surprised. Of all the elemental families, the Undines had retained human slaves in the open, almost as though they were proud of what they'd done.

I could barely swallow past the grief strangling me. Would it always be my fate to have to end the lives of those I loved?

I turned away from them and made my way to the far wall where a stack of weapons was spread out. There on the wall was a spear not unlike my own. I pulled it off the wall with a jerk, and spun it once, then looked at it closer.