Her connection is through them. Touch them and I will help you, Ollie said.
As Flint reached me I held up a hand and caught his arm, spinning so his momentum would not take me down.
The connection between him and Viv was a dull, pulsing thread and something in me cut through it. Olivisha cut through it.
He went to his knees, breathing hard, but I had work to do. I took each of the Salamanders as they came at me, cutting through the connection between Viv and them. It was no longer Olivisha doing it, but me.
The last of them went to their knees and I was surprised to see Viv still there staring at me. Sweat rolled down her face, and the heat around her radiated, pinking her skin.
"You cannot take it from me!"
I held my hand out and called the ruby stone to me, as though calling home a stray dog. It fled from her hand and straight to me. I held it up, and fed the power of Fire through it, melting the stone until it dripped down my fingers.
Viv screamed and was gone in a flash of pink lines.
"Bella?" Flint asked me, and I turned from him, I couldn't answer.
I had to go after Viv.
She went next to the Deep, to its center, right in the throne room.
Only this time, she was being chased not only by me, but by the demon I'd set on her.
The creature was slashing at her with its wicked claws, driving her back to a wall even while she blasted it with air and water. The black hunched-back was not giving up.
"Lark!"
Dolph's voice rang and I spun to him.
"Stay back! Get the Undines away from here!"
I didn't know what Viv might try, but after the failure with the Salamanders, I had no doubt her next effort would not be so benign.
He saluted me and was gone, running back the way we'd come.
"Mistress, she is killing me!" the demon roared.
I ran toward the fight, pulling on fire once more. Now that Viv no longer held it, this was my best weapon against her.
I held up my hand and lava pooled in my palm. I flung it at Viv, aiming for her head. She ducked and a wave of water rushed in from the open windows, putting the fire out with a hiss.
Get the stone, Lark. Call it to you, Realm said, and I could feel him standing with me, his hand on my ass of all things. What was it with my damn kinky family? No time for those thoughts now, I had work to do.
I held my fingers out, wrapping them in the blue lines of power that represented water and beckoned the blue sapphire to me. In a sparkling blur, it rushed to me. I caught it with one hand as the demon let out a screeching howl and fell to its side, its body disintegrating even as it collapsed.
"Your pet could not stop me. You cannot stop me." Viv was breathing hard, but her eyes had not lost the gleam of madness.
"You have already lost," I whispered, and I knew it was true. I wove Water through the sapphire and returned the power to Realm, and in doing so, took it from Viv. She was down to two elements now.
But she either didn't realize it-which I doubted was the case-or she didn't care.
"You are not stronger than me, Lark." Viv spat the words and was gone once more.
And I followed.
I should have known it would not be so easy, that she would have a trick up her sleeve.
CHAPTER 25
I followed Viv, Riding Spirit, locking onto her rather than a place, and letting the element take me to wherever it was she had gone. Once more we were back in the mountains where the Eyrie existed.
And Viv was waiting for me.
I blinked into existence as she thrust a knife into my belly, gutting me in a swift and vicious move that would have made any Ender proud. She yanked it out and held it up, the blade dripping.
"You see?" She leaned in close. "Even I know there is more than one way to skin a cat."
I blinked up at her, grabbed a hold of her face and squeezed until her jaw cracked. She screamed and my fingers dug into the oozing flesh.
The final stones tumbled from her fingers and into the snow. I let her go, fell to my knees and grabbed them.
"I may die, but not before I end you." I clutched the stones in one hand, and the belly wound in the other.
With all the strength in me, I crushed the stones, shattering the last of their power that was held within.
Viv screamed, her head thrown back as she arched away from me. What was it like, having the elements torn from you? I fell backward, cushioned in the snow as I stared up at the slow-moving clouds. I knew I had to finish her. I knew it was not over, not yet.
I rolled to the side and looked where she knelt staring at her hands. I wove Water and Air around her, the two elements coming to me easily now, as though somehow I'd proven myself to them.