"Are you not mad now?" I knew I was stalling, and perhaps she did, too. I could admit I was more than a little afraid of what had been asked of me.
Cassava stood and walked to me, the child now sleeping in the crook of her arm. "The mother goddess removed the madness for all that I have tried to do to help your cause. But I will not go back to the Rim. Too many will not be able to forget my part in the breaking of our lives."
Cassava watched me. "His mother has given him much strength, more than any other Sylph could have."
My eyes snapped to hers, and she smiled and tipped her head ever so slightly. So she knew who the baby's mother truly was … somehow I was not surprised.
A sigh slid out of me. "Please watch over Bella, as best you can. Please."
Her eyes locked with mine and I saw that she understood what I could not say out loud. That I didn't believe I would survive this, not even with the guidance of the original elementals.
She leaned in and pulled my head down to kiss me on the forehead. "Your mother was right about you, Larkspur. She believed that all the pain, all the suffering would teach you as nothing else could to have a soft heart. She knew you, even then."
I touched the child on the head, brushing the mixture of dark and white hair over with my hand.
I swallowed the lump in my throat and stepped back. No goodbye, I just wrapped Raven and me in Spirit and took us back to the cemetery at the Rim. I let go of his hand and took a few steps away, setting myself once more between my mother's body and where Ash had lain.
"No more stalling," I said to Peta.
Her hold on me was gentle and firm. "Saying goodbye is not stalling." She butted her head against mine.
I opened myself as fully as I could to the five elements I held and looked at Raven. "I will do what I can to keep the destruction down."
Raven had the audacity to laugh. "Please."
I managed a smile and held my hand out to him. "Here we go, brother."
"I always was your favorite." He winked even though there were tears in his eyes.
I swallowed hard, finding it difficult to speak around the lump in my throat. "Yeah, I guess you were."
Peta tightened her hold on me. "I am here, Lark. You are not alone." Her love was a balm to my aching soul, and I held onto it for all I was worth. Through everything I'd suffered, Peta had been my light. She'd been my soul sister in more ways than one.
Air slid out of me and I sent all five elements curling from my center, driving them deep into the earth, searching down, down, down to find the core of the land we stood on. The forest trembled and the trees groaned as if they knew their deaths were coming.
Pain, this would hurt so many, yet … I was going to do it anyway. The animals around us fled, running ahead of a danger they could sense but did not understand.
At the center of the planet, the five elements hovered, and I could see the crack that would send out a rippling shudder that would reshape the world.
Love, fear, pain, horror at what I was doing, the emotions welled in me and Raven tightened his hold on my hand. "Release the power, Lark. Just release it. The elements know what to do."
I was afraid it would not be that easy. This was no small task, but for the first time in years, I trusted my brother.
I released the five elements, let them run through me and into the earth unchecked.
The eruption in my soul felt as though the elements were tearing chunks of me away as they began to pour into the earth. A scream bubbled up through me as I shook, my arms outstretched. Every muscle, tendon, bone, particle of skin, every piece of me felt as though it were being pulled along with the elements, impossibly stretching me.
The power cascading through me was anything but kind as each of the elements reveled in their freedom, of being cast out to the world unchecked.
Hang on, Lark. You must control them to a degree. Talan's voice was the strongest now. They are yours now, use them, not the other way around.
With painstaking effort, I did as he told me, for the first time listening to his advice. His laughter was clear. At least now when you need me the most, you are listening.
Another time I would have smiled. As it was, I was busy bringing the elements back under my control. Sort of.
Under my feet the ground heaved, the air around us whipped up and the clouds that formed opened on us a torrential downpour in a matter of seconds. Fire cut through the trees as though they had been deliberately lit and the only element that did not hurt me was Spirit.
But that wasn't true either.
I opened my eyes to a soft, hazy fog and saw those around me who had gone on before. Those who had given their lives that I might be brought to this point. I was between the realms of the living and the dead. They walked into the cemetery through the arched entrance, one at a time, and stood in a circle around me, supporting me.