Destroyer (The Elemental Series #7)(86)

Shazer, standing on two feet, giving me a wink. Basileus. Cactus. Keeda. Vetch. Persimmon. Red. Scar. Aria. Bramley. I cried out for my little brother, my hand outstretched, but he just smiled and shook his head. He looked to be about sixteen, his face and coloring just like mine, only still soft under the last of the baby fat he never had the chance to lose.



       
         
       
        

Fiametta came next and then Finley. Both queens smiled. Both seemed …  lighter than they ever had in life. The bonds Viv had placed on them were finally gone, and I could see them for who they were.

Talan, Frost, Olivisha, Realm, and Matarrah who I'd known as Samara. The five original elementals raised their hands to me in solid support. Next to Talan stood my mother, and she smiled and put a hand to her heart.

Yet the pain was not complete until I saw him walk toward me. The others let him pass. Ash stepped between those who'd died.

"Lark," his voice undid me and I slumped to my knees. "This could not be avoided, my death was assured the minute I stood with you against Viv."

A shuddering breath slid from me and the world around me heaved, the elements wild in their barely checked power. Distantly, Raven was screaming my name. The world breaking even as I knelt on the ground. Peta wrapped herself tighter around my neck, her head tucked in closely to mine, her breath hot against my skin.

"Lark," Ash held his hand to me, "you were the only one who could have opened the elements like this, to do this. Not even Raven could have broken the world. You are the granddaughter of the mother goddess, Lark. You are the daughter of her favored child."

I moved to put my hand in his and Peta stuck me with her claws. "Don't, he will take you from me!"

Ash grinned. "Peta, I will not harm her."

"And if you kill her?"

"It is not me killing her, cat," he said gently. "It is the power of the elements pulling her apart, no different than how she released Finley's body, or mine. No one body could ever contain this much power and then survive its unleashing. Because Lark isn't trying to hold them, she is releasing them back into the world so our people will not die."

Peta shuddered. "No, no, I will not lose her! Of all of those I care for, I cannot survive this loss!"

I closed my eyes, listening to my body. Ash was right, my heart was slowing, the blood in my veins was cooling. Was that why Raven shouted? Did he see me dying too?

I tried to look over my shoulder but couldn't find the strength to turn my head. "I don't want to leave Peta, or you, Ash."

He crouched in front of me. "Then you can both come with me. Peta is the closest thing I had to a familiar and I don't want to leave her behind either. I love you both."

Peta gripped me hard, her energy pouring into me as she fought to keep me alive. It was a losing battle; we both knew it.

"Peta."

"Lark," she whispered. "I am with you. You don't have to ask."

"Then …  we go. We go with Ash and the three of us will be together." I spoke softly, which seemed so strange when around us the continents shattered their holds and spun out into the ocean. New mountains were formed. Old mountains were crushed. The world was recast in an image that only the mother goddess knew. Rivers changed direction, oceans shrunk and grew, the waters rose and the deserts flooded. I could see it all happening inside my mind, Spirit showing me the devastation …  and the hope. 

Yet, I could see the survivors helping one another already as the breaking eased. Had it been that long already?

"Days," Ash said. "You have been here four days while the world has been remade. You were the conduit for the power, my love, you can shut it down now. The world and all in it have a chance to start again, to find a better balance than before."

I closed myself to the elements and there was nothing left, no noise, no sensation.

I breathed out my last the same second Peta did and yet there was no pain, no sharp stab of failure or loss.

We just …  shifted.





CHAPTER 28



Ash caught me in his arms and planted a kiss on my lips. A real kiss, one that was deep and full of all the things we could not say right now because there were no words. How could this be when we were dead?

I didn't care how it was, only that this was real now.

I held onto him and Peta held onto us both, butting her head against my face and then his, purring so much that …

"You're drooling, Peta," I said.

She snorted, which sent a spray of moisture across my face. "How can this be death when I feel so much? Not that I'm complaining, but I am unsure how to take this."