We reached the top, me a few steps ahead of the Tracker. Cactus and the man I assumed was Bram circled one another with their fists up.
“Bram, what the fuck are you doing?” Elle hollered. Bram glanced at her and it was enough of a distraction. Cactus shot out a fist that caught Bram in the side of the head and he went down in a heap. “Hah! You owe me.”
What in all that was holy was this nonsense?
“Cactus,” I strode toward him, “what is going on?”
“Oh, well, it’s funny really.”
Bram let out a groan from where he lay in the wet sand. “Not all that funny, if you ask me.”
I allowed myself to really look at him now that I was closer. His hair was a dark auburn, and his eyes were hazel. Nothing like my Bramley, who’d been blond-haired and blue-eyed. Disappointment, and at the same time relief, flooded me.
Introductions were made all around.
“Cactus, what were you two doing?”
He grinned at me. “It’s funny, really.”
“That’s what you said, but I doubt it.” My tone was about as dry as the desert sand we stood on.
Not that it stopped Cactus from grinning like a fool. “I could have killed him, but I knew you wouldn’t want that. He really wanted to fight. I suggested fists only. Loser buys drinks.”
Elle rolled her eyes heavenward. “Bram, seriously?”
He shrugged. “He’s scrawny, I figured I could take him. Little buggar is fast, though.”
Little was not the word I would use for Cactus. Then again, Bram was a big man, solid muscle, and probably had two stones on Cactus and a good four inches.
“Fine, we’re all getting along now,” I said. “Elle, I need you to Track for me.”
She folded her arms and squinted her eyes. “Your father is missing, that’s what you said.”
“Yes.”
She held a hand out, palm up. “Fees are steep. A thousand dollars a day, bonus for bringing him home alive. No deductions if he’s dead.” Her eyes were hard with no sign of mercy in them. That was not going to be good, since I had no idea what she was even talking about, dollars and bonuses.
“A way of paying for things, Lark,” Peta said, and from my other side Cactus nodded.
“I have no money or bonuses to give you, but—”
Elle shrugged and walked away, speaking over her shoulder. “Then you’re wasting my fucking time and yours.”
Damn her and her greed. Obviously she had too much human blood running in her veins, and whatever Spirit she had in her was not enough to combat it. But I needed her, which meant I had to play by her rules.
“I’ll give you something better than money.”
She stopped, turned, and looked at me. Between us something shifted, like a cog slipping loose. Spirit flickered through me, reaching for her. As if it recognized one of its own. I did not want to use Spirit on Elle to get her to do what I wanted. I fought the panic and Spirit at the same time; neither listened to me. This was not in the plan, and yet I couldn’t seem to rein in the damn element. It wrapped around her and slid past whatever defense she might have had.
Worm shit. I held my breath, praying Spirit didn’t rape her mind as it had done to my sister Keeda.
Elle’s face softened and her lower lip trembled so slightly I would have missed it if I hadn’t been staring at her. Yet Spirit did not force her hand. I let out the breath I’d been holding.
She took a step toward me, her fists raised. “What could possibly be better than money? Let me tell you, not all that fucking much, Larkspur.” Her tri-colored eyes welled with tears. “You grow up without food, without anything but the clothes on your back, your family and the fucking world trying to take you out at every turn and you’ll learn fast enough. You’ll learn the only thing that will keep you safe is money.”
Bram slipped an arm around her waist and whispered in her ear. She pressed herself against him.
Keeping my voice below a whisper, I barely moved my lips as I spoke to Peta. “What just happened?”
“Spirit opened her and she spilled her beliefs,” Peta said. “Spirit sometimes acts on its own, at least until you figure out how to make it work for you. That’s what . . . my other charge always said, anyway. Use it, Lark.”
Fantastic, that was just what I needed. An element that acted out on its own. “Elle, if you help me, I will owe you a favor. I know that may not sound like much perhaps in comparison to—”
“You’re right, it doesn’t. It isn’t. A favor is worth shit in this world,” she snapped.
I barreled ahead, knowing I had one shot at this. “I am the strongest of my people, Elle. If you are ever in real trouble, I will get you out of it. Is that not worth something to you? Money won’t always buy your way out of a tangle of thorns.”