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He washim to the Pit to be with his father’s fah me Half-breeds like us, a child who carried two types of ele it in the world But that didn’t mean ouldn’t make it Just meant there was more work to do That’s what et to see your father?"
He shook his head, and I watched in fascination as his face suddenly seeht in front of e fell away froet scared soets away fro to send me away" His voice lowered "My father, I don’t think he’s a nice ether and squeezing thehtly Not like his mother was all that kind, either How she had a sweet boy like Cactus, I didn’t understand "I won’t let her You’re my only friend, and I’m yours No matter what happens, we’ll always be friends"
He set our bearings "We’ve veered off track, I think"
Cactus didn’t let go ofback the e’d co to the sounds of the forest The steady calls of birds had gone silent, and even the bugs sees back and forth about where the best place to burroas Only the steady dripping of water plunking through the leaves and the fog was left of the sounds I’d expect Around e trembled, as if a wind blew, but there was no wind This was not the forest I knew, the paths I’d grown up on Then a sharp, cold blowing gale that didn’t belong in the forest coursed down through the treetops, drawing tendrils of the condensed air with it
I squeezed Cactus’s hand tighter and whispered, "I don’t like this It feels strange"
He pulledhis arms around my narrow shoulders "Can you hide us?"
Without another e dropped to the ground, and I coaxed the vines and undergrowth to cover us We pressed our bellies hard against the earth, and Cactus kept his right ar slowed as we naturally synced with the earth below us, our hearts beating with the one we all called the htened around us, bearing down on our bodies like a large stone lowered slowly, torturing us hat could be co our way
The air swirled and then ca out made htened my throat until it seemed to close over
"Lark, run!" Mythe unnatural stillness
Cactus’s eyes widened as he gripped htly and held me to the earth No words flowed between us, but we both knew My mother wouldn’t tell ht for the last feeeks, the fear on the still air as I woke each , and the odd look in my mother’s eyes as she stared at
The currents grew thick, ozone gathering into deep layers around us Air elementals, Sylphs, were the only ones who could manufacture a storm within the cloud forest like this I knew;me about all the eleh that I could see above the stalks of grass In the clearing where Cactus and I had been standing moments before, myin the wind so it never touched the earth as it normally did A soft cry, and I knew she had Bramley with her, my little brother
What happened nextI could barely understand Five figures, clothed in shilimpse of pale skin here and there was all I saw until they landed, encircling my mother
"You didn’t think you could outrun us, did you? You’re an abomination, a child of Spirit that should have been elied for sanctuary here, and then to seduce the king and give birth to monstrosities What did you think to accomplish but your own death?"
That voice I knew all too well My father’s wife, the queen Cassava She stepped out of the cover of the trees, her long spider web train floating on the breeze behind her Short and powerfully built, she was the polar opposite of my mother’s lithe, lean body and ethereal beauty From where we hid, I could see her face She was pretty in the way of the earth ele
"Do as you ithh I knew she was afraid How could she not be afraid, though? The queen was terrifying Yet my mother stood firm "But leave my children be They are innocent in this affair"
The queen snorted and flipped back the hood of her cloak "And have them tattle on me? I think not You will die, and your children will die with you"
Belowfroh the layers of all that we held to be holy, and intotoward the closest of the four figures in the black hoods Without another thought, I flicked my hands at the cloaked body and the vines that had been so kind, so soft underthehtened and the crunch of bones snapping rippled through the air