Ash (The Elemental Series, Book 6) by Shannon Mayer Read Free Book Online Page A

complied.
    “The king said to starve you, and if that didn’t work he’d bring you out and make an example of you. He’s going to pit you against all the remaining Enders.”
    I nodded. “Good. Then let’s have at it.”
    Dreg shook his head. “Even you aren’t strong enough to take us all. Not after being starved.”
    I shrugged, wondering at Dreg’s intelligence, not for the first time. Was it not obvious to him that I had not been starved? That I had in fact been fed quite well for the last couple of weeks at least? Elementals weren’t like humans in that department. Starved, yes. But we bounced back like nothing else in the supernatural or elemental world. We were designed to survive.
    My lips twitched, even though I didn’t say the words out loud. “Dreg, tell them I’m ready to face the Enders if that is my punishment. I will take it gladly.”
    He backed away. “I’m sorry, Ash.”
    “I’m not. And if you’re smart, you’ll stay the hell away from the fight.”
    He shook his head as he backed up. “I won’t have a choice. None of us do.”
    Dreg all but ran from the cell block and up the stairs. Peta peeked out from around my legs and looked up at me. “You think this is a good idea.”
    “It’ll get me out of this goddess forsaken cell, and allow me a chance to . . .” I was about to say kill the king , but I wasn’t sure if I’d get that chance. I didn’t know if Raven would be there, if he would try and stop me.
    “I’ll fight them, and try not to kill them all. Then we’ll make a break for it.”
    “Shazer isn’t here.”
    That was a surprise. I’d just assumed he’d stuck around. “Where is he?”
    “I don’t know. He dropped me off on the outskirts of the Rim and said he had something to do.”
    So Shazer wasn’t going to be much of a help then. “We run, Peta.”
    “I’m fighting at your side,” she said.
    “No, you’re not. Lark would kill me if I let anything happen to you.” I rolled my shoulders as I focused on loosening my muscles, getting them ready to move at top speed.
    “And you think she would do less to me if I let you die when I could have saved you? You are a fool. I had thought better of you, but apparently, you are as dumb as the rest of the men in her life.” She took a swat at me with a paw and I dodged her claws. But just barely.
    I held up both hands. “Peta, I would welcome your help, but you are not my familiar. That alone precludes you from the fight, and we both know it.”
    She slumped with that. “Damn.”
    “Yes, rather.” I wasn’t stupid. Having Peta at my side in a fight would give me the leg up I needed, but there was no way the king would allow it. I knew it and so did Peta.
    I stood in the center of the cell, waiting. I knew the drill of what was about to go down, seeing as I had set up the protocol. I’d spent a lot of years as second-in-command for the Enders and as such had done a great deal of the grunt work. Part of that grunt work had entailed contemplating all possible scenarios when dealing with prisoners—those who would be banished, and those who would be executed.
    I was the one who designed the program on how Enders and Rim guards would respond in all the different situations. Funny enough, I never thought I would actually see the scenario roll out where there was an Ender in the cells being brought before the king. Certainly I’d never thought it would be me in the dungeon.
    “Peta, three Enders will be sent to escort me to face the king in the common field where judgment will be held.”
    “Where?”
    “The same open field where Cassava spelled the Terralings while the lung burrowers ripped through our family.”
    She blew out a big breath. “I remember Lark pointing that out to me. It’s at the far end near the planting fields.”
    I nodded. “From there, I will either be executed, banished, or otherwise punished. I highly doubt that ‘otherwise’ is even remotely possible. So expect that I’m going to