Peta (An Elemental Series Novella, 3.5) by Shannon Mayer Read Free Book Online

any longer.” The words slipped out of me and I pushed away, running into the fog of my dream.
    He was like all the others. I wasn’t good enough and so he’d let me go. No, the mother goddess thought I wasn’t good enough for him and she’d made him let me go.
    That bitch.
    “Nepeta.” Talan was suddenly in front of me and I skidded to a stop. Damn dreams and their lack of reality. “I am alive, and it is almost time for you to bring Larkspur to me. I will train her.”
    “She doesn’t need you,” I spit out, as I arched my back. “She’s stronger than you.”
    His lips twitched. “You see, already you have chosen her over me.”
    I had, and I didn’t care. “She would never put me aside. Not even for the mother goddess.”
    Talan crouched in front of me. “Perhaps that is true. Will you bring her to me, when I come to you again?”
    I hunched my shoulders. “I will give her the choice. I will not force her.”
    “That is all I ask.”
    Hunching myself further, I fought the tears and then gave up, looking to him. “You broke my heart, Tal. You broke it into a thousand tiny pieces and I have been trying to fix it for so long. And then Lark comes into my life and those pieces are flowing back together. Having you show up now . . . it isn’t fair.”
    “No, but that is how the mother goddess works, isn’t it? Fair is not her middle name, kitten.”
    I had to smile at that, and it was as if my smile broke the dream apart.
    Lark was already awake, but her thoughts were being kept from me. I wasn’t worried, but I should have been. Talan was right about her, she was a bit wild, and also grounded. A deadly combination when it came to her setting her mind on something.
     
     

CHAPTER 7

 
     
    s we left the hidden library, Lark gave Cactus directions. So she did have a plan. My curiosity got the better of me.
    “What are you doing, Dirt Girl?”
    “I’m going to confess,” she said as if it were the most natural thing in the world to take someone else’s place in death. Like she was telling me we were going to have tea and cookies with a friend.
    “No!” I roared, leaping in front of her and physically blocking her from moving forward. “I will not allow it. You and I both know those Enders were killed after they were healing. You would at most have a lashing, and yet even that would kill you here in the Pit! Your death is not deserved, Larkspur. You can’t do this.” I couldn’t stop my voice from shaking. I could not lose her. Damn Talan for putting the thought in me. I did not want it to be true.
    I would not admit even to myself that she was quickly becoming my world. She dropped to her knees and wrapped her arms around my neck. I pressed my mouth against her collarbone, my teeth chattering against her skin. I could not keep my emotions in check—especially after seeing Talan alive and realizing how much Lark already meant to me. I had to stop her from this madness.
    No matter what it took, no matter what I had to do I had to keep her from confessing.
    “Peta, I don’t plan to die,” she said. “Belladonna will get me out of this and if I have to . . . I will fight my way out.”
    I gasped and then pulled back to stare at her. A little wild? Perhaps more than a bit. None of my other charges had ever even considered fighting another elemental, even when it was warranted.
    “I’m not like the other elementals. I won’t go down without a fight. Trust me. Please.” She begged me both with her words and the bond between us to understand her. And a part of me did. But the other part . . .
    “You would be banished, anathema to all who met you. Your life would be over; you would be the walking dead. For what? A single life freely given in exchange for yours?” Could she truly mean to do this?
    “No one will die, Peta.”
    That was easy for her to say. She was young and hadn’t seen how very hard the world could be, and how cruel the mother goddess was at times.
    She put a hand on my