If Cassava had any influence on Vetch, it would be gone while he was in the dungeon.
Maybe all hope wasn’t lost for him yet. I dumped him into the cell and stepped back, locking the door behind me. More than ever, my heart was twisted about going after our father. Whether he was in his right mind or not, he was the only one who could set to right the problems with who he’d named as heir. Yet with him gone and Vetch locked up, perhaps Bella could rule.
No, I had to see if Vetch was himself or not. I still had hope he could be saved.
Like Bella. There had been a time I’d believed her to be an enemy, and now we were closer than I was with any of my other siblings.
Minutes ticked by and Vetch finally let out a groan. “What the hell have I been drinking?”
“Vetch, do you remember the last hour?” I gripped the bars of the dungeon. “Do you remember coming to kill me and Bella?”
He slowly sat up, blinking as though the light hurt his eyes. “Kill Bella?”
“Yes. And me.”
Vetch took a breath and rubbed his chest where I’d slammed him. “I was dreaming. How could it be you know what I dream?”
I backed away. “Ash will explain it to you. I have to go, I have to get Father and bring him home. Whatever you do, stay in the cell, Vetch.” Mother goddess, what a mess of redwood proportions this was.
Two steps and I was out of the room, but a hand on my arm stopped me.
“Be careful, Lark. I can’t come with you if you go this time. Someone has to stay here and keep things running with Bella gone.” Ash tipped his head forward and pressed it against mine. “Come back to me.”
With a gentle tug from him, I was in his arms, kissing him as he held onto me as though it would be the last time. I didn’t care that Vetch could see. I kissed Ash back with everything I had before pulling back for a breath. “I will always come back to you.”
“You just want that pedicure I promised.”
Laughing, I stepped away. “Yes, that too. We’ve put it off too long.”
His golden eyes followed me as I backed the first few steps up the stairs, unable to look away from him. A heavy sense of longing followed me. As if perhaps our moment had passed and I would never be able to regain it.
But that couldn’t be.
I wouldn’t let it.
CHAPTER 5
eta and I ran up the stairs and out of the Enders Barracks.
“Where to?”
I stumbled to a stop. Peta’s question was more than loaded. I had no idea where to start looking for a Tracker. I needed a damn Tracker to find a Tracker. “Worm shit, I don’t know.”
“Is there no one you can ask? Is the mother goddess’s consort not here?”
I blinked several times. “Excuse me?”
“Griffin. He’s the . . . I thought you knew?” Peta looked up at me and then away, her eyes darting to the side. “Perhaps I was not supposed to tell you.”
In some ways, that explained a lot about Griffin. Except for the picture of the woman and the little boy. Who were they? Call it a hunch, but I had a feeling the mother goddess wasn’t much into sharing her consort with other women. “I won’t spill the can of beans. But he is not our only option. Niah can help. I think.”
Niah had a home in the southern edge of the Rim and I hurried that way. As our storyteller, she spun all the old tales. But she seemed to have a Reader’s knack for knowing what was coming and what was needed.
Crossing the main road of the Rim, the sun caught the tips of a head of bright red hair bent over a redwood seedling. My heart clenched at the sight of Cactus. “Peta, loving them both is going to kill me.”
“Don’t be melodramatic. It doesn’t suit you. Take Cactus with you on this journey. He’s powerful in his two elements, and he needs to be away from Vetch. Perhaps some time with him will show you he’s not the one for you.”
Her words stopped me. “What do you mean, not the one for me? How can you know?”
“I’ve said enough. You need to figure the rest out on your own.” She trotted ahead of me, stopping beside Cactus. “Prick, are you coming with us or staying here to play with the seedlings?”
I opened my mouth, words on the tip of my tongue. But she was right. I snapped my mouth shut. Cactus stood, saw me, and grinned. His love for life was contagious. I smiled back, but the smile faltered, as I understood what Ash had meant about not being able to share.
I could never tell Cactus I slept with Ash. Until I could tell him I’d picked Ash over him without a question in my mind. And I wasn’t sure I would ever do that.
Damn my heart for its ability to love more than one person at a time. Apparently my father’s blood ran truer than I’d previously believed. The royal lines of the Terralings were littered with mistresses and children born out of the monarch’s official marriage. That wasn’t unusual to us; it was normal as far as we were concerned. But I’d thought I was above that, only ever bedding Coal.