Peta jumped onto the wooden seat between us. “Wait, do you mean a premonition?”
He scrubbed his hands through his hair. “This doesn’t make sense. Cassava escaped with her life. Your father was going to hunt for her. Blackbird wanted Giselle. We’re going after a Tracker. What are the threads that tie it all together? If you can pluck those out, then we will know what we’re up against.”
Suddenly I understood what he was saying. The pieces of our lives were threads and they bound us to certain paths and people. And he was right, I could no longer assume Cassava was always at the center of the evil in my world.
I closed my eyes and let the rocking of the boat flow through me as I let the things he said sway through my mind.
Cassava. Blackbird. My father. Giselle. The Tracker.
They brushed against one another, slowly revolving until I saw the pattern and the pieces. There was only one that truly didn’t fit, and that was the Tracker. But the rest . . . the rest revealed themselves to me.
What I saw made my muscles clench and my stomach roll with dismay.
“If my father is dead, Vetch would rule, and Cassava would be able to come back to the Rim with Blackbird at her side as her new lover. Giselle would have been able to tell them how to do it, how they could accomplish the task.” The words slid out of me and my eyes widened. “Mother goddess. That’s it, isn’t it?”
A wry grin twisted over his lips. “I think I should piss you off more often.”
I reached to him and brushed my hand against his. “Cactus, you didn’t piss me off. Not really.”
His fingers wrapped around mine. “No? Then shouldn’t I get something for helping you? A gift?”
Peta snorted and turned her back. “Not while I’m in the boat, Prick.”
I gave him a wink. “Maybe later.” What was I saying? I turned away as heat curled up my neck to my face. I was not giving Cactus another reason to hang onto me. Pressing my hand to the smoky diamond around my neck, I breathed out. The wind picked up again, pushing us toward our destination.
Behind me, Peta and Cactus spoke as though I weren’t there.
“Stop pressing her to give up her heart. You heard what Giselle said, she is not meant for the yoke of marriage.”
Cactus laughed. “You don’t know much about Terraling partnerships, do you? Often we don’t marry. And as in the case of Lark’s father, if there is a marriage, it is more often than not rather . . . open. We follow our hearts wherever they lead and believe that is the nature of our people.”
“You would share her with Ash?”
I closed my eyes and focused on my breathing. We all knew I heard what they were saying, but I chose to pretend I couldn’t hear a word.
“No, I wouldn’t. I’m just saying things are not cut and dried when it comes to love and sex with Terralings. Salamanders, on the other hand, are jealous types. I suppose I have a bit of them too.”
A roll of satisfaction from Peta tipped me off. I cranked my head around. “Don’t you dare.”
Her mouth tightened in a thin line and her ears drooped. “I would never.”
Instantly I regretted not trusting her. “I’m sorry.”
“What,” Cactus said, his tone deceptively innocent, “you don’t want her to tell me you’ve slept with Ash?”
My mouth dropped open. I would have spluttered except the boat grounded itself, throwing me backward. I hit the edge of the boat and flipped out. Thoughts of jagged teeth and long tentacles in the water kept me clinging to the edge. Until my feet touched the sandy shore and I realized we were in the shallows. I stood and looked around where we’d beached. The sand, the trees, and bushes. The statue of Zeus staring down at us. This was the place the humans had named Greece.
But we knew it as the birthplace of monsters, a place of mystery and danger even elementals of great power avoided. There was too much wildness in the earth and elements here; too much of the supernatural to be anything but chaotic.
“You sure about this, Peta?” I asked as I pulled the boat forward.
She stood on the prow of the boat, her eyes staring straight ahead. “I may not be a Reader, but I know when a certain path is right. This is the path we have to take if you want to succeed, Lark.”
Cactus leapt out of the boat and helped me pull it the rest of the way up the beach so it was fully out of the water. “You aren’t going to say anything?”
I had a choice. I could give him hell for trying to control me, or I could be honest with both him and myself. I went for the second choice.
I grabbed his face in both hands and pulled him to me. The kiss ignited an instant fire in my body, a flame of love and bonds rooted in my earliest memories. He crushed me against his body until we had to break apart to breathe.
I stumbled back, panting for air. He stood a few feet from me, his hair wild from my hands skimming through it, his eyes dark with a heady desire that still rushed along my skin. “The truth is I love you both. That is all I know.”