Peta groaned. “Why, why did you have to tell him?”
“Because I can’t lie, not to either of them,” I said. “I may be a lot of things, but a liar is not on the list.”
“Fine, but you deal with this little love triangle when we have your father home, and things are settled enough for you to see clearly.” She turned, and stalked up the beach, her long tail twitching like mad.
“I can wait, Lark. For as long as it takes for you to realize I am the one you need.” Cactus grinned at me, and I couldn’t help but smile back.
“So sure of yourself?”
“Lust is not the same thing as love. I don’t care that you bedded him. It doesn’t mean you love him.” He walked ahead of me and I couldn’t help but stare. He and Ash were not so different in height. But the muscle on Ash was thicker from years of fighting and training with weapons. Cactus was leaner, like some of our Runners who took messages.
Neither was weak, but they offset one another. As though one called to my dark side and the other to the side of me that believed fairy tales always ended with a happily ever after.
I frowned as I followed Cactus and Peta, and my thoughts bounced between my situation with the two men, and the situation with my father. I’d almost rather deal with Cassava and my father than decide between Ash and Cactus. My heart had been broken too many times with loss and betrayal to lose another person I loved.
And that was the crux of it: I loved them both in ways I never thought possible. In ways I’d never experienced, not with Coal. My heart stuttered ever so slightly and I gave a silent prayer for his soul. That he would find peace on the other side of the Veil in the arms of the mother goddess. That he would forgive me for not loving him the way he wanted me to. The way I loved Ash and Cactus.
“Keep your eyes open, and tread softly. He didn’t get the name The Bastard for nothing,” Peta said. “We’re close to the glade he uses as his launch pad.”
Around us the trees and brush had grown thick, and the sounds of the ocean had faded to nothing. In all my musings, I hadn’t realized how far we’d come. I looked behind us, and could see nothing but green. No ocean. In fact, we were surrounded by foliage so thick I couldn’t even see the sky. “You get us lost, cat?”
She shook her head. “Of course not. But there are no paths to The Bastard. Would you make one?”
I nodded and did as she asked, tapping into the earth. The power ran up my arms, warm and inviting. A touch of the mother goddess, like a caress of my own mother nearly remembered. The plants ahead of us bent outward, opening a path. I put a hand on Peta’s head. The power of the earth ran through me and into her like a fast-flowing river and she trembled. “I can feel your power under my fur. How is that?”
“I don’t know.” I stepped forward and she moved with me in perfect tandem. A thought occurred to me and I ran with it. I released the earth and the plants closed around us again. “Try, Peta. Ask them to bend for you.”
“Ridiculous. Familiars do not have the power of their charges,” she said, but her words held no real heat.
“Try anyway. Cactus won’t tattle if you can’t. Or if you can.”
“Your secrets are safe with me, kitten.”
She glared at him over her shoulder. “I’d rather you call me bad luck cat than that.”
Kitten. That was what Talan had called her. I made myself focus on the present. “Try, Peta. Try, because maybe there will come a day when you need this connection.” I paused, thinking of how the power felt when I’d touched her. “Run it through me. I think it will work.”
She let out a sigh, but under my hand I felt her eagerness. There was a tentative pull through me, but I didn’t reach for the earth’s power. Around us, the path opened again, the branches pulling back. Cactus stepped up close behind me. “Is that her or you?”
“It’s Peta. Apparently you were meant to be with a Terraling all along.” I smiled, not only because I was pleased but because of the way Peta felt.
She was ecstatic. “I’m really doing this?”
I nodded and urged her forward with my hand, then took it from her back. “Lead on.”
Her green eyes met mine and in the look so much was encompassed. Love, friendship, loyalty and sheer joy. Smiling, I waved at her and she stepped forward, the plants moving out of her way.
“You know this shouldn’t be able to happen,” Cactus said.
I shrugged. “Seems to be a recurring thing with me.”
Ahead of us, Peta dropped to her belly. The sound of voices floated in the night air to us. I lowered into a crouch as I took my spear from my belt and twisted it together. Cactus did the same and we moved forward with quiet steps, moving only the bushes we had to.