We shot into the air, almost fifty feet before we jerked to a stop. Rylee’s arm never tightened on me once. Trust . . . it was a strange thing to have so strongly between us already.

“So this is another cousin of mine then?” she asked.

Reaching out, I grabbed the platform and pulled us to it. “No, you and I are related on my mother’s side. I’m the only family you’ve got. But that won’t matter. Bella will recognize you for who you are.”

We stepped off the platform and I walked into the hollowed-out tree. The entryway was dark and I called out softly.

“Belladonna.”

There was a scuffle of sheets and then a thump of feet running toward us. A lantern flickered on and my older sister held it up. “Mother goddess, Larkspur, I thought you were dead!”

She ran to me, her long dark brown hair curling down her shoulders as artfully as if she’d never slept on it. I caught her in my arms and held her tightly, a shudder going through me. Nearly thirty years away from her, one of my best friends.

Bella let out a sob and pulled back, touching my face as if she couldn’t believe I was there. To be honest, I wasn’t sure I believed it myself. “You’ve changed, Lark.”

I gave her a half grin. “A little, maybe. The desert will do that to you.”

“So many questions; how is it that you aren’t dead? Father told everyone you died while helping a Tracker find Jonathan . . . .” She noticed we weren’t alone. I moved to the side.

“This is the Tracker I was helping, Bella. And the time has come for the elementals to stand with this world, or watch it go down in demon flames.”

She took a deep shuddering breath, then held out her hand to Rylee. “Hello, my name is Belladonna. You must be Elle.”

Rylee’s whole body jerked as if she’d been shot with the electricity. “What did you call me?”

My throat constricted. “No, this is Rylee, and we’re leaving it at that.”

Bella looked from me to Rylee and back again, her gray eyes catching the light. “All right, then. What do you need, Lark?”

She was backing me, and a piece of the anger for everything that had been done to me slipped away. “We have to take Jonathan with us. He’s going to help Rylee with the demons.”

Bella nodded, but her lips were pursed. “I can take you to him, but I don’t think he will help. We’ve never in all the years he’s been here been able to convince him to Read for us. He says that payment is required, but no matter what we give him, it isn’t good enough. Jewels, money . . . even women.” She blushed on that last bit and I didn’t blame her. Trying to buy a kid off to help you clean the house was one thing. Trying to buy a kid off to help you understand the future was apparently a hell of a lot harder.

“Mom, what’s going on?”

I looked past Bella to a tall woman with long black hair and pale blue eyes. She lifted her hand, all elegance and grace even in that slight movement.

“River, this is your aunt.”

The girl let out a soft gasp. “You helped my mother escape the Deep. You helped her keep me safe and protected me against—”

I held up my hand stopping her. “That is not a story for right now. But I promise you when I am done helping Rylee I will come back. We will talk and tell stories of before.”

My niece nodded. “A deal then.”

Bella reached back and touched her daughter gently on the hand. “Go to bed, I don’t want you to be a part of this.”

“I’m not a child, mother.”

“No, it would be better if you were; then there would be no banishment for you. As an adult, if you were caught even speaking to your aunt, there would be repercussions I’m not sure any of us could save you from.”

Rylee shifted on her feet. “I thought you were shitting me about your family.”

I shook my head slowly. “No, I am the black sheep, as the humans would say.”

Bella grabbed a wrap from the hook on the wall and put it over her shoulders. “Come, let us go get the boy and send him with you. We might be able to make it happen before anyone knows you’re even here.”

When all three of us were on the ground, Bella gasped and took in the group we’d left behind. “Oh dear. This could be a problem.”

Rylee waved at them. “They can wait on the edge. As long as your people aren’t going to attack us.”

Bella glanced at her. “They won’t attack you, Rylee. But they will attack Lark if we run into the wrong people.”

I lifted a hand. “Where is Jonathan?”

Rylee pointed before Bella could say, and my blood chilled. “He’s that direction, middle of the Rim from what I can tell.”

My sister gave me a tight smile and doused her light. “That’s correct, he’s in the Spiral.”

The Spiral was the seat of power for our home, where our father lived with his favored children, and where there would be plenty of guards who would recognize me.

“Worm shit,” I whispered.

Bella nodded. “Exactly.”

CHAPTER 18

RYLEE

LARK’S SISTER HAD us cover our heads so only our eyes were visible. “It’s the best we can do. They would recognize Lark’s hair and you don’t look like any elemental here with your auburn coloring. Worse, they might take you as a Salamander.”

I lifted my eyebrows. “I look like a lizard?”

Pamela tapped my arm. “A Salamander is another name for a fire elemental. Like Cactus, they mostly have red hair.”