Turning my head to the side I stared at his profile, but he didn’t turn to me. He kept looking at the ceiling. “The question is, who would want to hurt them?”

That was the question I was asking myself. “I don’t know. Does Fiametta have anyone vying for her throne?” I was thinking of my trip to the Deep and the battle for the crown that had nearly taken my, Belladonna’s, and Ash’s lives. I was really hoping that wasn’t the case again. Two powerful battling fire elementals was not something I wanted to get in the middle of.

“No. Everyone is terrified of her. She’s a hard ass, in the truest sense of the words, Lark. There is no room for softness in her. If you’re useful, you’re good in her eyes. If you aren’t, she has no room for you.” He draped an arm over his forehead.

“And what is your use for her?” I reached up and touched his fingers. I wanted him to look at me. His voice wasn’t giving me any indication as to how he was feeling.

Cactus learned to hide as well as I had as a child in the forest. “Cactus, what are you afraid of? Because if it was just a matter of the queen, you’d leave.”

He was silent for a good minute before he answered, his voice carefully neutral.

“Because of my connection to the earth, I can do more damage than most Salamanders. Within the fire are particles of rock and granite so my blows are a double hit if I’m defending our people against the firewyrms who lurk below us.” He finally turned to me. His green eyes held more than a measure of pain. “I’m not an Ender, Lark. Not like you. I’m just a tool used at her discretion. I’m the threat behind her words and that is why escaping her is going to be so hard.”

I reached out and smoothed the lines between his brows. There were no words I could say, nothing to make it better. But my heart ached at the thought of losing not only Ash, but Cactus too. No, I couldn’t let that happen.

I wished I knew exactly how I was going to stop both men from being lost to Fiametta.

CHAPTER 7

Laying on Cactus’s bed, I closed my eyes and breathed in the green scents, letting them soothe my mind and body, the strength of them flowing through my bruised and battered arm and hand. Somewhere in that spot between wakefulness and sleep, I floated, recharging all I was. Cactus curled his body around me and I held onto him like I’d done more than once as a child. We had to wait on Peta anyway, so the guilt I felt at lying quietly and resting while Ash lay in a dungeon, eased.

As children, Cactus and I had clung to each other in the dark of the night as we shared stories of monsters creeping out of the Deep or the Pit, of winged beasts flying from the Eyrie to steal bad Terralings away. Now, those stories seemed more possible than ever and it was in that moment the image flickered through my mind of the massive doors leading to the throne room and the dragon carved into it. No wings, a sinuous body, and all the gemstones around it, the malice just the image gave off.

Firewyrms were the stuff of legend, even in the Rim, yet even as I thought of the creature, I dismissed it. There was no way firewyrms were here. Not a chance. Cactus had to be joking as he so often had when we were children.

The soft give of the bed under weight brought me around and I slowly opened my eyes. Peta’s green eyes stared into mine. “The Ender you’re looking for is nowhere to be found, Dirt Girl.” She pushed herself under my jaw, curling into the space between my chest and chin, her head resting in the crook of my neck. “Perhaps he is one of the Enders you killed.”

I reached up and touched her back, the calming energy on either side of me allowing me to think clearly. “No, he was part of the group that brought me and Ash in. I wouldn’t have seen his memories otherwise, so he has to be here somewhere.”

What would I do if I couldn’t find the traitor to hand to Fiametta to in turn buy Ash time? The only other person I could ask was Brand, but despite the fact he was Ash’s friend, I wasn’t sure how much he could do bound to Fiametta. Only one way to find out, and that would be to ask him who was with the posse to get us from the Rim.

Holding Peta to me, I sat up and then stood. “Cactus, I have to go.”

“I’m coming with you.” He scrubbed a hand through his hair making it stick up in a riotous mess. “I couldn’t help you much the last time you were here. The queen was watching me closely.”

“Why?” Peta asked before I could spit it out.

He gave us a lopsided grin. “I turned down her invitation to her bedroom.”

Peta made a sound that was a mix between a hiss and a snort that I thought might have been a gasp. Spluttering, she managed to spit out, “How are you still alive?”

Cactus shrugged, but his lips twitched. “I told her my heart was broken by someone from the Rim, and I’d sworn celibacy to the mother goddess.”

I lowered Peta to the floor where she glared at Cactus, her thoughts all but written on her face. She didn’t believe him.

My turn. “And she believed you?”

“I told her the princess I loved still held my heart and I could never be unfaithful to her, even if I could never be with her.” Cactus’s tone was light and teasing but in the depths of his eyes I saw the yearning. The truth behind his words. I was the one he wanted. I was the princess sworn to another.

I looked away. “Peta, why would Fiametta buy that?”

“I’m surprised she did,” Peta said. “But that doesn’t mean it can’t happen. The queen keeps things close to her chest and lets no one in. Not even her children.”