Cactus settled in beside me and he opened his mouth but I beat him to it.

“Why is no one else awake yet?”

His eyes widened. “Shit.”

“Yeah, that’s what I’m thinking.”

Peta glanced back at us. “This isn’t the first time it’s happened. Eighty years ago, the queen’s father kept everyone in a subdued sleep while he hunted a threat to the throne.”

My mouth dropped open. “That’s what Fiametta’s doing. I told her there was more than one threat, that her lover Coal was answering to someone.”

Cactus stopped at the next intersection. “I have to go to her then.”

“What, why?” I stopped with him and Peta turned.

“I’m one of her enforcers, Lark. Not an Ender. I’m just brought out as a threat. She may be a hard ass, but she is still my queen. She needs to be protected.” He leaned in to kiss me and I turned my face so he only caught my cheek with his lips.

“You aren’t making any sense. Cactus, if she sees you’re awake when she put you to sleep with everyone else, what do you think she’s going to say? Thanks for waking up on your own to protect me?”

Peta snorted. “More like, ‘Ah, so here is my traitor. I’ll just kill him and be done with it. No one will miss him.’”

Cactus paled. “Shit.”

“You keep saying that.”

Peta brushed against my thigh, her fur warm under my hand. I threaded my fingers through her long fur.

“Cactus, we can’t wait. Either you’re with me, or you want to risk the queen’s suspicion that you’re one of the traitors.”

His jaw was tight, but he nodded. “Damn, there is no choice for me, is there?”

Peta shook her head. “No, there isn’t. As is often the way with life.”

There was no more discussion after that. Peta trotted in front of us and we jogged to keep up. She wove her way through the maze of hallways until she reached a dead end. A fountain of bubbling water stood in front of us, steam rising from the tiny pool. The fountain itself was made of hardened lava and shaped like a snarling tiger. The water poured out of the tiger’s mouth into the pond it stood in.

“The water is boiled as it comes through the tiger,” Peta said.

“Should have it pour out its ass,” I muttered. My only experience with a tiger was one that Maggie sent after me. So maybe I was more than a little prejudiced against that particular big cat.

Peta sniffed. “Yes, that would be fitting for a tiger, blowing smoke out its asshole.”

Cactus burst out laughing and then slapped his hand over his mouth as he winked. “Sorry.” Obviously not that sorry.

Ignoring him, I approached the fountain. “Peta, this is a dead end.”

“No, it’s not.” She dipped her face until her whiskers touched the boiling water. “You must reach in to find the thing to press. I don’t know what it is, Loam never told me. But he would reach in here, and something would click and then the wall behind us would open.”

Her eyes lifted to mine. “This is why I’m angry you healed me, Dirt Girl. You need your strength for this.”

Cactus stepped forward. “I’ll do it. I can hold the heat at bay a little.”

Peta shook her head. “No, you can’t. That is what everyone thinks but the heat is a part of the water. Only a water elemental could truly pass this without injury.”

“That doesn’t make sense,” I said. “Why would you want an Undine to be the only one to escape injury?”

Peta shrugged. “I didn’t make the rules.”

I put a hand on Cactus’s arm. “I’ll try first, if I can’t find the latch, you can try.”

His jaw ticked but he didn’t argue. We all knew our time was limited at best; no, that wasn’t true. Ash’s time was what was running out.

Taking a deep breath, I wiggled the fingers on my left hand. No point in damaging my dominant hand if I didn’t have to. “How deep, Peta?”

“To your elbow at least, based on what I saw Loam do.”

“Shit,” I whispered. “Cactus, stand by the wall. When the door opens, hold it if you have to,” then before I could stall any longer, I plunged my hand and forearm into the water.

The sensation was just like that of being tested by the mother goddess. My skin scorched instantly and I whimpered as I forced more of my hand in until I felt the slight bump of something under my hand. I jammed it hard and yanked my arm out. But the boiling water had done its damage. My hand and arm were bright red, and tiny boils broke out. I held my arm out from my body and waved it in the air, which only made the blood pulse stronger.

“Draw on me, Dirt Girl. Loam did, I know the pain will be temporary,” Peta said.

Gritting my teeth, I nodded. The pain was excruciating, and I knew now why the pool was set up that only an Undine could pass it easily. They didn’t like coming to the Pit in the first place so the likelihood of them finding this hidden place was small. But more than that, there was no way I could hide the injury from the queen. I had no doubt that was the reason behind the boiling water. How could you hide where you’d been?

The simple answer was—you couldn’t.

Peta’s energy flowed through me and I drank it down, like a bucket of ice water poured over my skin, as though her heritage in the mountains flowed through her veins into mine. The burn faded and I let go of Peta’s energy as soon as the pain was tolerable.