Damn, a fine line indeed. I lifted both hands, palms up and shrugged. “If you wish to bed a viper and think his bite is not venomous, then be my guest. I will say no more, per your wishes.” Turning, I beckoned to Cactus whose face was slack as if I’d punched him in the mouth. “Cactus, you said you would show me the Pit as close as I could get?”

“Stop.” Fiametta said, her voice icy cold, but power rumbled under it and the lava below us picked up in noise, as though fountains spurted with the wicked fire. There was no emotion in Fiametta’s voice. I had her attention now. I turned expecting her command to be for me. It wasn’t.

The Ender—her lover and traitor—was attempting to sprint away. Cactus stepped beside me, lifted his hand and the doorway that the Ender would have run through crumbled, most effectively stopping him.

He spun and lifted his club, pointing it at Fiametta. The fear on him was so thick it seemed to fill the air.

“You bitch, you have ruined this family!”

I was the closest one to him and I acted without truly considering what I was doing.

Pulling Peta from my shoulder I pushed her behind me as I sprinted forward, putting myself between the Ender and Fiametta—of course, I had no weapon.

The Ender laughed. “You think to protect her? She doesn’t deserve your protection.”

I settled into a fight stance. “Leave that to me to decide.”

“Lark, here, you could need this.” Brand called out as the sound of metal and wood scraped along the smooth granite. Rolling to a stop at my feet was my spear, the curved blade, and wooden handle once held by my mother. I scooped it up, and spun it toward the Ender as he raced toward me with his club. The blade caught on the dark stone as we twisted our weapons against one another. My muscles strained and my shoulder protested but I held him back, if only just barely.

“Coal, stop this,” Fiametta said and for just a second I wanted to glance around for the dark hair and green eyes of my previous lover. But of course, this Coal was the Salamander in front of me. And I had no doubt he would kill me if I let my guard down for an instant.

“The last Coal I faced lost his hand,” I said as I thrust my spear toward his belly, turning the move into a downward slash and catching his knee. The tip of my blade cut through his leathers and the side of his knee. He went down but swept his club in front of him keeping me away. His black eyes glittered with hate, and I read the understanding in them that he was going to die.

I took a step back, spinning my spear loosely in front of my body.

Fiametta stepped forward so we stood side by side, but her eyes were all for her lover. “You would kill me?”

He never lowered his eyes and I waited for the moment he would strike. “A thousand times over.”

“Why?”

Coal shook his head. “I will say no more.”

Fiametta tipped her head and I thought for a brief moment I saw a quiver of sorrow flicker over her face. “Coal, drop your weapons.”

He shook his head as he slowly stood, hobbling on one leg. “No. Kill me and be done with it.”

Fiametta spared me a look. “Can you take him without killing him?”

Here was a chance I would not have again to gain her good graces. “If that is what you wish.”

“Do it.”

I stepped in front of her again and slowly shifted my spear so I held the shaft near the blade and the blunt end was aimed at Coal.

“I will force you to kill me.”

I had no doubt he would do just that. “Fiametta, will you allow me to question him?”

She snorted softly. “You think you can make him speak without torture?”

“I know more than he realizes,” I said, the balls of my feet aching with the need to move. I reached for the part of me that was anything but Terraling. Spirit flowed through me and I focused on Coal. On loosening his tongue and making him spill his secrets. Coal eyed me up as he spoke.

“We never met, you never even looked my way when we picked you and your friend out of the Rim.” His eyes bugged as he realized he spoke freely, doing exactly what he said he wouldn’t.

“The first night you bedded the queen, you were searching for something in her room. What is it?” I asked.

Behind me Fiametta sucked in a sharp breath and Coal’s eyes looked over my shoulder. Like the sound of a tornado being unleashed, the oxygen around me was sucked away in a gulping whoosh. A furred body hit me, slamming me to the ground. Peta in her full leopard form crouched over me as the wave of pure lava rolled through the air, and wrapped around Coal. The liquid fire shimmered and shifted in the air, a living coil of death rippling from the queen’s outstretched hands.

Shifting my gaze back to Coal, I stared in horror as the lava wrapped around his middle. His head rolled back as a scream ripped from his mouth—a scream that turned into a gurgle—his body was burned in half, his innards gone in a burst of ash and nothing else. Shocked beyond words, I was unable to look away, unable to believe what I was seeing. What happened to Salamanders being immune to the heat of fire and lava?

But more importantly, what was Fiametta hiding that would make her go against her own decree? Something she was willing to give up a traitor and his connections, a lover she’d held in her arms, to protect.

Peta’s eyes met mine and I put a hand on her head. “Thanks.”

“That’s four times now, Terraling.”

I swallowed hard. “I think you’ll get at least a few more chances to pull my ass from the fire before we’re out of here.”