“What’s happening?”

Through gritted teeth, I spoke as the door groaned. “Someone is pushing the doors closed as I’m holding them open.” There was only one person it could be: that female in the black cloak, Blackbird’s lackey.

Closing my eyes, I held the doors, my entire body shaking with the effort. A hand touched my arm.

“Let it go, Lark,” Ash said.

They were through, that was my only thought as I relaxed my hold on the door. It slammed shut with a thunderous boom that shook the walls.

Breathing hard I put my hands on my knees for a moment before straightening and turning around. I stared at the scene in front of me. Not one Salamander less was in the group.

“What the hell is wrong with you? Why didn’t you go through?”

“How can we trust you?” Maggie said, putting her face right into mine. “You could have crumbled the archway on top us as we walked through.”

There was more than a murmuring of assent more like a roar of agreement.

The mother goddess’s words about my father came back to me. Fear would stop people from trusting even those who only wanted to help them.

“You all just signed your own death warrants,” I said softly, fatigue hitting me hard. Or maybe it wasn’t fatigue, but sorrow, an ache that even when I tried I wasn’t able to help them. Because deep down, no matter how much they hurt me or treated me like worm shit, I couldn’t stand by and watch them die.

Fiametta motioned for me to follow her a few steps away. For the first time, her eyes showed the strain she was under. “Larkspur, I will beg if I must. I cannot stop the lava flows.”

I frowned at her, anger building once more. “You could have made them go through the doorway. You could have been the first one through and shown them the way out and this would now not even be a discussion.”

Her face was carefully blank. “You are right.”

My eyebrows shot up. “Little late for that, don’t you think?”

Her lips pursed and then softened, but there was no time for her to answer me. Behind us came the cries of her people and the splashing of lava as it reached the back of the line. People pushed forward, screaming, crying, and begging.

I was jammed against the door along with Fiametta. They would take the doorway now . . . if I could open it.

Fear raced along my synapses as I put my hands on the slick back material once more. There was no room for anger inside the fear that snapped through me, biting at every thought and breath I had.

“Peta, help me,” I whispered. “I can’t reach the earth unless I’m angry.”

“Ash,” she called out, “Cactus, get over here.”

The two men pushed through, climbing over people to get to me. Screams echoed up the tunnel as the lava kissed at the heels of those at the back.

Ash and Cactus crouched beside me. “What do you need us to do?”

Peta curled tighter around my neck. “Show her you trust her. That is the key to breaking through these final bonds she carries.”

Cactus didn’t hesitate, but wrapped his arms around me from his side, pressing his lips into my hair. “I trust you to save us, Lark. You can do this.”

From my right side, Ash placed his hands over mine. “Larkspur, you truly are the best of us, don’t doubt it.”

Shaking, I closed my eyes, tried to block the sounds of people being burned alive as I dug into the part of me that held my powers. Spirit and Earth bound together, a bundle of strength I’d never truly tapped into.

Tears streaked my face as I fought to reach them, struggled to get past the blocks put in place by Cassava and an old anger burned through me.

“No,” Peta said. “Let the anger go and hold to the trust and love. That is your way now, Lark. That is the only way.”

The warmth of Cactus, the belief of Ash and support of Peta swirled through me and I suddenly understood. The strength I had would change things no matter how I used it, but I had a choice. Just like Blackbird.

For good or for ill, how would my power be seen?

The earth’s strength roared through me like never before and I flooded the door with it, blasting it apart and sending the one who would hold it against me flying away. On my knees, with my eyes closed, the rushing of the Salamanders as they flew by me no longer caring who I was, the world seemed to speak to me. Two words, but they meant everything to me.

Well done.

Not the mother goddess though, but a male voice, one I didn’t recognize. I slowly opened my eyes in time to see Fiametta stride through the opening. She stopped on the other side. “Hurry, the lava is right behind you.”

Her words snapped me out of the headspace I’d been in. I glanced behind to see the lava creeping along the tunnel, glowing its fierce red like the eyes of a demon. I put a hand on Peta.

“The children,” I said. “We can’t leave them to Blackbird. They were his back-up plan, I’m sure of it. And now he has a reason to use them.”

Cactus pulled back from me. “The children are alive? Can we get to them?”

I nodded and stood, a feeling of surety falling over me.

“We have to.”

With a flick of my wrist, I pulled the doorway down, plunging us back into the semi gloom of the lava-filling tunnel.

CHAPTER 23

The lava crept toward us and I faced it head on. “Blackbird, I know you hear me. I don’t care what your game is, but I want those children. All of them, both wyrm and Salamander.”