“And you believe what you saw?” His eyes were wide, the disbelief in them as clear as a sky in mid-summer. A feeling I knew all too well. To know something in your heart was true, but to be unable to speak of it, to tell others what you knew.

“No one would believe me, either, Ash. And I convinced myself it was just a dream, one I lived over and over.”

His arm loosened on me, just a little.

“Then you know I was assigned to keep you safe.” I nodded and he continued. “I failed you once. I won’t fail you again . . . Larkspur.”

I blinked away a wash of gratitude, which was closely followed by a shot of anger. “Then why the hell have you treated me like worm shit during my training?” The words snapped out and Ash gave me a lopsided grin.

“Best way to keep you safe was making sure you didn’t become an Ender. To think you couldn’t do it. This is not a job for the long-lived and uninjured, if you haven’t noticed.”

My jaw dropped and I spluttered. “You were trying to get me to quit?”

“Yes.”

“That’s why you were being such a bastard?”

His chuckle reverberated through to me, our ribs pressed against one another. “Who’s calling who a bastard?”

Ouch. I flinched away from him. “I think I’ll use the wall.”

He didn’t apologize and I realized he was still trying to get me to give up. To make me turn back from this course of action, of becoming an Ender. And somehow, that made me like him more. He might be an ass, but in his own way, he was looking out for me. Even after all these years.

We wove our way slowly through the passages until voices brought us to a standstill. “Is that who I think it is?” I whispered.

Ash frowned. “I sure as hell hope not.”

With her high-pitched soprano tones, Belladonna was a hard one to confuse with anyone else. She laughed at something, and then Ash was pushing and shoving me into a tiny crevice with him, our bodies jammed so tight we could have been sardines in those tin cans the humans liked so much. He drew his cloak over us except for our eyes. Now the cloak made sense, a perfect camouflage in the darkness.

From the shadows, we watched Belladonna draw close. “So you see, your Highness, my mother thinks it’s best if this”—she waved her hand in the air, flickering her fingers several times, light glinting off rings that didn’t look like anything she’d previously worn—“illness runs its own course, without the intervention of healers. She wants to see our portion of the family strengthened.”

We both stiffened under the confines of the cloak. Anger burned up my guts and it took everything I had not to lurch out, hobbling on one leg, to bash Belladonna until she told us everything.

“Steady,” Ash said, his voice low and surprisingly calming.

The man with Belladonna, I could easily guess who he was. Queen Fiametta, a rather calculating lady, ruled the Pit. Okay, she was a total bitch from what I understood. No doubt this was her crown prince, Flint. He had bright red hair like many of the Salamanders did, but he also had a streak of black running down the middle of it, like a charred log in the middle of burning flame. A signature that ran in the royal bloodline here.

The odd couple drew close enough that I could see the orange light flickering in Flint’s eyes. He reached out and touched a finger to Belladonna’s chin. “It’s a shame the families don’t recognize half-breeds. We would have amazingly beautiful babies.”

My mouth dropped open and Ash slid his hand over it. He pressed his lips to my ear. “Shhhh.”

If I’d wanted to, I could have reached out and grabbed my half-sister by the ear, jerking her around to face me. Belladonna laughed, oblivious to how close we stood. “My mother would rather see me dead than give birth to a half-breed, no matter how beautiful it was, cousin.”

They continued on their way, flirting back and forth, voices slowly receding. Ash unwrapped us from his cloak and we stepped out of the crevice. “I hope he knocks her up,” I said, my voice low.

“Me too.”

I shot a look at Ash. He was watching their receding forms, a full body shudder taking him. No, he didn’t like her any more than I did. And he had far more reason to hate her.

“We need a way down to the healers’ quarters. I know roughly where it is, but we need someone to help us get by all the checkpoints.”

I couldn’t help but wonder if my friend was still here, and if he was, was he still the boy I knew or had he changed too much to help an old friend? “I think I might be able to help there.”

Ash shot me a sharp look. “Then do it.”

Letting out a slow breath, I placed my hand on the wall we stood closest too. It was an old trick, one that every elemental knew. Those you were close to, if you weren’t far apart, you could call them through the earth. Every elemental had a tie to the mother goddess, and like the human technology we could make a call of sorts. But that would mean tapping into the earth and the power there. Fear grabbed me around the throat, strangling me with an ease that left me gasping. I shook my head, sweat dripping down my face, nausea rolling through me. “I can’t, the pain will be too much. You’ll have to call him, Ash.”

He put his hand on the wall, not questioning me. “Who and how?”

“Cactus. Tell him you want to play hide-and-seek in the forest.” I was surprised Ash didn’t balk at the seeming silly request, but also at how much I wanted to see Cactus. He’d been taken away, not long after my family had been killed. We hadn’t even been able to say goodbye. I leaned against the wall, breathing slowly, rubbing carefully at my knee.