My mother’s eyes went wide, her expression a plea that slashed my heart.
No!
We weren’t finished here yet.
I needed answers.
And it seemed my mother possessed them all.
She began to convulse, drowning on the liquid clogging her airways. But the element refused me, Elana’s grasp on it decidedly strong.
An element she shouldn’t even be able to touch, I thought, frowning.Unless it’s not water at all, but something else entirely. Something like dark magic.
My gaze widened.
Shit.
I couldn’t fight her Midnight Fae side. But I could use my own gifts to fight her.
Like earth.
Roots danced beneath the concrete floor, begging for my attention. I caught two of them and thrust them upward right beneath her feet to dislodge her stance.
She tripped to the side, her concentration momentarily distracted.
I mentally latched onto two more roots, sending them upward to grab her, only she dodged and sent a flicker of smoke to encircle the limb. It immediately snapped, the agony from the ground nearly bringing me to my knees.
But I wasn’t done.
Stones and dirt andearthresponded to my call, dismantling her floors and creating a bumpy terrain that threw her off guard. She fell with anOomph.
And my mother sputtered beside me, finally able to breathe.
I knelt beside her, unsure of how to free her. The bars were iron, thick, encrusted in fiery magic. And not the element I adored, but a harsher essence that seemed to answer to Elana alone.
She leapt up with a roar, a horde of inky strands writhing around her.
Earth Fae.
They were scrambling, screaming, trying to escape.
But she was sucking on them harshly, absorbing more and more of their power.
Is Sol among them?I wondered, my heart catching in my throat.Aflora?How many others?
I had to do something,anything, to stop this madness.
It couldn’t continue.
I wouldn’t let her take down the Earth Fae as she had the Spirit Fae. Sentencing a faeling to death because of her bloodlines and abilities was wrong, yes. But Elana’s response, her torment, her violent reactions, made it all so much worse.
There had to be another way.
I refused to accept her path, to agree with such a fucked-up mentality.
This can’t be the solution.
My arms spread wide, my elements joining and thrashing inside me, urging me to intervene, tofixthis. To help the Earth Fae trapped around her aura. To free my mother. To find another method of coexistence. To take down the bad influence who threatened the source of elemental good.
