Peta (An Elemental Series Novella, 3.5)

"I love Shannon's Rylee Adamson series . . . and I was wonderfully surprised that I loved her Elemental Series even more!"

-Denise Grover Swank USAT & NYT Bestselling Author of the "Chosen Series"

"I could not put it down and greedily consumed it in one sitting!"

-Books In Veins

"I think Larkspur aka Lark is the new heroine to watch out for . . ."

-Coffee Book Mom Reviews

“What a fantastic start to a new fantasy series! I love a strong female lead and we were delivered that in spades with Larkspur . . . This story is fast paced and exciting right from the start. I can't wait to see what comes next!”

-Boundless Book Reviews

For my readers.

oam’s death should have been hard for me. I should have grieved before reporting back to the mother goddess. Yet I found it hard to grieve for a charge who’d never truly wanted me in his life, and had made that clear on a daily basis. To him, I was more of an embarrassment than anything else. I snorted softly.

“Twelve. Perhaps that is my lucky number and I will finally be done traipsing after fire elementals who are so prideful they can’t even see when they are walking into danger.” My feet sank into the snow all the way to my belly. I shifted from my housecat form to snow leopard and bounded up the steep slope. According to humans, the mountain was haunted by those who’d died in an attempt to ascend it. I’d never seen a ghost though, in all the times I’d climbed to the mother goddess to speak with her. The snow swirled in tight little circles in front of my nose, and then shifted and turned into a hand that beckoned me forward.

So the mother goddess knew I was here. I wasn’t surprised.

Leaping onto a rock ledge, I pulled myself to the front doorstep of the mother goddess. Curled in a tight circle on the bare rock, her form was that of my own mother, a clouded snow leopard. Her dark spots were perfectly laid out over her pale cream fur, and her pristine blue eyes were vibrant against the snowy backdrop. Her large, rounded ears twitched toward me.

I went to my belly and bowed my head, breathing in the scent of the earth and ice. “Mother.”

“Child, you have not had time to grieve. Why do you come so quickly to me?” Her voice held only the slightest rebuke.

I kept my head down. “I wish to be set free of my charges. I have overseen the lives of a dozen of your elemental children. More than any other familiar in your care. Please. Set me free.”

She moved toward me, laying against my side and placing her head across my back. “You believe it is freedom you seek?”

“It is.” I lifted my head. “You know that is my heart’s desire.”

“I know your heart, Nepeta. I know it better than you know yourself, I think.” She started to purr, the soft rumble soothing along my back and I closed my eyes. This time she would allow me to go my own way. To live out a natural life no longer tied to an elemental who wouldn’t listen to me regardless of how right I was.

“One last charge, Nepeta. One final life to watch over. Will you do that?”

She asked, as if I had a choice. I’d heard of familiars turning her down, but I could not be that one. The mother goddess called me to her and I would always answer her as I should.

A sigh slipped out of me. “Yes, I will. What Salamander do you have in mind this time?”

The thought crossed my mind that she could assign me to Fiametta. After all, we knew that Jag, Fiametta’s current familiar was barely even allowed to be in the throne room. I kept my mouth shut; the last thing I wanted was to be stuck with the queen.

“Larkspur. That is who you will guide.”

“Larkspur?” The name was familiar, but not a Salamander name at all. A flower, known for its beauty and deadly poison. An image of the Deep flowed over my mind, of diving into the water and fighting to keep a Terraling alive.

“You mean Dirt Girl?” The words screeched out of me as I stood. “A Terraling? You’ve got to be joking. Their familiars are
canines
.”

The mother goddess stared at me, her eyes unfathomable in their serenity. “I do not joke about things of this nature, child of mine. She is in terrible need of your help. And there is no other familiar I would assign to her.”

“Why, because you want her to die with the bad luck cat?” I bit the words out, knowing I was being irrational and more than a little disrespectful. But a Terraling? They were weak and useless. I couldn’t understand why the mother goddess would assign me to one. Unless she thought the same of me.

My heart sank and I turned my face away.

“Child, that is not why I give you to her. She is as special to me as you are special to me. Trust that I would not assign you to someone who wouldn’t be—”

“Loam hated me. So did the one before him, and the one before that. Do you know how long its been since any of my charges even listened to me? They draw strength from me without thought, they ignore my advice and treat me as if I am lower than them. None of them, except for my first, has even shared a meal with me.”

The mother goddess padded forward and butted her head against mine. “I know all this, and I know that it tears at your heart. Yet you learned from all of them, Nepeta. You learned and you gained what you would need for this moment. I know it was hard and I wept when they didn’t love you as they should. It was all preparation for this time in your life.”

My eyes blurred with her words. “Then why this? A final insult?”

“A final charge, Nepeta. There will be no more after this. Larkspur will be your last. That is my promise to you.”

A sigh slipped out of me. “Then I am off to the Rim. Perhaps a change of scenery will not be so bad. Is Griffin still there? Would you like me to take him a message?”

“No, my consort and I are not on speaking terms right now.” She grimaced. “Besides, you are not going to the Rim.”

I tipped my head to one side. “Is she still in the Deep?” I didn’t like the world of the Undines, but I would go there if that was where my charge was. Duty was something I understood far too well.

“No, Larkspur is in the Pit. And she has landed herself in some rather hot water.”

I twitched my tail but otherwise kept my thoughts to myself. Of course Dirt Girl had landed herself in trouble. How was I not surprised?

The mother goddess licked the side of my face. “Let your heart guide you, Nepeta. That is the only way you both will survive this.”

I stared at her. “She cannot be more dangerous to my health than Loam was. He was a fool and all but allowed the Undines to manipulate him.”

The mother goddess’s eyes filled my vision as the icy cold swirled through my fur and I was sped away to my newest charge. “She is far more dangerous than Loam, Nepeta, both to herself and to the world. It is why she needs you.”

I opened my mouth to ask one last question, but it was swept away in the swirl of snow melting into water, cold sliding into crushing heat, and my freedom turned into the chains of yet another charge.