Peta (An Elemental Series Novella, 3.5) Read Online Free Page B

pissed off Fiametta, if the tightening around her eyes was any indication. I may have never been her familiar, but I’d known her since she was a child and she’d always had a wicked temper. Even if she was better at controlling it now.
    I was proud of the way Lark handled the back and forth between herself, the queen, and Coal. Setting out the way he’d fooled the queen and gotten into her bed.
    Lark turned and started to walk away.
    “Stop,” Fiametta said.
    We turned to see Coal sprinting away.
    Cactus pulled down the archway Coal was headed for effectively blocking him. The Ender spun and pointed his club at Fiametta.
    The queen would deal with him, and we would be free to go.
    At least, that was what I thought.
    Lark pulled me from her shoulder and threw me behind her as she leapt in front of Fiametta.
    Putting herself in danger while trying to protect me.
    Heart beating wildly, I knew it was a good move politically. But I didn’t think that was why the Terraling had done it.
    She’d done it because it was the right thing to do.
    She was going to be the death of me.
    While they fought, Lark used Spirit on Coal. I could feel it flow out of her and into him in a thin trickle, loosening his tongue.
    “The first night you bedded the queen, you were searching for something in her room. What was it?” she asked.
    Beside me the queen went stock-still and I knew Lark was in trouble. It was a split-second decision I made. Shifting into my leopard form, I leapt forward, knocking her to the ground as Fiametta unleashed a wave of lava over our heads. I felt the heat through my thick fur.
    I stared at where Coal had been, now nothing but a pile of ash and a few bits of charred bone.
    Lark buried a hand into the thick fur around my neck. “Thanks.”
    “That’s four times now, Terraling,” I said.
    Her throat bobbed as she 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.”
    “I believe you may be right.”
     
     

CHAPTER 5

 
     
    f course, one fight in a day wasn’t enough for my charge.
    We’d barely gotten back to Brand’s home when Maggie jumped Lark. The two women rolled around, and it wasn’t until Maggie started to drag Dirt Girl toward the lava flow that I started to worry.
    I shouldn’t have though. I needed to remember what I already knew about my Terraling.
    She was a survivor.
    With a quick jerk of her legs, she had Maggie on the ground and was repeatedly slamming the Salamander’s head into the hard stone.
    Smoke and Cactus rebuked her as she stood, breathing hard from the exertion and adrenaline from the fight.
    I meowed at her and she held out her arms. I leapt up and worked my way up to her shoulder. “You should have smashed her at least twice more,” I said.
    She looked up at me, her eyes wide with shock. “You aren’t going to tell me I should have let her pulverize me?”
    I snorted and shook my head. “No, showing weakness in the Pit will get you killed. The others fear you now; they saw you beat Maggie’s ass in a matter of seconds. That is why she came at you. You’ve beaten her once and she lost standing, losing to a mere dirt girl. Now you’ve beaten her a second time. She will look for another way to get at you. So we will have to be extra vigilant.”
    Which was true, we’d have to watch out for Maggie. But for far longer than Lark probably realized. Maggie would wait now, wait for a moment when Lark was at her weakest before she struck. It could be years from now, but Salamanders had a long memory when it came to those they thought had wronged them.
    Once more inside Brand and Smoke’s home, the family sat for dinner. Already word had spread of Lark’s fight with Maggie.
    Lark tried to brush it off as nothing. That would not do at all. She deserved props for beating a superior fighter.
    I stretched, my back arching as I stepped off Lark’s lap and onto the table. I would do my charge the honor she