I snorted. "Come on."

Her lips twitched. "Maybe one or two."

"And of course you told them off?"

Her eyes widened. "One is Fiametta's son, so no, I have not told him off."

Time for my eyes to widen. "A true merge of two families? Oooh, the drama."

"I never said I was even going to-"

"Please, you don't have to marry him to carry his child." I lay back on the bed, instantly regretting my words. "Bella, I'm sorry, I didn't mean . . ."

"Lark, don't. Requiem was a long time ago, and I was a fool. I thought I was strong enough to face him on my own." She sighed and lay beside me. "And as much of a monster as he was, he gave me the most amazing daughter."

I wanted to reach over and take her hand, or hug her. But I couldn't make myself move. I wasn't sure I could ever be so forgiving of Requiem. Or the other monsters I'd faced.

"Go to sleep, Lark," she said as though she were in charge.

I closed my eyes, knowing I should have been bothered by the fact that I did as she asked without question; old habits dying hard. Still, I fell asleep within seconds.

My mind, though, did not allow me any respite, as dreams haunted my rest. They battled for my attention, swinging from the war we'd fought against Orion and the demons, to the mother goddess laughing at me, to Blackbird trying to bed me as I lay tied down and unable to fight.

A violent shiver woke me at one point. The breeze coming in from the wide window cooled the sweat along my bare skin. I groped for a blanket and someone placed a thick duvet over me. Peta crept up in her snow leopard form, stretching out alongside my body, and sharing her warmth with me.

Bella dropped an arm around my waist. "Just dreams, Lark. They are just dreams. Let them go."

Again, I obeyed her, and relaxed once more.

The fear left, the pain of all I'd lost slipped away. I fell asleep again, this time safe in knowing, if nothing else, I had my sister with me.

More the fool was I for believing my life would come together so smoothly.

CHAPTER 10.

he banging on the door jerked me out of a dead sleep. I scrambled out of bed, my spear in my hand even as I reached for the power of the earth before my eyes were even fully open.

Spirit and Earth rumbled through me, dangerous in their current state of unpredictability.

"Easy, Lark. We are not surrounded by enemies," Peta soothed.

I shook myself, and quickly let go of my connection to the earth but not my spear.

I strode to the door and opened it with a jerk. In front of me was a petite woman, in all white, one of the Undine slaves. Usually they were human, captured when they ventured too close to the Deep.

She lifted clear blue eyes to me. Elemental power swirled along the edges of her arms as she tapped into the water around us. Obviously not a human, but worse was what I saw in her intention. The lines all but spelled out what she was going to do. Something so simple, and so effective, that no one would realize what had happened to me.

The slave was going to fill my lungs with water so I died without a sound, drowned on dry land.

I grabbed her around the throat and lifted her straight up so her feet dangled. "Not quick enough, assassin."

Her eyes bulged, the color on her arms flared, and I clamped my mouth shut. I bore down until I felt her pulse slow under my fingers, frantic and then pausing between each beat. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head and the lines of blue power faded from her arms. Only when I was sure she was out cold did I let go, letting her drop to the floor with a meaty thump.

"Lark, what is going on?" Bella ran across to me, her hair and skirts seriously rumpled, yet she still looked like a queen.

"Bella, stay here. I don't want you in the middle of this."

She put a hand on my arm, slowing me. "Lark, I am here to help you. What happened?"

My jaw ticked twice before I answered. "She tried to kill me."

Peta sniffed the assassin at my feet. "Half-breed, I think, which explains the slave whites."

My anger grew in leaps and bounds. "Well, Bella, time to see if you can smooth this over, then. Time to be a diplomat before I kill someone."

Bella let out a sigh, but followed me into the hall. She swept her hands over her skirts several times, knocking the worst of the wrinkles out, then swiftly pulled her hair into a loose braid. "I wish you would give me time to properly clean up."

"No time, you know that. If I have an assassin on me, for all we know . . ." I paused and changed what I was going to say at the last second, "that which we seek has already been snagged by Blackbird."

"You have to be wrong," she murmured.

I hoped I was, but an assassin coming after me was no small thing. There was no way Finley would allow it.

Dragging the would-be assassin behind, I stalked toward the throne room.

"You know this isn't Finley's doing," Peta said, her voice rather carefully neutral.

"Why do you say it like that? You think I'm going in there and accusing her of trying to kill me?"

"I hope not," Bella said.

I stopped and stared at her. "I may be a bad-ass bitch, but I'm not crazy."

Bella's lips twitched. "You're hardly the bitch you think you are. Bad ass, absolutely."

Peta laughed, though it was under her breath.

At the throne room doors, I didn't pause, just pushed my way through. The woman I dragged behind me groaned as she came around.

I threw her forward. Her body rolled across the ground, flipping and flopping like a fish out of water until she stopped at the base of Finley's throne.

The queen of the Deep lifted a dark blue eyebrow. She'd grown up since I'd first met her, both in body and mind. Her blue hair had deepened in color to a near violet and was swept up in a twist that left the lines of her face bare, making her seem older than she really was.

But it was her eyes I watched closely. Her blue eyes held her secrets close and I couldn't read her, or what she thought about our sudden appearance. To be fair, she'd fooled me even when she'd been a child, so it shouldn't have surprised me that as an adult she was even better at keeping her face a mask of neutral emotions.

"Lark, I trust you have found something to your displeasure?"

"Do you know this woman?" I tipped my chin in the direction of the slave at her feet.

Finley shook her head, without ever looking down. "No. Should I?"

"She tried to kill me."

From the edges of the room, Finley's Enders shifted, appearing to materialize out of thin air. The slave woman groaned again and pushed herself to her knees. "I am a lowly servant. I did nothing, Your Majesty, but bring her towels."

Finley rose and walked down the few steps so she stood on the floor with me. She tipped her head to one side. "Slave, why would Lark attack you?"

The woman stirred and went to her knees, folding herself in half. "She's crazy. We all know that. The Destroyer. She is here to hurt us as she hurt the Eyrie."

I snorted and smiled at Finley. "If she was bringing us towels, she forgot them, since nothing was in her hands." What a crock of horseshit.

Finley did not smile back. Peta tightened her grip on my shirt. "This is not good, Lark."

Bella stepped forward. "Your Majesty, I was there. This woman attacked my sister, the heir to the Rim's throne, without provocation."

I went stock-still. That was news to me, and not welcome news at that. I'd already turned the throne down once. I would do it again if Bella tried to push it on me. But that was a problem for another time.

The Enders around us shifted again, tightening the circle.

"Queen Belladonna," Finley said, "I believe you would say anything to protect your family."

Her implication was clear: she thought Bella was lying for me. This was going downhill faster than an avalanche in the spring melt.

I held my hands up over my head, facing the palms to Finley. "I have never harmed you, Finley. I've done nothing but be your friend in all the years we have known one another."

"You destroyed the Eyrie, Lark. Do not think anyone has forgotten that, no matter that it happened many years ago," she said. "You could sink the Deep, if you chose to."

Her words were not the words of the queen I knew. Damn it to hell and back. The sapphire had to be affecting her, and whoever controlled her through it. From the third finger on her left hand it glinted, as if winking at me. "Finley-"

"Queen Finley," she said, her eyes hardening ever so slightly. "You may stay another night if you wish and feel the need to rest. You and your sister are our guests. But that only goes so far for one as volatile as you. And I make this concession only because of what you have done for me in the past, and because your queen is here to look after you and keep you on a short tether." As though I were a wayward child.

I gave her a stiff bow, knowing that getting the stone from her was going to be far harder than I'd hoped. Maybe I would have to use the fake sapphire after all. "We will be gone by sunrise tomorrow."

Finley didn't incline her head; she snapped her fingers and an Ender stepped forward. His face reminded me of a boy I'd known once. Sting, and his twin sister Ray, had helped me in my battle to defeat Requiem. And here he stood before me, an Ender. His eyes glittered with the same cheeky humor I'd seen in him as a child. He dared to give me a wink, and I shook my head ever so slightly.

Finley snapped her fingers again. "Ender Sting, take the slave to the healer. Make sure she is not injured badly and can still attend to her duties."

"As you command, my Queen." He bowed at the waist, then bent and scooped up the slave.

He past close enough by me to whisper, "Ray is in the library. She will want to see you."

Again, I nodded ever so slightly. No need to piss off Finley more by fraternizing with her Enders.

Bella laid a hand on my arm, ever so lightly, pressuring me to step back as she moved forward.

"Your Majesty, if I may speak to you? There are matters concerning the four families that warrant our attention. There are wars being waged in the human world we must take notice of as I believe they will soon be at our doorsteps. It is not something we can bury our heads against."

Finley's eyes grew thoughtful. "Of course, but the Destroyer is not welcome to our conversation."

Bella nodded. "You are dismissed, Ender Larkspur."

I knew this game all too well; we'd played it before. I gave another stiff bow. "As you wish." With a quick spin, I strode from the women.

Once outside the throne room, and halfway to our quarters, I finally spoke. "Peta, tell me you remember Finley was not like that before, that it is not just me seeing this change in her."

"She was not like this. Something has happened, of that much I agree. It would seem the mother goddess was correct about the stones. Finley is even more distrusting than Bella." Peta shook her head. "Of course, she has had the ring in her possession almost as long as Bella, and if Finley's behavior is any indicator, she uses it more."

"So now we wait for a chance," I breathed. Waiting was something I could do, but I didn't like it. Not when I knew the longer we waited, the more chance that Blackbird would beat us to the other rulers. Damn it.

Sting said his sister was in the library, but I needed more than a quiet place to wait. I needed to move, to feel my blood pumping. In movement I found my peace, and maybe I'd even find a solution to how to get the stone from Finley.

Every family had a place that was my home away from home. Even here in the Deep.

The Enders Barracks.

I stopped at a doorway leading outside the palace and into the main courtyards of the Deep. Fountains splashed, the sound of water beckoning me out, but it wasn't the water I headed to. Across a small rope bridge was the Enders Barracks, and while it wasn't my barracks, it would do for a substitute.

I hurried across the swaying bridge while Peta clung to me. No point in looking down. I knew what was below the unstable rope bridge. Lots and lots of water, just waiting to swallow me. I shivered and kept my eyes locked on the far side, doing my best not to recall memories I'd much rather forget.

I stepped off the rope bridge and onto the solid footing of the barracks with a quiet sigh.

A twang wrapped through my chest, thinking of the girl who ruled the Deep. I'd saved Finley, helped her gain her throne, and thought she'd been someone I could turn to . . . she'd even fought for me at the battle against the demons. It was as if the second I was set on this quest, the rulers knew I was coming for them. That wasn't possible, was it?

Yet . . . maybe it was. The mother goddess said the stones could be used to control those who wore them. And Shazer had said his creator was still alive . . . worm shit and goblin piss, who was it?

Peta leapt from my shoulder and shifted as she landed. "Perhaps Bella can get the stone from Finley."

"Perhaps." I doubted it, though. Finley's eyes had said it all; she did not trust me. And because of me, she would not trust Bella either. "I only hope Bella doesn't try and take it from her."

"Goddess, that could go badly."

"You think?" I snorted.

"Bella is smarter than that. She knows when to attack and when to retreat and feign defeat."

I walked beside Peta, a hand on her back as we entered the training room for the Deep's Enders.

I went to the center of the room and swung my spear lazily from its holder, thinking about all the possibilities in front of me. All the questions I had no answer to.

I whipped the spear up and over my head, spinning it as hard as I could.