Skyborn

by Leia Stone

  A grunting noise pulled my attention. Logan had Steven pinned, a green blade to his throat, just as Eva appeared beside me and handed me her long trench coat. “Wear this,” she told me. I numbly slid it on, covering my naked form and nodded to her. Then I reached down and picked up one of the old harpoons that had been in Logan’s wing. I had to let the pack fend for themselves, because Logan needed my help. Maybe together we could take out Steven.

  It looked like Isaac was holding his own with Ardan, although just barely and if the good druid weren’t here we would be dead by now. I was going to stab Steven in the eyeball for what he had done to Logan. Stalking closer to the fight, my eyes on the prize, I cursed when the druid suddenly disappeared from underneath Logan and reappeared hovering right above him.

  “Logan! Look o—” My warning came too late; the red glowing knife slammed into Logan’s shoulder, up near his neck.

  Time went still then. I could hear my breath coming out slowly, louder than it should be, as if all of my senses were hyper aware. My legs went weak as I looked at Logan hunched forward with the red glowing dagger shoved into his back. A searing pain sliced through my heart then as I realized what this meant.

  Logan’s green dragon magic began to lift upward from his body, and the burning pain in my chest increased, a pain so raw and unique it was akin to the same grief that had torn me open when my mother passed. My mate … was dying. Anger, fear, and desperation flooded every cell of my being as I ran forward with a cry on my lips.

  “Nooo!” I shouted, lashing out with my magic, letting it go wherever it wanted, letting it be free.

  A purple bomb exploded before me, saturating everything within a fifty-foot distance, including the trees. Logan, Steven, Ardan, Isaac, they all lit up like purple Christmas trees, then Ardan and Steven blinked out and they were gone. Isaac was brought to his knees, one hand on his staff, the other dug deep into the earth. He was staring at me with those golden eyes, but I cared nothing about any of that right now. The purple haze was fading as I ran, and when I reached Logan I ripped the dagger out of his back in one swift motion. Touching the blade burned my hand slightly but it was minor pain to the gaping hole that had opened in my heart.

  Logan fell forward and I heard him grunt. With a little effort, I rolled him over. He was still breathing, but shallowly and wet, rasping as if his lungs were filling with blood. Everything within me screamed in protest. I’d just found him, I’d barely gotten to know him, and now … we would both die.

  Logan looked around at the forest beyond me, and then at my face, as if he was having trouble focusing. He reached up to touch a piece of my red hair and trailed it between his fingers. “I dreamed about you,” he rasped. “Before I met you, I dreamed of this hair.” He trailed his fingers over my eyelids as tears leaked from the edges. “These green eyes.” His thumb then skimmed my cheek and found its way to my lips. “These lips.”

  I couldn’t bear it any longer. If we were going to die, we might as well die kissing. I’d only gotten to kiss him once, and all it did was make me want more. A lifetime of more. I leaned forward and pressed my lips to his as his hand came up around my neck and pulled me closer with surprising strength.

  I felt something pull inside of my chest and squeeze my heart. It was happening. He was dying and I was dying with him. I reached up to touch the scruff at his face as a numbness spread throughout my body.

  He pulled back slightly, moving his lips to my ear and whispered, “You were worth the wait.” With those final words his hand slipped from my neck and his head crashed backward as the life left his eyes. I couldn’t speak, couldn’t breathe.

  The tightness in my chest increased until I was sure I was having a heart attack, then with a pop the pressure eased and purple magic flared from my upper body and lurched into his. Some of his green dragon magic was hovering just above his body. Now it began to settle back down as if magnetically pulled by my purple essence. I was about to sit up and adjust my position when a deep voice above me spoke.

  “Don’t. Move.” My eyes flicked up to see Isaac watching me cautiously with those golden eyes. I froze, looking down again to see my magic had encased Logan. His own green magic was leaking out and merging with mine to make the most beautiful oceanic teal color I had ever seen. Hope burst inside of my chest.

  “Can I save him?” I asked Isaac. I didn’t know if he would know the answer, but I had to speak it out loud to someone.

  Eva’s voice called out from behind me. “They’re mates,” she told Isaac.

  I could see now that the entire pack was assembling around us. Nadine looked injured but alive, Gear still in his bird form and clutched to her chest. I continued to brace myself awkwardly over Logan as the purple and green magic danced and pulsed between us. Isaac bent down low and took a whiff of Logan’s hair. Okay. Weirdo. Then he stood.

  Isaac addressed the pack: “His soul still remains. You know what they say about dragon mates, don’t you?”

  I heard Sophie reply, and was grateful she wasn’t dead: “They’re bound to each other. If one dies, they both die.”

  Isaac gave her a once over and shook his head. “Wrong. The legend says that in order to kill a dragon mated pair, you must kill both. For as long as one lives, the other will survive.”

  Just then, Logan took in a huge gasping breath and I burst into shocked tears. The purple haze was thinning out now, and Logan’s shoulder seemed to have stopped bleeding.

  “You’re alive,” I told him, smiling as the pain and numbness that had once claimed my body faded away.

  He looked up, and Isaac peered down directly on top of him. “Welcome back.”

  Logan frowned, confused. “Who are you?”

  Keegan swam into view just as I sat up fully. When I registered the limp red fox in his arms a strangled sob left my throat. Keegan was limping, holding Cooper’s fox in his arms. The red fur was nearly all black with ash and soot. Like he’d been burned.

  “Coop!” Sophie screamed throwing herself forward and crashing onto her knees.

  Logan’s eyes were pinned on Keegan’s, his breathing coming in and out rapidly. Keegan simply shook his head as Danny walked up behind him.

  “I couldn’t save him.” Danny said resigned.

  Sophie was sobbing into the ground, pounding on the grass and Keegan’s jaw was clenched so hard I thought his teeth would snap in half.

  Oh my God. Cooper was dead. The gentle giant with the twelve-inch beard… was gone.

  The way his little fox form lay so limply in Keegan’s arms, the alpha’s fingers clenched in his fur. It tore me in two.

  “Those druids will be back.” Was all Keegan said.

  Logan groaned as he sat up fully, never taking his eyes from Keegan’s.

  “Coop.” Logan finally said ignoring Keegan’s warning and tears sprung from my eyes at the misery in his tone. It was a goodbye.

  “Alright. Everyone on the bus!” Isaac broke apart our mourning and pointed to the yellow school bus in the parking lot. That was his bus? Keegan looked at Eva, who nodded.

  “This is my friend I told you about. He has land where we can go to heal and recover,” Eva told them.

  How the hell did Eva know so much about this man? Who in the hell was this man? I didn’t care right now. I only cared that Logan was alive and that Cooper was dead. I couldn’t process it yet, that we had lost one of ours. Keegan started barking orders for everyone to get on the bus, and handed Coopers lifeless fox off to a grieving Sophie who took him to the bus. Then Keegan pulled the trusty tweezers out of his pocket and waved it before Logan. Logan sighed, and I helped him stand fully as he thrust out his hand to Keegan; black scales formed on his arms while the rest of him stayed human. Keegan plucked three scales and handed one to Eva. “Gear first,” he told her, and she nodded, running off to find Nadine and the injured falcon.

  I looked around, surveying the carnage. Blood, dead bodies, and scorch marks littered the ground.

  “I’m gonna get Mitt
ens from the limo. I’ll meet you on the bus,” Logan told me in a scratchy voice, emotions still raw from the loss of Cooper. He reached down to place a soft kiss on my lips, holding my gaze.

  ‘You saved my life with that weird purple magic,’ he mused.

  I gave a sad smile. ‘Guess you can’t call it weird anymore.’

  ‘It’s purple. It will always be weird,’ he replied, and I relished having him so close, breathing in his scent. It was like a balm to my saddened soul.

  “Are you sure about Mittens? I can get her.” I didn’t want him overextending himself.

  He nodded. “I’m fine.” Then he walked off, and that left me and this weird druid, alone. Isaac was just standing there waiting for me to acknowledge him. I turned to look at him and he nodded.

  “You’re a dream walker. I know most dragons have the capability, but I saw you. You visited me in my meditation.”

  My face went red, because that sounded all kinds of weird. “Yeah. Sorry.”

  He shrugged. “I’m sure you can’t control it. Just like you couldn’t control that purple blast of magic that made me feel like I’d been kicked in the balls.”

  My eyes went wide as I winced. “Ouch, really?” Oopsie.

  He grabbed his junk and nodded. “It was very effective, but I need to teach you to control it better. Hone it. Give it a purpose. Harness your druid power.”

  I swallowed hard. “No offense, but I don’t really want to learn the ways of the druid. I’m a skyborn and that’s enough for now.” I’d had enough weirdness to last me a lifetime and I hadn’t even begun my training with Logan yet.

  Isaac nodded. “Understandable. But you will. I’m not like those monsters. I don’t use dragon magic to gain power. I borrow from Mother Earth, and so will you.”

  The way he was speaking, with such finality, it was annoying and scary. “Oh yeah? Why’s that?”

  He grinned, his straight white teeth and dimpled cheeks making him look ten years younger. “Because I’ve been waiting a century for one of your kind. Together we can kill Ardan and take out the druid line forever.”

  My pulse skyrocketed. “How?” To be honest, that’s all I had wanted to do since I heard of these crazy monsters, but Ardan seemed way too powerful for only two druids to take on. Hell, he’d just commanded red lightening from the sky and could disappear and reappear at will!

  Isaac stepped closer and pulled his sleeve up to show me an intricate tattoo on his upper arm. “Because our powers are bound now. I am a master druid, and you are now my apprentice.”

  Druid say what? I stared at the tattoo, confused, until he tapped my shoulder. Looking down over my left shoulder, Eva’s coat had slipped down leaving a bit of the flesh there exposed. I gasped at what I saw. An intricate Celtic tattoo covered my entire left shoulder cap. The ink was slightly green and it looked like it had been there forever.

  “The hell is that?” I shrieked, trying to wipe it off; the marks looked identical to his.

  Isaac smiled. “Initiation marks. The Earth has chosen you, as it chose me. Together we will end this war.”

  Oh shit.

  “But …I…” I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t want it. I didn’t choose it. But it was there, right on my shoulder. Did I want to deny something that could bring an end to Ardan? An end to having to live on the run and fighting for our lives all the time? I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t deny Logan and I the freedom we so desperately deserved. This man was powerful. He’d held his own with Ardan. Maybe if we teamed up, we could take him out.

  “Teach me,” I said, and Isaac grinned.

  He nodded. “Together we will make the Earth safe for all skyborn, and in turn all of the humans they are bound to.”

  My brow furrowed. “You mean just Logan and I?” The way he said all the skyborn sounded weird.

  Isaac stepped closer, bringing a scent of earth and tree sap, and lowered his voice. “No, I mean all of the skyborn. There are dozens in hiding all over the world. The Earth shelters them from being found, but not for long.”

  My stomach dropped, my body went numb as shock ripped through me. We weren’t alone.

  Wondering what will happen to Sloane and the crew next? Read on with Earthbound: Dragons and Druids book 2. http://smarturl.it/EarthBoundBook

  Also, if you haven’t read Logan’s prequel, you can do so here for free. http://smarturl.it/LoganBook

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  Acknowledgments

  A big thank you to my beta-readers for telling me if it was crappy or not. Shout out to my bestie Jaymin Eve just because. Huge thanks to my editor, Lee with Ocean’s Edge Editing, for making it shine and finding my many, many typos. As always, I am thankful for my readers and release team for being so enthusiastic about this book and loving Sloane and Logan as much as I do. Thank you to Tiffany Pipkin for helping me pick Sloane’s name. Most of all, thank you to EVERYONE who bought this book or shared the link so that we could fundraise an orphanage in India together. This is something that will change the lives of 12 children and I am so grateful for your support in that. Lastly, thank you to my husband and children for dealing with my starry-eyed look when my head was lost in this story and dinner was burning. I love you guys.