Earthbound (Dragons and Druids Book 2)

by Leia Stone

  “Sorry, dears, Faery is long gone, so traveling to these memories is a bit harder,” she said, from beside me.

  “It’s fine.” Danny waved his hand, taking in the great hall. Above was a domed ceiling with paintings of elfin warriors in battle with their queen. A queen who stood not ten feet from me, with white silken hair cascading to her waist. She was perched on her golden throne, reading a book. As she flipped the pages I realized I could hear!

  “I can hear!” I guess it was the ear after all.

  Eva looked confused until her eyes roamed over the queen. “Of course. It’s her magic after all, looking back on her own memories, there will be sound.”

  Fascinating.

  “Where’s my—?” The door opened, cutting off my question, and a sob escaped me as my mother glided into the room. She looked like she was wearing a costume—breast plates, arm cuffs, and two large swords crossed behind her back.

  “Mom!” I shouted, and started running. I didn’t care that this was a memory, or my mother looked like a Dungeons and Dragons character, this all felt so real. I wanted to hug her. But she didn’t turn to my voice, or my approaching feet. Instead, she walked right to her queen, who set her book down and dismissed her guards.

  I reached my mom, hoping for a smell, a touch, but I went right through her like a ghost.

  “So? What did you think of them? The humans?” the queen asked, with glittering eyes as my heart crushed. I couldn’t talk to my mom.

  Danny ran up behind me and slipped his hand in mine. I squeezed it, hard, and stared at my beautiful mother. Her fiery red hair was pleated into a large braid that hung down her back.

  “I admit I was taken with them. They’re … so innocent in a way.” The way she spoke so casually with the queen, and gave no bow or curtsy proved they were good friends. “But I especially loved the children. Such sweet children who don’t grow up learning battle or magic skills. They’re all thrust into academia. It’s…”

  The queen leaned forward with lips curled into a grin. “Fascinating?”

  My mother laughed then, and it punched me in the gut to hear that sound. Danny’s grip on my hand tightened.

  “Yes, they are fascinating,” she said.

  The queen bounced up and down a little and clapped her hands. “I knew you would love them! I think we should invite some of them to come here.”

  My mother’s face darkened, then. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. Word of your fascination with the humans has gotten out. The druids are rumored to be furious.”

  The queen stuck up her nose. “The old, high and mighty druids can kiss my arse.”

  My mother smiled lazily. “You forget I am a high and mighty druid?”

  The queen shrugged. “You’re nothing like them. Besides, you’re a fire druid. You’re above them.”

  My mom looked uncomfortable. “I don’t want to be above anyone.”

  “Hold on,” Eva spoke then. “I’m going to try to go forward a bit but keep us in this place.” The room fast-forwarded lightning-quick, people zooming in and out of the room until Eva stopped it and the queen was looking sullen, sitting shrunken in her chair, my mother standing over her.

  “The people have heard of your love for the human,” my mother declared.

  The queen looked up into my mother’s eyes. “Thomas. His name is Thomas, and I do love him. I love all of them.”

  My mother winced slightly. “I’m concerned for your safety. People are saying you love the humans more than our own kind. They say you’ve lost sight of what’s best for Faery.”

  The queen stood so abruptly my mother stumbled back a step. Yellow puffs of smoky magic leaked off of the queen’s skin as power crackled in the air. “What’s best for Faery is to open our arms to these people. Have you seen how many of them there are? They outnumber us ten to one. Have you seen their weapons? Those small canisters, the projectiles … the...?” She was snapping her fingers, trying to remember.

  My mother nodded. “They call them guns. Yes, I’ve seen.”

  The queen nodded. “But most of them are harmless. Look how infatuated they are with us when we visit. If we keep dialog open with their leaders, I know that both of us can co-exist beautifully.”

  My mother did something then that she always did when she was stressed. She pinched her thumb and pointer finger together, like a nervous tic.

  “If you go ahead with this plan, then I fear an assassination plot, Your Majesty,” my mother pleaded with her.

  The queen laughed. “Oh, Racine. No one will kill me. I have you.” She smiled. The yellow magic had dissipated, but it let me know one thing. The queen, in part, was a sorceress.

  It was clear her vision was clouded by love. My mother looked defeated, like she knew she wouldn’t be able to talk sense into her.

  “This is getting intense. Should I go forward? To the dark times?” Eva asked. I could tell she wanted to see, but also wanted to protect me.

  “Yes. I can handle it,” I told her, my eyes glued to my beautiful, strong warrior mother. I needed to know more. To know everything.

  The room fast-forwarded then, and when Eva stopped there was a weeping figure huddled on the ground. Two female attendants tried to pull her up but she wailed. My mother ran in then.

  “I came as soon as I could? What happened?” My mother was breathless.

  An attendant stepped forward and lowered her voice. “Thomas … he died.”

  My mother’s face fell and I saw actual sadness there. I don’t know how many years had passed since the last scene, but it was clear she had come to love the humans. “How did he die? Was he murdered?”

  The queen stopped her wailing then and looked at my mother; her white hair limp, she looked absolutely devastated. “No. It was a simple ailment. I could have healed him had he been with me, but he was back there, in the frail human world, visiting his family. I didn’t go with him because I had the druids to contend with. It’s all my fault!” she screamed. “We barely had any time together. No children. Nothing!”

  My mother fell to her knees before the queen. “I … don’t know what to say. My heart bleeds for you. But the fact is, the humans are weak. Their lives are a blink compared to ours. Simple diseases ravage their world and attack their fragile bodies. There is nothing you could have done. They don’t have the magic we do.”

  The queen stilled then, as if something my mother said had shook her. “Dragons,” she whispered.

  My mother looked confused and motioned to the two attendants. “Why don’t you bring the queen a nice strong drink…”

  The queen was staring at nothing, but she looked in awe. “Dragon magic could have healed him.”

  My mother grabbed the queen by the armpits and hauled her up firmly. “But it didn’t, and we can’t have dragons flying around Earth, so you need to just let it go.”

  The queen reached up tenderly and cupped my mother’s face. “Oh, Racine, you’ve never known love. Not like what I had. When you have it, you’ll do anything in your power to keep it. Trust me.” She straightened her back and let her hands fall away from my mother, marching over to the far wall, where the weapons were kept. She pulled free a shining sword and brandished it before her, holding it firmly in the air.

  “I will not let it go,” the queen declared with a shaky voice, and the room crackled with unseen power. “I will do better by Thomas’ people. I will protect them all from befalling his fate. He died too young.”

  My mother sighed, looking defeated, and walked over to the wall, pulling her sword out as well and touching it to the queen’s. “I’m with you until the end. Now what would you have us do?”

  The queen grinned. “We will create a race of protectors for humanity in Thomas’ name. We will call them the skyborn.”

  My mother looked resigned. “The high council of druids will kill you for this. I can’t protect you from them all.”

  The queen lowered her sword. “I just don’t care anymore.”

  Then they
walked out of the room together, leaving Eva, Danny, and I to stare at the empty room in shock.

  “Holy shit,” Danny exclaimed next to me. “That was heavy.”

  Before I could reply, Eva pulled us back to the bus. The nausea hit me and I was swirling up, down and around, before slamming into my body.

  As soon as I felt the solid floor beneath my feet, I opened my eyes. We three just sat there in complete silence for a moment, staring at the copper ball and all of the secrets it held.

  “Well?” Sophie asked, and I finally looked up to face them all.

  I nodded. “My mom was the queen of Faery’s right-hand woman.”

  “Holy shit.” Sophie was appraising me with newfound respect. “My God, I’ll bet she’s looking down on your fighting skills with such disappointment,” she joked.

  I gave a fake laugh, and then Nadine coaxed Sophie into telling stories she knew of the battle druid. It gave me time to gather my thoughts.

  ‘What did you see?’ Logan’s soft voice prodded lovingly in my head.

  I rubbed my temples. ‘A queen on the edge of despair, blinded by love and grief. My mother throwing all caution to the wind out of loyalty. It was … crazy and sad to see her again. To know she lived this whole other life and never told me.’

  Tears welled in my eyes but I brushed them away. To hear her laugh again… it was worth it, even if it brought immense pain with it.

  ‘She clearly loved you beyond all others. She lied to hide you, and keep you safe. Keep you out of the dangers of this life.’

  ‘I know.’ Still, it was unsettling. All those times I asked her about normal stuff like the weather and math … I should have asked her what it felt like to create the skyborn by the queen’s side.

  ‘I can’t believe Marcus fell in love with the queen’s battle druid. I should have listened to him when he said she was different.’ Just as I couldn’t forget my mother lying to me, Logan couldn’t let his past with Marcus go.

  I stood; Logan opened his arms and I stepped into them, pinning him against the back of the seat with my hips. “If I’m not allowed to dwell on the past, then neither are you.”

  He smiled softly and leaned forward to kiss me, brushing lightly against my lips. When we pulled away, I looked into his eyes without saying a word. This moment, it was hard to explain to anyone else. Having a mate was this completeness I’d never felt in life.

  The bus slowed and then pulled to a stop in front of a small house. “This is it,” Isaac stated.

  “I’m going!” Sophie shouted, and pushed her way to the front.

  “Me too!” Keegan declared.

  “More skyborn? Me three!” Nadine declared excitedly.

  I put out a hand to stop them all, stepping into the aisle before them. “You guys, we don’t know for sure what these addresses are!”

  Sophie stuck out her bottom lip into a pout. “But if there’s more skyborn … you have to let us help!” She put her hands into prayer pose. “Pleeeeaaase.”

  Sophie begging was something I could get used to.

  I rolled my eyes. “Logan and I will go to the door. You guys can wait on the lawn, and I’ll call you forward if I need your help.”

  Sophie frowned. “Fine,” she said, with a two-year-old’s gusto.

  The sound of cocking guns and sliding clips pulled my attention to the back, where Dominic stood with Hemlock at his feet. “If there’s trouble, I’m ready.” He winked.

  Good to know. I nodded.

  “My mom handed me this book over five years ago, so these people could be gone by now … or they could be just regular humans she knew.”

  “Or not…” Sophie added, and I felt a smile creep onto my face.

  “Or not.” How exciting would it be to find more skyborn? To know that my mom was protecting them this whole time? It both excited and scared me.

  “Let’s go,” I told Logan and he slipped his hand into mine.

  As we were making our way off the bus, Isaac stopped me.

  “Forgetting something?” he asked, and eyed my empty hands.

  It took me a second to realize he was talking about my staff.

  I rolled my eyes. “I’m just going to meet these people.”

  Isaac shook his head. “I’m afraid I must insist. If this is an ambush and you lash out again, you may not survive it.”

  Geeze. Way to bring the heavy.

  “I thought I couldn’t die unless Logan died too?” I think deep down I was afraid of that staff, afraid to train and learn with it.

  Isaac crossed his arms. “Oh, you’ll survive just fine. You might be brain-dead for the rest of your life, but sure, you’ll be breathing.”

  My eyes bulged. “Okay. Sorry,” I quipped, and ran back to get the staff. Fear or no fear, I needed to trust Isaac.

  Once my fingers wrapped around the cool wood, I felt a calmness settle over my frazzled energy, but there was also power there; it licked across my skin, sending small surges through me.

  When I exited the bus and met Logan on the lawn, I became suddenly nervous. What if these people were skyborn … and what if they did know my mother? What would I say?

  Logan took my hand. “We got this,” he assured me.

  A voice next to me made me jump, startled. “I’m going too, but I’ll camouflage myself. I want to smell them out for any intricate spell work,” Eva said, in the space of air next to me.

  “You can go invisible!” I whisper-screamed.

  “Just for a short while when circumstances permit. So hurry up.”

  There was an invisible witch standing next to me. My life was officially weird. I had come to terms with that.

  Without another word, I started up the paved walkway to the chipped yellow door, leaving Sophie, Danny, and the crew back on the sidewalk looking like a bunch of vigilantes about to rob an old folks’ home bus.

  I should have done this when my mom died. She put so much importance on that stupid address book and I ignored it. But I was only sixteen and grieving the loss of my mother, having to worry about proving to a judge that I could take care of myself and didn’t need a court-appointed guardian. Filing for emancipation from the state was no small feat. If my mom hadn’t left me the small life insurance policy, I wouldn’t have made it. In the end, the court agreed I could live on my own, provided I had weekly check-ins from a state-appointed guardian, and my grades stayed the same. I’d had to hold down a part-time job, finish high school, and get into college all on my own. So this address book had been the last thing on my mind. But I couldn’t help but feel guilty now.

  Lost in my thoughts, I didn’t realize I’d been standing at the door for too long until Logan reached out and knocked, no longer waiting for me to get my shit together. This was just as big for him. He’d lived a long time thinking he was alone. If we found more dragon shifters today, I knew that would fill some void inside of him.

  I heard a kid’s laugh and I froze. Logan’s hand clenched in mine. Three, the number had said in my mom’s book. Three skyborn? A mother, father, and kid? Or just three friends to send her yearly Christmas card to?

  A shadow passed over the peephole and a man spoke through the door.

  “Can I help you?” he asked, with a hint of nervousness in his voice.

  Why wasn’t he opening the door? Normal people weren’t this suspicious, were they? Logan was a little scary looking, I had to admit. I decided honesty was the best way to go here.

  “Umm, my mother … Lily Murphy … gave me an address book and—” Before I finished my sentence the door ripped open and a man stood there with his mouth gaping open. He was shorter for a male, with dusty brown hair and bright green eyes. Kind and shocked eyes. Relieved eyes.

  “Sloane,” he breathed, and surprise ran through me at his knowledge of my name. “You look just like Lily.” His eyes fell to my staff, but he didn’t seem fazed by the magical weapon.

  It felt like time slowed down then. We were ushered into the house, and asked to sit on the couch.
I was just sitting there in complete astonishment as he called for his wife to come down.

  Green eyes. He knew my mother’s name. My name. I didn’t know what it all meant. A young teenage boy about thirteen or fourteen years old peeked his head around the corner and smiled at me.

  “It’s safe, Geoff. You can come meet them,” the father told the kid, and footsteps sounded on the staircase. Logan sat eerily still next to me, clutching my hand. Neither of us said a word, not even mentally.

  “They’re like us?” the son asked.

  The father looked at Logan, unsure.

  They’re like us.

  Logan nodded, and the father then nodded to the son. I was about to just blurt it out, ask if he was skyborn, when the woman came down the stairs. She was waddling, one hand around her heavily swollen belly. Pregnant.

  Oh. My. God. A baby. A baby dragon?

  “Sloane!” she gasped and waddled faster to get closer to me.

  I didn’t know what to do or say, so I just had my mouth hang open as weird sounds came out.

  “You look confused…” she surmised correctly. “You know what you are, right? Your mother told you?”

  You know what you are… I couldn’t deny it any longer. They were skyborn. They had to be.

  “No, she didn’t.” I answered, once I finally found my voice. “I found out … after an accident.”

  “Oh, honey.” Her face fell, she picked up a photo album off a shelf, and came to sit next to me. Her long, curly blond hair cascaded around her petite shoulders.

  “You came just in time. The baby is due in two weeks and we weren’t sure what we were going to do when she had her first shift,” she explained.

  Whoa. That thought hadn’t even crossed my mind when I’d seen her pregnant.

  I put a hand out. “I’m sorry. Can we back up? How do you know my name?” I felt like I was in the Twilight Zone.