by Leia Stone
“What happened to her bell?” I asked Isaac, as she tried to head-butt my leg. Without her bell she could just attack out of nowhere and I wouldn’t know where she was! Freaking goat wasn’t all right in the mind. She was constantly head-butting things, trees and people mostly—which explained why she wasn’t right in the head.
Isaac smiled. “It fell off and got lost.”
I dodged her next attack and picked up a stick. “You want this?” I waved it before her as she ramped up to come at me again. “Go get it!” I threw the stick but she just came at my shin full-force, cracking into it.
“Ow! Get out of here!” I yelled.
“Waaaaa!” she shrieked, jumping into the air like a lunatic.
Isaac laughed deeply, a genuine belly laugh, rare coming from him.
“Do you have some marijuana plants on this land that I don’t know about? Because I think she ate them. She’s crazy.” I got ready to dodge her again but she just froze, looked over her shoulder, and took off running through the path in the trees toward where the main camp was set up.
Isaac was watching me with twinkling eyes, but underneath that merriment he looked strained about something. “She’s been a good source of companionship for me while I was out here all alone.”
The mood suddenly became somber. Isaac and Logan had both lived a solitary life. Still, I couldn’t see a neurotic head-butting goat as a good companion. But I’d be lying if I said she wasn’t cute. I had a rescue dog, Logan had a kitten, and Isaac had a head-butting goat. It actually fit our personalities well.
Isaac had a hand on each of his staffs, and his eyes fell to the piece in my hand. The purple crystal looked almost magenta in the midday light.
“Mother Earth is a powerful magician,” he stated as he started to circle me slowly. “If she cries too long, she creates floods. If she buries her tension and aggression, it ends in potent earthquakes. She can grow too cold, too hot, give life, create death. Mother Earth is a formidable ally.”
Whoa. Things just took a turn for the serious. The druid lessons had begun.
I just nodded and Isaac pointed to the tattoo across my shoulder. “Faery, Earth, Mars, it doesn’t matter. That chi, the Nwyfre, is everywhere, and druids have long been able to connect with it and wield it. It’s our purpose in creation.”
Double whoa.
“But as druids were originally meant to be powerful together, Ardan has created a hierarchy and made himself the most mighty, trickling energy down into his minions.”
That was interesting to me. I always wondered how exactly that worked. “So you and I?” I pointed to his shoulder. He’d said before that we were connected. He was my master and all that.
Isaac nodded and stopped his circling. “I am a druid master. Which means, I’ve been through enough training and done enough work with Mother Earth, that I can now train initiates. You and I are connected magically. I will make you more powerful, and you make me more powerful. We can only grow together. Neither will take from the other to leave them weaker, like Ardan does with his people. That is not the way of earth magic. We share equally.”
Ahhh. “So … we’re like a pack?”
Isaac smiled. “Yes. A very small pack with no alpha.”
I smirked. “But you said you were the master.”
He shrugged. “Dated language to describe the teacher. Sloane, I’ve waited decades for you. For a student. Now we can grow in power together, to become great enough to defeat Ardan, and restore balance and life to the earth cycle. I wasn’t strong enough on my own.”
I wasn’t sure about the other stuff, but killing Ardan was high up there on my to-do list, so it all sounded good to me.
“Let’s do it!” I gave a light tap on my staff.
Isaac frowned for a moment. “The only issue is, I’m not sure how to train a fire druid. Wind, water, earth, I could handle, but fire … it’s dangerous. You would need to tap into the very core of Mother Earth, the very depths of the darkness you hold within yourself.”
My eyes bugged. “Darkness?”
Isaac shrugged. “Fire is a dark element. It’s fueled by passion yes, but also rage. Every fire druid has unknown obscurity and fury in their depths. A wrath that needs to be controlled.”
His lesson shocked me. Did I? Did I have rage just below my surface? Yes I was hot headed, but what he spoke of was something else. I did have an underlying anger. Injustice made me boil. From the first time I’d heard about the druids and their pureblood race plan, I’d been overcome with fury. Maybe that was my weapon.
Isaac put up a finger. “But a good fire druid knows balance. Knows not to become overwhelmed with the anger. Learns to toe the line.”
Okay. Slight warning label there, but I was sure I could handle it. “Sounds like you know exactly how to train a fire druid.” I winked.
He sighed, his face creasing with concern. “I would if you didn’t have that dragon inside of you, feeding your druid with unsanctioned magic.”
My palms went cold. “W-what?” One thing that was always stronger than anger was fear, and it had me in its grip now.
Isaac put a gentle hand on my shoulder and closed his eyes. “I can feel it. Just under your skin. Like a tornado. It grows every day and I don’t know how to stop it.”
The treetops spun as anxiety gripped me. “Stop what?”
Isaac pulled his hand off of me, and gave me the look I got from so many people after my mother died. “Your druid magic feeds from the Earth, but only in small amounts. The majority it takes from your dragon.”
My eyebrows creased. “How? What does that mean?”
My mentor looked at the tip of his staff as if it would give him some road map. “I need to be honest with you, Sloane.”
Oh fuck. Bomb drop in 3 … 2...
“I have a theory that your mother didn’t keep this life from you to keep you safe from druids. She would have been better to train you, make you strong.”
How was I still standing? How had I not passed out by now? This was the worst training session of my life.
“Why did she do it?” I breathed, fully entranced by his words.
He stepped closer to me and sighed. “To keep you from consuming your dragon completely. The one part of your father she had left.”
Consume. He said “consume.” Bile rose in my throat as I stumbled backward. No. He couldn’t mean…
“Sloane, I think that since the day you were born, your druid half has been … feeding off of your dragon half, and will continue to do so until there is nothing left. Your mother paused it, but there is no pausing it now.”
“No!” Fresh hot tears cascaded down my cheeks. Isaac set down his staffs and pulled me into a hug.
“I don’t think your mother knew how to stop it, so she stopped everything, made you human and bought us time,” he mumbled into my hair. He smelled like shea butter and vanilla, and his strong arms around me made me wonder if this was what it felt like to have a father.
He pulled back and I looked into those kind, honey-colored eyes.
“We’ll figure this out together. I didn’t want to tell you until I was relatively sure.”
I nodded and wiped the last tear from my eye.
“So, worst case…?” I asked. Because I needed to hear it. I needed to hear the worst-case scenario.
Isaac looked overcome with emotion then, misty-eyed. “Worst case, your druid consumes your dragon and she dies completely. Taking your mate bond with her.”
It hadn’t hit me until he’d said it, that this would affect my relationship with Logan. Losing my dragon was one thing. As much as I bitched about being skyborn in the beginning, it’s who I was and I loved my dragon. But Logan … that was a whole other level of desperation. If my druid power took my bond with Logan, I wasn’t sure I would survive it. Would we still feel the same for each other? How much of what we had was down to being mates? Would we just be boyfriend and girlfriend? Those words cheapened what we had, how I felt. My dragon slithered
at that thought, rising up strong within me. I wouldn’t let that happen!
I tightened my grip on the staff. “What do we do?”
Isaac nodded. “We train. We teach your magic to take from the Earth, and if it doesn’t, you fight it. Fight with everything you have to keep your dragon strong.”
How the hell could I fight something I couldn’t feel!
“Can you see it?” I wondered, looking down at my body.
He shook his head. “No, but I sense it. I did the moment I saw you. Your mother would have too. From the day you were born.”
Oh, Mom. That’s why she never told me! Never taught me. She didn’t want me to lose my dragon. My father.
“Okay. I’m ready,” I told him. Whatever he asked of me I would do. I didn’t care if he told me to sleep under trees and give up deodorant, I would master being a druid, and it would not consume my dragon. Logan was the most important thing in my life, and he would not be taken from me.
Isaac raised his staff up and slammed it into the ground, causing the leaves on the trees to shake. “Lesson one, you are only as strong as you let yourself be.”
Let the confusing riddles begin. I was officially a druid in training.
Chapter 13
One week later.
I was bruised, battered, and slightly badass. Slightly. Because Isaac and I were connected, I could do some of what he could do. Shake the earth a bit. Block magic with my staff. I could also focus my purple magic like a laser through the staff’s crystal—but I was having a hard time keeping a steady stream going.
After a few sleepless nights, I’d broken down and told Logan what Isaac’s theory was, about my druid consuming my dragon and our matebond with it. He’d been very quiet, then he’d just stood and said not to worry about it and left. After pressing him later he said he was “working on it” with Eva and Danny. I had enough to worry about. He needed to feel like he was a little in control, so I let it go. We’d also called every skyborn in my mom’s address book, but because five years had passed since she’d been alive to update it, only fifty percent of the numbers worked. Still, that was something. They were skeptical at first, but after showing them my face on video chat, telling them about my mom, each one of them said they would tie up their lives and move quietly from their town and onto Isaac’s land. They wanted to live in a skyborn community surrounded by shifter protectors, and that’s what Isaac was offering them.
Keegan and Sophie still weren’t back with reinforcements, although he did say he’d be arriving later today with new pack mates.
“I think you’re ready to tap into your fire magic today,” Isaac said.
I frowned at my mentor. “What? Isn’t that what we’ve been doing?” I laughed.
My staff had become like an extra arm to me. Isaac had taught me how to use the blunt end to crack someone in the temple and knock them out. Theoretically, of course. Although Dominic offered to be the guinea pig if I wanted to try it in real life.
He shook his head. “No. No. You’ve been connecting with the earth’s power, and learning to control yourself, but you haven’t even touched on what a fire druid is capable of.”
That sounded scary and exciting. “Okay. Like what?”
He shrugged as if to say he wasn’t entirely sure. “Well, I’m only going off of rumor of course, but I want you to try and light something on fire without touching it.”
“What!” I shrieked, nearly dropping my staff. “You think I can light things on fire with my mind?”
He looked unfazed. “I do.”
Geeze. That was a scary thought and slightly intriguing. Could my mother do that? “How?” My curiosity won out over my fear.
“By practicing the art of meditation, and utilizing the greatest weapon you have. Your mind.”
This brought a smile to his lips. I think he was underestimating how awesome my mind was.
“Okay, I’m listening.” We’d been practicing mediation daily, and I actually had taken to it quite easily. I felt so connected and in tune afterwards, that now I couldn’t imagine going a day without it. Just sitting there, the sound of the waterfall playing in the background, the only focus was on my breathing, it was refreshing. I could really feel the buzzing of the Earth’s energy just under my skin.
Isaac bent down and placed a dried leaf on the top of a flat stone. Then he instructed me to sit and stare at the leaf.
I did. And nothing happened. “Can’t I just point my staff at it and use a beam of purple magic to light it on fire?”
Isaac looked down his nose at me. “Yes, you could, but what good would that do if you need to fight two assailants at once? The staff is a great tool, it’s done wonders to hone your magic, make it less dangerous and feed it into the earth, but I want you to try to learn to do this without it. It would be the first step, in a long road to learning to control your power without the staff. You will still use your staff to anchor to Mother Earth, but try to use your mind to ignite the leaf.”
I groaned, sinking the end of my staff into the earth and tightening my grip on the wood. “Fine.”
And so went my afternoon, staring at a leaf, thinking fiery thoughts and coming up with nothing. Finally, Isaac dismissed me for the day. Which only meant I was allowed to go to my training with Dominic. The silent shifter had taken over for Sophie in her absence, and I now had a nice little collection of throwing knives. I also knew the five spots to throw them on a person’s body to inflict maximum damage.
When I hiked across the forest, I saw Roxy standing outside with Nadine next to her. Nadine looked like she’d been crying; Roxy was comforting her. I picked up my speed and slipped in beside my friend. “Hey, what happened?”
Nadine wiped her face and looked behind her to make sure no one else was around. I could see a group huddled far off by the obstacle course, but much too far to hear anything.
“Just Gear stuff. I’m getting really sick of acting like we don’t care for each other,” she told me.
Roxy looked at me with weary eyes. “She wants to leave the pack.”
My mouth popped open. “What? No!” I whisper-screamed. Nadine had it bad for Gear, I knew that, but leaving the pack wouldn’t make it better. Would it?
“Easy for you to say, Sloane!” she snapped, then looked like she regretted it. She was right though. It was easy for me to say, I had Logan and we were mates, sleeping next to each other every night.
“I mean, why do you have to leave?”
She ran her tattooed hand through her hair. “Because I can’t bear it any longer. I’m done pining over him, and not being able to have him.”
“Then have him! Screw the rules!” I told her. Keegan needed to rethink those rules anyway. They weren’t doing him any favors with Danny.
A tear leaked from her eye and she wiped it away. “He doesn’t want me. Said so this morning. He’s right, we’ve had this big built-up thing and the sexual tension just made me want him because I couldn’t have him, but that’s it. It's nothing special. Nothing one night together wouldn’t fix.”
I frowned. Was she high? Her and Gear were freaking perfect for each other, from their tattooed arms right down to the stupid jokes and lack of cooking skills.
“You don’t mean that,” I told her.
She grit her teeth. “Well, he did. So I’m done.”
Did Gear really say that? What an idiot. He was a fool if he thought he could get better than Nadine. Hell, even I had a tiny girl crush on her. No way was I letting her leave us, leave this pack. “Make him leave, not you,” I protested.
“Hah!” She barked out a laugh. “I’d never live that down. No, I just need a break. Keegan will get here with the new pack and he’s going to split them up. I heard Logan talking on the phone to him. There’s another alpha. I’ll join the second pack. Steer clear of dickface Gear.”
She was also good at rhyming. Poor thing. Nothing worse than a broken heart. If she needed space from Gear, then I guess I had to be supportive. At least it was onl
y to another pack on Isaac’s land and not another pack in a different city.
“Okay. If that’s what you want…” I didn’t know what else to say. Neither, apparently, did Roxy, because she just stood there looking as shocked as I felt.
“Let’s just focus on Lynn. She’s been having more and more Braxton Hicks contractions, and Eva said she has a plan in place for the labor next week.”
That was a relief. “What is it?”
Nadine looked thankful to have a change of subject. “She said the baby can’t swallow the spell without choking, so she’s going to make a bath and the baby can soak in it. There’s no guarantee it will keep the baby from shifting, so in the event it doesn’t work, she thinks Lynn should have her baby at a rental house a couple hours away. That way, if the baby shifts…”
I nodded. “It won’t bring the druids to our new home base. Smart.”
And scary. I was about to ask for more details when the crunch of gravel brought my attention to the small dirt road behind me.
I saw an old green pickup truck pulling in, the tires skidding to a stop. A tiny blond girl sat behind the wheel, barely able to look over. Roxy, Nadine and I shared a concerned look and started walking towards the vehicle.
As we neared, the door opened and out jumped a fourteen-ish year-old blond girl with a gun in her hand, raised right at us.
“Stop right there!” she shouted, no shake in her voice. This kid had used a gun before and would again.
My eyes widened as we all stopped. What the hell was she doing? Who was she?
Her voice was familiar but I couldn’t place it.
“You the one who called? About the skyborn?” she asked me.
That’s it! We’d called one address in Canada. Two, the number had said next to the information. Two skyborn. I’d spoken to her. The girl sounded young, said her mom was out but she’d relay the message. She didn’t want to video chat and had sounded skeptical even when I gave detailed information about my mother and our location.
“That’s me. I’m Sloane.” I took a step forward.