Magictorn

by Leia Stone

  Isaac leaned in close to me from where I sat in the SUV. “You know, Sloane,” he whispered. “A proper burial for your mom, as an earth druid, would be to lay her directly onto Mother Earth and not in a box that keeps Gaia’s energy from accessing that departed druid.”

  I chuckled. “You know, that’s something my mom said in her final moments. Not to put her in a casket, just to lay her on the Earth.” I had totally forgotten until now. I’d brushed it off as crazy talk, along with the rest of the wild things she’d said about dragons and magic. I wish I could remember it all, but at the time I’d been numb. She had been doing better; the cancer treatments were working, and then she’d tanked overnight and died hours later.

  Tears welled in my eyes and I nodded to Isaac. I knew he was asking my permission to lay her to rest properly after we’d exhumed her and taken the necklace.

  He squeezed my hand and nodded back.

  The gates opening brought my attention to the cemetery. Ghosts were my kryptonite. I couldn’t watch scary movies that featured hauntings or ghosts, because I believed in that shit. It scared me to my core. I only ever came here on Sundays in the daytime—my reasoning being that Sundays were church days and ghosts didn’t haunt people on those days. Weak logic, but it worked to keep my fear at bay.

  Today was not Sunday. It was not daylight out.

  “Are ghosts real?” I asked Danny in the front seat. I figured if anyone had the ability to see them, or knew about them, it would be him.

  He winced. “Yes, girl. But not like you think. Regular people just die and go wherever, to the other place. But the ones who did really, really bad stuff in life, like to little innocent kids, they don’t want to go. So they stay and—”

  I put out a hand to stop him. My heart was pounding in my chest, my dragon threatening to break free. “Never mind. I don’t want to know.”

  Danny just grinned. “You’ll be fine. You’re with me.”

  I nodded, but the gravity of the situation hit me then. We were sneaking into a cemetery and digging up my poor mother’s grave to steal her necklace. I felt sick.

  “You okay? You want some help relaxing?” Danny asked, and a yellow magical symbol crawled from his palm and hovered above his hand.

  I shrugged. Why not? He waved a hand in my direction and the yellow glowing symbol shot out of it and crashed into my forehead. The moment it impacted, a warmth and peacefulness spread throughout me, settling my nerves and my dragon. I gave a contented sigh and shrank into the seat cushion. “What was that?” I asked, feeling a bit loopy and buzzed.

  Danny just grinned. “A sort of magical valium if you will. It only lasts about ten minutes. Helps with panic attacks and that sort of thing.”

  Logan made a funny noise in his throat from the front seat but said nothing as he drove us through the fence. Isaac sat quietly staring out the window, while Eva and Keegan were on foot outside and followed us in at a jog.

  “Go right,” I instructed as the road split. My mother was at the very edge of the cemetery. I’d been here so many times I could walk there blindfolded. Once Logan got to the end of the road he parked and I pointed in the direction of the gravestone.

  “She’s there.” My throat pinched.

  Logan nodded and then looked at Danny. The sorcerer reached out and touched my hand.

  “Hey, love, let’s go for a drive. Be back when it’s all over.”

  That was a great idea, because they were about to dig up my beautiful mother’s body and take her necklace from her bones and I couldn’t see any of that. I couldn’t even think about it. If it weren’t for this magical valium I would be a hot mess right now.

  I just nodded.

  Isaac reached across my lap and grabbed the flowers I held. “I’m going to do right by her,” he promised me. “Give her an earth druid’s burial.”

  My throat pinched as tears leaked from my eyes. It’s what she would have wanted. My mother … the battle druid. I couldn’t express my gratitude without falling into a puddle of tears, so I just nodded.

  My car door opened and Logan was standing there. Danny, who’d been in the front passenger seat, was out of the car and getting into the driver’s seat. I stood and fell into my mate’s arms. He was going to dig up a body for me. This man deserved an award for his loyalty.

  “I love you,” I whispered.

  He pulled back and gazed into my eyes. ‘And I love you,’ he said, through the bond.

  I squeezed his hand and took one last look over his shoulder at my mother’s untouched grave before getting back into the car. Danny’s magical valium spell had worn off and I was feeling melancholy again.

  Sorry, Mom, but I know it’s what you would have wanted.

  The second I shut the door, Danny gunned the car, the tires screeching a little.

  I raised one eyebrow at the sorcerer. “In a hurry?”

  He gave me a quick side glance. “I don’t like death.”

  I settled into my seat for the drive. I understood that. Some people were okay with death and the dark art of dying, others not so much.

  “You know, I had a sister,” Danny told me as he made his way out of the gate and took a right onto University Ave.

  I sat up a bit straighter. “What happened?” Had a sister. Past tense.

  Danny stared at the passing cars and it was a moment before he spoke. “Drunk driver. She was a pureblooded witch and she got taken out by a drunk driver.” His knuckles clutched the wheel.

  My heart ached for him. I couldn’t imagine losing a sibling. That kind of loss … it stayed with you forever. “How old was she?”

  Danny sighed. “Sixteen. I was eighteen. The most ironic of all is that she showed an affinity for healing but she died instantly. Nothing could’ve been done. I wasn’t alright for a long time after that.”

  Sixteen. Sweet Jesus. Why did awful shit happen to innocent kids? It made my blood boil.

  “Yeah, some days I wonder if I’m alright now,” I told him honestly.

  He chuckled, turning onto Mill Ave. “Me too, girl. Me too.”

  I would never be the same person I was when my mother was alive and healthy. That innocent, happy Sloane had died. “Logan makes me feel alright,” I said sincerely.

  He nodded, as we passed a bicycle cop. “Keegan made me feel alright too.”

  My heart picked up. Oh how I wished I could force those two to get back together. They were perfect for each other and miserable apart! But life didn’t work that way. He needed to figure that out himself. “Maybe he could be trusted … one more time?” I offered. If he screwed up again I’d kick him in the balls myself.

  Danny was quiet for a full minute watching the spectacle that was Mill Avenue at night. Drunken college students spilled out of bars and talked loudly with the kind of crazy hand gestures that only an extremely intoxicated person would make. “Yeah, maybe he could,” he finally said. He sounded defeated, like he didn’t have the energy to stay away from Keegan anymore.

  Something in my heart lifted then. I didn’t want to press him, but his admission made me overjoyed. I’d spent a lot of time around Keegan and Danny, and the love was still so strong between them.

  Danny’s muscles suddenly stiffened as his eyes scanned the road.

  “What is it?” I asked him, sitting forward in my seat, and looking at the drunken revelers. There was a group of hippies banging away on their drums, making cool music, but nothing that looked dangerous.

  “I’ve just had this feeling the past few hours … like I’m being watched,” he said, and brushed it off with a shake of his head.

  My whole body froze, reminded that I’d forgotten to tell him something very, very important.

  “Umm, yeah … hypothetically, if I told another sorcerer where The Eye was, could he get it and spy on us?”

  Danny slammed on the brakes so hard my face nearly hit the dashboard.

  “Sloane Murphy! Tell me you didn’t!” he roared, and cars behind us laid on their horns.

&nbs
p; I winced. “I did. It’s the only thing that could buy me time without getting tortured.”

  The sorcerer growled, an honest to God growl, and then gunned it. “You should have told us!”

  Well, shit, I was a little busy getting my tooth ripped out!

  “I’m sorry, it must have slipped my mind as I woke up and you told me that a fairy gobbled my tooth and grew five feet in size!” I roared back. And the realization that Ruben had died completely gutted me and made me forget I’d even told the truth witch about The Eye.

  He took a hard right and started back toward the cemetery. “Okay. Good point, but I’m not strong enough to shield The Eye. We need Eva.”

  I whipped out my phone and sent a text to Eva.

  –Oopsie forgot to mention the druids might now have The Eye. Can you shield us?–

  No reply. She was probably very busy with my mom’s remains.

  “Okay. Don’t panic,” Danny said out loud, almost to himself.

  ‘Everything okay?’ I asked Logan. What if the druids were at the cemetery now, fighting Logan for my mother’s priceless necklace? I’ll bet Ardan could somehow take power from it.

  ‘Fine. Why?’ came his reply.

  ‘Tell Eva to check her phone…’ I told him. I was too scared to admit what I’d done. I should have told them sooner, but I’d been too preoccupied with the fairy and then Danny’s mention of getting my mom’s necklace and Ruben’s passing...

  A second later I could feel nerves through the bond. ‘Get back here. Now!’

  Crap. If there was a class in screwing shit up, I would get an A+.

  Danny drove hard and fast back to the cemetery, flying through the open gates.

  The second we reached the end of the road I saw a brilliant white glow. Logan, Keegan, and Eva were all illuminated by it. Isaac was on his knees doing something to the ground, which is where the light was coming from. My throat tightened as I fled the car. That light, I was so drawn to it. It was soft yet magnificent. As I came closer, Logan turned and rushed towards me.

  “You’re safe,” he breathed, taking me in his arms.

  I nodded and stared at the light. “Is that…?” I couldn’t say it.

  Logan took my hand and led me to the mound of dirt Isaac knelt before.

  ‘Isaac said it’s your mom’s essence finally joining with the Earth.’ He told me mentally. ‘All of the bones are buried so you won’t see anything … unpleasant.’

  For that I was grateful.

  The light was leaking out of the dirt mound in slivers now. Isaac’s wand was shoved into the earth as his orange crystal ball pulsed at the tip. I hadn’t had my earth wand long, but my fingers ached to touch it again, to feel that power and safety. What if my mom’s necklace never gave me that? The light pulses grew faster as I stepped closer, then suddenly it flared so bright I had to shield my eyes and look away. After a full thirty seconds of glowing, it abruptly stopped and I looked at the mound with wonder.

  “What is it?” I asked Isaac, as my eyes roamed over the single white flower that now stood in the center of the mound that held my mother’s remains. Isaac’s eyes were lined with tears.

  “It’s a life flower. Confirmation from the Earth that your mother’s essence has been received, and redistributed into the Nwyfre. She is now a part of the energy you will use to fight and to heal. She is one with Mother Earth again.” His voice croaked a little in awe.

  I fell to my knees before the single white flower. It was a poppy flower, I realized, my mother’s favorite. Tears were streaming down my cheeks freely, my throat tightening. This whole time I’d kept my mother in a box and away from the Earth. I didn’t know. Now she was … everywhere. I could almost sense a sliver of her unique energy when I placed my hands on the ground.

  Isaac leaned closer to me. “The last life flower I saw was my own mother’s. If you smell it, its scent will be uniquely hers.”

  His proclamation shocked me. This poppy was going to smell like my mother? My deceased mother? My heart cranked up a notch as I leaned forward on shaky hands. What I wouldn’t give to breathe her aroma again. I’d kept one of her sweaters, but it barely held her perfume anymore. It had taken on the unique aroma of “living out of a car.”

  As my face got closer to the poppy, I inhaled. When the scent hit me, a sob ripped from my throat.

  Mom.

  Rosemary, lavender, and Mom. It did smell like her. My sob turned into a full-blown laugh then, it was so crazy.

  Isaac laughed too. “Amazing, isn’t it?” he asked, beaming at me. He alone knew what this was like.

  I nodded. I wanted to pull the flower and keep it forever, but I knew if I did it would die. Better to keep it here and hope it stayed alive so I could come smell her any time I wanted.

  “I love you, Mom. I’m going to make you proud,” I told the flower. A warm hand fell on my shoulder then, and I knew it was Logan.

  “We should head out,” Logan said, over my shoulder. “Eva thinks the druids are close by. She’s shielded us now, but we need to get back to California.”

  I took one more whiff of the flower, and couldn’t help the smile that burst across my face. In a small way, Isaac had brought her to life again.

  “Thank you,” I told the druid, we walked back to the car.

  Isaac had something in his hand, wrapped in white cloth. “You’re welcome,” he said, and handed me the cloth.

  It was a little damp, and when I opened it and saw my mother’s necklace, I was glad. It had been washed, and the large red ruby shone in the moonlight. I’d touched this thing a million times, more so as a kid, sitting on her lap or lying with her, but I’d never worn it. Ever.

  “Should I … do this now?” I asked him, while everyone piled into the SUV.

  Isaac nodded. “If it has … some sort of reaction, I would rather that happen here than on the land where they can track it.”

  With my track record, reaction was going to be an understatement.

  “What if it doesn’t work like my staff did? To hone and anchor my powers?” I asked my mentor. That friggin' staff was perfect for me. I was still in denial that it was gone.

  He shrugged. “Then we’ll go to plan B.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “Which is?”

  A slow grin crept across his face. “Still working on it.”

  Hah! Plan B was nothing. Great. Everyone was in the car now except Logan. He’d come to stand patiently by my side.

  “You got this,” he said.

  Right. Like a nuclear blast of purple wasn’t about to shoot out of me and put me into a coma. Please don’t shoot out and put me in a coma, I prayed. I had to believe that nothing my mother created could ever hurt me. Unclasping the lock, I slipped it around my neck, holding my breath while Logan fixed the clasp behind me.

  “Take off your shoes,” Isaac growled.

  Oh. Right. Stupid shoes.

  The cool and heavy ruby lay against my skin, sending small sparks of power along my nerves, but nothing terrifying. The moment my bare feet touched the ground, a wave of heat welled up inside of me and threatened to make me explode. It was quick and hot, but died down just as fast.

  “You’re flushed,” Logan said, worried.

  “I’m okay,” I squeaked. A reservoir of power had opened up like a sinkhole inside of me, so vast and … alive. Heat flushed my skin for a moment while a low hum built in my chest. I took in a deep breath and it settled, but it was still there, just beneath the surface, ready and waiting.

  “Fire magic,” Isaac said, and he ran his hand over my energy, three inches away from my body. I could feel some type of pull, as if my body were responding to him, even though he wasn’t touching me. My dragon slithered inside of me, pushing against the magic there. It was as if I’d just been filled up where I was once half empty, and now they were competing for space. Isaac’s warning to keep my dragon strong so that my druid magic didn’t consume her jumped to the forefront of my mind.

  Stay strong, girl, I told her
.

  “Let’s go!” Eva shouted out the window, banging the door with her open palm.

  I’d almost forgotten druids were after us, possibly with The Eye. The way I left Ireland, Ardan was no doubt ready to tear my head off and drink my magic in a blaze of fury. I turned to leave when Isaac caught my arm.

  “Not so fast. I want to see you use it,” he said.

  “Use my magic? Here?” I looked at the public place. Granted it was closed, but there was no telling what my purple fire could do to a place like this. A place of rest.

  Isaac nodded. “I cannot have you experimenting with magic this powerful on the land and bringing the hunters. Your dragon is close to the surface. She doesn’t like the new flood of power. If she is going to come out, better here.”

  This freaking hippie was a mind reader! How the heck did he know all that? I knew better than to ask him. But he was right. My mother’s necklace was different. It wasn’t like the staff, anchoring me to the Earth. It was like a freaking beacon, funneling untold amounts of magic through me, AND anchoring me to the Earth—but only a little. My dragon was uneasy with the amount of magic buzzing around my body. I needed to test it out here and make sure it didn’t force her to shift.

  I nodded.

  “Wait.” Logan grabbed my arm. “Is it safe?”

  No one said anything. The truth was we didn’t know. But again, I had to believe nothing my mother made could hurt me.

  “I’ll be fine,” I lied.

  He let my arm go while I walked over to a small sapling. A sissoo tree. The tree was newly planted and only about four feet high. I hated to experiment anything on it, but if I harmed it I promised to plant two more new trees tomorrow. Just as Isaac taught me. I had no staff to point, so I wasn’t exactly sure where the magic would come out of until I felt my hands heat up ever so slightly.

  “That’s it,” Isaac’s deep soothing voice came over my shoulder. “Just ground your feet with Mother Earth, and let your fire magic flow out of you.”

  I knew we were in a time crunch, so without ceremony I held up my hands to the tree.