by Leia Stone
‘I’ll be fine. I’m going to sneak up behind those druids in the woods and spray them down with fire.’
A cluster of three druids were standing with the heavy tree cover at their backs, throwing every weapon, magical or otherwise, at our pack from the safety of their position.
‘Be safe,’ was all he said.
I was so far behind the fight that I had been forgotten by the druids, which was good. I was ten feet from our car and could easily slink off into the woods unnoticed. Now that no more green magic was rising up off of the redheaded druid, I was one hundred percent certain she was dead. I moved slowly towards the tree line and crouched down, trying to get lost in the ground brush of green leafy ferns. My stomach felt like I’d swallowed razor blades and would start bleeding out of my ass any moment, but I pressed on. I didn’t want to think about what that red fireball had done. Once we took care of the threat, I could have Eva heal me, or I’d hug a tree or something.
As I dipped into the woods, padding my bare feet into the mossy forest, I tried to avoid sharp rocks, or sticks that would break and alert my presence. Gingerly, I made my way closer and closer to the three druids tucked away in what they thought was a safe position. I looked down at my hands and took a deep breath, pulling my druid fire magic up into me and out of my palms. A small flicker of purple fire shone on my palms and I nodded. Just checking. Didn’t want to run at these guys with a battle cry only to find out it wasn’t working or something. Part of me feared that red fireball might have snuffed my power … but it seemed to just be tearing apart my insides.
As I got closer I could see Keegan through the trees, facing the men I was about to sneak up behind. The druid farthest to the right had a knife in his hand, the blade glowing red. He lunged for Logan, who was about ten feet away in dragon form.
That’s when all hell broke loose.
I lurched forward, pushing out my magic. It fled from my palms in a long stream of fire, bathing the two druids in flame. The third had jumped out of my reach to go for Logan, only to be intercepted by Keegan. It was like watching a train crash in slow motion. Keegan must have been out of bullets, because he was holding his shotgun like a bat, ready to crack the druid in the head, but his aim was off. The druid was halfway to Logan, crouched low, but upon seeing Keegan jump in front of him he slammed the knife into the alpha’s ribcage. It went in with such force that it didn’t stop until it reached the hilt.
I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move.
Danny’s voice ripped through the woods as he screamed his lover’s name. Yellow magic flung everywhere. I was blown a few feet up into the air with the force of Danny’s power, and then fell down hard on my ankle, hearing it pop, it had undoubtedly broken. The two druids I’d doused with fire were running away into the woods, engulfed in purple flames that didn’t seem to die no matter how much they patted them.
My stomach felt like I’d eaten the spiciest Thai food alive and my ankle was shot, but at the sound of Danny’s wails I propped up on one leg and hopped towards Keegan. He was lying on the ground in a puddle of blood about five feet from the druid who’d harmed him. The druid was dead; it looked like his neck had been snapped, lying at an odd angle. If he didn’t have glowing yellow veins, I wouldn’t have known that Danny had somehow magically killed him.
The sorcerer was on his knees. He’d pulled the blade out of Keegan’s side, shoving moss into the wound with one hand, and stroking the alpha’s forehead with the other.
“No. No. No,” Danny was mumbling.
Keegan grinned, looking loopy and out of it. “I knew you … wanted me back,” he rasped.
Danny laugh-sobbed. “Of course I do. It was always my intention to be with you eventually. You know that, right? That I love you and…” He couldn’t finish, the sobs had taken his voice.
“EVA! Do something,” Logan shrieked. My mate was standing half naked with wide eyes and shaking hands, staring at his best friend bleeding out.
Eva approached, her hand to her mouth in shock. “Logan, I heal magical maladies. This is…”
No. Fuck no. Red beard, brown bear … NO MORE tattoos.
“Pick him up!” I told Danny in the sternest voice I could muster. I pulled out my phone and called the good druid. Isaac picked up on the first ring. He never carried his cell phone with him. Ever. The universe was aligning for this. I could feel it.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, panicked.
“Keegan’s dying of a magical knife wound, and you’re going to help me save him,” I told him. This was not up for discussion and I didn’t want any negativity. It was happening and that was that. Keegan would be healed.
He was silent for a beat. “Okay. Find the strongest tree you can and tell me when you’re there.”
I nodded, handing the phone to Eva, who took it and put it on speakerphone, no questions asked. Tears were rolling down my cheeks. I wanted to be strong and handle my shit, but the thought of Keegan dying was threatening to overcome me. My stomach felt like it was on fire, my ankle was throbbing and completely busted, but nothing compared to the heavy feeling in my heart. Keegan was family and I wasn’t losing any more family.
Just … breathe.
Logan appeared at my side. “I saw you the night Isaac healed Dom. You were … inspired. You’re an earth druid, Sloane. This is your destiny.” The way he was looking at me with so much … faith, it filled me with something I needed. And just like that the weight and sadness fell from me as if Logan had ripped it off. I was hobbling into the forest, Danny behind me with Keegan in his arms.
“You’re hurt,” Logan said, seeing me limping and holding my stomach.
“I’m fine,” I told him, and held my hand out, feeling the energy in the air, searching for Keegan’s healing tree. I passed a nice strong mesquite that was good but was too feminine for Keegan. He was an alpha. He needed the strength of a giant sequoia. Most people looked at the tall redwood trees of Northern California and thought they were that, all redwoods, but I’d learned from Isaac that there were redwoods and sequoias, and those were different in size and species, if only marginally. I heard Danny grunting behind me and felt the pressure to just pick any tree. But I knew the tree I picked would determine the healing Keegan received.
Finally, I felt it, the powerful pull of Nywfre. The energy of Mother Earth was concentrated in one tree to my right. I turned and stood before it, taking in her beauty. She was over two hundred feet tall. I had to crane my neck all the way back to see it fully. I inspected her cinnamon-colored bark, which was thick and healthy, and leaned forward to smell her woodsy aroma. She was the one.
“I’ve got the tree,” I told Isaac. Eva stood beside me with the phone out as Danny fell to his knees, placing Keegan right at the base. The alpha looked barely conscious, pale and breathing shallowly. We were on borrowed time.
“Sloane,” Keegan rasped, and I kneeled before him, digging my toes into the cold earth to anchor my energy, oblivious to the pain in my ankle, my stomach, or anything else.
“If you can’t do it … it’s okay,” he whispered.
Oh God. Even on his death bed he was trying to protect me.
I met his dusky eyes. “I’m healing you, Keegan,” I declared, and took a deep breath, placing my hands on the tree, being met with a zipping of energy along my palms. Keegan was trapped between my knees and the tree as I created an energetic cocoon with my body. Isaac had been teaching me the healing pose and how to channel the energy by trapping the wounded person, or animal, between my body and the trunk.
“I’m ready,” I said loudly.
Isaac’s voice was quiet for a moment. “Now you call up the power through me. Find your connection to me and pull, pull as hard as you can. I’m going to go into meditation and give you everything I’ve got.”
I nearly whimpered with fear. Isaac had said once that he and I were connected, that the Earth had initiated me and our powers were bound. I’d pulled some of his power before, like earlier when I made the earth mo
ve, but I hoped for Keegan’s sake I could pull a lot more. It was going to take some serious earth magic to heal him, not the fire magic that I possessed.
“Okay,” I said, and my voice shook a little.
Keegan’s hand found its way to my knee and squeezed lightly. He was staring off into the sky. I knew that feeling. When I was injured by the hunters, bleeding out in Flagstaff, Logan and the pack came for me, they saved me. I’d felt that feeling of impending death but I’d come out of it. I’d survived. And Keegan would come out of it too. I was determined.
I closed my eyes so that I wouldn’t have any more distractions. Taking a deep breath, I called to the energy of Mother Earth. I felt her everywhere, in the tree, beneath my feet, in the air that caressed my skin in the gentle breeze. Nywfre. Then I felt for Isaac, my mentor, my master, my teacher. Isaac was my strongest link to the Earth. When I felt for that connection with him, the Nywfre beneath my palms intensified and a buzzing started up my toes, through my painful ankle, and worked its way up my leg. The necklace at my throat started to pulse, and I could feel warm rivulets of power washing over me. It was like the tree and I were creating a healing circle with Keegan in the middle—up my toes, through my body, out my hands, into the tree, through the Earth and into my toes again.
“It’s working,” Logan’s awed voice said from behind me.
I gently cracked one eye to see a blinding orangish-purple light encasing Keegan, and then promptly squeezed it shut so I wouldn’t lose focus. I felt for that connection to Isaac and then pulled. I pulled it through me with everything I had. The pain in my stomach eased then, as well as the throb in my ankle; I felt the bark beneath my fingers weaken and turn ashy. I popped open my eyes to see that the once-cinnamon colored bark was as black as charcoal about a third of the way up the tree.
I looked down at Keegan and saw his knife wound was no longer pouring blood freely; his coloring seemed a bit better. He was just staring up at me, open-mouthed. The orangish-purple glow continued to dance around us as we stared at each other. I didn’t dare move my hands from the tree or my feet from the ground. I gave my bad ankle a little wiggle, and when I felt no pain I burst into tears. The tree and Isaac had healed me too.
“Thank you,” I whispered to her, while the colorful light display finally faded.
Keegan’s hand was still on my knee, as if I was his lifeline to the living world and he was afraid to let go.
“I’ll never talk shit about druids for as long as I live,” he declared in a weak voice, and we all laughed.
“I’ll hold you to that,” Isaac said over the phone, and Eva smiled, putting it to her ear and walking away, presumably to tell him everything. I’d have to thank him hugely when we got home.
Danny crouched beside me and leaned over his love, placing a hand on Keegan’s chest and staring into his eyes.
“We should get married,” he declared, and my mouth popped open in shock. I was still reeling from the fact that I’d healed us both, and now this!
Keegan grinned ear to ear and his lids lowered into a sexy, smoldering look. “Are you asking?”
Danny groaned. “Yes. I want to be by your side forever. For better or worse. Sickness and health, and all of that. So … will you marry me?”
Keegan shrugged. “I’ll think about it.”
Danny gasped, smacking him on the arm. Keegan let out a roaring laugh, but then quickly winced, holding his side in pain. “Of course I’ll marry you, you idiot.”
As they leaned in to kiss, my eyes met Logan’s and I saw that they were more than a little misty.
‘That was close,’ I told him.
He walked over and scooped his hand under my knees, picking me up and cradling me next to his chest.
“Are you hurt?” he asked me.
I shook my head, looking over at the ashy tree. It looked like it had been burnt. Maybe my magic did that, or maybe that was just part of what it had given us. Either way I was grateful.
“The tree healed me too.”
He nodded, meeting my eyes, and was silent for a minute. ‘Is marriage something you want? I mean … if you want that, then so do I.’
I laughed. ‘I’ve never been a big fan of the whole thing. I think what we have is enough and a piece of paper or a ceremony won’t change that.’
He grinned. ‘But we’re having kids, right?’
I rolled my eyes. ‘When I’m like thirty. Stop trying to make babies with me,’ I joked.
He leaned down and kissed my neck. ‘Oh, I don’t think I’ll ever stop trying to make babies with you. It’s too fun.’ He winked.
I chuckled. “You can put me down now. I’m not injured anymore,” I said, out loud this time.
He shook his head. “I don’t want to.”
I ignored him. “Did we lose anyone?” I asked, while Logan walked me through the woods in his arms, back to the bus and car. Only our inner circle had been present for the Keegan tree healing. Everyone else and Dylan and Maggie were back by the bus waiting.
He shook his head. “No. Thanks to you we didn’t.”
His words settled into me. Keegan was okay. I was okay. Everything was going to be okay.
“Sloane!” Dylan cried out when we broke through the tree line.
This time Logan did put me down, and I found that my ankle was tender but not as wrecked as it had felt earlier. “Dylan! Maggie!” I waved them over.
“Is your friend okay?” Maggie asked with concern, peering through the trees as if trying to catch a glimpse of Keegan.
I nodded. “He will be.”
Dylan was staring at my necklace. He was a tall guy, looked about Logan’s age, but that didn’t mean he was. He had blond hair, green eyes, and an impressive build. He held Maggie’s hand gently in his, shaking his head.
“You saved us. If you hadn’t come … we’d be dead.”
“I’m just glad we made it in time,” I told them.
“That was a complete ambush,” Logan spoke. “A dozen druids to get one dragon. They are trying to wipe us out. More now than ever.”
Dylan held out his hand. “You’re Logan? I’m sorry I didn’t believe you before about being skyborn. Thanks for helping me out.”
Logan took his hand and they gave each other a bro hug. When Dylan pulled back, his eyes again went to my necklace. “That was hers, wasn’t it? I mean, it looks just like hers…”
My mom. I couldn’t escape the memory of that woman if I wanted to. Good thing I didn’t.
“It was,” I told him, and touched it.
He ran a hand through his hair, then pulled a matching—but smaller and more masculine—pendant from his shirt. It hung on a long chain, pulsing with a small glow. “She found me when I was seventeen, seconds from getting killed by hunters—kind of like today. The necklace stopped working for a while, but then yesterday it lit up again.”
My throat pinched. How had I not known my mother was this amazing warrior skyborn protector? It killed me that I had sat next to her at the dinner table, talking about school, makeup and boys. But I guessed that was what she wanted for me, just a normal life.
I was glad to see that my necklace seemed to be feeding all of the skyborn. Maybe that meant it could buy us time from Ardan finding the ones my mom hid.
“Well, I’m glad we’re all together now,” I told him.
He slung an arm around his girlfriend and nodded. “It’s what she always wanted. A dragon commune. Talked about getting some land one day, so we could all live together. When you were older.”
Jesus. Had my mom poured her heart and soul out to every single person but me? Older … she never got to see me grow up. That thought saddened me, but I let it go.
Logan seemed to know that I was struggling with what to say, he pat Dylan on the back. “Well, we’ve got the land now, and I can’t wait for you to meet the others.”
As they walked to the bus, I stared up at the overcast sky. I hoped my mom was looking down on me and I was making her proud. Now more than ever
I could use her guidance. I was stuck in the middle of a war I wasn’t sure I could win.
Chapter 5
After making it back to the land, I went straight to Isaac and embraced the druid, thanking him for helping me save Keegan. He looked tired. I’m sure helping me do a distance healing of that severity had taken a lot out of him. We talked about it for a few minutes and then I found myself wondering about something else.
“Hey, Isaac, I have a serious question…” We were sitting on our favorite patch of grass near the base of the waterfall. Isaac’s psycho pet goat was munching grass fifty feet away, while eyeing me. If she came at me I was going to burn the tip of her tail.
“Okay. What is it?” He sat up straighter, and as usual, I was mesmerized by the contrast of his dark skin against the honey color of his striking eyes.
“So you and I will kill Ardan. Then what? How does killing one or two men solve this entire war?” I was definitely killing Steven. That was non-negotiable.
Isaac nodded. “Did you see today how you were able to tap into my power and heal Keegan?”
I nodded. Isaac had told me Ardan was connected to all of his druids, feeding power from and to them.
“Well,” he continued, “when we take out the top chain of command, then Ardan’s lower level druids will find themselves so incredibly weak, with the power loss, that they will not fight back. They will turn to Mother Earth in sorrow and regret, asking for her power to make them whole again.”
I shifted in my seat. Isaac had a way of speaking as if something was a certainty. He’d done it since that day I’d met him. “Okay … but what if they don’t? What if they come for us, and slay us, and a new Ardan rises up? I mean, how can you be sure that they will turn back to earth magic and leave the skyborn alone?” I hated questioning him. He was such a happy guy, radiating such positive energy. I didn’t want to bring him down.
He just smirked. “Because, child, I’ve seen it as clear as I saw that the Earth would send me you. It’s one of my unspoken gifts. Something I don’t like to share with too many people. I know things.”