by Leia Stone
“You’re skyborn, aren’t you?” Minka asked.
Isabella was a tough Latina chick. She didn’t cow. She just nodded.
Minka seemed absolutely delighted. “You know, I could send a security detail with you. That way you’d have a better chance at surviving when you lure the druids away.”
Keegan stopped pacing. “What kind of security detail?”
Minka strode towards the alpha. “A dozen fairies and three trolls.”
I made a choking sound at the word troll; everyone looked at me as I turned it into a cough. Keegan stared at Minka, impressed, not in the least bit surprised at the existence of trolls. Freaking trolls!
‘That’s what her boyfriend is!’ Logan said, next to me. ‘I thought they’d all died when Faery fell.’
My eyes flicked over to the boyfriend, who’d made no move from the jeep to join us, and remained leaning up against his ride. I was guessing he was wearing some kind of illusion, because he didn’t look like a troll to me. Not that I had any idea how a troll was supposed to look.
“What do you want in return?” I asked her outright. I knew she was after one of Isabella’s teeth.
She gave me a bit of a glare and put on hand on her hip—my hip. “I want her molar for Paisley,” she admitted, pointing to Isabella.
Isabella didn’t look fazed. She just shrugged. “Deal.”
My eyes bugged out and I bee-lined it over to the skyborn. “I don’t think you understand, she wants your tooth so her friend can eat it and grow like five feet taller.”
Isabella laughed and placed a hand on my shoulder. “I’ve dealt with fairies before. It’s just a tooth. It’ll grow back.”
Her complete "okayness" with the situation shocked me into silence. I looked over to Danny, who looked like he might faint. I think he and I were the only ones horrified by this.
Minka clapped her hands together and squealed. “Perfect! They’re on their way.”
Oh my God. She used her hive mind to contact them. Why couldn’t fairies and elves be the loving glittery folk from my childhood fantasies, not these tooth-eating monsters of reality? I promised then and there to never lie to my future children about the Tooth Fairy who leaves money under children’s pillows.
“Let’s get going. He’s got Nadine!” Gear growled, bringing my thoughts back to the pressing issue at hand.
Minka raised one eyebrow at him and sniffed the air in his direction. “You a flier?”
He glared at her, as if annoyed by her taking charge and asking everyone questions. “Yeah. I’m a hawk.”
She nodded. “I can’t scout close to the castle anymore because I’m so big. If you shift, I’ll give you directions and you can relay how many of the druids fall for the luring away plan. I’m pulling Paisley from the castle stakeout to help your friends.”
He seemed to consider her proposition. She had a point. We knew there were about a hundred of them, but how many would fall for Isabella and Marco’s plan to be lured away? Ten? One? Fifty? I was hoping for fifty.
Gear looked to Keegan, who nodded. “Do it.”
Gear started peeling off his clothes, not wanting to waste a moment, and I noticed Minka take an extra-long look at his chest and abdomen, not caring that her boyfriend was right there.
‘She’s freaking me out,’ I told Logan.
He smiled next to me. ‘Fairies are cunning tricksters with poor social skills.’
Hah! You could say that again. Gone was the sweet Tinker Bell of my childhood. RIP pixie dust.
“Alright, we’ve rented a few SUVs,” Minka declared, clapping her hands. “They are around the corner. Everyone get in and follow our Jeep. We will lead you into the woods that border the property where your friend is being held.”
The crowd dispersed, Minka went to Gear’s now bird form, and started explaining directions on how to fly to the castle. I saw Keegan walk over to have a quick word with Isabella and Marco, and a few shifters who it looked like he was going to send with them.
Danny strode over to me and glared at Minka. “Who put her in charge?”
I gaped at her. “I know, right? Body snatcher.”
Danny smiled. “Hey, I’ve been meaning to ask you. Would you want to be one of my bridesmaids at our wedding? I need something good to focus on.”
This dark and scary trip was suddenly filled with light. “Of course I will! You’re planning already?”
Danny nodded. “Just in my head. It’s keeping me sane. Once we kill this bastard, I want all of us to escape to Hawaii, Keegan and I will get married, and it will be perfect. I’m asking Nadine too.”
I loved that he was acting like we would get her out of here no problem. That was really sweet and gave us all something to look forward to. “And Sophie?” I asked, gesturing to the blond coyote shifter who was getting into an SUV.
He looked offended. “No way, her boobs will steal the show.”
I laughed. Wait … that meant he was only asking Nadine and I because we wouldn’t steal the show?
Before I could comment, Logan was dragging me away to one of the rides.
“I’ll see you there!” I told Danny. He nodded, following Keegan and Isaac into a big dark green car.
“Twinnie! You two can ride with me,” Minka yelled at Logan and I, her boyfriend opened the door to his Jeep and got into the driver’s side.
‘If she calls me twinnie again, I’m ripping her wings off,’ I told Logan.
‘Good luck.’ He grinned, as if he didn’t believe I could do it.
She was offering to help us, so I didn’t want to be rude.
“Thanks,” I mumbled, and Logan and I got into the Jeep.
Her troll boyfriend spun around. “Thanks for giving Minks the tooth,” he grunted in the deepest, scratchiest voice I’d ever heard. It was like Griddish but ten octaves lower, and add a pack-a-day smoking habit on top of that.
I swallowed hard. “Welcome,” I mumbled.
He spun back around, started the car, and we were off, two large SUVs full of shifters following us. Holy shit, this was it. I was going to kill Ardan. Finally the time had come. We were coming right for him. I wasn’t leaving Ireland without fulfilling my promise to end his racist regime.
Chapter 11
We were stationed in the woods where Ardan had sent a tornado through the trees after me last time. Evidence of that struggle, broken trunks and branches, still littered the ground. About two hundred yards from us, there were druids littered out on the lawn of Ardan’s stronghold. Eva and Danny were doing spells to mask our scent and keep us hidden for now.
Keegan was on the phone with Isabella. He hung up and nodded to Logan. “They’re going to shift now,” he whispered. “The trolls and fairies are with them.”
Logan just nodded.
“Sloane?” Isaac’s voice came from behind me.
I turned, staff in hand to see my mentor looking at me with those wise caramel eyes.
“Hey,” I whispered.
He motioned his head towards a gathering of fallen trees. “Can we speak privately a moment?”
I squeezed Logan’s hand, before following the good druid to a quiet place.
“What’s up?” I asked him, feeling suddenly nervous. What kind of pep talk would he give?
“I’ve noticed something about your power and I wanted to bring it to your attention.”
My gut churned. “Okay…” I mumbled nervously.
“I’ve noticed that you’re at your most powerful when you’re angry. It’s common with fire druids, and I wanted to make you aware of it so you can use it to your advantage.”
Okay, I had not been expecting that. He wasn’t telling me to hug trees, he was telling me to get mad. “How so?” I asked him.
“Think of a beautiful, deadly, ferocious volcano. She sits and waits and steams until finally…”
I grinned. “She blows.” And kills thousands of innocent people, decimating villages, but I wouldn’t bring that part up.
Isaac nod
ded. “Normally, I would counsel you to transmute that anger streak you have into something else, but not this time. This time I want you to get livid. It will be your greatest tool against Ardan.”
I could already feel my anger starting to bubble to the surface. Ardan came into our peaceful land and stole my best friend. He’d threatened me and killed countless of my kin.
Isaac dipped his head down to me. “Remember, you and I are a pack of our own. You can use my power and I can use yours. We’re a team today, okay, Sloane?” I nodded, and then suddenly he pulled me into a bone-crushing hug. “It’s been an honor to teach you the ways of the earth druids,” he mumbled into my ear, barely-contained emotion bleeding into his voice.
I pushed him back gently, tears filling my eyes. “Don’t do that. Don’t say goodbye. Earth School, remember?”
He nodded, a smile curling the edges of his lips. “I’ll never forget.”
We both stood there in silence for a moment just clutching our staffs, bare feet in the grass. I couldn’t help but take the moment to appreciate how far I’d come, how much he’d taught me. It was time to do what it felt like I was created for—to take this maniac out of power, so that a new peace could reign on Earth.
“It worked!” Keegan whisper-screamed behind us.
There was a commotion at the castle. I could hear pounding footsteps, the revving of engines, tires squealing. As Isaac and I made our way over to Keegan, I saw Gear’s hawk circling above.
Logan looked like he was in an intense mental conversation, and I guessed that Gear was talking to him.
“Gear says that about half of the druids and hunters have left to track down Isabella and Marco.” Logan relayed. “Nadine is at the very top in some kind of caged room. He can see her through the window. She’s seen him too, so she knows we’re coming.”
I stepped forward. “That room is at the top of a staircase. Steel bars. Minka can make them disappear with her magic bow and arrows. One team should go up the stairs, but someone should fly up too, in case she needs to go out the window, like I did.”
I didn’t know what they were doing to her or what they would do once they realized we were here, but I wanted all exits and entries covered.
Keegan nodded. “Let’s go get her. Got a plan to announce our presence?”
Isaac strode forward, gripping both staffs, eyes blazing orange. “I do.”
Without warning, he let rip an unexpected battle cry and slammed his staffs into the earth, which started to shake.
Holy shit. Isaac had been waiting years for this moment, to take Ardan down, and he wasn’t going to go easy. The druids who had been loitering on the front lawn of the castle ran in a zigzag pattern in panic. Some fell over with how badly the earth shook.
Keegan nodded impressively to Isaac, and then the ground ceased its quaking.
“Let’s go!” Keegan roared, cocking his shotgun. Dominic, who was in lion form, took off at an alarming pace, pounced through the trees and out into the open, Sophie and her harpoon gun was right behind him.
I looked at Logan. “You should shift and fly up to Nadine’s room. Minka can make the bars on the window disappear. You could fly her down now that the druids are distracted.”
My “twinnie” popped her head over my shoulder, making me jump. She must have been stalking me.
“Sure can, sweetie. Let’s do it,” she told Logan with a wink, eyes raking over his chest as he pulled off his shirt.
I really wanted to punch her in the face and rip out one of her teeth, but thought better of it. Logan, shirtless and on the verge of shifting into his dragon form, pulled me in for a quick kiss, ignoring Minka and her Sloane-snatcher body.
“I’ll go up and get Nadine, but I’m keeping an eye on you,” he told me as he released me.
I nodded. “Be safe!” Then I was running, Isaac at my side, thoughts of Logan and anyone else in the back of my mind.
Where are you, Ardan? It was time to end this.
As Isaac and I busted out through the trees, it was chaos. Druids and hunters were engaged in battle with shifters and sorcerers. Eva and Danny were hurling balls of yellow magic, to combat the red that were crashing into our forces.
I looked up and saw Logan and Minka flying for Nadine’s window. Then my eyes fell to the front door, which Keegan was blasting open with his shotgun. Okay, Nadine was going to be fine.
I was going to suggest we storm the castle, and search for Ardan’s office when a small but noticeable gust of wind slapped against my back. At the same time, Isaac’s head whipped toward me, eyes wide in horror.
Before I could even think, or turn around, a bare hand clamped around my neck from behind and then I was being pulled. The castle before me blinked out of existence and I was spinning in a black hole. He’d taken me away. Away from everyone.
Oh God.
My feet slammed down on a hard surface and suddenly I was inside of some type of barn. My stomach lurched as I tried to get my bearings from the jerky traveling and I looked around. There was hay on the ground but no animals that my quick scan could tell me. The top two windows were open to let in light and fresh air, but otherwise it was a musty, closed-up space with one light swinging overhead.
Ardan stepped out from behind me, snatched my staff before it dawned on me to use it, and chucked it hard against the far wall, where it crashed and fell to the floor.
“Her necklace too!” a familiar voice spat.
Truth witch. He stepped out of the shadows and I brought my hand up to shoot purple fire at Ardan before he could take my necklace. But he blinked out of my reach, appearing behind me and ripping my necklace off, tearing the clasp before I could even move.
He was fast. Really fast. I was so screwed.
I fisted my hands at my sides and backed up so that both men were within my sight.
“Where am I?” I asked, trying to keep the panic out of my voice.
The evil druid grinned, pleased with himself. “About two miles up the road from your little friends, at a farm I own.”
Relief crashed through me that I wasn’t in China or some far-off place. Two miles. I could fly two miles. Hell, I think I could even make Sophie proud and run two miles.
‘Sloane!’ Logan roared in my head, panic flushing through our bond.
‘I can’t talk. I need to concentrate. Ardan has me two miles away in some barn on a farm.’
‘I’ll find you,’ he promised, and then left me alone to deal with the situation before me.
It could take him hours to fly two miles in every direction looking for barns, but I tried to keep hope.
Ardan looked annoyed at the truth witch. “Well, let’s do this and be done with it.”
The sorcerer snapped out of his trance and threw his arms forward. Yellow spell bands wrapped around me, pinning my arms to my sides. With a grunt I fell back ungracefully, tucking my chin in so I wouldn’t crack my head.
The sorcerer took quiet footsteps until he was looming over me, a circular object rolling in his hands.
The Eye. Frick.
“Thanks for leading me to this. It’s helped me learn how to drain your powers.”
Double frick. Why was I so stupid?
He looked at Ardan. “Because she killed Steven, I need you to assist me. Get the druid and dragon blades, but put gloves on first.”
Ardan nodded, looking greedily at me like he was Minka, and I’d suddenly offered every molar in my mouth.
I tried not to let panic take hold. Being restrained in bands of yellow magic didn’t help, but I fought to think of a way out. Last time I’d blasted out with my magic without my necklace or staff I nearly went into a coma, so I didn’t think that was a good idea. Maybe I could talk my way out of it.
“I know where more skyborn are! I can lead you to them, just don’t hurt me!” I would never do that of course, but it might buy me time until Logan could get here.
Ardan suddenly towered over me, two glowing blades in his hands. “Oh, I will find them ev
entually, but it’s you I want now.”
Okay, time to panic. Adrenaline rushed through me as I fought the magical bands, squirming. Every time I tried to wriggle they tightened.
I immediately went limp, not wanting to tighten them further, trying not to let the anxiety take over.
The sorcerer slipped The Eye into his pocket and began swirling yellow magic in his hands. “Okay, when I say so, you need to cut her left arm with the dragons blade and her right arm with the druids blade at the same time. It has to be at the same time.”
Oh, God.
Ardan adjusted himself so that he was standing over me, then fell to his knees, straddling me, lining up the blades over my arms. Some part of me had sort of hoped he was some old guy with backwards views that might just need educating, but seeing him greedily hang over me with those knives, I could see his mind was sick beyond repair.
Before I could think of what to do, the truth witch yelled, “Now!” and saturated my body with a yellow syrupy magic that coated my skin. Ardan’s wrists came down lightning-quick at the same time, slicing huge gashes into my forearms.
My dragon raged inside of me, as a burning like I’d never felt before laced up my arms, into my neck, and toward my head. It felt like I was on fire.
Fire.
My dragon couldn’t shift, not with these yellow bands, and I couldn’t blast out with my magic for fear of a coma, but there was one thing I could do without my staff, without my necklace. I dug my bare heels into the earth and prayed that Mother Earth was here with me, aware of what was going on and able to help. I tried not to lose my shit as green dragon magic lifted off of my left arm and orange druid magic lifted off my right, mingling into a purple mass before me.
Ardan greedily began to inhale and suck it into himself.
I shut everything out—the burning in my arms—the fact that I was pretty sure I was dying—Logan screaming through the bond—my dragon trying to hold on—memories of my mother … I turned everything off and focused solely on the pulsing of the Earth's energy at my feet.
I was Racine McCallister’s daughter.
I was a fire druid.