by Leia Stone
Chapter 6
A shriek had me snapping my eyelids open and sitting bolt upright. I lost my balance for a second, wondering if I was having vertigo, until I noticed outside the bus windows there were clouds not trees. Logan was already jumping up and looking around.
“ISAAC!” Logan bellowed.
Gear’s hawk cawed and flapped frantically outside the window. The druid pulled the curtains to his bunk aside and stood, looking around.
He looked happy. “Elves are masters of levitation,” he stated.
Logan growled. “Why is he levitating our bus?” I stood as well, and walked slowly and carefully to peek out the window. Sure enough, that little elf had his hands out, and our bus was being lowered into his huge backyard.
The druid shrugged. “If he wanted us gone, he’d have levitated us away from the house.”
True. The tires gently landed and I held onto the seat to keep from falling over as the bus jerked a little upon touching ground.
Hemlock barked, fully awake now and scared. “It’s okay. Good boy,” I told him and he met my eyes and settled back down. Nadine had a bag of breakfast sandwiches in her hand, which she must have gotten up early to get and she tossed three to me.
“Give him one. Just like last night. Don’t push him,” she ordered, clearly unperturbed at the fact that we’d all been on a floating bus.
I nodded. Peeling open the wrapper and tossing the muffin away, I slowly handed him the egg patty with bacon. He licked his lips and whined as my hand got closer. No growl yet. I inched nearer, so close that I thought he might actually feed from my hand, then he growled. I dropped the patty before him and backed away with a smile. “Good boy.”
I was going to make that dog feed from my hand, if it was the last thing I did.
The bus door suddenly sprang open and Griddish walked up the steps. “You made a scene at the club,” he yelled in that deep voice of his, addressing us all. “Bringing trouble to my town! They are looking for this yellow bus.”
Well, that explained the bus levitation. He was hiding us.
Dominic swung his legs out of the bunk and I noticed a gun in each hand. He nearly died yesterday, but after a good night sleep, he looked ready to party.
Isaac nodded. “We had a longstanding feud to settle. I’m sorry if the druids will no longer buy from you if they find out you’re helping us.” The way he said it, he wasn’t sorry at all.
Griddish scowled. “I need to make money. I need to eat. Don’t judge me,” he snapped at Isaac.
The ornate carved handles of the druid’s knife flashed into my mind then and I gasped. Why was Griddish at a pureblood club last night? “You make their knives, don’t you?” I shouted. The red glowing blade, the one that killed skyborn. He did that.
His ears burned red as he looked down with shame. “I do what I have to do to survive. Yalash isn’t here anymore to take care of me.”
It seemed his brother Yalash did everything for him, including think. Holy crap, this guy made weapons to kill Logan and I, and yet he’d seemed enthralled with Logan last night, saying he was the queen’s favorite child. Why would he work against us like that?
Part of me understood. I’d done stupid stuff in the name of survival, including leaving Logan and the pack and running away.
“So, have you decided if you will help us or not?” Isaac pressed him.
Griddish groaned. “I will do it for Yalash.”
I grinned, excited and nervous at the same time, but then a thought came to me. I still had all that money in the bank, and I didn’t want him depending on the druids for cash anymore … making weapons that killed my kind. “I will pay you one hundred thousand dollars for the staff, if you promise to never make another skyborn-killing knife for the druids again.”
His little beady eyes widened with shock and he could only nod. “On my honor as the late queen’s loyal guard.”
I could have sworn that Logan mumbled something like “hypocrite” under his breath, but I couldn’t be sure. I’d gone to a dark place after my mom died, so I wasn’t one to judge. His brother was clearly the one who took care of things, and now he was just trying to survive. I wasn’t going to hold it against him.
“How long will it take?” Isaac asked.
The elf huffed. “Considering I don’t have Yalash to help … four days, maybe five.”
Keegan growled. “We need to get back to Sophie and Ruben.”
“Sloane needs to continue her training.” Logan piped in as well.
Isaac nodded. “After Sloane’s tree has been chosen, we’ll head home and come back in four days. She can’t start her druid training without it.”
“My tree?” I asked suddenly. Had I heard that right?
The elf smiled, little dimples appearing at the corners of his mouth. “Come. I’ll show you.”
The pack had left the bus, all except Hemlock, who had growled when I tried to get him to come. He was still healing. Nadine had given him some canine antibiotics. When I inquired why she had canine antibiotics lying around, she’d smirked and told me that they worked better for her and Keegan than human ones. In the rare event they didn’t heal properly, and needed them of course.
Now I was sitting barefoot on the grass in Griddish’s backyard. Isaac and Logan stood a good distance behind Griddish so they didn’t affect my “energy,” while the pack milled about in the background, watching the elf with a curious eye.
Seeing Griddish up close in the daytime, I found myself examining his features. His eyes were crystalline and hypnotic. He smelled of oil and freshly-cut wood, and the air around him charged with electricity.
He leaned in close, peering into my eyes for an unnerving amount of time. Then he sniffed me, smelled my breath it felt like. When he rocked back on his heels, he looked down at me.
“What are you?” he asked, mystified.
I froze. Panicked. Unsure if we could trust this guy yet or not. He’d figured out what Logan was and seemed in awe, but I wasn’t sure if he should know about me. I met Isaac’s eyes and he cleared his throat.
“She is unique,” Isaac answered, and the elf looked hurt that Isaac hadn’t told him exactly what I was, but he nodded.
Griddish walked over to his tool table and pulled out a small wooden trunk. With a grunt, he hefted it over, setting it down before me. He paused for a moment, letting his fingers caress the carved wood.
“Yalash was better at this,” he stated.
My heart ached for him then. It was awful to lose a loved one, someone you were especially close with like a parent or sibling. What I wouldn’t give to have just ten minutes more with my mother. Hell, I’d sell my soul.
“I’m sure you’ll do fine,” I encouraged him.
He chuckled. “If I get it wrong, you could combust.”
My eyes widened and Logan spun his head in Isaac’s direction.
The good druid looked at Griddish. “You’ve been doing this thousands of years. Do not doubt yourself now.” The druid’s voice was calm, so I tried to take strength in that.
The elf nodded, straightening his back, and peered down at me, not yet opening the trunk.
“I’m going to ask you a series of questions. You must answer honestly and quickly. Don’t overthink it. Do not lie and do not falter.”
I swallowed hard and nodded. What kind of weirdness was this?
“If you could be a cat or a dog, which would you be?” he asked.
The ridiculous nature of the question had me in shock. “Answer!” he yelled.
“Dog!” I shouted.
‘I’m telling Mittens,’ Logan taunted, and I ignored him, trying not to laugh.
“Chocolate or caramel?” Griddish quizzed.
Pssh, as if that was a competition. “Chocolate.”
“What color is your magic?” He rubbed his chin as the wheels spun in his mind.
“Purple.” I was pretty sure he already suspected I was a hybrid, and I didn’t want to combust by lying.
He raised an eyebrow at that and moved on.
“Do you believe in love at first sight?”
I looked at Logan, faltering for a second, embarrassed. “Yes.”
Logan grinned. Ego boost.
“Final question. If you could have one gift, would it be to fly or to read minds.”
I paused, my mind getting stuck. I wanted to say fly, but technically I could already fly. Reading minds might be cool, but would I want to be stuck in everyone’s drama?
He looked nervous. “Answer!”
Shit! I’d lost what my instinct had been. “Fly?” I replied and he swallowed hard.
“She’s either a white elm or a balsam fir.” He rubbed his chin and popped open the wooden chest.
Inside were a bunch of small sticks. They weren’t normal sticks. They were capped each side in gold and carved with different symbols. Because of my curious nature, I couldn’t not ask what they were.
He fiddled through them before pulling two out and weighing them in his hand.
“They are magicked power wands, meant to magnify the effects of a staff one hundred-fold, to help me chose the right one for you. What if I spent four days carving a staff that didn’t even work?”
“Right,” I mumbled. Oh God, I was going to have to touch one of these. I knew it. I had a horrible history with touching stuff.
He weighed each one in his hand. “Elm or fir? Elm or fir…?” he mumbled.
I swallowed hard, suddenly nervous to do this at all. Maybe I could learn to harness my power without this…? My eyes met Isaac and he simply shook his head. He must have known where my thoughts were going. What had he said by the waterfall, that without a wand my powers would overwhelm me? Great.
The elf seemed to have decided on one, and extended his knobby hand to me. I took a deep breath and reached for the stick, then something in his face flickered and he snatched his hand back.
“You pass a homeless man on the street. He looks like a drug addict but he also looks hungry. You have a dollar in your pocket. Do you give him the dollar?” the elf asked.
I answered without hesitation. “No.” I never gave money, always food or packages of socks or something else. Maybe that was wrong. Not to trust them with money. But it’s just who I was. I would have bought him a burger with the dollar but not given the money.
The elf smiled, looking more confident, and this time handed me the stick that was opposite from the one he’d just been about to hand me. Great. Guesswork.
Behind him, Logan, Keegan, Isaac and Danny all covered their man parts with their hands.
Sloane the ball buster. Beware.
Taking a deep breath, I reached for the stick and wrapped my fingers around it. Here goes nothing.
Instead of the uncontrolled and chaotic sonic boom of energy that normally happened when I tried to make my power show itself, a low rumble shook the ground and purple light vibrated out of the wand in wavy lines across the yard. Seeing that the purple magic was too widespread, I only had to think of condensing it before it became a thin beam. I stared at the purple beam in awe as it lit up the base of the tree trunk.
The boys all took their hands off their junk and relaxed, but Griddish and Isaac both had their jaws slack as they stared at the beam.
A peculiar scent filtered through my nose and I identified it at the same time Danny yelled, “Smoke!”
My purple beam was branding the base of the tree. I yelped and dropped the stick, as Danny threw some yellow magic at the tree to keep it from catching fire.
Griddish had fallen to his knees, staring at me with an awed reverence. “A fire druid,” he breathed. “I haven’t seen one in a hundred years.”
Isaac was grinning ear to ear. “We must train immediately.”
I stared at the stick on the ground where I had dropped it. My palm itched to pick it up again. It had somehow soothed the agitated energy I’d had since finding out I was skyborn. Fire druid … I could guess at what that was but I’d rather be told. I had a wild imagination and didn’t want to insert things that weren’t reality.
“Fire druid?” Logan asked, stepping closer to me, his muscles tightening, going into his protective mode I had come to love.
Isaac placed a reassuring hand on Logan’s shoulder. “In the beginning, when all druids were earth druids and did not take power from the Skyborn, there existed only four kinds: Earth, water, wind, and fire—the latter being the rarest. Earth druids, like me, harness energy from the earth, and my magic is linked to the earth. Water druids draw from the water, and often swim for hours each day to recharge. Wind druids, like Ardan and Steven, are some of the most powerful. They pull energy from the most plentiful resource on Earth. Air. But they’ve tainted their bodies with the siphoning of skyborn magic, and it’s distorted their ability, which is why Ardan is so formidable.”
He paused for effect. “Fire druids are rumored to be the mightiest. Their magic is born of the core of Mother Earth. With proper training, a fire druid could eviscerate Ardan.” His eyes were gleaming. Long gone was the happy druid who hugged trees. In his place, was a sadistic murderer who was hell bent on seeing Ardan burn alive.
No pressure. And yuck.
“So …” Danny was the one to break the silence. “With this wand, her magic won’t be able to nut punch us anymore?” He seemed to be overly concerned with his junk.
The elf’s brow furrowed in confusion, but Isaac simply nodded. “Among other things.”
Logan hadn’t said a word, but apprehension was written all over his face. “Is it dangerous? Can she get hurt?”
The elf stood and picked up the stick I had dropped. Isaac nodded. “Training a fire druid can be … difficult, but I am more than capable for the challenge.”
Okay, confidence. I liked that. Feeling good.
The elf gave Logan a small bow. “I will make her the finest white elm earth wand this world has ever seen.”
Logan nodded, looking as if he didn’t much care how fine my wand was.
Isaac gave the elf a small bow. “How well the wand is crafted, means how well her powers will work. I don’t need to remind you of that, do I?”
Oh. The plot thickens.
“You do not,” he growled.
Don’t piss him off. I tried to mentally beam the message to Isaac. The last thing I needed was for him to make me a jacked-up wand that exploded my head when I used it or something.
“We’ll be back in four days,” Isaac told the elf, and he nodded.
“I’ll pay you half now and half when we pick up the wand,” I told Griddish, who bowed lightly to me.
“Thank you, young druid.” He went over to his desk and brought me back a small business card. On it was written Two Elves Craftsmen LCC with his company’s bank information. Two elves. But now only one. Again, I felt for him and the loss of his twin brother.
I tucked it into my pocket and bade him farewell. As I was about to turn to leave, Dominic approached the elf, one gun in each hand relaxed at his side. “You remember the lady’s terms for paying you such a large sum?”
The elf didn’t show a hint of fear. If anything, he looked annoyed at Dominic’s little gun display. “I pledge on my honor to never make another skyborn-killing weapon in all my life,” he declared.
Keegan rolled his eyes, but I felt his promise was true. At least I hoped it was. I was living in the woods and out of a bus, what did I need the money for? I could always just sell another scale. But for him it would change his circumstances greatly, start him on a new path.
We loaded up onto the bus and I took one last look at Griddish. He’d better not let me down.
As Griddish levitated our bus up and out onto the street, Isaac sat next to me. “Yalash made my wand free of charge. I still paid him a donation, but it was pennies compared to what you just offered him.”
I nodded. “I’ve been desperate before. People do crazy things when they’re in that state.”
My mind thought back to the Grand Canyon fall. I’d s
tolen clothes, food, and even money to get by. It wasn’t something I was proud of, but I’d been in survival mode.
Isaac nodded. “If Yalash were still alive, he’d never have worked for the bad druids.”
I shrugged. “Sometimes grief makes you do things you never thought you would.”
My chest pinched then as I thought of my mother. No teenager should ever have to bury their own parent. It felt beyond wrong. I’d gone to a dark place for a few years after that. Actually, I wasn’t sure how I hadn’t end up a drug addict or a stripper.
“Hey, Isaac?”
The bus was landing on four wheels in front of the house.
“Yes?”
“If I’m a fire druid, then my mom was one, right?”
His eyebrows pinched in confusion. “Yes, but a fire druid is a pure earth druid. She wouldn’t have been one of Ardan’s. That means she was like me, but … I never knew of any others left. I could have helped her.”
Emotions warred inside of me. My mother lied to me my entire life. She was my best friend and her betrayal cut me wide open.
“But she died of breast cancer. I saw her waste away…” Tears lined my eyes as I thought back to how my radiant and boisterous mother had been, and then was reduced to a sleeping skeleton.
Isaac placed a hand on my knee. “I have a theory about that … but why hash out the past? It happened. Best to move on and feel good knowing your mother was one of us. One of the good ones.”
I wanted to move on, to take comfort in the fact that my mother wasn’t one of Ardan’s monsters, but I needed to know how this all happened. And why.
“Tell me your theory,” I said, as Roxy put the bus in reverse and prepared to take us home. The rest of the gang shuffled to the back, giving us privacy.
Isaac stared out the window at the passing trees. “Fire druids have ancient magic. Magic, that when trained, can rival a pureblooded sorcerer.”
I don’t know why that knowledge scared me, but it did. Was I afraid of myself? What I was capable of?
