Earthbound (Dragons and Druids Book 2)

by Leia Stone

  “On second thought, Keegan, do we have any avocado? I’ll pass on the bacon.”

  If I was going to embrace all of my druid powers and get a handle on this magic, then I needed to do what Isaac said … what my mother would have done.

  Isaac just smiled sweetly and nodded, walking to the front of the bus and leaving me to my thoughts. I was now a vegetarian with potted feet.

  “We’ll be at the tree in about an hour. Prepare for anything,” Isaac said over his shoulder.

  Prepare for anything. Great, just what I wanted to hear as my feet were deep in soil.

  “Isaac, wait.” I wanted to get my staff and start my training, but I also needed to see if my mom’s address book was in fact just an address book.

  I took a deep breath and told the group about the book. I told them what I thought it was, and how important it was for me to check out the addresses.

  Logan knew about it, but Dominic, Danny, Nadine, they gasped.

  Isaac looked thoughtfully outside at the passing world. “We’ll get the staff and then we check out the closest address. If it’s nothing, we go home, start your training.”

  “And if it’s something?” I stroked Mittens’ back nervously.

  He sighed. “Then we start rounding up skyborn. You need to stick together. Now more than ever.”

  I could feel Logan thrum with excitement. How long had he pined over being the last dragon? How long had he yearned to be with others of his kind?

  Today was going to be a big day. It would prove once and for all that my mother had been doing something good. Noble even. That all those years she’d lied to me was for a higher purpose.

  Please don’t just be an address book.

  The next hour passed quickly, I was informed that Nadine and Gear had painted the bus to look like an assisted living facility bus. I’m not sure how this would pass if all of us in our early twenties got off the bus together, but they seemed to only be concerned with driving around and attracting attention as the big yellow school bus with no kids on it. The windows had all been tinted to nearly black as well. If the druids were looking for a big yellow bus, they wouldn’t find it.

  “What about the plates?” I asked Nadine while my feet remained in their potted plants.

  She shrugged. “Gear took care of it.”

  Was Gear secretly in the CIA? Geeze.

  Gear just looked at me with his large green mohawk and winked.

  Now Dominic was driving the bus through some fancy neighborhood, while Isaac pointed the way to this majestic tree. I reached up and Logan helped me unpot my feet. I was reluctant to admit my head started throbbing once they were out. I hoped I hadn’t done permanent damage to anything. I was rather fond of my brain, and the way it was throbbing suggested I’d done a little damage.

  “You okay?” Logan asked, and I nodded. I didn’t want to worry him over something I couldn’t fix and didn’t understand.

  He didn’t seem to buy it, but thought better of challenging me, helping me stand as I peered out the dark-tinted windows. I’d never been to Louisiana, and it was beautiful. The road we were driving down had large plantation-style homes with red-brick fronts. The sun was just setting, casting an orange glow across the trees.

  “Stop up here!” Isaac called out and I moved towards the front of the bus to see where he was pointing.

  “Holy mother!” I exclaimed.

  Isaac beamed; tears lined his eyes. “Isn’t she beautiful?”

  One of the largest trees I’d ever seen was plopped right in the front yard of a red-brick home with white shutters. The base wasn’t one trunk, it was … seven. They spilled out sideways onto the lawn like creeping vines, covering a width of about seventy feet.

  “It’s glorious.” I wanted to touch it, to lie in her branches while drawing all day. It looked so healthy and inviting.

  “Eva, we’re going to need a cover if the homeowners come out,” Isaac instructed.

  The sorceress nodded and rubbed her hands together. “Let’s do it.”

  I stepped forward, and so did Logan, but Isaac put his hand out gently. “Logan … son … I need you to trust that I can protect her. The fewer people the better, for what needs to be done.”

  His eyes lingered on me for a moment and then he nodded.

  I reached out and squeezed his hand. ‘I’ll be right back.’

  He didn’t say a word, staring at me with impossibly green eyes.

  I followed Eva and Isaac off the bus. Barefoot of course. We crossed the street quietly, my eyes on that massive tree in all her glory. I was a bit embarrassed to admit that I had a tree obsession now. Ever since Isaac had saved Dom, I’d become enthralled. The way he’d just … sucked the life from that tree and transferred that energy to Dominic, it was a miracle. A miracle I wanted to learn how to do.

  The moment my feet sank into the fresh green Southern lawn, I sighed in contentment. Mother Earth’s energy was strong here. I instinctively knew that the tree’s roots carried this far out under the ground. I could feel them sending me vibrations of healing. My headache lessened almost instantly.

  “You feel that?” Isaac asked, and I nodded with a smile.

  Eva looked at us both, perplexed, our bare feet in the lawn, and shook her head, smiling. She had her hands out, a yellowish hexagon shape floating over us, no doubt concealing us from any human eyes.

  Isaac took in a deep breath before bending to place one hand on the ground. “He’s here.”

  My blood froze for a moment, thinking he meant Steven, but I relaxed when I smelled fresh wood and oil.

  “Griddish!” I whispered.

  We all walked quickly to the tree, taking large strides. It had been almost two days since Griddish was attacked. If he was here, waiting for us the entire time, then he wasn’t in good shape.

  Isaac stopped just before the tree’s branches. “He’s concealed.”

  Eva thrust her hands forward and the glamour fell away like paper tearing. There at the base of the tree, clutching a beautiful purple-stone staff, was our little elf friend.

  His skin looked waxy and gray; his breathing was labored, and the network of veins covering him was … red.

  I fell to my knees and gently shook him. “Griddish … we’re here. We made it.”

  He slowly peeled open one eye, and I tried to contain my shock at the blood red staining the white.

  “Fire girl…” He smiled lazily.

  I couldn’t see the wound in his neck anymore, but it was clear he was mortally injured.

  “Help him!” I shrieked to Isaac.

  The elf held up a limp hand. “No, I’m ready to be with Yalash and my queen.”

  He gingerly lifted the staff and handed it to me. It was stupid, but I cared for him. Something about him had made me feel like we had something in common, like we weren’t that different. I took the staff in my hands, and the remainder of my headache was chased away immediately. Other than a slight popping noise and a rush of power under my skin, there wasn’t a big light and magic show, for which I was grateful.

  Griddish was looking at me then with his head cocked to the side. “I knew your mother. That hair, the pointy chin … fire druid. I don’t know why I didn’t recognize you before.”

  My whole body froze. “You knew her?” I breathed.

  He nodded and then winced as if the act pained him. “She was the queen’s battle druid.”

  Isaac gasped behind me, but I didn’t dare turn to him. I was frozen staring at Griddish, longing to absorb any information I could.

  “What? What’s that?”

  Griddish gasped a little, his eyes losing focus, and a bright smile lit up his face. “Yalash,” he said, as tears spilled over onto his cheeks. Suddenly, he was gone. Where he once lay was now only a pile of his blood-soaked clothes. He’d completely disappeared. Dead.

  A sob caught in my throat as I leaned forward to clutch the clothes.

  “He’s gone,” I said stupidly.

  Isaac’s hand ca
me to rest on my shoulder. “He’s at peace.”

  I stood, turning around then, and faced Isaac. “What was he talking about? My mother … a battle druid? The queen’s battle druid.”

  I felt like this entire journey from the Grand Canyon until now I’d been collecting puzzle pieces. Now I needed them to come together and all make sense.

  Isaac looked to Eva, who threw up her arms. “Don’t look at me. I wasn’t some highborn royal in Faery. I lived in a small village with Logan and his family. I never met the queen, or her battle druid.”

  That was the first I’d ever heard Eva talk about the land of Faery. It reminded me how very old everyone was, but I thought it was best to keep that to myself. If Faery fell during the 1918 Spanish influenza, then she was at least a hundred years old, and likely wouldn’t want to be reminded of it.

  Isaac was looking at me differently. With concern or awe, I couldn’t tell. “Racine McCallister. A legend,” he breathed.

  I looked at him with confusion.

  “That was your mother’s name,” he stated. “She probably changed it after the war…”

  My mom’s name was Lily Murphy. Racine was her middle name. Chills broke out on my arms.

  “War?” I wanted to hear the story. I wanted to know everything about the sweet woman who folded my clothes and commanded a room of twenty-six eight-year-olds like it was no big deal.

  “I was a young teenager when the Faery war consumed our world,” Isaac declared, “but my parents told me stories growing up … of a formidable queen who loved the humans, and her battle druid who fought for them.”

  I leaned forward, afraid to miss even a word.

  “A fire druid with red hair, who could command lava as if she were a living volcano. Could set people or buildings on fire from miles away. She could lay waste to entire civilizations if she pleased. Racine McCallister was the queen’s last line of defense to save Faery when the druids rebelled. I thought she perished with the queen.”

  What the what? Lava? Lay waste to civilizations? That was not my mother.

  I barked out a laugh. “My mother tended a garden. She was a schoolteacher. The most violent thing she’d ever done was flip off Mr. Cleary behind his back for teaching his cat to crap on our doormat.”

  Isaac threw up his hands. “I’m just telling you what I know about the queen’s battle druid.”

  Eva had been silent this whole time, and when I looked at her she was lost in thought.

  “What is it?” I asked her. I knew her looks by now. She had an idea.

  “The Eye is a temperamental object of power constrained by many rules. I cannot look forward, only backward or parallel. I can’t look where I’ve never been, unless a loved one’s energy signature is there—It is how I searched for Logan, to make sure you were all okay, and found him in the elf’s backyard. And lastly, I cannot look to people I do not know, as I don’t know what energy signature to search for…”

  That didn’t sound too positive, but I trusted she was going somewhere with this.

  Eva smiled a little. “I can, however, look back into the land of Faery, because I’ve been there, and I think I could search for your mother’s signature since it’s so close to yours, and I know yours well.”

  My heart leapt at her words. “Yes. Please! I want to see her, in the past. I have to know if that’s who she was.”

  Eva nodded, but Isaac put out a hand. “Not here. On the bus.”

  Isaac knelt down and began to fold the little elf’s clothes. “Sit in the tree for a bit, Sloane. It will heal you.”

  I was excited to use the Eye to see my mother but I obeyed. I didn’t want the headache or the loss of vision coming back. So, setting my staff down, I climbed onto one of the many low-hanging branches and let the healing vibrations soak into my palms and the soles of my feet.

  Isaac looked at Eva. “Where were you when Faery fell?”

  “In England with Logan. I’d been gone from Faery for a few years when the war broke out. I preferred this world and its people.” She looked wistfully at the sky.

  Something twinkled in Isaac’s eyes. “You nearly killed me the first time we met.”

  Eva grinned. “I thought you were one of the bad ones.”

  Isaac smiled brightly. “I couldn’t walk right for a few days.”

  At that she tipped her head back and laughed a carefree laugh, and I found myself smiling at their banter. They were totally flirting.

  “You healed just fine,” she mused, looking his body up and down.

  Okay, gag.

  “I’m feeling much better.”

  I broke up their love-fest before it got too awkward. I was more than happy for Eva and Isaac to get together in that way, just not while I was sitting here watching it all go down like some creepy third wheel.

  “Right.” Isaac grabbed the folded clothes and stood. “Let’s go to the nearest address in your mother’s book. On our way, you and Eva can look into the past.”

  I smiled, hopping off the tree and landing on my bare feet. “Sounds like a plan!”

  I was feeling refreshed and invigorated from my little tree chill time. And more than ready to know the truth about my mother.

  As we walked towards the bus I took time to notice the paintjob. Not bad. Boring as all hell in a muted tan with white cursive font, but I think that was the point.

  Logan was standing near the bus door with a gun in his hand.

  “Don’t shoot.” I put my hands up, one gripping the staff tightly, and he let out the breath he must have been holding.

  “You got it.” He eyed the staff.

  I nodded and we all loaded up into the bus.

  “Griddish?” Logan asked, as the others peered at me expectantly.

  “Dead,” I said, with a croak. The last of the earth wand makers was dead. I’d counted him as a friend. A weird friend that was shady and grumpy, but a friend nonetheless.

  Isaac picked up my mother’s leather notebook and flipped through it. Finally, he landed on an address.

  “Let’s go see about these other skyborn,” Isaac declared.

  I inhaled sharply; all of my Zen chi I’d gotten from the tree was gone. What if my mom was just some crazy chick obsessed with keeping her address book up to date?

  Only one way to find out.

  Chapter 11

  Isaac estimated it would be about an hour drive to the Louisiana address we had in my mom’s book. “Three,” the number beside it had read. Three skyborn? Three what? We would soon find out. I took the time to explain to everyone what Griddish had said about my mom. These were my friends now and I needed their support.

  “The freaking battle druid was your mother?” Sophie shrieked, before I could finish.

  I rubbed my arms nervously. “I guess?”

  Sophie bowed before me theatrically and pretended to kiss my feet.

  I rolled my eyes.

  “What do you know about the queen’s battle druid?” Logan asked her seriously. He didn’t seem confused, so he must know who the battle druid was.

  Sophie barked out a laugh. “Logan, please, you know I come from a long line of shifters whose sole purpose it is to protect skyborn. I’ve known about the battle druid since I could talk. She was the queen’s right-hand woman, hair the color of rubies, power unlike any other.”

  Nadine looked at me and shrugged as if to say she had no freaking clue. You and me too, sister.

  “The rumor was that the queen loved her.” Danny’s gasp stopped Sophie’s words. “No! Not like lesbian love, but ya know, BFF love. But even though she loved her, she feared her, and so the queen did a spell that put a limit on the battle druid’s ability, so that she couldn’t take over the kingdom.”

  Jesus. The second I thought that word my throat pinched in grief because Coop wasn’t here to make the sign of the cross. I missed that gentle giant. My mom would never take over a kingdom. She basically did arts and crafts with kids for a living. This was too much to take. I needed to know right now i
f Racine McCallister was my mom.

  “Eva? Please. I need to know…”

  She nodded, coming over to sit with me, holding the Eye in her hand.

  Danny’s eye widened. “Umm, what are you doing?”

  Eva began to circle her hand counter-clockwise over the orb. “We’re going back in time, dear.”

  Danny squealed. “Pretty please let me go, and I’ll do all of your bitch work for a week.”

  Eva smirked. “Even collecting the skunk urine?”

  Skunk urine. She said skunk urine.

  He grimaced. “Yes. For a week only.”

  Eva looked to me and I nodded. Fine by me. I just wanted to get there already.

  Logan’s energy pulled my gaze up; he was concerned, eyeing me with worry.

  ‘I’ll be fine. Be right back,’ I told him, and winked.

  He nodded, arms crossed, and watched me through those piercing green eyes. Something told me that if I didn’t come right back, Logan Sharp would somehow come and get me.

  “Okay,” Eva explained, “I won’t take you to the time of war because that’s too dark. We’ll try to see your mother in a gentler time in Faery.”

  I nodded. I didn’t care what timeframe it was so long as I saw her.

  “Just focus on your mother’s energy. Think of memories of her, and I’ll tap into that, trying to find her in the past.”

  I bobbed my head, my mind going to a memory of her humming in the kitchen while snipping the ends of off green beans. The way the sunlight hit her hair always reminded me of fire. She wasn’t weak or timid, my mother, but she was gentle. Maybe at one time she’d been some fierce warrior to the queen, but she’d become a mom, a teacher, and she was so soft. She never raised her voice to me. Grounded me plenty of times, or took away my drawing pencils, but she was never angry. Something must have doused that fire that Griddish claimed was in her.

  Eva breathed in and out slowly beside me, as Danny came to sit on the other side of her. She was rolling the copper ball in that rhythmic circular motion as I let the memories go to my mother.

  Finally, Eva froze. “I’ve got her!” She seemed shocked as if she didn’t expect it to work. Without another word, I reached out and touched the ball—and then I was falling, then flying, then drowning. This was different than the last time I’d used this ball to travel to the Griddish memory. This was Faery, which was God knows where, and just when I thought I couldn’t breathe, I was slammed to my feet—in the middle of a grand throne room. Dizziness washed over me for a moment.