Magictorn

by Leia Stone

  Come on, Mom, help me out, I prayed to the necklace, as if it somehow held a part of her. With a deep breath I concentrated on my warming palms and … pushed. There was no other way to explain it, I just squeezed the magic out of my palms and a stream of purple fire engulfed the tree, consuming it entirely. I shook my hands and it stopped, I stumbled backward.

  In all the weeks of training with my staff I could barely get a concentrated beam of magic, and now it was like a hose of fire had doused the little tree and beyond. Danny rushed forward with a magical spell to quench the fire.

  Isaac looked at me with a grin. “Ardan is going to die a fiery death,” he declared.

  I smirked. Yes …yes he was.

  Chapter 3

  The drive from Arizona back to Isaac’s land in Northern California took twice as long because Eva had to keep throwing up shield spells to counteract The Eye searching for us. We took a zigzag route to throw them off, and then, finally, pulled up through the tall redwoods and onto the land. The craziest moment of the trip came when Eva received a call from Lynn, saying that late last night her necklace had lit up and seemed to be working again! We speculated that my fire magic was feeding through my mother’s necklace and into theirs. Geoff and Casey’s necklaces were working again too, and that was the best news I’d heard in weeks.

  “Have we heard from Dee?” I asked, while we drove among the large redwood trees that dotted the perimeter of Isaac’s land. The new female alpha Keegan had hired had been holding down the fort in our absence. On any normal occasion, that would be a big deal, but with Lynn’s new baby, who I’d learned she named Lily after my mom, it was even more of a challenge.

  Eva nodded. “She texted to say all was well. The protections I put over Lily’s room seem to be holding.”

  Lily was an adorable orange and cream dragon when she shifted, but since shifting brought the druids, it was less adorable and more … terrifying. Thank God Eva was able to spell a small space that let her freely shift without detection.

  “So, Lily can’t leave the room?” I asked. That sounded okay for now; she was just an infant who slept and pooped all day. But as she started to crawl and needed space, that could become a serious problem.

  Eva frowned. “No, she can’t. The only reason my concealment spells are working is because she’s so small. Her shift doesn’t output that much of a magical trace, but as she grows...” She let the sentence hang open and we all read it, loud and clear. “And I only have so much of the magical ingredients needed for the spell. When we run out…”

  Doom and gloom was basically what she was saying.

  Logan maneuvered the SUV into the empty space behind the two huge buses we now owned. I missed the bright yellow school bus. It was now a washed-out tan, pretending to be from an old folks home.

  I’d missed everyone, even Sophie if I was being honest. The car door opened and we all piled out, sore from the long drive. I still wore my mother’s necklace, but I hadn’t tried any more magic since burning the tree down. Something gave me the feeling Isaac and I were going to be doing a lot of training in the near future.

  “Sloane!” Nadine shrieked. I tore away from the car and ran towards that voice. But I skidded to a halt when I saw her standing there, holding hands with Gear. Holding hands!

  What the hell? I’d been gone like two days. A slow grin crept across my face. Nadine knew exactly what she was doing when she left the pack. She was getting her man.

  She looked at their interlocked hands and blushed before dropping his hand and coming to wrap her arms around me.

  “We were all so worried,” she breathed. As her arms tightened around me, I caught sight of the fresh bear head tattoo on her bicep and I was reminded of Ruben, our sweet bear shifter who fell protecting me.

  “Ruben,” I said, with tears in my eyes while she pulled away.

  “Is dining in heaven with Cooper,” Roxy said, from behind me.

  I froze. I wasn’t prepared to see her. I didn’t even know what to say. Spinning around, I quickly wiped my tears. “I’m so, so, sor—”

  She held up a hand. “We weren’t raised like you, to think death is a weak and sad thing. Dying to protect a skyborn is the greatest glory you can have. My family is very proud. He will be missed but we are proud of him.” Her face was a mixture of exactly that, longing and pride. I wasn’t going to take that from her.

  “Okay,” I said, but I still felt like I was waiting for the big brute to walk around the corner. Death was weird. It took a while to sink in.

  “Okay.” She nodded and gave me a side hug.

  “You had to just go and get kidnapped by the bad guys, didn’t you?” Sophie’s voice called out. She had red ringed eyes and looked like she hadn’t slept in a while. Ruben’s death must have crushed her, they were getting close before his life had been taken.

  I grinned as I spun. “You had to just rub that in, didn’t you?”

  Mrs. Boobs was standing with one hand on her hip, giving me a fake glare. “The obstacle course has been getting cold.”

  I smiled, but it was quickly washed away when I thought of how Ruben had helped build the course and helped train me. Sophie must have had the same thought too, because her face fell as well.

  “Come on, Dominic cooked. It’s a miracle to see,” Sophie said, and we all walked further into camp.

  When I looked back, Logan and Keegan were unpacking the car and he waved me forward, letting me know he didn’t need my help. Gear had left Nadine’s side to help the boys, so now it was just Roxy, Sophie, Nadine, and I. When we were out of the boys’ earshot, but not yet at the camp, I halted and spun on Nadine.

  “Tell. Me. Everything. Now,” I demanded, with wide eyes.

  Her rich laughter rang out as she gazed across the clearing at Gear.

  “Yeah, what’s up? Did you guys finally go to Bonetown?” Sophie asked, wagging her eyebrows.

  My jaw dropped open. Bonetown? Yuck.

  Nadine smacked the coyote shifter in the arm. Hard. Then she looked at me. “You know the other night … when I left the pack and he ran off into the woods?”

  I nodded. Bring on the juicy details.

  She grinned. “He … well, you guys were off in Fresno doing the scales thing, and he burst into my house and…” She blushed.

  Sophie stepped forward, one eyebrow raised. “And what? Details, girl, come on…”

  Nadine grinned. “He basically declared his undying love for me, and threw me on the bed, making every single one of my fantasies about him come true.”

  Whoa, damn. Did the temperature just skyrocket? Because I was feeling a little warm…

  “You go, girl,” I told her, and gave her a hip bump.

  She just grinned again. “So, I’m in Dee’s pack now, and he’s with you guys, no rules are broken. We’re a couple.”

  I groaned. “These rules are seriously stupid. Keegan has to see that and make changes.”

  “Agreed,” Roxy said, and her eyes found their way to Dominic, who was tending a grill outside.

  I smiled. If we could get Keegan to break his rule, there might be a happy ending in it for all of us.

  “Waaaaa!”

  I heard the goat's cry too late. Her head smashed into the back of my leg and I shot forward, spinning around.

  “This demonic goat is still here!” I cried, staring at her.

  Nadine laughed, and bent down as the goat came to her innocently, and lightly butted her hand while she stroked her back.

  “You were gone like two days. You think the goat disappeared in that time?”

  I was hoping.

  “What the hell are you feeding her to make her like you?” I wondered aloud.

  Nadine rolled her eyes. “Nothing. I just don’t call her things like ‘demonic goat.’ Animals can sense when you don’t like them.”

  Speaking of animals … a loud bark sounded behind me, and the demon goat took off like her tail had been lit on fire.

  “Hemlock!” I shouted, and
ran to my rescue dog. He looked so healthy! His brownish tan coat was shiny, and although it held scars, it looked healed. He wagged his tail, licking my outstretched hand. Man, this dog had come a long way.

  “Mewww.” Mittens’ little call sign came from under Hemlock, and I scooped her up. She was getting big. No longer a baby kitten, more like a toddler.

  “Have you two been good while I was gone?” I asked them, as a warm fuzzy feeling radiated out of my chest. This was home to me. Nadine, Isaac, Mittens, and Hemlock. Even Sophie. This was my family, and I had to do everything in my power to protect it.

  “Mittens has taken to riding on Hemy’s back, so we’re thinking of making her a saddle,” Nadine said.

  I barked out a laugh. “Hemy, that’s a good nickname for you,” I told him, and kissed the top of his head.

  Dom gave a loud New York taxicab whistle. “Dinner’s ready!” he called, and shifters started coming out of mud huts, hammocks, and tents. We had amassed a mini army of shifters, all to protect the skyborn and help us end Ardan’s rule.

  We started to walk together towards the smell of food; I looked at Sophie. “How are the two packs getting along?”

  She shrugged. “Fine, except for this one bitch named Gracie.”

  I grinned, meeting Nadine’s eye. It wouldn’t be proper Sophie if she wasn’t hating on someone.

  As we neared, Dominic approached me with a burger dripping with cheese and mushrooms.

  “A veggie burger for one of our resident vegetarians,” Dominic offered me.

  Oh, right. “Thank you.” I smiled, wondering who the other resident vegetarians were, and also thinking that was the longest sentence he’d ever said to me.

  Casey came around the corner with Geoff. They were laughing about something, and when she saw me her face took on a look of surprise, she started running.

  Once she reached me, she stopped just short of plowing into me. It looked like she wanted to hug me but wasn’t sure. “You’re okay,” she breathed.

  I grinned. “I’m okay.”

  A freaking four-inch fairy ate my molar, but I’m okay.

  She shared a look with Geoff, and then gazed at me. “Did he … hurt you?” she asked, green eyes full of fury, as if I told her yes she would march to Ireland, and kick the evil druid’s ass.

  “Nah. I got away before anything bad happened,” I told them. I was very aware that Ardan and his druids killed her mom. She was most likely reliving some of that right now, so I wasn’t going to re-traumatize her.

  She looked relieved. “Come on, you gotta see Lily.” She pulled my free hand and I smiled. Casey was like the excited little sister I never had.

  And so, over the next hour I ate my veggie burger, which was actually really good, while watching Lily shift from human to dragon as Lynn tried to “train” her to stay in human form. And by train she really just begged her to change back to human when the orange scales appeared. If we didn’t fix this situation, it looked like Lily and Lynn were going to be stuck in this tiny room for years, until Lily could learn to control her dragon, or until Eva ran out of magical ingredients.

  After wishing them goodnight, I walked back to the waterfall house hand in hand with Logan. Once we were inside, he pulled me close to him; I rested my head on the crook of his neck as his hand snaked up my shirt and stroked my back.

  “I nearly went mad when he took you,” he said, in a husky voice.

  “He’s crazy,” I muttered. “He will stop at nothing to become more powerful. We have to kill him.”

  Logan pulled back, and his vibrant green eyes met mine. “I’m never letting you out of my sight again.”

  I grinned. “That might get a little awkward in the bathroom.”

  He shrugged. “Too bad.”

  I laughed while he scooped me up, and lay me gently on the bed, slowly undressing me.

  “Can I ask you something?” he said, pulling off the tight jeans I had been wearing.

  “Hmm?” Less talking, more undressing.

  “If you had to choose to be either a dragon or a druid, which would you choose?” He said it all nonchalantly, but there was nothing casual about that question.

  Why would he ask me that? That was like asking me to choose between my mate bond with him and my connection to my father, and then my ability to defeat Ardan and my connection to my mother. I could never choose.

  “I … I couldn’t choose,” I finally told him. He had stopped undressing me and was just looking at me with sad green eyes.

  He gave me a small smile. “That’s what I thought.”

  I was going to ask more, probe him on why he would even mention such a thing, but he took his shirt off and need clenched within me. You hadn’t seen beauty until you’d seen Logan Sharp naked.

  I was awoken the next morning by Sophie on her bullhorn, I decided that I could kill her and somehow make it look like an accident in training. I was not a morning person. Add a bullhorn greeting on top of that before I’d had my coffee and someone was gonna die.

  After scarfing a breakfast muffin and getting ready quickly, I made it down to the training course she had designed with Ruben. Substantial improvements had been made since I last saw it. There were now fire extinguishers at the base of the trees—every ten feet—and paper plates were stuck to the top of sticks that were wedged in the ground—scattered sporadically throughout the course.

  “What is all this?” I asked Sophie, figuring for her sake I wouldn’t mention the bullhorn wakeup call at the waterfall.

  She smiled. “I’m so glad you asked. This is your new dual training center. You will train your fire druid here as well as your dragon.”

  My dragon was getting zero training time since she was locked inside my body, but I didn’t think mentioning that would be helpful. I knew what she meant.

  A snapping twig alerted me to Isaac’s approach. He held both staffs, the tips glowing a fiery orange. “And I will train with you. This is the only way we will defeat Ardan. Together.”

  Ardan. The man could freaking teleport! How were we ever going to beat him? But I didn’t say that, I just wanted to focus on the possibility that killing Ardan could be achieved.

  “Alright, let’s do it!” I told them both. Faking my way through this, with an overly positive attitude might help, right?

  Sophie looked pleased with my enthusiasm. “Alright, let’s start easy. Sloane, I’ve been told you can shoot fire from your hands now?”

  Hah! I did that one time. “I guess?” I wasn’t even sure how it happened that night at the cemetery; it was all so overwhelming.

  Sophie rolled her eyes, seemingly annoyed. “Well, let’s start out with you jogging and setting the paper plates on fire from about five feet away.”

  My eyes bugged out. “That’s the easy start? I don’t want to know what the hard one is.”

  The packs had come out of their living spaces, and were making their way to the training course.

  Oh God. The last thing I needed was a crowd.

  Isaac was grinning. The man loved seeing me uncomfortable. No wonder he adored that demonic goat. They were two peas in a pod.

  “Fine,” I said. I wasn’t going to get any better by standing around whining.

  I kicked off my shoes and connected with the Earth. That buzz zipped up my legs and connected with the necklace on my chest, creating a force of power that knocked my dragon back. I felt her retreat deep inside of me and it scared the shit out of me. All of a sudden I was reminded of Isaac’s warning that my druid magic was feeding off of my dragon magic and eventually it would consume it if I couldn’t somehow stop it. But how did I do that?

  I couldn’t deal with it now, in front of all these people, but I would need to put it at the top of my priority list, because now that I was aware of it, I felt like I could feel my dragon less than I first did the day I fell off the Grand Canyon. She was … far away. And not being able to shift didn’t help.

  “Ready when you are,” Sophie screamed through the bu
llhorn.

  I glared at the coyote shifter and felt my fire magic rise up within me. Sophie was toeing the friends and enemy line today—crossing more and more over into the enemy territory.

  Logan, Gear, Nadine, Casey and a bunch of the new people were standing around watching. Dom, the new alpha Dee, and Keegan slunk into the woods, picking up the fire extinguishers. They were no doubt ready to spray down whatever I lit on fire. My only worry was what if I lit one of them on fire.

  Isaac set down his staffs and approached me. He must have sensed my nerves and was no doubt coming to have some sort of pep talk.

  “I’ve only done this once,” I whispered to him.

  He stopped before me, bringing the scents of nature and earth with him, standing strong and tall, he gazed wisely at me with those honey-colored eyes. Placing both hands on my shoulders.

  “Sloane. You are your mother’s daughter. Conjuring fire as a fire druid is akin to breathing. Once you’ve done it one time, it’s just a matter of flexing that power again and learning to hone it.”

  I nodded nervously. He was right. My mother was clearly some badass battle druid, second in power only to the queen of Faery.

  He squeezed my shoulders. “You can do this. I believe that with all of my being. We will defeat Ardan together, and bring an end to his barbaric custom of killing skyborn.”

  My throat tightened then as emotions rolled through me. I looked over and saw Casey and Geoff laughing together, pointing at Hemlock and Mittens, who’d come to watch. They were so … innocent. I didn’t want this world to take that from them. Ardan would, if we didn’t stop him. He would rip the future away from all of us.

  “I’ve got this,” I told my mentor with strength in my voice.

  I would practice day and night, and I wouldn’t rest until I was one hundred percent certain I could light Ardan on fire without even touching him. For my dad, for Casey’s mom, for the countless skyborn he killed and sucked dry, I would make him pay.

  Isaac stepped aside then and I took a deep breath, calling to my power, feeling it pulse from the necklace down my arm and to my palm. I aimed at the first paper plate off to my right, about five feet away, but instead, a ten-foot stream of purple fire erupted from my palm, nearly hitting Sophie and Nadine, arcing over the plate and missing it completely.