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 hugebackyard.
The druid shrugged. “If he wanted us gone, he’d have levitated us away from thehouse.”
True. The tires gently landed and I held onto the seat to keep from falling over as the bus jerked a little upon touchingground.
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 tome.
“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 floatingbus.
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. “Goodboy.”
I was going to make that dog feed from my hand, if it was the last thing Idid.
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 yellowbus.”
Well, that explained the bus levitation. He was hidingus.
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 toparty.
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 atall.
Griddish scowled. “I need to make money. I need to eat. Don’t judge me,” he snapped atIsaac.
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.Hedidthat.
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 ofme.”
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 likethat?
Part of me understood. I’d done stupid stuff in the name of survival, including leaving Logan and the pack and runningaway.
“So, have you decided if you will help us or not?” Isaac pressedhim.
Griddish groaned. “I will do it forYalash.”
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 youpromiseto never make another skyborn-killing knife for the druidsagain.”
His little beady eyes widened with shock and he could only nod. “On my honor as the late queen’s loyalguard.”
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 againsthim.
“How long will it take?” Isaacasked.
The elf huffed. “Considering I don’t have Yalash to help … four days, maybefive.”
Keegan growled. “We need to get back to Sophie andRuben.”
“Sloane needs to continue her training.” Logan piped in aswell.
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 withoutit.”
“My tree?” I asked suddenly. Had I heard thatright?
The elf smiled, little dimples appearing at the corners of his mouth. “Come. I’ll showyou.”
* * *
The pack had leftthe 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 ofcourse.
