“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 usprivacy.
Isaac stared out the window at the passing trees. “Fire druids have ancient magic. Magic, that when trained, can rival a purebloodedsorcerer.”
I don’t know why that knowledge scared me, but it did. Was I afraid of myself? What I was capableof?
“But everything has its limits,” he went on. “I think your mother used up all of her magic to keep you hidden, keep you from appearing human. It took all of her energy to keep that spell aliveand…”
The world tilted on its axis as my vision blurred. The enormity of what he said slammed into me. “I killed her. I killed mymother…?”
Chapter 7
Isaac triedto reassure me that it wasn’t my fault, but I didn’t want to hear it. My mother had used up all of her power to keep me hidden, to essentially make me human, and it killed her. The thought brought me back to that dark place. The only measure of comfort I had was knowing that she was good the whole time, an original earth druid, never falling into Ardan’s gang of racist fleabags. We drove the rest of the way home in silence. I curled in my bunk with the curtain drawn. I only went out once, and that was to feed Hemlock. He let me get closer, but still growled. He was walking and his staples were looking good, so I was going to count that as awin.
When the bus finally stopped, I heard Isaac call out to everyone that we were home.Home.That word didn’t hold much meaning for me anymore. Not like it did when my mom was alive. My car was about the only place I considered home. Logan and Nadine were home. So I guess wherever we were was home. I knew I should open the curtain and get out with everyone else. Logan had come to check on me, but I’d told him I didn’t feel well and wanted to be alone. I should just be able to pull the curtain back and get up. But a thick depression had settled into me and I couldn’t move. I didn’t want to do anything but stare at the wall. Even when I heard Nadine struggling to get Hemlock off the bus, I didn’tmove.
My mother had lied to me my whole life, made me think I was human. Then she killed herself by letting her magic dry up, and left me all alone to face this supernatural world. The bitterness sank in my stomach like a stone. How could she? Fresh tears leaked from myeyes.
I smelled him before he even pulled the curtain back.Logan.Like a crisp mountain breeze had just blown through the bus, his scent wrapped around all of me, saturating me. My dragon pulsed, sending heat to mycore.
The bed pressed down with his weight and I tried to stop thetears.
“You can tell me anything, you know.” His voice was so full of compassion it nearly broke me. He knew I wasn’t sick. I wasn’t even sure dragon druids got sick. He stroked my back for a few minutes and we just stayed in silence as I pulled my emotions in. Finally, I rolled over and he wiped a tear away from mycheek.
“Isaac said that my mom had to be a fire druid too. That she would have had powerful enough magic to keep me essentially human, but it would cost her…” I didn’t finish. I didn’t need to. He picked up the rest through the bond. I sent him everything. All of my thoughts and fears and anger towards the wholesituation.
His hand tangled with mine. “Sloane, it’s not your fault. You can’t do that toyourself.”
“How could she? Logan, I fed her, bathed her when she was all but ninety pounds and I was supposed to be at the prom having a normal childhood. How could she put me through that if she had the power to stop it? How could she leaveme?”
She could have done a tree healing like Isaac did with Dom. But that expulsion of magic might have cost too much. It might have revealedme.
Logan’s eyes were a smoky greenish gray. “I think it’s obvious. She loved you more than she loved herself. Taking energy away from your concealment spell to heal herself would lead the druids to you. At fourteen years old, would you have been able to fight themoff?”
I couldn’t even fight them off now. I shook my head. “But not telling me? Not giving me any warning? She had to know that would only lead to her certaindeath.”
Logan nodded in agreement. “She didn’t leave a note ora—?”
I gasped as the green leather book flashed into my mind. The things she’d said the night she died. Crazy things. The woman from the hospice told me it was normal. That most patients got a bit delirious before they crossed over. But holy shit. I needed that book.NOW.
“There’s a book. She said it was her life’s work. That I would need to continue it. I thought she was crazy because I figured it was just an address book. But what if it’s not?” I was sitting up now, my head nearly touching the topbunk.
“What else would it be?” Logan asked,confused.
I took a deep breath. “What if my mom wasn’t just hiding me? What if she knew where the other skybornwere?”
Logan’s breathing became ragged, and I knew his heart was beating madly. “Why would you thinkthat?”
I wanted to cry happy tears, and tears of frustration that I hadn’t figured it outsooner.
“Because she told me. She said‘this book is full of people who are like you. Go find them.’I mean, who keeps an address book nowadays? Logan, my mom was protectingskyborn.”
Did I know that, or did I just want it to betrue?
Logan’s face fell and a haunted look passed overit.
“What?” I thought this would be goodnews.
“I should have believed Marcus when he said he’d met someone different, that this druid wasn’t like the others.” He answered, his voice devoid of emotion. “I should have gone with him to meether.”
