“So the druid race is doubling overnight?” Isqueaked.
Eva flinched. “Quadrupling.”
“What do they want?” I asked. Sort of a rhetorical question, but I wanted to hear her sayit.
“The rest of the Skyborn. They think the time is ready to expunge the Earth of humanity and build their own world ofpurebloods.”
I kicked the ground as a growl ripped from mythroat.
“That’s not all.” Eva stood and stepped closer to me. “Sloane, they want you. They know you’re a firedruid.”
“How did…?” How did Eva even know what I was? We hadn’t talked toher.
“How?” Isaac demanded. “How could they know? We only found out a few days ago from Grid—” He stopped speaking and his eyes fell to thefloor.
“The elf is dead,” Eva said and her voicecracked.
I stumbled backward. “Wait, what?” That wasn’t possible, we just saw him. This was too much information atonce.
Eva looked like she was holding back tears. “I went to see an acquaintance, someone who deals with rare and magical artifacts. He sold methis.”
She pulled from her coat … a small copper ball. It was the size of a tennis ball, solid shiny copper in herhand.
“Cool.” I tried to sound excited for her, but really, I was having a hard time being jazzed about a ball right now. Griddish was dead and the druids were after me. En masse.Frick.
“As I live and breathe,” Danny said, approaching Eva slowly with one hand over his chest. “Is that…?” He couldn’t speak. His voice had gotten all emotional, damp at theedges.
Eva nodded. “TheEye.”
“The Eye?” Iquestioned.
Eva nodded, swinging her hair over one shoulder. “Rumor is that when the queen of Faery fell, she plucked out her eye before she died, giving it to her palace sorcerer. The sorcerer did a spell, encased the eye in copper, and now it can see almost anything past orpresent.”
My eyebrows climbed.Gross.But if that was really true, then it was damn nearpriceless.
“He just gave you this thing? Out of the kindness of his heart?” Iquestioned.
She scoffed. “Hardly. I gave him every last thing I owned, including the bar, all of the money in my bank, and two dragonscales.”
Danny reached out as if he wanted to touch it, but then pulled back. “The bar that just burned down?” heasked.
Eva flinched. “Yes, which brings me to why I look like this.” She indicated her disheveled appearance, her blood-crusted face. “Hensel, the sorcerer I bought this from, wasn’t too excited to find out I’d sold him a worthless business. I of course didn’t know it was burnt down when I signed over the deed and my clientelelist.”
Logan’s voice became deadly still and deep. “He did this toyou?”
Eva gave Logan a small smile. “I’m fine, dear. Needless to say he wants the Eye back, but once I saw the druids’ initiation through it, and the attack on the elf, I knew we needed it. So … Iran.”
I threw up my arms. “Great, so now we have a pack of angry druids on our assandan angry sorcerer that you stolefrom?”
Eva furrowed her brow. “No one stole anything. I bought it fairly and then the druids burned half mypayment.”
Logan sighed. “But the sorcerer will be coming after you,yes?”
Eva nodded. “But we have the Eye. It has its limits, but until they know I can see them, we have a front row seat into the druids’actions.”
That, at least, was goodnews.
“Tell me what happened with the elf.” I tried to keep the emotion out of my voice, but dammit, it crept in. I’d just seen him. He’d just resolved to be a better person and not make weapons for the druids anymore. He couldn’t be … dead. I’d liked him, and I needed that staff he was making for me. Hopelessness crept over me like a heavyblanket.
