I shrugged. I had totry.
Eva looked uncomfortable. “You want to see him die or gonow?”
“Go,” I said. I didn’t want to see the actual death. Knowing it was Steven was enough for me. I was going to kill that bastard a hundred timesover.
“Stay,” Isaac said, and Igroaned.
“Fine, let’s stay,” I agreed. I didn’t want to sound like a totalwuss.
It happened quickly. Griddish used his freaky levitation power to rise high into the air and be at Steven’s meathead level. Some hundred-pointed sticks were floating behind him, ready tostrike.
Without warning, Griddish sent the pointed sticks out into the yard, trying to pierce the flesh of the dozen druids waiting to kill him. It was no use, they all had shields up, and Griddish looked resignedthen.
The elf mouthed something I couldn’t read— “You’ll fall…?” “You all…?” I was too far—dammit I needed “The Ear.” While Steven was busy keeping the elves attention with a glowing red ball in his hands, a druid off to the left threw a shimmering red knife with the speed and accuracy of a well-trained bowmen. It sank into the elf’s neck and his eyes popped wide. Then he … flickered out of existence, taking my staff withhim.
Whatthe…?
“Wait … where did he go?” Iasked.
Eva looked at me. “When an elf dies, their body is reunited with their queen, whom they are sworn to protect even indeath.”
My eyes bugged. The queen was long gone, her body rotting somewhere in Faery. “That is true,” Isaac spoke calmly next to me, before I could ask more. “But they do not bring their clothing and weapons with them. He didn’t die. Heteleported.”
Okay … saywhat?
Eva frowned, her eyebrows creasing together. “Are yousure?”
Isaac nodded. “Somehow he tapped into Steven’s power. I need to see what’s on that paper. I think it’s a message for us to findhim.”
Eva whistled low. “The druids could be lying in wait for us to come back for thestaff.”
Isaac shrugged as if that didn’t bother him. “Without that staff, Sloane can’t control her power. It will eventually tear herapart.”
Fear trickled over me. “What?”
Isaac turned to face me as the druids in the memory started to leave the yard, their jobdone.
“When you released all that magic to help Dom and save Hemlock … it hurt you, didn’tit?”
I bit my lip, thinking back to the bar where the man in the canary-yellow suit had died. “Well … yeah, for a bit. I mean, I felt a little dizzy and had a headache. I might have gone momentarilyblind.”
“Sloane!” Eva gasped. “Have you toldLogan?”
Shame colored my cheeks. There was too much going on, I had honestlyforgotten.
“She needs the staff,” Isaac pressed. “When did all this happen?” He gestured to the elf’s backyard. Now free ofdruids.
She thought for a second. “About six hoursago.”
He nodded. “There still might be time. Let’sgo.”
And with that, the dizziness hit me again, less than the first time, and I was slammed back into my body or whatever, feeling the hard floor of the yurt at myfeet.
“What happened?” Logan’s voice was full ofconcern.
It took me a second to open my eyes and get my surroundings inorder.
I sighed. “We’re going to find the elf. Dead oralive.”
