She shot him a dejected look butagreed.
As they walked off to get into the other car, Isaac turned at me. “You need to train,Sloane.”
I know, I know. I knew nothing about being an earth druid. Especially not a fire druid. “But theothers…”
Isaac nodded. “We’ll call them. Tell them about the necklaces and invite them out to the land. That’s the best we cando.”
Okay, so the idea floating around my head of going on a worldwide skyborn tour wasn’t going tohappen.
Logan nodded. “I agree. Right now, you need to learn to control your power. I don’t want you getting hurt like that everagain.”
“You’re right. Okay. Let’s get Lynn and her family back to the land and I’ll start training with Isaac.” I agreed with my mate. The last thing I wanted was to shoot off massive amounts of purple magic and fall into acoma.
Both Logan and my mentor sighed inrelief.
It was time to learn to tame the purple magic. Without hurting anyone’sballs.
* * *
Ilearneda lot on our bus ride back, like the fact that every summer when my mom went on her “educators’ retreat” and I was at summer camp, she was really visiting all the skyborn in the U.S., Canada, and even one in Mexico. Yeah, no retreat. She was seeing what they needed, finding new ones and marking them in her book, making them necklaces and keeping them safe. Learning that my mom had some wicked rare and ancient magic, and that she had helped the queen create the skyborn race, was awhoa heavymoment. I mean, I knew she went with the queen to try to help from what I saw with the Eye, but to be the one that actually held the magic possible to make an entire race was … overwhelming. I knew I was only half her, but part of me wondered if I held this magic too, and it terrified me. Of course the first thing I asked was if my mother’s magic helped bind the dragons to the humans, and if that could be reversed. Lynn assured me it was the queen who did that particular piece of magic and it wasn’t reversible. My mother hadtried.
Lynn and her family were lovely. They were just normal people who happened to be skyborn. Tony was a graphic designer who worked from home, and Lynn was a custom cake designer and also worked out of her home, making wedding and birthday cakes with intricate designs. They said they purposefully picked careers that allowed them to work from home over the years, so that every seven to ten years they could pick up and move without needing to worry about income. For one, they didn’t age normally and it would make their neighbors and friends suspicious, and for two … druids. They’d had a few run-ins, they admitted, but only recently, when the necklaces started to wear off, and only when Lynn went into heat and couldn’t control her dragon. Bonus of her being pregnant: no heat for nine months. They were just about to pack up and head west, try to find some help, when we arrived. Lynn was due in two weeks, and Danny and Eva were going over a dozen magical scenarios on how to keep the baby from doing her firstshift.
Back in California at Isaac’s land, we had to rearrange our living situations to make room, and in the end, Logan and I had officially moved in together at the waterfall house. Keegan bunked with Nadine. That left Lynn and her family to take a cob house for themselves. Isaac assured us there were other sustainable homes on the property, but we all agreed Lynn should be close by to the shifters in case ofemergency.
We’d only been back a few hours and Isaac was already pressing me totrain.
I gave Logan a soft kiss, standing on my tiptoes to reach him. “I’ll be back after training,” I told him and he just nodded. His face had a concerned look all the time now. It increased when he looked atme.
“Everything’s going to be fine,” I assuredhim.
He sighed and raised his hands behind his head for a stretch, giving me a peek of his abs.Yum.
“I just wish it was me that could fight Ardan, notyou.”
I placed one hand on my hip, the other held my staff. “How very sexist of you. I got this.” Iwinked.
Joking, acting overconfident, it was the only thing keeping me together. Truth was, I was scared. I hadn’t been too scared until I’d learned about this fire druid stuff about my mom. Now I wasn’t sure I was dealing with something I could handle. Feeling like you couldn’t control yourself wasterrifying.
Logan stepped forward and took my face in his hands; his scent wrapped around me and my dragon tightened within. “It’s not because you’re a woman, it’s because you’re mine and I want to protectyou.”
You’re mine.Any other person saying that would get smacked, but when he did, it was like he was claiming his love forme.
I reached out with my teeth and nipped his bottom lip. “I want a life with you where we don’t have to run anymore. Where, if I got pregnant like Lynn, we wouldn’t have to be terrified to have ababy.”
A slow smile crept across my mate’s face. “You want a baby withme?”
Pshhh. Was that all he heard?“Maybe in five years.” I winked and then turned toleave.
“Sloane!” he called out over the sound of the rushingwaterfall.
Iturned.
“Be careful.” He tried to make it sound light, but the mild terror in his eyes showed me thetruth.
Logan was just as scared of my powers as I was.Great.
I made the small ten-minute hike down the side of the waterfall, and met Isaac at the base. My staff was badass because it harnessed my power, but doubly badass because it was also a cool walkingstick.
