His lesson shocked me. Did I? Did I have rage just below my surface? Yes I was hot headed, but what he spoke of was something else. I did have an underlying anger. Injustice made me boil. From the first time I’d heard about the druids and their pureblood race plan, I’d been overcome with fury. Maybe that was myweapon.
Isaac put up a finger. “But a good fire druid knows balance. Knows not to become overwhelmed with the anger. Learns to toe theline.”
Okay. Slight warning label there, but I was sure I could handle it. “Sounds like you know exactly how to train a fire druid.” Iwinked.
He sighed, his face creasing with concern. “I would if you didn’t have that dragon inside of you, feeding your druid with unsanctionedmagic.”
My palms went cold. “W-what?” One thing that was always stronger than anger was fear, and it had me in its gripnow.
Isaac put a gentle hand on my shoulder and closed his eyes. “I can feel it. Just under your skin. Like a tornado. It grows every day and I don’t know how to stopit.”
The treetops spun as anxiety gripped me. “Stopwhat?”
Isaac pulled his hand off of me, and gave me the look I got from so many people after my mother died. “Your druid magic feeds from the Earth, but only in small amounts. The majority it takes from yourdragon.”
My eyebrows creased. “How? What does thatmean?”
My mentor looked at the tip of his staff as if it would give him some road map. “I need to be honest with you,Sloane.”
Oh fuck.Bomb drop in 3 …2...
“I have a theory that your mother didn’t keep this life from you to keep you safe from druids. She would have been better to train you, make youstrong.”
How was I still standing? How had I not passed out by now? This was the worst training session of mylife.
“Why did she do it?” I breathed, fully entranced by hiswords.
He stepped closer to me and sighed. “To keep you from consuming your dragon completely. The one part of your father she hadleft.”
Consume. He said “consume.”Bile rose in my throat as I stumbled backward. No. He couldn’tmean…
“Sloane, I think that since the day you were born, your druid half has been … feeding off of your dragon half, and will continue to do so until there is nothing left. Your mother paused it, but there is no pausing itnow.”
“No!” Fresh hot tears cascaded down my cheeks. Isaac set down his staffs and pulled me into ahug.
“I don’t think your mother knew how to stop it, so she stopped everything, made you human and bought us time,” he mumbled into my hair. He smelled like shea butter and vanilla, and his strong arms around me made me wonder if this was what it felt like to have afather.
He pulled back and I looked into those kind, honey-coloredeyes.
“We’ll figure this out together. I didn’t want to tell you until I was relativelysure.”
I nodded and wiped the last tear from myeye.
“So, worst case…?” I asked. Because I needed to hear it. I needed to hear the worst-casescenario.
Isaac looked overcome with emotion then, misty-eyed. “Worst case, your druid consumes your dragon and she dies completely. Taking your mate bond withher.”
It hadn’t hit me until he’d said it, that this would affect my relationship with Logan. Losing my dragon was one thing. As much as I bitched about being skyborn in the beginning, it’s who I was and I loved my dragon. But Logan … that was a whole other level of desperation. If my druid power took my bond with Logan, I wasn’t sure I would survive it. Would we still feel the same for each other? How much of what we had was down to being mates? Would we just be boyfriend and girlfriend? Those words cheapened what we had, how I felt. My dragon slithered at that thought, rising up strong within me. I wouldn’t let thathappen!
I tightened my grip on the staff. “What do wedo?”
Isaac nodded. “We train. We teach your magic to take from the Earth, and if it doesn’t, you fight it. Fight with everything you have to keep your dragonstrong.”
How the hell could I fight something I couldn’tfeel!
“Can you see it?” I wondered, looking down at mybody.
He shook his head. “No, but I sense it. I did the moment I saw you. Your mother would have too. From the day you wereborn.”
