He lost me at that last part, but it didn’t matter. As I placed my second bare foot into the earth, tears sprang in my eyes, and a contented sigh escapedme.
“You’ve gone too long without it,” he said sternly. “You must walk barefoot for at least an hour a day. That’s anorder.”
I nodded, eyes closed, tears rolling down my cheeks. It hit me then, what this light and bubbly, energetic feeling reminded me of: my mother—being with her, gardening with her, it had been likethis.
‘Do you really feel something?’Logan asked mementally.
‘Yes. I feel like I’m home,’I told him and opened myeyes.
Logan was peering at me as if I was a puzzle he couldn’t figure out, but Isaac was just wearing a smuggrin.
“You need a weapon,” Isaac declared, turning this fuzzy love-fest with Mother Earth on itsheels.
“She can’t even hold a dragon’s blade.” Logan interjected. “It burnsher.”
The good druid nodded. “Of course it does. The magic inside of her… it wars with itself. Dragon, druid, earth—it’s not sure what to be, where to pull powerfrom.”
I didn’t like that sound ofthat.
“So how can I kill the druids without a special knife?” I asked, because I didn’t think ripping Steven’s head off was a possibility. He was too strong. Ardantoo.
Isaac walked over to his staffs and brought one to me. He reached out and attempted to hand it off to me, but I backed up. “No. No. Last time I touched something like that, it didn’t go well.” I remembered the way the metal had left an imprint on mypalm.
Isaac shrugged. “I admit it’s an experiment, but I think this will be your power weapon. Assuming we can get one made especially foryou.”
He continued to hold the staff out, and in this close proximity I was able to really look at it. It was beautiful. Mahogany wood, with spiral etchings wound down the base. At the tip, a beautiful burnt orange sphere, a crystal that eerily matched the color of hiseyes.
I reached out to touch it and paused. The Earth’s vibrations were still running currents up my legs, and as I neared the staff my hair stood on end. Isaac placed his free hand over his manhood and looked at Logan. “You should probably step back and protect theboys.”
When I had blasted out with my purple magic back at the rest stop, Isaac had said it felt like I’d kicked him in the balls. Now Logan was covering his junk and backing up a fewpaces.
Great. Sloane the ballbuster.
“Come on, we need to know if this works, if it can bring up your magic,” Isaac pressed. Without further ceremony, I grasped the mahogany staff right above Isaac’s hand, just below the crystal. With a resounding crack, my purple magic shot out, throwing Isaac and Logan backward and flying my hair upward with a gust ofwind.
“Drop it!” Isaac shouted with a groan from where he lay ten feet away, and I let the staff fall to thegrass.
“Shit! I’m so sorry.” I looked to the right, where Logan was curled in the fetal position, half against a tree that had broken his fall. To the left, Isaac looked in better shape, already standing and coming to retrieve thestaff.
‘Are you okay?’I asked, and Logan groaned again, sitting up this time, facered.
‘Covering didn’t help,’he informed me, and I winced. I felt bad about hurting my mate, but ball-busting magic might be useful with Steven andArdan.
Isaac was pacing, staff in hand, tapping the sharp tip into the earth as the crystalpulsed.
“So … what did that mean?” I asked, my friendly druidmaster.
Logan was standing now, and limped slightly as he walked over to where Istood.
Isaac stopped his pacing and sighed. “It means you need your own staff to hone the magic, so it doesn’t spread out like that and attack everyone. But … a staff like this is indeed yourweapon.”
Logan looked to be back to his normal shade, losing the red in his face. “Okay, how do we makeone?”
Isaac tipped his head back and laughed, showcasing all of his pearly whites. “Wedon’t make them. The elves do, and the last one to make mine was killed by thedruids.”
Logan and I both stepped forward with our mouths open. “Excuse me, did you sayelves? Did I hear that right?” Logan askedincredulously.
The druid nodded. “Yes, before Faery was purged and destroyed by the angry druids, a few magical folk made it out. The staff maker was one of an identical set of twins. I never met the brother, but he said they both worked to make the staffstogether.”
