I laughed, looking at Logan. “Alright. I’ve got a badass fourteen-year-old to train.” I leaned over and gave him akiss.
He smiled, watching me leave with Casey, a glint in hiseye.
‘We’re going to have so many babies,’he toldme.
I nearly choked on my spit. Casey looked at me and I waved heroff.
‘Umm, two kids and I’m good,’was my reply. This man was crazy about making babies withme.
‘We’ll see,’was all hesaid.
Hah! As if he had the control. I was the one who was going to have to push those suckers out. I got to choose howmany.
“Why not ask Sophie to train you or something? I’m not that good,” I told Casey while we weaved through the path down the waterfall. I’d promised her last night by the fire I’d train her to be afighter.
Casey rolled her eyes. “Sophie isn’t skyborn! And I’ve seen you. You’re more awesome than youthink.”
That made me feel good actually, even if it was coming from a kid with no fighttraining.
“Well, I will teach you everything I know, but considering you pulled a gun on me when we first met, I don’t think you need much morehelp.”
She justsmiled.
We weaved in and out of the trees and I noticed a fog had rolled in. God, I loved this land. It felt like home, and I was hoping, if we all survived this, that Isaac would let us stay here. I couldn’t imagine being anywhereelse.
“You wanna run Sophie’s training course with me?” I askedher.
She nodded, bouncing on her heels. “Are we gonna throw knives and stufftoo?”
I chuckled. “There will be knife throwingyes.”
She squealed. “This is going to be soawesome.”
I swatted her arm. “Tag, you’re it!” I set down my staff and took off barefoot through the course Sophie had set up. Casey pounded afterme.
Over the next hour we trained hard. Casey was a wonderful student. She listened, gave it her all, and didn’t give up. I was just getting ready to call a break from throwing knives when Logan and Eva came over lookingsullen.
Shit.
“Let’s take a break for a minute. I’ll be right back,” I told Casey, seeing her nod, and walk over to where Lynn had set up a pitcher of water for us. Earlier, Tony and Geoff had offered to watch the baby so Lynn could get some fresh air and have a break, but of course she just went around and mothered everyone, seeing what theyneeded.
“What’s wrong?” I asked Logan and Eva. I could tell from the look on their faces that something wasn’tright.
Eva looked like she was near tears. “There is absolutely nothing more I can do. The spell is so thin now that it’s only a matter ofhours.”
Shock ripped through me; my dragon rushed to the surface so fast I had to push her down. “Hours! You just told us lastnight.”
Eva sighed. “Lily is shifting every twenty minutes. She thinks it’s fun. Each time she shifts she absorbs some of the spell. I sent Danny in the middle of the night to my last source that might have unicorn blood, it was nogood.”
An idea popped into my head. “The necklaces! Why don’t we put Lynn’s necklace on Lily!” Hope soared inside ofme.
“We tried that. Didn’t work,” shesaid.
And hope came to a crashinghalt.
“Your mother made those specifically for each person. Yes, your mother’s necklace works on you a bit, but it’s not the same as when she wore it, I’msure.”
She was right. It wasn’t the same as mystaff.
