“You’re an elf!” Logan growled. “Legend says that the elves were the queen’s mightiest warriors. Now here we come, ready to avenge your queen and kill the druid that ended her reign, and you won’t help?” Logan’s eyes went to lizard slits then and the elf’s gaze sharpened, all anger suddenly forgotten. He hopped off his stool, approaching Logan with wariness. He sniffed once. Then twice.
His small delicate mouth formed an “O” as he stared at my mate with shocked reverence. “Skyborn,” he breathed. “My queen’s most cherished children.” He reached out as if he wanted to stroke Logan’s arm, and then thought better of it.
“You shouldn’t be here. You should be in hiding. Please go!” he said quickly, and a sudden wind picked up, pushing us back. Holy mother. What was this little dude capable of?
Isaac suddenly slammed his staff down into the earth and all of the bulbs in the yard glowed a searing bluish-orange. “Your brother would be sickened with the way you cower! With the things you sell to the druids to make money.”
The elf looked shocked.
Isaac nodded. “Yes, I know what you’ve done.”
I wanted to know too. But now didn’t seem like the time to ask.
For a moment I thought Griddish might cry. His eyes became misty, but then his mouth turned upside down, eyebrows scrunched. “How dare you judge me? The world has gone to hell. I’m just trying to survive it!”
A sudden whirling sound pulled my attention to the ten sharpened wooden arrows whizzing through the sky, coming our way. What the hell? Floating midair by some unseen force, the arrows came right for us.
“Out! You’re no longer welcome here,” he roared, in his booming voice, and this time Logan allowed me to pull him away and turn around, walking quickly for the back gate. Looking back over my shoulder, I saw Isaac standing there just staring a wooden arrow down as it spun in front of his face. “If you want a chance to redeem yourself and carry on your brother’s legacy, we’re going to sleep tonight in the bus out front. At first light, we leave. The girl is my apprentice. She needs an earth wand to anchor her powers, and help me defeat Ardan. You can either be part of the problem or the solution. Your choice.” And with that, Isaac yanked his staff from the ground and turned to leave.
I made it to the gate in record time, pulling it open to find Keegan standing there with shotgun in hand. “Everything all right? Quite a light show going on back there.”
I just shook my head and blasted past him to get on the bus. I was feeling a hurricane of emotions. I hadn’t expected the elf to refuse to make the staff for me. What did this mean? Now we wouldn’t defeat Ardan? Isaac said my powers would rip me in two without an anchor, right? I didn’t know. And he might not have been a ten-foot-tall, razor-sharp-teethed monster, but he did have power. The flying arrows? The glowing and hovering glass orbs. I didn’t think we were going to be able to force him. I was screwed.
“It’s a lost cause. Let’s just go home. Everyone’s injured anyway,” I said the moment Isaac entered the bus with Logan.
The druid set down his staff and stretched out on the front seat. “Nothing is a lost cause. Mother Earth will convince him.”
I groaned. Yeah the Earth had power—I’d felt it—but acting like she was going to mow a message into the elf’s lawn felt bonkers. But I couldn’t deny what I’d felt, what I’d seen when Isaac healed Dom. The Earth was something I didn’t understand but I wanted to.
A low growl behind me had my muscles clenching. I froze and slowly tilted my head over my shoulder. The dog I had saved was awake … and pissed. His cuts were crudely stapled, but clean and no longer bleeding. He was panting and looking at me with a mixture of fear and something else I couldn’t place.
“Shh, it’s okay. We’re not going to hurt you,” I told him, and reached a hand slowly towards him.
His growl deepened and his lips bared.
“Stop!” Nadine yelled, and I retracted my hand. Turning to look at the tattooed shifter, she gave me a dark look.
“You can’t earn his trust that way. Not at first. You need to do it with food,” she told me. Keegan and Logan shared a look and I wondered if there was a story there. Hadn’t Logan said he’d met Nadine when she was scrounging for food?
“Can you help me with him?” I asked her, and she nodded.
“Roxy took the scooter and went to grab burgers. She’ll be back any minute,” Nadine said.
I had been so preoccupied with that elf, I hadn’t even noticed Roxy was gone when we got on the bus. Isaac kept an electric scooter strapped to the back of the bus; she must have taken that.
I peered to the back of the bus, where the four sets of bunk beds had been fashioned. One sleeping lump I recognized as Dominic.
“How’s he doing?” I asked, no one in particular.
Danny walked up from where he’d been having a conversation with Logan and peered at me. “Alive. Which is a miracle even I couldn’t have pulled off.”
It was a miracle. He’d been so weak, so much blood lost … and then a tree freaking … what? Gave its life for him. I had so many questions.
“Your magic is back?” I asked him.
He sidled in next to me, peering at the dog, who stared back at us with apprehension.
“Eighty percent. Should be full power by morning.”
We’d found the elf and we’d gotten Dominic’s long-held revenge. I guess it was a productive day.
The door swung open and the smell of meat wafted into the bus. The dog whined, and Dominic stirred in his bed with a growl. Meat would wake a hungry shifter. Always.
“Sorry for the delay. Apparently making forty burgers takes a lot of time.” Roxy held up four heavy, greasy paper bags, and my mouth salivated.
“Thanks, girl.” Nadine snatched one and pulled two burgers out, tossing the bread back in the bag. “Alright, Sloane, rub this meat all over your palm. Get your scent on it and then slowly toss it to him.”
“Do what now?” I raised an eyebrow, unsure if I’d heard her right. I loved a good burger just as much as the next guy, but rubbing meat on myself wasn’t my idea of a good time. Nadine smiled. “Just do it. He needs to know you’re the master. That you feed him.”
I groaned and grabbed the two patties from her. With a grimace I rubbed the meat up and down my palms. The dog was whining, a puddle of saliva on the green leather seat bench.
“You hungry, buddy?” I asked him.
He whined again and I slowly reached close to him with the meat. When I got a few inches from him, he growled.
“I’m not gonna hurt you, baby,” I told him.
“Throw it. Don’t push him,” Nadine coached me, and I did as she said. The second the meat landed before him he gobbled it up ferociously.
“He needs a name,” Nadine told me.
I nodded. She was right. Roxy was perched at the edge of Dom’s bed, tossing him burgers, and I thought of the tree that had saved him; it was incredible. What was its name again? Mountain hemlock? I was going to be a tree to this dog. I was going to save him from the darkness and fear that currently saturated his mind.
“Hemlock. His name is Hemlock,” I stated.
I hadn’t realized that Isaac was standing right behind me until he spoke. “It’s a great name.”
I turned and faced those startling eyes.