She thought for a second. “About six hours ago.”
He nodded. “There still might be time. Let’s go.”
And with that, the dizziness hit me again, less than the first time, and I was slammed back into my body or whatever, feeling the hard floor of the yurt at my feet.
“What happened?” Logan’s voice was full of concern.
It took me a second to open my eyes and get my surroundings in order.
I sighed. “We’re going to find the elf. Dead or alive.”
Please let it be alive and with my staff.
9
This time we didn’t leave anyone behind. Not even Hemlock or Mittens. The two had become surprisingly fond of each other. Nadine said that while Logan and I had been shacked-up at the waterfall, Mittens had snuck into the house. They’d immediately taken to each other. Now Hemlock was growling at anyone who tried to touch Mittens and Mittens was stealing Hemlock’s food and massaging his back with her paws. They were like two dysfunctional peas in a pod. After that day he’d let me feed him from my hand, his entire demeanor changed. He was like a big teddy bear, letting Mittens boss him around. He even let Nadine take his staples out and didn’t growl once. He was family, and he knew we weren’t going to hurt him. It might have helped that we gave him fresh bacon every morning. Our group was comprised of twelve supernaturals and two fur babies.
Most of the pack was in the bus, while Eva, Logan, and I followed closely behind in my car with Hemlock and Mitsy. We were about thirty minutes away from Griddish’s house and Eva said she didn’t see any druids near it through her ball, but she also couldn’t see them anywhere, which might have meant they had caught on to her and were doing a blocking spell.
Logan was driving and Eva was in the back with Hemlock. I sat in the front seat stroking Mittens’ fur as she purred on my lap.
“Are you feeling better?” I asked Eva. Danny had treated her wounds, and she seemed to be healing nicely.
She nodded. “I’ll be fine, dear. Now, I didn’t gather everything from your coded messages, but the only reason I came back was because you alluded to having found another skyborn? Now that I have the Eye, I was going to start looking for them.”
I froze. The book! I had forgotten in all of this drama the entire reason I had wanted my car back so desperately. I unclipped my seatbelt and crawled into the back between Eva and Hemlock.
“My mother had a book. She said it was my destiny to continue on her work. She said a lot of things that sounded crazy at the time, but now I’m not so sure…”
Please let it be here.
I tossed aside my drawing pencils, my sleeping bag, and an old chipped coffee mug that was my mother’s favorite. When my fingers wrapped around the green leather, I nearly cried.
Bringing it to my nose, I inhaled. It smelled of leather and rosemary. My mother would pull herbs from the garden and not wash her hands. Everything she touched smelled of herbs and spices. Tears clouded my vision as I thought of her flowing red hair hunched over this book, writing in it. I thought it was a diary growing up, but then she told me it was an address book, one that must be protected. She was quirky; I let it slide, but now I thought it was a list of the remaining skyborn. It was just a gut feeling. Why else would my druid mother keep this list? I had no idea.
Eva helped move Hemlock’s big meaty body over to give me room to sit between them.
After settling in the seat, I opened the book and stroked the pages. In alphabetical order, there were names and addresses. It looked like an ordinary address book … except for one thing.
“You see that?” I pointed. Eva was examining the little number to the left of each address where my finger rested. One, two and some even said three.
“You think these are addresses of skyborn?” she remarked, sounding doubtful.
I shrugged. “She spent hours with this book. Who puts numbers next to addresses? I think it’s the number of skyborn at each address.”
Eva stroked her chin with the tip of her finger. “You might be right. I could look with the Eye, but it would only show me the people there, it won’t tell me if they are skyborn. I’m assuming they will be in human form.”
I frowned. “You don’t think my mom was helping the skyborn? She told me this book was of people like me. That I needed to continue her work.”
Eva reached out and tucked a lock of hair behind my ear. “Sweetheart, I didn’t know your mother, but I just don’t want you to get your hopes up that she had this big purpose and then…”
I nodded. “Be let down…”
She gave me a sad smile. “I’ll tell you what … we’ll check out the elf’s house and then we’ll go to one of these addresses, meet the people and ask them how they knew your mom.”
I brightened. “Okay, deal.”
Maybe I did just want my mom to have some big grand purpose. Maybe this was just an address book and in her dying, cancer-ridden state she was just talking crazy. Either way, I took comfort in the fact that she was a fire druid, not one of those evil druids who took orders from Ardan. That alone gave me hope.
“We’re here,” Logan announced as he turned the corner to where the elf’s home was. The big yellow bus parked right in front while we parked about five houses behind. I went to open the car door when Logan locked it quickly, trapping me inside.
“No. We’re going to wait here. Isaac will tell us if he finds anything,” Logan ordered.
I met his eyes in the rearview mirror and gave him my best glare, then I turned to Eva. “Did he just tell me no?”
She grinned and with a wave of her hand the lock opened and she stepped out.
Logan groaned. “Eva!”
Eva helped me out and shut the door quickly behind me so that Hemlock and Mittens didn’t get out.
“Don’t coddle her, dear. How else will she learn to manage this lifestyle?” was all she said, before turning to walk towards the house.
Logan grumbled after her, stepping in line with me.
“I’m keeping her alive,” he protested at Eva’s back and cocked his gun. I pulled the Ruger from my waistband and dragged the slide back. If the druids showed up, I was emptying this clip into Steven’s head.
I gave Logan a little hip bump, and when he looked at me I blew him an air kiss. All of his steam let out then, and he shook his head with a stupid grin.
‘You need to relax from your obsession with caging me,’ I joked.
His eyes smoldered. ‘Do I?’
My dragon sent a pulse of heat between my legs and I bit down on my tongue to keep from whimpering. Today was the last day of my heat. Good riddance, sister.
Eva stopped and looked back at me. She took a whiff of the air and opened her mouth.
“Nope, don’t say it,” I told her, and she grinned, looking from Logan to me with amusement dancing in her eyes.
Privacy, people.
“We’ve been dealing with a lot since you ran off,” Logan said bitterly.