That was the first I’d ever heard Eva talk about the land of Faery. It reminded me how very old everyone was, but I thought it was best to keep that to myself. If Faery fell during the 1918 Spanish influenza, then she was at least a hundred years old, and likely wouldn’t want to be reminded of it.
Isaac was looking at me differently. With concern or awe, I couldn’t tell. “Racine McCallister. A legend,” he breathed.
I looked at him with confusion.
“That was your mother’s name,” he stated. “She probably changed it after the war…”
My mom’s name was Lily Murphy. Racine was her middle name. Chills broke out on my arms.
“War?” I wanted to hear the story. I wanted to know everything about the sweet woman who folded my clothes and commanded a room of twenty-six eight-year-olds like it was no big deal.
“I was a young teenager when the Faery war consumed our world,” Isaac declared, “but my parents told me stories growing up … of a formidable queen who loved the humans, and her battle druid who fought for them.”
I leaned forward, afraid to miss even a word.
“A fire druid with red hair, who could command lava as if she were a living volcano. Could set people or buildings on fire from miles away. She could lay waste to entire civilizations if she pleased. Racine McCallister was the queen’s last line of defense to save Faery when the druids rebelled. I thought she perished with the queen.”
What the what? Lava? Lay waste to civilizations? That was not my mother.
I barked out a laugh. “My mother tended a garden. She was a schoolteacher. The most violent thing she’d ever done was flip off Mr. Cleary behind his back for teaching his cat to crap on our doormat.”
Isaac threw up his hands. “I’m just telling you what I know about the queen’s battle druid.”
Eva had been silent this whole time, and when I looked at her she was lost in thought.
“What is it?” I asked her. I knew her looks by now. She had an idea.
“The Eye is a temperamental object of power constrained by many rules. I cannot look forward, only backward or parallel. I can’t look where I’ve never been, unless a loved one’s energy signature is there—It is how I searched for Logan, to make sure you were all okay, and found him in the elf’s backyard. And lastly, I cannot look to people I do not know, as I don’t know what energy signature to search for…”
That didn’t sound too positive, but I trusted she was going somewhere with this.
Eva smiled a little. “I can, however, look back into the land of Faery, because I’ve been there, and I think I could search for your mother’s signature since it’s so close to yours, and I know yours well.”
My heart leapt at her words. “Yes. Please! I want to see her, in the past. I have to know if that’s who she was.”
Eva nodded, but Isaac put out a hand. “Not here. On the bus.”
Isaac knelt down and began to fold the little elf’s clothes. “Sit in the tree for a bit, Sloane. It will heal you.”
I was excited to use the Eye to see my mother but I obeyed. I didn’t want the headache or the loss of vision coming back. So, setting my staff down, I climbed onto one of the many low-hanging branches and let the healing vibrations soak into my palms and the soles of my feet.
Isaac looked at Eva. “Where were you when Faery fell?”
“In England with Logan. I’d been gone from Faery for a few years when the war broke out. I preferred this world and its people.” She looked wistfully at the sky.
Something twinkled in Isaac’s eyes. “You nearly killed me the first time we met.”
Eva grinned. “I thought you were one of the bad ones.”
Isaac smiled brightly. “I couldn’t walk right for a few days.”
At that she tipped her head back and laughed a carefree laugh, and I found myself smiling at their banter. They were totally flirting.
“You healed just fine,” she mused, looking his body up and down.
Okay, gag.
“I’m feeling much better.”
I broke up their love-fest before it got too awkward. I was more than happy for Eva and Isaac to get together in that way, just not while I was sitting here watching it all go down like some creepy third wheel.
“Right.” Isaac grabbed the folded clothes and stood. “Let’s go to the nearest address in your mother’s book. On our way, you and Eva can look into the past.”
I smiled, hopping off the tree and landing on my bare feet. “Sounds like a plan!”
I was feeling refreshed and invigorated from my little tree chill time. And more than ready to know the truth about my mother.
As we walked towards the bus I took time to notice the paintjob. Not bad. Boring as all hell in a muted tan with white cursive font, but I think that was the point.
Logan was standing near the bus door with a gun in his hand.
“Don’t shoot.” I put my hands up, one gripping the staff tightly, and he let out the breath he must have been holding.
“You got it.” He eyed the staff.
I nodded and we all loaded up into the bus.
“Griddish?” Logan asked, as the others peered at me expectantly.
“Dead,” I said, with a croak. The last of the earth wand makers was dead. I’d counted him as a friend. A weird friend that was shady and grumpy, but a friend nonetheless.
Isaac picked up my mother’s leather notebook and flipped through it. Finally, he landed on an address.
“Let’s go see about these other skyborn,” Isaac declared.
I inhaled sharply; all of my Zen chi I’d gotten from the tree was gone. What if my mom was just some crazy chick obsessed with keeping her address book up to date?
Only one way to find out.
11
Isaac estimated it would be about an hour drive to the Louisiana address we had in my mom’s book. “Three,” the number beside it had read. Three skyborn? Three what? We would soon find out. I took the time to explain to everyone what Griddish had said about my mom. These were my friends now and I needed their support.
“The freaking battle druid was your mother?” Sophie shrieked, before I could finish.
I rubbed my arms nervously. “I guess?”
Sophie bowed before me theatrically and pretended to kiss my feet.
I rolled my eyes.
“What do you know about the queen’s battle druid?” Logan asked her seriously. He didn’t seem confused, so he must know who the battle druid was.
Sophie barked out a laugh. “Logan, please, you know I come from a long line of shifters whose sole purpose it is to protect skyborn. I’ve known about the battle druid since I could talk. She was the queen’s right-hand woman, hair the color of rubies, power unlike any other.”
Nadine looked at me and shrugged as if to say she had no freaking clue. You and me too, sister.
“The rumor was that the queen loved her.” Danny’s gasp stopped Sophie’s words. “No! Not like lesbian love, but ya know, BFF love. But even though she loved her, she feared her, and so the queen did a spell that put a limit on the battle druid’s ability, so that she couldn’t take over the kingdom.”
Jesus. The second I thought that word my throat pinched in grief because Coop wasn’t here to make the sign of the cross. I missed that gentle giant. My mom would never take over a kingdom. She basically did arts and crafts with kids for a living. This was too much to take. I needed to know right now if Racine McCallister was my mom.