Eva took this inopportune time to blink into room without warning.
Everyone shrieked, including me, and the husband brought his hand to his waistband, where a weapon must have been hiding.
Eva threw her hands up defensively. “Oops. Sorry about that. I’m with them. I’m a sorcerer that helps the skyborn as well.”
The mother eyed me skeptically and I nodded. “Sorry, she’s with us. We weren’t sure if this was a trap, and we would need backup.”
The woman relaxed. “Of course. Have a seat.” She gestured to Eva.
Once Eva was sitting and I was sure the husband wasn’t going to shoot her, I thought back to what the wife had said about my mom. “So … my mom helped hide you?”
The woman nodded and produced a small red ruby amulet from her shirt. The husband and son did the same. Tears filled my eyes when I recognized them. My mom went through a jewelry-making phase. I thought nothing of it, but I remembered her making these. Tons of them.
“Her magic, it’s in these. It’s what keeps us seeming human, unable to shift,” the woman said.
Holy moly. My mother had magic? It was all too much.
Eva inhaled sharply and reached out. “May I?”
The woman looked at me as if I was in charge of her decision making. I nodded for good measure and she obliged Eva.
The sorceress drew closer and took the medallion in her hand. “Ohhh,” she cooed. “Ancient transformation magic. But it’s so weak now. Seems to be wearing off.”
The woman nodded and then tears lined her eyes. “The day Lily died they flared to life and pulsed and then … they’re almost completely gone. I can feel my dragon getting restless, wanting to come out if I’m in a dangerous situation or … in the heat.” She blushed.
I hear ya, sister. Solidarity with the heat thing. But what she said dawned on me. My mother made them the necklaces to help conceal them, and when she died they started wearing off. I stood abruptly, grabbing my staff. “I’m sorry. I need some air.” I started for the front door, but thought better of it. The whole pack was out there. So, I turned and went to the back, through the sliding glass door.
“Sloane?” Logan started after me but I put my hand out.
‘I need a moment.’
The second the door shut behind me and the crisp air hit me, the tears came. Everything had made sense with that one statement—the day my mother died, the necklaces started to die too. That meant my mother used her living magic to keep the skyborn safe. The magic she could have used to heal herself, to stay alive. My mother sacrificed herself to keep a couple dozen people alive. It was so selfless, but it killed me to think about it.
The door slid open and Eva stepped out, closing it behind her. When she opened her arms, I fell into them, sobbing. “She left me! She chose these people over me!” I said selfishly, even though I didn’t mean it. Not really.
Eva stroked my hair and made shushing noises. “She had incredible integrity, and chose to save dozens of lives over her own. It’s admirable and heartbreaking.”
Anger, respect, and a thousand other emotions crashed through me like a hurricane. “Why can’t these Skyborn just have gone to a sorcerer like you? Gotten the spell like I did?”
Eva sighed. “Not all sorcerers are powerful enough to do that spell, and my spell certainly has its limits. It keeps your scent from being smelled as dragon, but it seems your mother’s keeps them from shifting at all. They appear human. And most importantly … not all sorcerers can be trusted. Danny and I are a couple of the few that do not believe in the pure-blooded race plan of the druids. What if these people had walked into Jeanine’s club and asked her?”
I shivered. They would all be dead, including the sweet young kid, Geoff.
“I miss her. Why didn’t she tell me?” I pulled away from Eva’s chest, and she brushed the tears from my eyes.
“I’m guessing she thought she had more time, and that you weren’t emotionally ready for this heavy responsibility…”
It was true. My mom had been responding well to the treatment, and was on the mend when one night she took a nosedive. Hospice was called in, and it all happened so fast, within twelve hours. But I could have handled it. I might have only been sixteen, but I deserved to be told what I was. And not in some hallucinogenic dying state that she was in. Sure, she had rambled a bunch of crazy stuff on her deathbed, but I’d taken it as a sign she wasn’t all there, not as the truth. She should have told me when I was young. Raised me to know what I was.
But even as I thought that, I knew that couldn’t have been. I was curious by nature. If she’d told me, I would have wanted more. To see dragons, to shift my own dragon, to see magic—the list went on.
Eva grabbed me by the shoulders. “Listen, we can’t change the past. We just have to keep moving forward. That woman is pregnant with a little skyborn baby. When the baby comes out, it’s going to start shifting and alert the druids. Let’s focus on finding a solution for that, and training with your staff.”
She was right. Focusing on the past, and why my mother chose to give all of her power away and not save any for herself wasn’t going to change anything. All I could do was try to pick up her work, and keep these people alive long enough for me to train with Isaac and kill Ardan. If that maniac wasn’t out killing skyborn for sport, then my mother never would have had to use her power to protect them. I blamed him completely, and he would pay dearly.
12
When Eva and I went back into the room, I saw that the father had four packed suitcases by the door. I looked at Logan.
“They’re going to come stay with us for a while until she has the baby,” he explained.
The wife came over to me and gave me a shy frown. “I’m sorry if I overwhelmed you, sweetie. I just … we’ve been so nervous about what to do when the baby came, and your mom told us one day you would come … and here you are.”
I sighed. I’m sure my mom had plans to tell me on my eighteenth birthday or something. That seemed like something she would do. Happy birthday, you’re half dragon, half druid—here’s an address book for you to protect for the rest of your life.
“It’s okay,” I told her honestly. “I’d like to know more about what my mom did over the years when we have time to talk about it.”
She smiled. “I’d like that too.”
“Lynn, can you think of anything else we need?” the husband asked. They seemed in a hurry to leave. I couldn’t imagine how stressed Logan would be if I were pregnant and we were worried about the baby shifting and calling the druids.
The wife, Lynn, shrugged, looking suddenly tired. “We have enough for now.”
Logan stepped forward. “I do want to make you aware that outside we have a team of shifters that are loyal to the skyborn, and also an earth druid, who would give his own life to protect our kind.”