Lynn and her family were lovely. They were just normal people who happened to be skyborn. Tony was a graphic designer who worked from home, and Lynn was a custom cake designer and also worked out of her home, making wedding and birthday cakes with intricate designs. They said they purposefully picked careers that allowed them to work from home over the years, so that every seven to ten years they could pick up and move without needing to worry about income. For one, they didn’t age normally and it would make their neighbors and friends suspicious, and for two … druids. They’d had a few run-ins, they admitted, but only recently, when the necklaces started to wear off, and only when Lynn went into heat and couldn’t control her dragon. Bonus of her being pregnant: no heat for nine months. They were just about to pack up and head west, try to find some help, when we arrived. Lynn was due in two weeks, and Danny and Eva were going over a dozen magical scenarios on how to keep the baby from doing her first shift.
Back in California at Isaac’s land, we had to rearrange our living situations to make room, and in the end, Logan and I had officially moved in together at the waterfall house. Keegan bunked with Nadine. That left Lynn and her family to take a cob house for themselves. Isaac assured us there were other sustainable homes on the property, but we all agreed Lynn should be close by to the shifters in case of emergency.
We’d only been back a few hours and Isaac was already pressing me to train.
I gave Logan a soft kiss, standing on my tiptoes to reach him. “I’ll be back after training,” I told him and he just nodded. His face had a concerned look all the time now. It increased when he looked at me.
“Everything’s going to be fine,” I assured him.
He sighed and raised his hands behind his head for a stretch, giving me a peek of his abs. Yum.
“I just wish it was me that could fight Ardan, not you.”
I placed one hand on my hip, the other held my staff. “How very sexist of you. I got this.” I winked.
Joking, acting overconfident, it was the only thing keeping me together. Truth was, I was scared. I hadn’t been too scared until I’d learned about this fire druid stuff about my mom. Now I wasn’t sure I was dealing with something I could handle. Feeling like you couldn’t control yourself was terrifying.
Logan stepped forward and took my face in his hands; his scent wrapped around me and my dragon tightened within. “It’s not because you’re a woman, it’s because you’re mine and I want to protect you.”
You’re mine. Any other person saying that would get smacked, but when he did, it was like he was claiming his love for me.
I reached out with my teeth and nipped his bottom lip. “I want a life with you where we don’t have to run anymore. Where, if I got pregnant like Lynn, we wouldn’t have to be terrified to have a baby.”
A slow smile crept across my mate’s face. “You want a baby with me?”
Pshhh. Was that all he heard? “Maybe in five years.” I winked and then turned to leave.
“Sloane!” he called out over the sound of the rushing waterfall.
I turned.
“Be careful.” He tried to make it sound light, but the mild terror in his eyes showed me the truth.
Logan was just as scared of my powers as I was. Great.
I made the small ten-minute hike down the side of the waterfall, and met Isaac at the base. My staff was badass because it harnessed my power, but doubly badass because it was also a cool walking stick.
“Hey, boss,” I called out as I neared him.
His eyes fell to my feet, which were bare, and he smiled. “You’ve been listening.”
I shrugged. “Just a little.” Truthfully, I noticed when I hadn’t been connecting with the Earth enough. I got mild headaches and stiff muscles, so now it was mandatory that I did.
“Waaaaa!” The bleat of the resident goat made me jump and clutch my chest. She sounded like a screaming child. It was unsettling.
“What happened to her bell?” I asked Isaac, as she tried to head-butt my leg. Without her bell she could just attack out of nowhere and I wouldn’t know where she was! Freaking goat wasn’t all right in the mind. She was constantly head-butting things, trees and people mostly—which explained why she wasn’t right in the head.
Isaac smiled. “It fell off and got lost.”
I dodged her next attack and picked up a stick. “You want this?” I waved it before her as she ramped up to come at me again. “Go get it!” I threw the stick but she just came at my shin full-force, cracking into it.
“Ow! Get out of here!” I yelled.
“Waaaaa!” she shrieked, jumping into the air like a lunatic.
Isaac laughed deeply, a genuine belly laugh, rare coming from him.
“Do you have some marijuana plants on this land that I don’t know about? Because I think she ate them. She’s crazy.” I got ready to dodge her again but she just froze, looked over her shoulder, and took off running through the path in the trees toward where the main camp was set up.
Isaac was watching me with twinkling eyes, but underneath that merriment he looked strained about something. “She’s been a good source of companionship for me while I was out here all alone.”
The mood suddenly became somber. Isaac and Logan had both lived a solitary life. Still, I couldn’t see a neurotic head-butting goat as a good companion. But I’d be lying if I said she wasn’t cute. I had a rescue dog, Logan had a kitten, and Isaac had a head-butting goat. It actually fit our personalities well.
Isaac had a hand on each of his staffs, and his eyes fell to the piece in my hand. The purple crystal looked almost magenta in the midday light.
“Mother Earth is a powerful magician,” he stated as he started to circle me slowly. “If she cries too long, she creates floods. If she buries her tension and aggression, it ends in potent earthquakes. She can grow too cold, too hot, give life, create death. Mother Earth is a formidable ally.”
Whoa. Things just took a turn for the serious. The druid lessons had begun.
I just nodded and Isaac pointed to the tattoo across my shoulder. “Faery, Earth, Mars, it doesn’t matter. That chi, the Nwyfre, is everywhere, and druids have long been able to connect with it and wield it. It’s our purpose in creation.”
Double whoa.
“But as druids were originally meant to be powerful together, Ardan has created a hierarchy and made himself the most mighty, trickling energy down into his minions.”
That was interesting to me. I always wondered how exactly that worked. “So you and I?” I pointed to his shoulder. He’d said before that we were connected. He was my master and all that.
Isaac nodded and stopped his circling. “I am a druid master. Which means, I’ve been through enough training and done enough work with Mother Earth, that I can now train initiates. You and I are connected magically. I will make you more powerful, and you make me more powerful. We can only grow together. Neither will take from the other to leave them weaker, like Ardan does with his people. That is not the way of earth magic. We share equally.”
Ahhh. “So … we’re like a pack?”
Isaac smiled. “Yes. A very small pack with no alpha.”
I smirked. “But you said you were the master.”
He shrugged. “Dated language to describe the teacher. Sloane, I’ve waited decades for you. For a student. Now we can grow in power together, to become great enough to defeat Ardan, and restore balance and life to the earth cycle. I wasn’t strong enough on my own.”
I wasn’t sure about the other stuff, but killing Ardan was high up there on my to-do list, so it all sounded good to me.
“Let’s do it!” I gave a light tap on my staff.
Isaac frowned for a moment. “The only issue is, I’m not sure how to train a fire druid. Wind, water, earth, I could handle, but fire … it’s dangerous. You would need to tap into the very core of Mother Earth, the very depths of the darkness you hold within yourself.”