My staff had become like an extra arm to me. Isaac had taught me how to use the blunt end to crack someone in the temple and knock them out. Theoretically, of course. Although Dominic offered to be the guinea pig if I wanted to try it in real life.
He shook his head. “No. No. You’ve been connecting with the earth’s power, and learning to control yourself, but you haven’t even touched on what a fire druid is capable of.”
That sounded scary and exciting. “Okay. Like what?”
He shrugged as if to say he wasn’t entirely sure. “Well, I’m only going off of rumor of course, but I want you to try and light something on fire without touching it.”
“What!” I shrieked, nearly dropping my staff. “You think I can light things on fire with my mind?”
He looked unfazed. “I do.”
Geeze. That was a scary thought and slightly intriguing. Could my mother do that? “How?” My curiosity won out over my fear.
“By practicing the art of meditation, and utilizing the greatest weapon you have. Your mind.”
This brought a smile to his lips. I think he was underestimating how awesome my mind was.
“Okay, I’m listening.” We’d been practicing mediation daily, and I actually had taken to it quite easily. I felt so connected and in tune afterwards, that now I couldn’t imagine going a day without it. Just sitting there, the sound of the waterfall playing in the background, the only focus was on my breathing, it was refreshing. I could really feel the buzzing of the Earth’s energy just under my skin.
Isaac bent down and placed a dried leaf on the top of a flat stone. Then he instructed me to sit and stare at the leaf.
I did. And nothing happened. “Can’t I just point my staff at it and use a beam of purple magic to light it on fire?”
Isaac looked down his nose at me. “Yes, you could, but what good would that do if you need to fight two assailants at once? The staff is a great tool, it’s done wonders to hone your magic, make it less dangerous and feed it into the earth, but I want you to try to learn to do this without it. It would be the first step, in a long road to learning to control your power without the staff. You will still use your staff to anchor to Mother Earth, but try to use your mind to ignite the leaf.”
I groaned, sinking the end of my staff into the earth and tightening my grip on the wood. “Fine.”
And so went my afternoon, staring at a leaf, thinking fiery thoughts and coming up with nothing. Finally, Isaac dismissed me for the day. Which only meant I was allowed to go to my training with Dominic. The silent shifter had taken over for Sophie in her absence, and I now had a nice little collection of throwing knives. I also knew the five spots to throw them on a person’s body to inflict maximum damage.
When I hiked across the forest, I saw Roxy standing outside with Nadine next to her. Nadine looked like she’d been crying; Roxy was comforting her. I picked up my speed and slipped in beside my friend. “Hey, what happened?”
Nadine wiped her face and looked behind her to make sure no one else was around. I could see a group huddled far off by the obstacle course, but much too far to hear anything.
“Just Gear stuff. I’m getting really sick of acting like we don’t care for each other,” she told me.
Roxy looked at me with weary eyes. “She wants to leave the pack.”
My mouth popped open. “What? No!” I whisper-screamed. Nadine had it bad for Gear, I knew that, but leaving the pack wouldn’t make it better. Would it?
“Easy for you to say, Sloane!” she snapped, then looked like she regretted it. She was right though. It was easy for me to say, I had Logan and we were mates, sleeping next to each other every night.
“I mean, why do you have to leave?”
She ran her tattooed hand through her hair. “Because I can’t bear it any longer. I’m done pining over him, and not being able to have him.”
“Then have him! Screw the rules!” I told her. Keegan needed to rethink those rules anyway. They weren’t doing him any favors with Danny.
A tear leaked from her eye and she wiped it away. “He doesn’t want me. Said so this morning. He’s right, we’ve had this big built-up thing and the sexual tension just made me want him because I couldn’t have him, but that’s it. It's nothing special. Nothing one night together wouldn’t fix.”
I frowned. Was she high? Her and Gear were freaking perfect for each other, from their tattooed arms right down to the stupid jokes and lack of cooking skills.
“You don’t mean that,” I told her.
She grit her teeth. “Well, he did. So I’m done.”
Did Gear really say that? What an idiot. He was a fool if he thought he could get better than Nadine. Hell, even I had a tiny girl crush on her. No way was I letting her leave us, leave this pack. “Make him leave, not you,” I protested.
“Hah!” She barked out a laugh. “I’d never live that down. No, I just need a break. Keegan will get here with the new pack and he’s going to split them up. I heard Logan talking on the phone to him. There’s another alpha. I’ll join the second pack. Steer clear of dickface Gear.”
She was also good at rhyming. Poor thing. Nothing worse than a broken heart. If she needed space from Gear, then I guess I had to be supportive. At least it was only to another pack on Isaac’s land and not another pack in a different city.
“Okay. If that’s what you want…” I didn’t know what else to say. Neither, apparently, did Roxy, because she just stood there looking as shocked as I felt.
“Let’s just focus on Lynn. She’s been having more and more Braxton Hicks contractions, and Eva said she has a plan in place for the labor next week.”
That was a relief. “What is it?”
Nadine looked thankful to have a change of subject. “She said the baby can’t swallow the spell without choking, so she’s going to make a bath and the baby can soak in it. There’s no guarantee it will keep the baby from shifting, so in the event it doesn’t work, she thinks Lynn should have her baby at a rental house a couple hours away. That way, if the baby shifts…”
I nodded. “It won’t bring the druids to our new home base. Smart.”
And scary. I was about to ask for more details when the crunch of gravel brought my attention to the small dirt road behind me.
I saw an old green pickup truck pulling in, the tires skidding to a stop. A tiny blond girl sat behind the wheel, barely able to look over. Roxy, Nadine and I shared a concerned look and started walking towards the vehicle.
As we neared, the door opened and out jumped a fourteen-ish year-old blond girl with a gun in her hand, raised right at us.
“Stop right there!” she shouted, no shake in her voice. This kid had used a gun before and would again.
My eyes widened as we all stopped. What the hell was she doing? Who was she?
Her voice was familiar but I couldn’t place it.
“You the one who called? About the skyborn?” she asked me.
That’s it! We’d called one address in Canada. Two, the number had said next to the information. Two skyborn. I’d spoken to her. The girl sounded young, said her mom was out but she’d relay the message. She didn’t want to video chat and had sounded skeptical even when I gave detailed information about my mother and our location.