Like hell! I wasn’t a “stay in the car” kind of girl.
I gripped my staff and leaped from the car barefoot. Asphalt wasn’t as good of a connection to Mother Earth but it would do. Without a word, I commanded a stream of purple fire to lash out at Steven. It arced though the air and he jumped backward, barely moving out of harm’s way. I was pleased to see a small surge of my magic licked his right arm, causing red crimson blood to flow from it before he was in the clear.
Yes! Next were his balls.
Ruben shot at the tall druid, and I was about to throw another rush of magic at him when a warm presence moved close into my back. I only had time to inhale sharply when my staff was wrenched out of my hand. I spun just in time to see Ardan snap it over his knee. The tall, scary lord of the druids had snapped my beautiful earth wand in half like a twig.
“No!” I lunged at him, but with a red ball of fire he reduced my power weapon to ashes like it was nothing. Like we hadn’t tracked down the last elf alive to make it. Like it wasn’t the only thing keeping me from a coma if I used my magic alone.
Oh God.
I pulled my Ruger from my back waistband and started firing. But poof, he was gone. The pile of ash on the ground had bile rising in my throat. How easily he’d ruined my only weapon, the only chance I had at beating him. If I called up my purple magic now, it would overwhelm me and I’d collapse, maybe into a vegetative state like Isaac said. This night couldn’t get any worse.
But it did.
I heard his footsteps and was mid-turn when his body crushed into mine. The evil druid pulled me into him, smashing me against his chest and pelvis so that I was facing him. Too close for comfort.
“I can’t believe I almost had you killed … before I knew who your mother was,” Ardan whispered in my ear, making nausea roll within me.
“Eat shit,” I told him. For some reason, when I felt vulnerable and beaten, cursing at my assailant made things a little rosier.
He grinned. “You’re coming home with me.”
Screw it. I was calling the purple magic; it was my only defense. But before I could, a loud popping noise assaulted my ears. A flash of light rushed my vision and suddenly California was gone. Nausea pulled at me as I spun. It felt similar to using the Eye, except this was real. I was freaking teleporting. Oh God. My feet slammed down onto hard metal and then the pressure of Ardan’s body was gone. I opened my eyes, praying it wasn’t what I thought it was…
It was worse.
“Oh fuck,” I said to no one.
‘Sloane? What’s wrong?’ Logan’s frantic reply came through our mate bond, and I was relieved to find that it still worked.
I tried to control my emotions. Tried not to cry or faint. ‘He’s taken me. Ardan.’
A visceral reaction shot through the bond as Logan processed my words, I felt the moment my mate was overcome with rage. ‘Where?’
I walked slowly to the edge of the steel cage I’d been dropped inside, peering out the window and down below to the water crashing along the rocky cliffs. Rolling green hills surrounded the stone castle.
‘I think I’m in Ireland.’ Shock didn’t even begin to cover how I was feeling.
Fury roiled through my mate and into me. ‘I’m coming,’ he said. And I knew he would, just like Ardan wanted him to.