I chuckled. “Maybe we can keep training without a weapon, and then if we find the elf, great.” I wasn’t sure hunting the country for an elf was a great idea right now. Assuming he was even in this country.
Isaac squinted and peered at me with those striking golden copper eyes. “Sloane, now that Ardan has seen your power and knows about you and Logan, he’ll stop at nothing to find you, kill you both, and locate the others.”
Chills ran up my spine. “Do you think he knows what I am? I mean, that I’m an earth druid?”
Isaac nodded. “Oh he knows. The second your purple magic unleashed, I could smell the earth druid within you.”
Shit. I mean, technically I had told Steven in the alley of Jeanine’s bar what I was, but he didn’t seem to care. He just wanted me dead, yet he didn’t know I was an earth druid—I hadn’t even known at that point. If this staff was the only weapon I could protect myself with, then I wanted it. Ardan and Steven could teleport, for Christ’s sake. I was going to need more than a knife that burned my hand to take them out.
“Okay, let’s do it,” I exclaimed. “Danny?” I turned to the sorcerer in hopes that he would know where to start.
Danny raised one manicured eyebrow. “I’ll get right on that.” His voice was monotone, which told me he had no idea where to start looking.
“Wonderful!” Isaac exclaimed, either not picking up on Danny’s sarcasm or pretending not to hear it.
My feet were still sunk into the earth; the vibrations were now a low background hum, barely detectable. I just felt … good. Like waking up after sleeping ten hours. I was refreshed and full of energy.
Isaac stepped closer to me and looked down at my feet. “Better than coffee, isn’t it?”
I barked out a laugh. “I wouldn’t go that far.” Nothing compared to coffee; it had its own class.
He smiled. Sophie must have gotten bored with us, because she was gone, trotted off back to camp I assumed. Now Danny was just standing there, assessing me with narrowed eyes.
“What?” I asked Danny.
Instead of answering me, he turned to Isaac. “Is that a normal amount of power for a new druid?”
Nerves tightened in my gut as his question. I didn’t like the way he’d used the word “normal.”
“I mean, she just kicked all of us in the nuts two hundred yards away. That’s not normal. Right?”
Isaac rested a hand on his staff. “No. It’s not. I suspect her magic is conflicted inside of her. She’s constantly plugged into her power source, and her druid power will grow every day until we can find a way to properly anchor it into the earth.”
Fear saturated my entire being. I’d almost forgotten about his doom and gloom prophecy last night. That sounded dangerous, for me and everyone around me. “Anchor it? I … I thought you said I was already earth-initiated or whatever,” I stuttered, trying to find my words.
The druid looked at me sadly. “The Earth has chosen you, yes. But until we can get a staff made for you, we can’t plug your magic into the Earth. It needs a filter.”
“Plug it in?” Was I a lamp now?
Isaac stuck the sharpened tip of his staff into the earth and the crystal ball glowed a deep orange. “You can pull power from her with your staff, or, in times of overwhelming energy bursts, she will take the excess so it doesn’t overtake you or others.”
“So … the Earth will keep us from getting our nuts racked,” Danny concluded, and Isaac nodded.
“Precisely.”
Danny stepped closer to Isaacs’s staff and bent down low, examining it more closely. “Well, we’d better find it, then. The elf you seek, did he touch this staff?”
Isaac shrugged. “I assume so. He was the quiet one. His twin brother was more social, and was the one I did all of my business dealings with. But he told me they made them together.”
“What if he can’t make mine now that his twin is dead?” I pondered, peering at the staff closer as well.
“You better hope that isn’t the case,” the sorcerer told me, and I swallowed hard.
I thought back to the first time I used my purple magic, on the mountain lion shifter that attacked Nadine and I. It was such a small burst compared to what had happened last night at the battle, or with Isaac’s staff. He was right. It was growing.
“Do you mind if I borrow one of these?” Danny asked Isaac. “I won’t damage it.”
Isaac held out the staff to Danny and bent his head low. “Of course. I trust you.”
Danny looked a bit unnerved at that, but he reached out and grabbed the staff. Nothing happened, which was a relief.
Danny winked at me. “I did a hand blocking spell. It’s like I’m wearing gloves.” He explained, as though he had heard my thoughts.
Isaac rose from his bow and faced me. “Go and rest with your friends for a few hours. Come back after lunch and I will show you what the Earth can do.”
Did I want to know what the Earth could do? I didn’t know what to say to that. Instead, I nodded.
Shit just got real.
I was an earth druid apprentice.
3
Danny and I turned together and walked away. When we were far enough that the druid wouldn’t hear us, I leaned into him. “What do you think of him?”
Danny shrugged. “Seems nice. He’s letting us all stay here. Teaching you. More welcoming than Keegan ever would be.”
I flinched slightly. I had forgotten the fact that Danny and Keegan were freshly broken up. All because of Keegan’s rules. Rules that were put in place to keep Logan and I safe. I decided to speak my mind.
“You know he still loves you, right?”
Danny walked in silence for a moment before looking over at me. “I’m not sure he’s capable of love. You have to trust someone for that.”
Ouch. This might be broken beyond repair. It made me sad. I felt responsible. I knew it was silly since I wasn’t even around when that transpired, but the need to protect the skyborn was the reason Keegan had lied to Danny for so long and I was one. Now, only because we needed a sorcerer in the pack, was Danny told the secret. I would be pissed as hell too.
“Whatever.” Danny waved his hand. “Ruben and Logan are nice to look at.”
I grinned. Neither were gay but that didn’t matter. Looking was okay by me.
“You’re not too bad yourself.” I linked arms with him and he smirked.
We were close to the huts now. “Girl, you have no idea. I look even better naked.”
I chuckled and it felt good. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d genuinely laughed like that.
“I look worse naked,” I assured him, and he chortled. Seriously, things were paler than they should be and I had wobbly bits.
“I’ll bet that’s not true, but we do need to talk about your smell,” he offered.
I yanked my arm away from him and stuck my nose in my armpit, taking a large whiff. Nothing bad. Just my coconut-scented deodorant.
Danny laughed. “Not bad. But you reek of dragon. Eva stripped your spells.”
Oh. Yes. How could I forget the pain of taking off the dark magic spell that I had allowed Jeanine to put on me? It had made me faint from agony. It had hurt so badly.
“Right. Can you fix it?” I didn’t want someone smelling me and alerting the druids.