Page 118 of Gift from the Tree

“Good. Try another.” His tone’s rough like something just disappointed him. I thought I did good. Looking around at the other three, they all sort of wear the same sad, disappointed looks.

“Why do you all look like that? Did I do it wrong?” My gaze automatically seeks out Draken. He’s always the one to answer questions no one else wants to, for the most part, but even this time, he shoots Tillman a pleading look.

“Tillman,” I say his name, but it comes out more like a question. I don’t know who I’m supposed to be looking at right now.

He smooths his hand over his face, like he’s trying to compose himself before answering me. “This moment was a vision I saw in our awakening, but the outcome was different. From then until this moment, we… I changed the possibility of our future.”

“What does that mean? Why did you change it?” I ask, confused. I didn’t really see how he could do that on his own. I thought we saw exactly what Elementra wanted us to see.

“I didn’t do it intentionally, but actions have consequences,” he tells me solemnly.

“What? I still…” Then it dawns on me. The outcome of the vision changed because of them not telling me the truth sooner, me leaving to stay with Oakly, and now me distancing myself from them changed what would’ve happened in this moment. My face crumbles. What had been a very exciting moment is now disappointing for everyone.

“Oh.”

“Will, please, I’m—”

“This isn’t just your fault. Let’s just focus on this, okay?”

His vision of this moment changing is a stab to my heart. It makes me realize I can’t fully put the blame on him for it. I apparently would’ve done more than step toward him in his original vision.

Instead of staying behind and facing this head-on, I ran to stay with Oakly rather than argue it out with them immediately and I ignored every request they made for me to come home. Caspian got it all out yesterday, even after I had asked him to drop it, and other than that, I’ve only let Draken come close to apologizing in person. I won’t let them try to blame me for their actions before now—that’s completely their fault—but I haven’t been open so far to letting them say anything, so I can’t say for sure whose fault it is that the vision changed.

All I know is looking at all their faces, whatever was the original outcome in his vision was something that had brought Tillman a lot of joy and it hurt him just now that it didn’t happen.

Every moment I’ve been back gets more and more awkward without getting shit out in the open. I don’t want to just accept the understanding Caspian made me feel last night. I want them to explain to me why they, individually, decided to lie to me.

My hurt morphs into anger quickly. I can feel it burning through my veins, making my skin flush and my fist tighten. Letting my feelings steer me, I pull on my earth element and shoot all the balls he had sitting out through the ring, one after the other, as hard as I can before shoving my element into the ground, making it shake violently. I need somewhere for this rage to spew over before I fuck something up.

Spinning to face them, I throw my hands in the air before bringing them to my hips. “What are we doing?”

“Um, watching you practice your earth element,” Caspian answers very literally.

“No, not at this moment, Caspian. What are we doing?” I fling my hands around in some crazy gesture to include myself and all four of them.

“I’m doing whatever you want me to do, little wanderer,” Draken says with full conviction, understanding exactly what I mean.

“Do you want to talk about this someplace else?” Corentin asks.

“No. I want to get it out in the open right here and now. Starting with you.” I point directly at Mr. Self-proclaimed leader himself.

“What do you want from me, Willow?”

“The truth, Corentin. Your truth, not the truth Caspian has shared with me to try to take all the blame for you. Your truth.” My eyes burn into him as I wait for an explanation, one that better be more reason than excuses.

Corentin turns his head to look at his brother before turning back to me. “I need you to understand, it was never my intention to keep the truth from you for long, Willow. Yes, I did listen to his reasonings for not wanting to tell you about the bond, but that was just an excuse I could use for myself. After our awakening, I knew it wasn’t true, but I was afraid. Afraid for multiple reasons. You came from a whole other realm. I had no clue that if we told you the truth, you’d run for the hills or stay with us. I was torn between letting you learn and getting comfortable or throwing a life-changing proclamation at you. After seeing the visions in our awakening, I didn’t think informing you that we were the four men you were going to spend the rest of your life with would go over well at first.

“I was and still am afraid of what your Memoria stone may show us. Not that it’s going to change the way I feel about you, but I’m afraid of what it could mean for all of us. Being a Vito already comes with a target on our backs. Being the Primary to a Vito Nexus will paint an even bigger one. My mother’s been fighting assassination attempts most of her life. So I figured if I keep you a secret, I keep you protected, all of us protected, until I knew more.”

“Caspian said you were going to tell me the truth when they got back from their mission. Why then? I don’t think my Memoria stone has shown me nowhere near what it has locked away. It might show something next that you don’t like. Then what?”

“I just wanted to give you some time to get used to all of us, to the way of life here. I didn’t want you to feel trapped in a situation you didn’t want to be in. And I don’t care what it shows us. We’ll handle it,” he vows, holding my teary-eyed gaze.

“And you?” I say, focusing on Tillman.

“They’re my brothers. To me, it was a no-brainer to agree with how Corentin felt because I felt it too, and letting Caspian vent his conspiracies just added another layer of excuses to use. And honestly, I wasn’t sure if I was ready to acknowledge the bond. The thought of finding our true Primary has always been something we’ve felt strongly about, a dream we’ve played over and over, but then you actually came along.

“Staring through me, straight to my soul, and called me yours. I knew instantly I belonged to you, but that happiness was quickly shut down by overwhelming thoughts of losing you. Keeping you at arm’s length was the best way of keeping you safe and out of harm’s way. If someone took you away from me, I don’t think even my brothers could pull me back from that darkness again.”

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