Page 14 of Gift from the Tree

Placing my hand on Ry’s shoulder, I give it a reassuring squeeze. “Today got us one step closer. We’ll end these fuckers.”

“Fuck yeah, we will,” he swears.

We both turn around and I give my brothers a nod, while Ry sticks his hand out to shake theirs. “Corentin, Caspian. We were gonna head to your office in a minute and give a more detailed debrief than what we reported from the field.”

“Thanks, Ry, but that’ll have to wait. I need you to call a team back down here. We may have a situation.” Corentin pulls his hand back and looks at me. That serious mask of his that hides who he is from the world is firmly in place, but it doesn’t fool me, I can read the look and know shit’s going down.

“Why didn’t you call me right away?” I ask, already pulling my communicator out, calling Team One back.

It only rings once before San answers, “Sir.”

“Get back to the yard now, all of Team One, fully dressed,” I bark out, hanging up, not waiting for a response.

“Calm down, T. We don’t even know the situation yet. Gaster went off on his own and told us to be prepared, but for what, we’ve got no fucking clue,” Caspian chimes in with a bored, this is below him tone.

I can tell by the fucking smirk on his face and his choice of outfit today, he’s purposely trying to push fucking buttons. It doesn’t matter if it’s mine or Corentin’s or anyone else’s. He’s just itching to start a fight.

“Care to explain that a little more?” I ask Corentin since Caspian wants to be a dick. When I fully focus on him is when I see the war raging behind his eyes. He hates being out of control of any situation and this has him walking a tight line.

Technically, Corentin and Caspian are my cousins. Our mothers are sisters. Well, were. But we knew from a young age we were in a Nexus group together. Males don’t know who’s in their group until their elements and gifts emerge in later teenage years, but we all knew from the moment we were born, I swear. We were pretty much inseparable and still are to this day.

Due to our age difference, which isn’t much different—Corentin’s six months older than me and only thirteen months older than Caspian—he emerged first at the young age of fourteen. Youngest to date in history, that was until me and Caspian followed suit, both of us emerging as well on our fourteenth birthdays. That was pretty much the first sign we were right about being a Nexus group.

Recognizing your Nexus members happens instantaneously, but since we’d known each other our whole lives, everyone still had doubts that we were a Nexus just because of our familial bond. But then the second and definitive factor was we couldn’t hurt each other with our elements or gifts.

Not that we’d really want to hurt each other, but three teenage boys living together, we were bound to fight, and our magic didn’t allow it. We can fuck off and joke with each other, toss a few elements around, even throw serious punches, but if we had ill intent or meant to do some damage during our fights, the magic would fizzle out before the strike could land. Then all we were missing was our fourth, which we all assumed we’d meet when we got to the academy like most do.

Fuck, we were wrong.

“Gaster busted into my office, seven minutes and twenty-eight seconds ago, stating he just felt the strongest air blast he’s ever felt. I had assumed he was talking about me at first before he informed us the magical signature was from the nonmagical realm and not only that, but he recognized the signature, has felt it before, and when I told him he couldn’t go alone, he pretty much told me too fucking bad, to be prepared for when he returns, and transported out,” Corentin finally answers.

All I can do is stare at him. What the fuck?

“How’s that possible?” I ask, not really expecting an answer, but it’s the only thing coming to mind.

“It’s not. Gaster’s run off on some wild hunt and is going to get himself killed,” Caspian answers sarcastically. I go to throw a ball of dirt right at his head, hoping to knock the fucking attitude out of him, when I hear my men running over toward us.

“Orders, sir,” Nikoli speaks first, standing at attention.

Suck-up. That won’t get him out of punishment…I mean, training. Same thing.

“There’s an unknown, possible threat coming in. Our Archivist transported to the nonmagical realm and is returning with an unknown individual. We have no information. Be prepared for anything.”

I make a point to look all seven of them in the eye as I give out as much of a brief as I had. Looking for any weakness or fear coming from any of them. This will be their first situation where there are zero facts to go off. They need to be ready for things like this, at any given minute. I can’t afford dead weight on my teams when people are getting snatched up and killed left and right.

“Ry, get everyone in a position,” I order before turning back to face my brothers.

“Has anyone checked in with Draken? I haven’t had time since I got back.” Both ignore me with their fucking noses stuck in their communicators. Corentin’s typing away a million miles a second and I’m pretty sure Caspian’s reading.

“Hello,” I say loudly, my tone just below a yell. Not being in the loop and having more information on what’s going on is starting to grate on my nerves.

Of the entire group, I’m by far the most levelheaded. With my position as E.F. Lead Instructor on campus and Teams Leader on the field, I can’t afford to lose my cool. Losing my cool could mean life or death for my people and that’s not a risk I’m willing to take. With this situation, though, something’s going on. It has the hairs on the back of my neck standing up and my stomach in knots.

Finishing off the last message on his communicator, Corentin finally acknowledges me. “Yes, I’ve spoken to Draken. He’s heading here now.”

“I’m here now. What’s up? That was a pretty vague message,” Draken says to Corentin before his gaze swings to me and he smiles like a kid in the candy store. “You’re back!” he shouts, then jumps on me, hugging me like a damn spider monkey.

“Fuck off, Draken, you’re too heavy to be doing shit like this. And it’s only been two days,” I grunt as I try to push him off me. He’s almost as tall as me, only a few inches shorter, sitting at six-four, but he weighs a literal ton. That’s not an exaggeration. His gift makes him so much fucking heavier than he seems.

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