Page 39 of Gift from the Tree

“Yeah, you know, extra work the teachers send home with you from school. We’d have to go home and read a couple chapters in our textbooks and answer questions on them. Extra math problems, that kind of thing.”

They look at me like I’ve grown an extra head.

“So what did you do in class then?” Draken asks, baffled.

“Well, more of the same thing.” I answer it more like a question than a statement. I’m confused. Did they seriously not have homework here?

“What a waste of time,” Corentin comments, shaking his head like he can’t wrap his mind around this. I’m not going to complain, though. I didn’t want homework, nor did I care for it. This whole hands-on thing they’re talking about sounds way more interesting and beneficial.

Corentin refills his coffee mug and takes a long swig. “Other than your classes, we have another matter to discuss, Willow. The matter of where you’ll be staying.”

“What do you mean? I’m fine at Gaster’s.” Is he getting ready to kick me out? Well, technically, I have already left his mansion, but is he kicking me out of Gaster’s?

“There are dorms and cottages that house the students on the academy grounds. Nexus group members have cottages to themselves, so they stay together, and those who are not in a Nexus stay in the dorms. Typically, two to three roommates. So you’d be roomed with two or three other people,” he explains. Yep, he’s trying to kick me out of Gaster’s. I don’t want that. I don’t want to live with strangers.

“Do you all live on campus during the academy year?” I ask, needing to know if they’d be there.

“No. We stay here and transport every day, but Gaster spends a lot of the time housed on campus during the year, so he won’t be at the cottage every night and it’s not safe or practical for you to be there alone.”

“Do I have to stay on campus?” I mumble.

“Is there a reason you don’t want to?”

I can tell he’s searching for an honest answer. He isn’t just going to give me a yes or no without considering the why. He may be a controlling asshole, but he doesn’t seem like the type to make decisions without having facts first.

“I had to live every day wondering if my father’s beatings were going to kill me growing up, then he forged my signature on a marriage certificate and sold me off to an even bigger monster. They owned me and took everything from me. I’ve never had anything that was my own, except for my secret willow tree in the woods and my bedroom. I had five locks on my bedroom door to keep the monster out.” Deep breath.

If a little truth from my life before was what Corentin needed to not make me live with other people, I’d give it to him.

Blinking the tears away, I continue, “My bedroom was the only place neither of them entered. They’d summon me if they wanted me, so my bedroom was my hideaway. I’ve never had to share it with anyone. I don’t want to share it with people I don’t know. I don’t want to feel fear in my bedroom. When I’m ready to have someone in my bedroom, I want to want it and be happy, comfortable. I know it may seem ridiculous to you or, well, anyone really, but I’m not ready to share a space with just anyone yet. I don’t want to stay there.” I can’t hold the tears back anymore.

They’re slowly flowing down my face. It’s painful to think about life back on the estate. It was a misery I’m never returning to, but its ghost still haunts me every day.

Draken gently turns my head toward him, and he looks like he’s about to explode as he gently wipes my tears away, cupping my face with both of his hands.

“I’ll do everything in my power to make sure you never feel like that again. I’ll kill anyone who dares to lay a finger on you.” His words make my tears flow faster. They’re blurring my vision so much, it makes his eyes look almost like his pupils are slitted, but as I blink them away, his beautiful cobalts appear normal.

“Thank you.” I don’t know what to say. This breakfast has taken an emotional turn I didn’t see coming.

“Will you move back into the mansion?” The strain in Corentin’s voice has me turning to him slowly.

“In here, with all of you?”

“Yes. In here with us. You’ll still technically have roommates, but far more privacy here than you’d have in the shared dorm rooms.”

I have to admit, even living here with them makes me a little nervous, for reasons other than not wanting to be around strangers, but it’s far better than living in a shared campus dorm and them not being there if I need them for whatever reason. And honestly, I miss the bathroom in the room they had me staying in before. I know, shallow.

“Yes. I’d like to live here.”

He nods, then stands, basically declaring this discussion over. “Come on then, we have somewhere to be, and we’re running late.”

“Where are we going?” I ask while standing up, getting ready to follow him blindly.

“The campus. We’re going to give you a tour today.”

“How are we getting there?”

“Transport.”

---