Page 80 of Gift from the Tree

“Is he seriously not coming in here?” I ask.

“I’m here, Draken. I’ve been waiting on you all to leave her room.” Caspian boredly states, walking out of the shadows.

“Well, I don’t understand why you didn’t join us in there?” I’m not going to lie. I whined a little. I’m still super fucking pissed at him for earlier today, but we’ve always done everything together, the four of us, and this is supposed to be the happiest time of our lives, and these three are fucking that up, especially him.

He doesn’t bother answering, just stares at me expressionless, so I throw my hands in the air and sink down on the couch. Corentin comes around and hands everyone a drink and to my surprise, Gaster takes his.

“That was rough for you too, huh, Gas-man?” I ask him as I raise the glass to my lips.

“Yes. Within a week, her first day of classes, she’s right back to where she was mentally a week ago. She may have been laughing and making light of the situation for all your benefits, but make no mistake, it was for you lot. I can see how dim her aura is, how this happening today is dragging out all sorts of bad memories and feelings for her.” Gaster’s so tense, his glass is shaking in his hand.

“We’ll never let something like this happen again, Gaster,” Corentin swears as he sips his drink and sets it in front of him.

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Corentin. She’s all our responsibility in one way or another and today we failed her miserably. Who’s to say it won’t happen again with the way we’ve handled this so far? Not only that, you two,” he yells, pointing at me and Corentin, “may have just had an awakening with her, but her lure started the moment she laid eyes on Tillman. Do any of you understand how awful it is for me to tell her the reason she’s spent the entire day crying is due to hormones? Hormones she doesn’t understand are from a bond that she’s unaware of, that’s been growing for a week now, and her body needs the connection to one of you.” We stare at him in shocked silence.

No, no, I had no clue that’s how that happened.

“What do you mean the moment she looked at Tillman?” I ask for clarification.

“A Primary’s lure is instantaneous, just like when you all met. It’s the first step in the awakening process. Neither of you may recognize that’s what’s happening, but her bond knows the second it senses a member of her Nexus. So the night she claimed Tillman, her bond had already begun the awakening.”

“Fuck, how did we not know this? So you’re saying the reason she cried nonstop the week she was with you and all day today is because she needed one of us?” Tillman asks. I can tell this is fucking with his head. I may be lovey-dovey and touchy-feely, but Tillman’s a pure romantic at heart. He just won’t admit that.

“That’s exactly what I’m saying.” Gaster snarls. I’m completely on his side. This is fucking bullshit that we don’t just tell her and make this all right. I’m perfectly fine being glued to her side all day every day.

After a moment of rigid silence, I decide to tell them about the awakening. “I saw her as a child, maybe six, with dirt covering her, standing in a six-foot hole, begging to be let out. Tears rolling down her face and who I’m assuming is her father standing on the ground above her, telling her if she didn’t start to listen and keep quiet in front of company, she’d end up like her mother.

“Then it shifted to her, still in the same dirty clothes dried, tear streaks on her face, running through the woods. She approached a person sitting under the tree she always talks about slowly. They asked her to sit for a while and talk. I couldn’t see their face or distinguish their voice, but she sat there for what felt like forever, and they told her she could always go there to find them. And she did, day after day, for her entire life, all the way up to her birthday. She was late into her teenage years when the stranger stopped showing up, but she always showed up.

“Last, it showed her standing in front of me in my dragon form. Her back was turned from view, so I couldn’t see if she was scared or not. That was all it showed me for a long moment before we were pulled out of the visions.”

Seeing those visions right after seeing what Vander did to her is what set my dragon off. I thought I was going to shift sitting right there holding her. It wasn’t until she told me she could never be scared of me and that my dragon was magnificent, that I realized her vision must have showed me shift and she was okay with it. My dragon calmed a little knowing she’d accept him.

“Does she know now that you’re a dragon?” Tillman asks softly.

“Yeah, she does. I don’t know what she saw. We didn’t have time to talk about it, but she told me my dragon was magnificent.” I smile.

I don’t want to tell them about the being scared part because I don’t want them to know about my insecurity of her fearing me. They don’t fear me, but they grew up in this realm, know all about the magical possibilities here. Willow didn’t, and I’m petrified that her seeing me shift will have her running from me in fear.

“So now she knows you, Tillman, and Gaster have extremely rare gifts.” Corentin runs his hand down his face.

“Don’t forget she just awoke a Perfecta Anima bond with a tracker as well,” Tillman adds.

“Whatever her gift’s going to show itself as, has got to be something extremely powerful for all of these rare bonds to be popping up everywhere, right?” I look at all of them, but none of them answer right away.

“Yes, Draken. I have a feeling whatever Willow’s gift is, it’s one that has not been seen in a very long time, if ever. She may be the first and only of her kind,” Gaster finally says mournfully. You can tell that’s not a fate he wants for her. Fuck, me neither. It would paint a target on her back bigger than the one that will be there when it comes to light that she’s our Nexus Primary.

Without saying anything or adding to the conversation, Caspian stands and walks out. I know Willow being here is fucking with him, but it’s been years since he’s drifted away from us like this, and I don’t know what to do to help him.

“I’m going out for a bit,” I declare, standing from my seat, throwing the rest of my drink back.

“Going where?” Corentin asks, eyeing me skeptically.

“Just need some air,” I lie. I lock my mental block up tight when I see Tillman’s eyes narrow on me and haul ass out the door before they can question me.

I zoom through the house and out to the back lawn, leaning my head back up to the sky. I’m about to fuck someone’s night all the way up and my dragon growls in my chest in agreement. Before I can transport out, though, Caspian materializes in front of me.

“What do you think you’re up to?” he asks.

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