Page 98 of Gift from the Tree

“Shit, you scared me. Where the hell did you come from? How did you do that?” I ask, awestruck, staring as Corentin fully materializes out of thin air.

“I’m beyond furious with you, Willow,” he says, taking a step closer to me, causing me to take a step back. “We have no idea what we’re walking into and you’re going to be in the middle of danger.”

“I know,” I say in a firm voice.

“People could die. People are definitely going to die.”

“I know.” My back hits a locker, trapping me as he continues to stalk toward me. There’s nowhere for me to run, even though I wouldn’t anyway, but gone is the master of control. In front of me is a deadly predator and I’m his prey.

“You could be hurt. Draken could be hurt.” He tries to use my feelings for Draken as a way of talking me out of this, but that’s not going to work.

“I know,” I say, raising my voice a little, coating it in confidence I’m not sure I truly have. But he needs to know that I understand I’m walking into this, knowing a fraction of anything that everyone else knows, but I’ve made my decision. His scary words and petrifyingly sexy, dominating demeanor aren’t going to change my mind.

We stare at each other for a long, tense moment, neither of us speaking or breaking the stare off we’re in. Finally, he sees whatever it was he was looking for because he speaks, “You’ve seen Caspian walk out of walls at random times, and you never knew he was even there.”

I nod. He’s scared me enough times. I’m not going to forget it.

“Well, I can do the same but not with shadows, with light. I’m what they’ve referred to as a Light Bender over the centuries. Very rare, and I’m very secretive about my abilities.” He holds out his hand to me and when I grab it, he pulls me close as bursts of colors surround us.

As if standing within the heart of a kaleidoscope or beneath a mesmerizing rainbow, he manipulates the colors, transforming the very essence of the room. Then a light flashes from his hand that’s so blindingly bright I have to turn my head away until it dims down.

Looking up at him in wonder, I realize all of them have rare, extraordinary gifts. I don’t know the true extent of any of their gifts, but the bits and pieces they’ve fed me are remarkable.

“Why did you show me this?” I ask softly.

“Because I wanted to tell you before we left. I’ll do whatever it takes to get you and my brothers back safely, but I wanted to be the one to tell you, without you witnessing it firsthand on a battlefield when I’m burning the life out of someone.” His words are firm, earnest. He means that he has every intention of burning someone to death today for taking his brothers from him and it should’ve upset me, but instead, I squirm at the fierce protectiveness he’s radiating.

“Thank you for showing me. It’s incredible, Corentin.” I tilt my head back on his chest, pouring my appreciation for this through my eyes, and I let him see that I’m not fearful of what he just told me or his gift. I’d bathe in his light if he’d let me right now.

Tilting my chin up, he leans down and lays his lips to mine in a soft, gentle kiss. It isn’t fast or hungry. It’s sweet and tender, the complete opposite of his current behavior. The kiss is brief and when he turns me, then steps back, I lean forward, chasing his lips.

“Later. I’ll tell you everything later when they’re home safe,” he swears, rubbing his thumb across my bottom lip.

“Okay.” My mind’s too foggy from the lust he just hit me with to process his words at first, but once they settle in, I hold onto his promise as my motivation to get going. We’re all going to come home safe, then we’re all going to have a nice, long chat.

He walks me back out of the changing room and into the field where the number of members has multiplied substantially. I seek out Draken, Gaster, and Oakly, finding them all standing around with Ry, Nikoli, San, and Jamie. Nudging Corentin’s arm, I point to where they all are, and we make our way over to them.

Draken meets me first, instructing me to put on the uniform he’s holding up. “The entire uniform is fireproof against most with a fire element. Depending on their power scale, they may burn through it, but few of us can do that.” He gives me a cocky smile, letting me know he’s one of those few. Go figure.

Gaster steps over to me next, with a small sack in hand. “I can’t go. I must stay here and make sure everything’s taken care of, but carry this with you the entire time. There are enough healing vials in here to cure just about any minor injury until you could get to a healer if you need one. Please be careful, child.” His eyes mist up and I know he doesn’t want me to go, but unlike Corentin, he isn’t going to try to stop me.

“Thank you, Gaster.” I give him a big hug, wrapping my arms tightly around him before I move to stand by Oakly and wait for Corentin to give orders.

“You’ve all been filled in on this mission. E.F. Lead Instructor Tillman and Caspian Vito were kidnapped on their rescue mission they were intended to return from today. It was an ambush, and the rebel group was ready for them. We have no idea what we’ll be stepping into, but this is a rescue. Our main objective is to get them out alive and bring them back. We also need to free any other hostages and capture any guards but only without jeopardizing our main objective.” Corentin pauses and looks around to make sure everyone understands that Tillman and Caspian are our number one priority. Everything else we’ll try our hardest to take care of, but their return is the main focus.

“Everyone to your teams and be ready for transport on our signal.” He dismisses and makes his way over to the rest of us.

“There are a lot of people here. How do you tell all of them where to go?” I ask Oakly quietly, confused on how everyone will know what to do.

“It’s called an imprint. Once I have a location locked down, I can send the imprint to each of them to follow. So think of it as an X on a map, only I can’t mark it and they just show up. The imprint I send them will make their transport follow my direction, so where I go, they go. That’s why I physically must go for this to work,” she explains to me in a low voice.

I can understand better now why she’s more hesitant to join the E.F. She’s always just said it’d require her to be gone all the time and she doesn’t want to be on battlefields. But I understand now that it constantly puts her in danger, front line really. Nope, I don’t like that either.

“So we’ll just pop up exactly where they are? What if there are a fuck ton of bad people waiting?” That thought is fucking terrifying.

“No, I’ll be able to track exactly where they are, but I’ll imprint for us to transport a little way away in order to regroup and go from there.” Damn, she’s so smart and would really make a killer E.F. member, but I can’t stand the thought of her running off to danger all the time.

“Willow, Oakly,” Corentin calls us over from the few feet away we’re having our conversation.

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