Page 117 of Gift from the Tree

“You wanna work on your earth element after breakfast, just to test it out and see what you can do?” A hint of a challenge is in Tillman’s question, and I can’t help but rise to the bait.

“Sure.”

“We’ll all meet on the back lawn in thirty,” Tillman orders as he rises from his chair and leaves the room. I didn’t know he meant everyone would come see what I can do.

Lovely, now if I make an ass of myself, everyone will be there to witness it.

“I’m going to go change since someone fucked my morning routine up,” I say seriously, grabbing my coffee as I stand, not even bothering to look at Caspian.

“Set your timekeeper to wake up for breakfast next time.” He shows me the same courtesy of not even looking up from his book as he replies with his smart-ass remark.

Draken stands from the table as I do, seemingly out of reflex, but catches himself as he reaches out to grab my hand. “Can I walk up with you?”

“Yeah. See you in a few,” I tell Corentin as I walk by his chair and out of the breakfast room. My heart rate picks up as Draken walks close enough to me, our shoulders keep brushing, each touch sending a pang of longing through me.

Approaching my door, he starts, “Willow, I—”

“This is so hard, Draken. It’s so hard to be near you and fight off the urge to ask you to touch me, hold me, kiss me, just be with me like we were before. You were the first person I’ve entrusted with so much of myself and I feel lost now. I gave you a part of me I’ve never given to anyone else. I’m so heartbroken, angry, humiliated, confused, and I know you broke all the rules the guys gave you to be closer to me, and I know you, out of all of them, fought the hardest to tell me the truth. Caspian told me all of this. I just need time to figure this all out.” I look him in the eyes, begging him to just give me time.

Slowly, and ever so gently, he slides his hand to the back of my neck, leaning his head down until his forehead meets mine. “I’ll give you eternity, Willow. Please just don’t give up on me or shut me out completely. You’re my soul. I need you more than anything.”

Placing my hand right above his heart and closing my eyes, I focus on its frantic beat, wild and out of rhythm, the same as mine, but the longer we stay there, the slower and in sync our heartbeats become.

“I’ll never give up on you, Draken.”

He lets out the breath that he was holding, nodding his head against mine.

“I’ll be out in a minute.”

I retreat to my room without lingering there any longer. All I can think about is sweet baby Draken, dirty in an alleyway, eating crumbs thrown at his feet. Caspian’s a fucking asshole holding their brotherhood over his head because of me, when this is the only love he’s known. Of course he’d do as they told him to. Even if he did put up a fight, he couldn’t risk losing them. They’re all he has.

Rushing through a half-assed morning routine, I’m ready in minutes. Opening my door, Draken pushes off the other wall where he’s leaning. He still isn’t as bright as he normally is, but it seems a small weight has lifted from his shoulders, which also makes my chest feel lighter.

“Ready to go kick some ass?” he asks with one of his signature smiles.

“I don’t know about that. I’m more worried about embarrassing myself or hurting one of you with flying bits of dirt.”

He laughs at my small joke, making me smile. It’s the most normal I’ve felt in days, and I have to internally convince myself to just let it be for now. No point in making myself feel like shit for smiling.

“You won’t hurt us. I promise. And if any of your control slips, Tillman will be able to handle it. He’s seriously badass when it comes to how he can wield his element,” he says with complete confidence in Tillman. I’ve barely seen him use his earth element, but from the bits and pieces I’ve seen and our awakening, he makes it look effortless, so I have no doubt he’ll be able to handle whatever happens.

Stepping out the back door and onto the lawn, we’re here way before the thirty minutes Tillman gave us, but the rest of the guys are already here, standing around talking and pointing at what looks like an obstacle course of sorts.

“Did you make this in the few minutes since you left breakfast?” I ask Tillman in amazement.

There’s a range of different-sized dirt balls and posts with rings at the top. I assume the balls will go through those. Vines come out of a wall that I have no fucking clue what I’m supposed to do with. And holes dug out at different depths. Damn, he went all out.

“I’ve been wanting and waiting to show you some things since Caspian told us about your earth element emerging, so when you agreed, I just had to come put it all together.”

The fact that he already planned this out, wanting to help me, makes my chest flutter. I want to show him I can do it, but I also want to snark out that he wouldn’t have had to wait on anything if he’d been honest with me. Instead, I just ask, “Where do we start?”

“When your earth emerged, it was a pretty big burst of power all at once, so it was easier to just grow a tree on command, but now that the burst is over, it may be easier to start by focusing on manipulating things that are already here. Try to command one of the dirt balls into the ring.” He instructs, pointing to the smallest ball of the bunch.

Focusing on the rope that connects to my earth element in my chest, it’s nestled right beside my air, and they both glow under my attention. Pulling on my earth, I zero in on my surroundings, thinking about how the dirt would feel in my hand, its cool, gritty texture, how if I squeezed it, it would crumble, and if I molded it, it’d form to whatever I wanted.

Not wanting to knock myself out with the ball, I command it to me very slowly. Unlike my air that would’ve used the wind to float it over here to me, the ball drops its form into a heap of flowing dirt until it gets to my hand where it rounds back out. I let it sit gently in my palm, getting used to the feel of it before I command it toward the ring. Again, it falls apart slightly, but I want it to go through the ring in the shape of a ball, so I concentrate on the particles, commanding it to mold and harden itself in the air. I hold my breath, straining slightly as I watch it finally take shape and glide through the ring.

“I did it! Did you see that?” Jumping up and down, clapping my hands in excitement, I turn to Tillman and take a step toward him before stopping myself. The rare smile he was wearing a millisecond ago slips and is replaced with a less enthusiastic one.

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