Page 134 of Gift from the Tree

“She’s an angel,” Jamie raves, stepping up and slinging his arm over her shoulder, pulling her close. Yeah, he’s totally still my favorite. I hear Ry scoff behind them, and I let out a laugh as Oakly lets an evil little grin cross her face.

“Willow, how have you been?” Jamie asks, holding my gaze. Multiple meanings to his question.

“Better. Much better.” I give him a sincere smile and I feel all my guys step closer toward me.

Possessive men.

“Let’s go sit at the table and catch up. Lunch will be out soon.” I grab Oakly’s hand and lead her over to where we’ll be eating. We take the two seats in the middle beside one another and let the guys figure out their own.

“I’m so not ready to go back to classes. You sure you can’t talk the headmaster into extending the break?” Oakly asks jokingly, raising her eyebrows in a suggestive way.

“It’s far too early to be pulling that card. I was already planning on pulling the Tillman card if you showed up looking anything but fucking glowing,” I say in a faux whisper, and she throws her head back laughing.

“They’ve been perfect gentlemen…mostly.” She shoots a look over at Ry, who’s sitting beside Tillman right across the table from us. He rolls his eyes at her and goes back to talking to Tillman.

“See what I mean?” she asks.

Shaking my head at her, I look around the table and realize only Ry, Tillman, Oakly, and me are talking. The others are just observing, so I figured I’d try to start a conversation.

“Is it rude to ask people what their gifts are?” I ask the table, no one in particular, but just giving anyone a chance to answer.

“Not necessarily, but those with rarer gifts tend to not like being asked, like your Nexus and ours,” Jamie answers.

“So is everyone at the table aware of my elements then?” Might as well throw it in there and get this over with.

“Elements, as in plural?” Jamie asks, eyes wide.

“I didn’t tell them. We didn’t really discuss if you were okay with me saying anything or not,” Oakly explains, and I shoot a smirk to Corentin, a mixture of told you so and your turn to say something.

“Tell us what?” Ry asks, eyes bouncing between me and Oakly.

“I want to make this clear that what we discuss stays between these two Nexuses. We all know how dangerous it would be for the wrong people to find out about Willow’s rare ability and Oakly’s. I need your word that none of you will say anything.” Corentin stares each of Oakly’s Nexus down.

I guess he decided he’s happy with what he saw reflected in their eyes because he presses on. “Willow has both an air element and earth element. Her earth element emerged at the mission when she found Caspian.”

“What?” all of Oakly’s guys shout at the same time, making me flinch.

“Watch your fucking voices,” Caspian says darkly. He never has to shout to get anyone’s attention. That tone he uses calls attention enough.

“Sorry, Willow, we didn’t mean to shout, but this has never been heard of, so it took us by surprise.” Jamie apologizes, leaning over Oakly to look at me.

“Just a reflex. It’s no problem. But yes, we’re aware it’s never been heard of, nor has my gift emerged yet, so we don’t know really what to make of me.” I throw out honestly. I’m quite a conundrum.

“What does this mean for her classes? She won’t be able to use both elements if you don’t want people to know,” San asks. From what Oakly’s told me about them, San’s more of the bookworm of the group. If he isn’t working with the E.F. teams, he’s reading something.

“She’ll continue like normal, although she’ll need to move up in her Air Elemental class again soon. Over the last few days, she’s progressed substantially and she’s pretty much gained control over her earth element,” Corentin states factually but wears a mask of pride that makes my cheeks flush.

“Damn, Willow, you’re a badass,” Nikoli teases from the end of the table, making me laugh.

“Told you so,” Oakly remarks, giving me a huge grin.

“You know, Willow, I may be able to test you to see what your gift is,” Jamie comments hopefully.

“How?” Caspian questions immediately before I can even think to.

“Well, I’ve been working on a testing system and a gift archive to indicate what someone’s potential gift may be based on indicators seen amongst others with the same gift. It’s been years in the making, but once I transferred to Vito and many more resources have become available, it’s come along much faster than expected. It’s still in the beta testing, but we could always try to see if there are any matches. We’ve tested all E.F. members, except for you four, so there’s a pretty large sample group to base testing off of.”

“Why have you been working on a system like that?” I ask, obviously not in the know about what research and projects are going on at the academy.

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