Page 22 of Gift from the Tree

“Don’t fucking touch me,” I sneer.

“Oh, come on, bro, I know you need one. We all do. This is the best day of our lives.” He cheers with the biggest fucking smile on his face, shaking his arms expectantly.

“You’re fucking delusional. Get to the lounge,” I bark, walking away from him before he says something else stupid to me or even worse, attempts to touch me.

Rounding the corner, I step into the shadows and disappear. I don’t need to spy on my brothers. I just have nothing to add to this conversation. I don’t want to talk about the girl or what this means for any of us. It means nothing to me. I don’t want her.

I watch from the darkness as Draken hurtles himself over the side of the couch and sprawls out with his hands behind his head. Tillman’s standing, looking out the window, deep in his mind, and Corentin’s at the bar pouring drinks.

“Come out, Caspian,” Corentin calls out, not bothering to look up from the glasses. He knows I’m here.

“This doesn’t concern me. I don’t need to be here,” I say in a bored tone, throwing in a yawn for good measure.

“Don’t start, Cas. You were there just like the rest of us, heard what she said, and you feel it. Don’t give me that shit.” Corentin snarls, finally looks up, and meets my eyes.

He’s still walking a tightrope from his slip of control earlier today and this shit is just piling on top. He can’t stand this loss of control and all these factors are just that now, out of his control.

“Besides, Willow isn’t the only thing we have to discuss,” he adds on, going back to fixing drinks.

“What are you talking about?” Tillman cuts in, stepping away from the window. My brother throws his glass back in one gulp before refilling it, then passes the others out. I’d gladly take that. Both conversations will go much smoother paired with aged whiskey.

“My mom sent a message earlier today. Crestwood Academy, one of the lower-level academies, was attacked. They broke through the wards. Twenty-six confirmed dead, twenty more kidnapped,” Corentin informs us solemnly.

I already knew this, but hearing it all over again doesn’t make it easier. I may be an ass and can’t stand people other than the three fuckers in this room, most of the time, and sometimes Gaster, but this… this is a trigger for me. I know what it’s like and I can’t tolerate it when young kids, those who can’t even control their powers and protect themselves, are attacked.

The lower-level academies are for the maybe seventeen-year-olds who are just emerging into their power. They stay at that academy from the time their powers emerge until they turn of age to move to the next level of school. So the academy that was attacked was kids, teenagers who’ve left home for the first time to begin their studies on their elements and gifts. It’s fucking sick. I’m not so heartless that this shit isn’t bothering me. It’s stirring up memories I’d rather not revisit.

“Again, why am I hearing about something like this so fucking late?” Tillman asks, obviously pissed.

“Because Gaster ran off to bring the little spy back and that took away attention from the more important things,” I throw in before Corentin has the chance to tell him that our mom already sent three E.F. teams to the academy to begin the investigation and try to track the magical signatures of the transports.

“What the fuck is your problem today?” Tillman asks like I’m the one being an idiot here. At my huff, he throws a dirt ball my way, and I wait until the last second before throwing a water ball at it to throw it off course.

“Everyone knows what my problem today is. There’s no reason to explain it,” I say seriously. They’re going to realize how serious I am that I don’t want or trust this girl. I don’t want or trust any women. All they want is power, a leg up in the social hierarchy.

“She isn’t the only reason, Caspian. You’ve been in a mood all day today before we even knew Gaster was going to pull this, so don’t even. If you have nothing constructive to say, then don’t fucking talk, just listen,” Corentin says firmly, running his hand down his face, then throws his second shot of whiskey back.

He’s going to snap here soon.

He gives Tillman the details of what’s already been set in motion, and I can see from the corner of my eye the shit-eating look Tillman’s throwing my way for purposely leaving that information out just to get a dig in at the girl. Their conversation starts to taper off as they nail down the rest of the details and begin planning a briefing in the morning with the Team Lead who’s already on the ground at Crestwood. I’ll be there as well, so I don’t need to throw my two cents in.

“So what are we gonna do with my little wanderer tomorrow?” Draken pipes up for the first time since flopping down on the couch. Of course she’s his main focus right now.

This briefing has nothing to do with him, so he doesn’t give a fuck about the little details. He cares about when it’s time to take people out. He’s helped on missions plenty of times, but his gift is, well, destructive, not stealthy like the rest of ours, so he doesn’t come to any scouting or the meeting side of things. Just for the main battles, when we need his ability, or if the rest of us are required to go somewhere, he doesn’t get left behind. Other than that, he’s free to do as he pleases for the most part.

“I’ll meet with her and Gaster alone for breakfast in the morning. She’s obviously easily overwhelmed, so maybe a smaller crowd is better to start off. After that, I’ll leave her with Gaster to get more situated. I’m going to enroll her so she begins classes next week, but she has a lot to catch up on if she’s really as clueless as she appears to be.” Corentin decides like the rest of us have no say in this. When I look at the other two to side with me, they’re already nodding in agreement with him.

“You got to be fucking kidding me. You can’t seriously be buying this ‘I know nothing’ act she is putting on right now,” I say sternly, dropping the bored tone because this is bullshit.

“No, Caspian, I’m not fucking kidding. We know nothing about her. Whatever speculations you have about her, I get it. I understand your reasoning behind it, but we need to have a conversation with her to get down to the bottom of anything.” It may sound calm coming out of my brother’s mouth, but it’s anything but calm.

He’s internally freaking out that he has no answers. I hate to see him like this, I really do, but reading between the lines of what he said, at least I know now, behind the hope he’s trying to hide like a lovestruck bitch, there’s doubt as well. And I can work with that. If he even has a small amount of doubt, I can build on that until he opens his eyes and realizes this is a fucking trap. The girl isn’t the one.

“Well, I, for one, want to keep her.” Fucking hell, Draken. If he becomes obsessed with her, we’re screwed.

“You can’t just keep a person, Draken. She has to want to be with you,” Tillman says patiently. Far more tolerant of this shit than me.

“Oh, she’s going to want me. She didn’t deny it when I told her I was going to spend forever with her. So she’s already pretty much halfway there. Twenty-five percent, minimum already in love with me,” Draken declares confidently with a huge fucking grin on his face.

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