Page 2 of Gift from the Stone

“We’re…we’re in the shadows.” My voice trembles as I get my first look at the darkened scene before me.

We’re still at the training fields, but he’s moved us away from everyone. Not far enough that I don’t feel their panic mingling with my own in my chest though.

“You were trapped in your mind. Whatever you were shouting, seeing, while you were in there had Tillman losing his shit. It started a chain reaction in all of them,” he says calmly, sensing the tight rope I’m walking right now with my sanity.

“You knew how to pull me out.”

I can’t help but watch the madness I’ve created unfold in front of me. Despite Caspian whisking me away, the aftermath of my reaction is bleeding out everywhere.

Tillman’s squatting on his heels, rocking back and forth, back and forth. Pulling fistfuls of long chestnut curls out of his bun. His eyes may be closed, but I know the green behind those lids is wild, unhinged.

Corentin’s barking orders at the E.F. members, demanding all the students return to their dorms and clear the fields. The command in his tone is controlled, but the subtle glow around his body betrays the restraint he has on his gift.

Draken’s pacing, creating a burned path in the grass as smoke blows out of his nostrils. His hands are partially shifted, and his eyes are pure predator. Anyone who gets within six feet of him ends up dodging flames.

I can see Oakly surrounded by her Nexus as she throws her hands up, attempting to break free of their protective ring, tears flowing down her cheeks. Gaster’s jumping from person to person, trying to calm the visible rage in each of them, while simultaneously scouting the shadows looking for signs of me and Caspian.

“In the darkness, your fears don’t follow you. Here, you’re what’s to be feared.” He tilts my chin up, forcing my eyes away from the chaos I caused.

“In our awakening, you saw what I’ve been through. All of it?” I ask the question I’ve been avoiding approaching him about, but now, I need this small truth.

“Every bit, every time. Elementra showed it all.” His eyes flicker with an intensity that reveals the lie of this calm demeanor he’s trying to put on for me. I see the storm brewing.

I just weathered the storm of my own mind, and he knew how to pull me out because he’s seen it all already. There’s nothing I can truly hide from him now because he’s seen me at my worst, on my knees, beaten, bloodied, and so much more.

And I, him.

“She showed me you.”

“I know. One day, in the darkness, we’ll discuss our nightmares, but not today. Today, Primary, the rest of your Nexus needs you before they go on a destructive war path that gets them killed.”

I turn from his intensity and glance back at the others. Their need to avenge me, although they have no clue what set me off, burns through my chest. As much as I want to stay hidden in here, safe with Caspian, away from the new reality I find myself in, I can’t do that. They need me and I need them.

I have to tell them about the night my air element broke through its binding.

I may have had myself convinced I was safe, far away from him, but that fairy tale has come crashing down. Now, I need to tell them what little I know about what we’re facing. What threat is heading my way if Donald and my father truly have access to Elementra.

“Can you take me to Tillman?” I ask Caspian as I gently run the back of my hand down his face, trying to calm the void bleeding into his haunted eyes.

Tillman’s emotions are coming through the strongest. I’m sure hearing my screams and the mantra I couldn’t shake off made him fall into his own fears and worries. It’d be even worse if he watched what I was reliving.

“I can. I’ll move you from the shadows and then join you once you reach him.”

Mimicking me, he lifts his fingers and gently trails them down my tear-streaked face, calming the raging thoughts instantly, cutting them off completely.

Recognition of that feeling immediately registers and I widen my eyes.

“You. You’ve chased the nightmares away before.”

“I’ll always chase away your darkness, little Primary.”

The corners of his lips curl upward in a sly, self-satisfied smirk as he wraps me in his shadows and begins moving me across the field before I can say anything else. I try to recall all the times my nightmares were cut off suddenly in my sleep or how many times I felt like one of them was in the room with me when they weren’t. I was alone.

Sneaky ghost. Watching me from the shadows.

It should make me mad that he’s been watching me, and I never picked it up, but instead, it makes my heart flutter with hope. He’s very different than the rest of my Nexus and I’m going to have to understand that he’ll do things differently than they will. He may not want to admit it to me yet or even to his brothers, but he cares.

He just told on himself.

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