Page 143 of Gift from the Nexus

“They weren’t just torturing me because I was an heir. They weren’t torturing me to steal my gift. They were trying to drain me dry of everything in me because the Summum-Master was going to place me in his designed Nexus so he could control me, get closer to my family. That’s what he meant the other day when he said I was spoken for. I don’t know why the rune wouldn’t hold, but that doesn’t much matter to me. What matters is it didn’t.”

It’s a surreal feeling after all these years to finally be able to say I know for sure what and why that horrific event happened to me. There’s no denying it that that’s what’s been causing my anger to be so fierce, so self-destructive for so long. I needed understanding and closure.

Now I have it.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m one hundred percent still planning on ripping the Mastery to pieces. Both literally and figuratively. Just because I know the truth now doesn’t mean I don’t want revenge. I do.

And I plan to get it.

“Do…do the others know?” Willow asks softly.

“I’ve never admitted it to them if that’s what you mean. My sudden aversion to touch, dismissal, and cold behavior toward women probably gave them hints. But you’re the only one who knows she raped me.”

Her body shudders and her eyes flash to slits rapidly before turning back to her own as she composes herself once again. Still, I pull her closer. Really to calm both of us down. I thought saying it out loud would be so much harder than it was. It still tasted like acid burning my throat and my heart is racing, but for years even the thought of it made me gag or sometimes even be physically ill. I can say it to her, though.

Because she’s seen me at my worst, and I her.

“Do you know how old she was?” she asks, leaning up so she can look me in the eyes.

“She was twenty-six or twenty-seven at the time, I believe. She was old enough to bond, so from what we know, she was at least twenty-six.”

She suddenly jumps up from my lap, her eyes completely violet as her dragon rushes to the surface. Smoke blows from her nostrils as she begins pacing back and forth across my floor, and this is the most of Draken’s side I think I’ve ever seen come out of her.

My Primary is livid. Livid on my behalf.

“That means…that…ah, that fucking perverted rapist bitch. I swear.” She continues her enraged pacing, running her hands through her hair as the math adds up in her mind. At this rate, she’s liable to bring down this entire pocket dimension.

“Primary—”

“Is she dead?” she yells, cutting me off.

Why her question takes me by surprise I’m not sure, but a laugh bursts out of me, and I can’t contain myself. It’s freeing, consuming, a sound that’s so rare and foreign to me now. To the realm. But I let it pour out of my mouth unfiltered until it naturally tapers off.

It’s a very fair and valid question. I knew her tormentor wasn’t dead when I saw our awakening, so of course she’d want to know the same.

“I’m not sure, Primary. I’ve hunted the realm for her high and low with no success. Knowing what we know now, I can only imagine the Summum-Master has her under lock and key.”

That wasn’t the answer she was looking for.

Staring me down like the predator she is, her chest expands with deep breaths as she tries and fails to get her anger in check. I can’t tell if she’s about to attack me or what. It’s still a new experience seeing her possessive and protective over me. Sure,I’ve seen this side plenty, but this is the first it’s been just the two of us, so it’s wholly directed at me.

These emotions are thrilling when they’re up close and personal.

“Elementra, mark my words. I will deliver her head to you.” She growls and my eyes darken.

She may be a predator, but I’m a monster. Her monster, to be more specific. And deliciously dangerous words like that coming out of her mouth bring that beast right to the surface. She doesn’t even know what’s happening when my shadows surround her so suddenly and she finds herself pinned by her throat, across the room against my bookshelf.

“Is that right, Primary? You’d kill her for me?” I ask, pressing my lips across the corner of her mouth.

“Any day. Anytime. Anywhere. You are mine.”

A hum sounds from the back of my throat, and I rub my nose with hers.

Keeping my lips a breath away from hers, I vow.

“Then it’s time to make you mine, Primary.”

Twenty-Two

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