Page 105 of Gift from the Nexus

“He compliments how I—”

“Don’t finish that sentence.”

We both burst out laughing, drawing everyone’s attention to us, although they think we’re laughing at the guys on the floor. The increased time we’ve gotten together from our training has given us the opportunity to basically perfect our mental connection. Most of our conversations now happen in the privacy of our minds. It drives the guys wild because they can tell when we’re talking about something. We don’t bother hiding our snickering or our sideways glances at one another.

They don’t complain too much, though. Unless it’s just our two Nexuses hanging out. Any other time, they’re thankful for this because it gives the two of us a big leg up when it comes to combat. We communicate the entire time. Coordinating our next moves precisely and it gives us an advantage over the E.F. members we face.

“Willow, Oakly, back in positions. Next group,” Tillman orders, shooting me a sly wink.

A low whistle sounds from the gym doors, sending a shiver down my spine, and I know without even turning around that the rest of my Nexus is standing there.

“Primary. Are you and yourPerfecta Animastill decimating these poor men?” Caspian asks low, wrapping me in his shadows and pulling me to his chest.

“Decimating is a strong choice of word. Winning every sparring match, yes.” I smirk, holding my breath as his chuckle fans across my cheek and he lays his lips to the corner of my mouth.

Damn tease.

“Little wanderer let us stay for the next match. I swear we’ll be on our best behavior,” Draken says as Caspian passes me over to him.

“Lies, dragon. We’re sparring six on two. You know as well as I do the three of you won’t be able to stand back and watch that.” I laugh as he shoots Ry a deadly glare.

“Six on two?” he growls.

“This is exactly why you can’t come in here. It’s bad enough dealing with our steadfast leader grumbling in my ear the whole time,” Ry says, rolling his eyes.

“It doesn’t matter anyway,” Corentin says as he sneaks in, pulling me away from Draken and hitting me with a mind-boggling kiss. “I’ve missed you, princess.”

“I’ve missed you, your highness,” I hum.

“Say it again,” he commands lightly with a breathtaking smile on his face.

Giggling, I repeat myself and watch his eyes turn hungry. Since our bonding, there’s been a drastic change in my most bossy of men. Yes, he’s indeed still that, very bossy, but gone is the rolled tight tension that always surrounds him. One second, his blank mask can be in place, but as soon as I walk into a room, he looks at me like I’m the sun, no matter who’s there to witness it.

“So what’s brought all of you in here to interrupt my training?”

“Nikoli and Jamie messaged me. The Bane’s ready. I figured we could all head to the lab together and thought you and Oakly may like a break. Help them start vialing it up rather than spend the whole day in the gym.”

“Fuck yes. Tell him yes right now.” Oakly squeals in my mind.

“A break sounds perfect,” I agree, then lower my voice to ask, “He’s for sure? It’s really ready?” Not that I’m doubting Nikoli in the slightest. It’s more of a nervous question than anything else.

It took a few days longer than we assumed to find the crimson root on Pyra. There was an entire area that was nearly impossible to explore, and the terrain posed a huge threat to our teams. On the assessable surfaces, we refused to just start digging holes throughout the volcano, so Nikoli had to physically go there, days in a row, to sniff out the best possible location.

Once it was located and brought back, Tillman sent another team with Nikoli to retrieve an Everest Tree. That was a whole day’s trip as well since he had to use his gift on multiple occasions to check the age of the trees. After that, Gaster brought in the Noxious herb, then Walker went and retrieved some Gingko berries.

Poor Nikoli has been working around the clock and I know he’s exhausted. He’s been using his gift basically nonstop since we started collecting the ingredients and some other surprises have popped up along the way with this Bane. Like he noticed immediately when the smell was going off course, and stirring it, fixed it right back. It was then he realized, it had to be stirred every three hours. He and Jamie have been working in shifts on it, not allowing anyone else to interfere, afraid someone may mess something up.

“Yeah, princess. He’s sure and it’s really ready.”

I blow out a subtle breath, nodding in acceptance. We’ve been waiting for a week and one day for it to ferment and be ready. Now it is. Now the countdown truly begins. In a matter of days, we’ll be stepping into the Forsaken Forest.

Convincing everyone to walk to the lab instead of transporting so I can stretch my legs out, I use these few minutes to settle down the anxiousness that’s creeping in.

I’m more confident in my abilities than I’ve been since being blessed or cursed with them, however you look at it, but the experience and knowledge that they’re completely pointless if Keeper or any of the other vampires get their fangs in us linger heavily on my mind.

It’s hard to have blind faith in an elixir that’s unknown to the realm aside from the Mastery. Who’s to say for sure that it works as well as assumed and it’s not the allegiance with the creatures that is keeping them at bay.

“We’re going to test that out before just going in blind, little warrior,” Tillman murmurs.

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