Page 112 of Gift from the Nexus

“Thank you,” I whisper, relief washing over me.

“You don’t have to thank me, princess. It’s my fear of letting someone else dictate the plan and figuring out how I’m going to keep everyone safe that I struggle with. I trust you and your decisions completely,” he says with full conviction, in a room full of people.

“I don’t want to dictate the plan or make all the decisions. I just wanted you to believe me and what I’m feeling. If you do, then I’d like for you to do the actual organizing of executing that. I don’t think I’m the best person to oversee anything. Too much random shit happens to me.”

Although he laughs along with everyone else at that very true statement, his shoulders drop a fraction and my heart swells. He was completely out of his comfort zone just now, but he was willing to hand over control to me and not force me to listen to him. And I’m pretty sure that just made me fall more in love with him.

“How did the Bane work? Are they back? Is everything vialed up?” I rapidly ask when I remember what I was doing when the vision hit.

“They were successful, little warrior. The vampires stayed more than twenty feet away from them at all times, although they did stalk their moves. And the others were able to finish up vialing all the vials about an hour ago,” Tillman says, his smile growing to mimic mine.

That’s amazing news. News I really needed.

“One step closer,” I say.

Forsaken Forest…Keeper…We’re coming.

Seventeen

Corentin

Until our bonding, the nature of myself has always felt like a punishing pressure.

An unfavorable personality trait that was going to make everyone hate me because it reminded them so much of the generations before my mom. Regardless of that feeling, I still owned it. I never shied away from who I was even at times when I lost my shit or second-guessed every decision I made.

I’ve always known I wasn’t like them, despite the doubt that always crept in when tough calls had to be made. I don’t enjoy nor do I adhere to the law so forcefully it cost people their lives. I’m quite the opposite actually. I want everyone to be safe, especially my family.

But bonding with my Primary, my princess, has made me look at myself and my controlling tendencies differently.

I realize that my demeanor and mannerisms command a room. Others don’t have much of a choice but to listen to what I say. It’ll always be that way, but I’ll never use it as a selfish advantage. But it’s different for and with Willow. She puts shit in perspective for me that others don’t and simply just can’t.

When it comes to controlling anything to do with her, she makes me feel like my most off-putting behavior is a privilege. A privilege she lets me exercise whenever I want. The fact of the matter is, though, she can just as easily shut it down.

Like just a minute ago.

I’ve sensed her hesitancy in the plan since we discussed it with her, but I was confident in it despite the remaining unknowns. When she came out of her vision ready to change the carefully constructed preparations I’ve been working on over the past several weeks, I thought for a moment my heart was going to pound out of my chest.

She recognized the immediate panic in me. I knew by the softening look on her face that she did. And just as quickly, she fixed it.

No one else in this realm could do that but her.

To my utter shock, though, I was willing and ready to give over the responsibility to her if she truly wanted to dictate everything. Would that have been hard for me? Abso-fucking-lutely. But I would have, for her.

When she made the comment about too much random shit happening to her for her to be in charge, I wanted to tell her thatit’s okay, I have plans for that too, but I didn’t. I don’t want her to feel like she’s disrupting anything when she can’t help when the visions, or Elementra, or fucking CC, step in and change everything up.

Since she was taken, my mind has been able to conjure up the worst of the worst-case scenarios, then I form a plan around that. I have a library’s worth of backup plans ingrained in my brain so we’re never in a situation again where she exchanges herself for anyone.

“What’s got you so lost in your thoughts?” Willow asks quietly as she climbs into my lap where I’m sitting at my desk.

“The usual, princess.”

“Me, to-do list, how to save the realm, hiring new instructors, who’s going to take care of the academy while we’re gone, the failing students…what else am I missing?” she teases and we both laugh, although it’s the Elementra-honest truth. “I’m sorry for throwing a monkey wrench into the original plans.”

What the hell is a monkey wrench?

She tries to cover her laugh with a cough that doesn’t work at all and I shoot her a harmless warning smirk about her nosiness. “It’s just a saying from the nonmagical realm. It means when someone messes up or in some cases purposely sabotages a plan. I’m not purposely doing it, by the way, but I did mess it up.”

“You didn’t mess up anything, princess. The change from capturing Keeper to negotiating with him is an easy enough switch. I don’t know what benefit we’ll get from it yet, but if you believe that’s the best course of action then that’s what we’re doing. We can leave the original plan as a backup just in case. Everything will work out.”

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