Page 171 of Gift from the Nexus

“He will pay for what he’s done to us, Tanith. I swear it on my life,” Keeper says sternly, placing his hand on the chain.

He’s been awfully quiet since his introductions. He seems to be just as overwhelmed as me, but his method of dealing with it is staying silent or making promises and proclamations. Plus, giving my little wanderer a nickname that I don’t know if I like or not.

“We’re going to get these off now so we can go. Draken will help me.” Willow’s eyes soften as she rubs underneath the collar against Tanith’s neck and an appreciative purr sounds throughout the small space.

“What do you need me to do, little wanderer?”

“We’re going to call on our flames, but instead of it coming through us and out, focus it on embedding itself into the stone. It’ll burn through the magic and cause the stone to break.”

“I can do that.” I nod eagerly, placing my hand on the opposite side of hers.

“On three…One…two…three.”

My flame travels through my veins, heating my blood as it goes. The single intention I command it is to embed itself so deeply into the stone that there’s not a trace or scrap of this dark magic left when it’s done burning it to a crisp.

I know I do and say some psycho-ass shit sometimes, but I’d never hurt anyone, human, creature, animal, fuck, a plant even, with such ill and evil intentions. Those that are evil, scum, get no mercy from me, but I couldn’t stomach hurting innocent people. Even if by accident, I don’t think I’d ever be able to look at myself in the mirror again.

A shock crawls up my arm as Willow’s and my flames unite within the choker. It’s an intense moment of mingling as our fire wraps around each other’s and spreads throughout every crevice or air bubble in the stone. The sound of the inside splitting open echoes into the depths of the cave and the breath rushing out of Tanith’s nostrils fans my hair.

“Stand back, young dragons.”

With a squealing laugh, Willow grips my hand and we jog from the mouth of the cave to where the others are standing and turn to watch her.

When she fully emerges from the cave, she tilts her head up and a thunderous roar leaves her throat. My dragon shakes himself out in my chest, wanting badly to respond to her, but I lock him down, explaining that this is her moment and to let her have it. He chuffs but doesn’t push, and we stare in amazement as her golden wings stretch out and flap a few times.

Her tail swishes back and forth as she gets her balance, and my eyes follow the four spears on the end. They’re fucking badass and I have no doubt she could do some serious damage with those things if she needed to.

“She’s ready to fly. Told me not to question her abilities again, so I guess that means she doesn’t need any more stretching. We’ll need some guidance on where we’re heading,” Keeper says as he walks over to us, smiling.

“We’ll fly with you so we can show you,” I say, excitement bubbling in me with the opportunity for me and Willow to take to the sky with a real fucking dragon.

Keeper’s smile falls a little as he places a hand on my shoulder. I can’t help but look down at it, then back at his face. Normal people usually know better than to touch any of us. “I’m sorry so—Draken, I don’t want to tarnish your excitement, but it’ll be safer if I fly alone with her this first time. It’s been nearly five hundred years after all.”

Huh?

“He still doesn’t know?”

“No.” Both Willow and Tanith chuckle in my mind.

“You didn’t tell him?” I ask Tanith directly.

“Oh no. I love surprising the lord. He’s quite the know-it-all, so I tend to take advantage of opportunities such as this one to shock him.”

Shaking my head and hiding my smirk with my hand, I reach out and grip his shoulder back. “No problem at all.”

I do love a good surprise.

Willow’s laugh travels through the forest as she skips a few feet from everyone, and I jog over there to meet her. The look of confusion on Keeper’s face makes this even more exciting and my brother’s sighs are music to my ears because that means they’re flying instead of transporting.

“Who’s riding me?” Willow asks through our link.

“Fuck yes, me!” Oakly cheers loudly, gripping Nikoli by the hand, dragging him closer to Willow as if we’re picking teams. “Aria, you coming with Willow?”

“Absolutely,” she agrees, grinning, and Lyker shifts nervously on his feet.

“I’m going with them, I guess. I swear to fuck, fortune teller, no funny business,” he grumbles as he stands beside Aria, crossing his arms.

“Ry, you, San, Jamie, Lennox, Zane, and Kyan, head back to the academy, then to the mansion. We’ll meet you there in about two hours,” Tillman orders. They all seem to breathe a sigh of relief, and I snort.

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