Page 176 of Gift from the Nexus

A flurry of questions spews from everyone, but all I can do is stare at my little wanderer. Her confusion, repulsion, disbelief are flowing through my chest like a wildfire, and I just want to snatch her from Tillman. Wrap her in my arms and chase away the pain creeping into her eyes. I fucking swear I feel like I spoke this shit into existence. She just can’t catch a break.

“I don’t understand,” she whispers.

“Your bloodline was the guardians of the portals. It’s only by their blood the portals will open. Aside from the dwindling supply he has of your blood, you’re the last living being who can open what your creator has closed.”

You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.

Twenty-Seven

Caspian

You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.

Walking into the breakfast room, already seated is thePerfecta Anima, her Nexus, the wolf girl, Lyker, his brothers, Gaster, and Keeper. My house is overrun with guests and I just want my coffee in silence with my Primary on my lap. This is getting ridiculous.

After the blood bomb the vampire dropped on us yesterday, Willow put a full stop on any more conversation. Between therevelation of Draken’s relationship, the battle, her bloodline, she needed a minute to process. We all need a minute to breathe, yet my fucking house is full of people. Again.

It was only us here last night because Gaster offered for Keeper to stay in his cottage with him rather in the house with us, and all these other people left, but now here they are, back. No more than twelve hours after they last left.

“Don’t start, Caspian,” Tillman warns.

“I just ask for one morning of peace. Why suddenly are all these people in our home every single day?”

“It’s been for a dinner, lunch yesterday, and breakfast this morning, Cas. Tomorrow will be just us. Give her today. She wants the company. It distracts her mind.” Tillman reasons and I shoot him a glare for using her against me to tamper my foul mood.

“They’re leaving after breakfast. Lyker needs to get back to the pack lands, and Ry and his Nexus are going back to their house. Gaster is always here and Keeper is a permanent fixture for now, so suck it up,” Corentin says, hiding that obnoxious-ass smirk behind his mug of coffee.

At least they were wise enough not to sit in my seat and they placed the walking library beside me, so if I must engage in conversation, I can tolerate it with him. On my other side is Kyan and he doesn’t talk much, so I can deal with that as well.

Tickling around my wrist instantly soothes the pissiness I feel, and without even looking, I know it’s my Primary’s shadows. Her small smile and soft eyes douse my anger quicker than anything else can, so I sit down without any more complaint. For now.

The new extension settles against my skin and I sigh into my coffee. If this is how she felt every time I coated her in my gift, I understand better why her mood would settle so quickly. It’s the most refreshing, rejuvenating feeling in the fucking realm. Iwant to bask in it. Maybe she needs to be cocooned in us and that’s why she’s so chaotic feeling this morning. I haven’t noticed her be this out of sorts since before she bonded Tillman, but now that I can both feel and observe, she’s struggling this morning.

She’s been struggling since we bonded and her water element broke free actually.

“When the hell did you have time to get a tattoo? I just saw you less than twelve hours ago,” thePerfecta Animaasks suddenly, lifting my Primary’s arm up.

“What are you talking about?” she asks, giggling, but I see it as well.

There on the backside of her forearm is the perfect outline of a dagger. Its sharp tip is pointed up toward her wrist and the handle nearly touches her elbow. It’s shaded and lined so thoroughly, it looks real as though it’s lying against her skin.

“On the underside of your forearm, Primary,” I say, narrowing my eyes on the piece.

“What the hell?” she shrieks, rubbing at it furiously.

Oakly screams as the black dagger does, in fact, fall off Willow’s forearm. It clatters against thePerfecta Anima’splate, shattering it to pieces, and sends her food flying all over the table. There’s a stunned silence throughout the entire breakfast room as Oakly slowly pokes at it with her fork and slides it off the destroyed porcelain.

Willow thoughtfully picks it up and observes it. It stays solid in her grasp as she gets comfortable with it in her hand. She turns it about, looking it over, bringing it closer to her, then gasps. Like the gift that flows between the two of us, it becomes nothing more than wisps of smoke on her fingers and her shadows enter back into her skin.

Her shocked gaze and gaping mouth swing to me, “Cas.”

“I believe you got an upgrade, Primary.”

“My upgrade is to make weapons that tattoo themselves on my body? Seriously.”

“Can you do that, Caspian?” Corentin asks.

“I can make my shadows solidify, but I’ve never been able to create an object out of them,” I say, slowly rising from my chair and stepping away from the table. My Primary immediately stands and maneuvers to join me, as do my brothers.

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