Page 190 of Gift from the Nexus

“You’re glowing this morning, child, and now that Corentin has joined us, I sense all your magical signatures have both strengthened, mingled, and balanced. I’m so happy for you all. Truly.”

“Thank you, Gaster,” she says, sweet and shy, tilting her still blushing face down to smell her coffee.

“Let’s get this over with, shall we?”

The attention turns from Willow to me, and I see out the corner of my eye she deflates a little in relief. She was getting worked up with our hungry eyes on her, and having Keeper and Gaster here witnessing it was tearing her in two extremely different ways.

“Corentin, what in the realm has you so busy this morning?” my mom asks, a little frantic as soon as she answers.

“Good morning to you as well, Mom.”

“I’m sorry, son, good morning. I was getting worried.”

“What’s wrong?” I ask.

“Well, you tell me. First you give me and your fathers an incredibly slim report detailing that you were able to remove Keeper from the forest, a brief synopsis of the fight with the Summum-Master, then that was it. But I just received a very frantic call from the Drover family stating that sightings have been reported of not one, but three…three, Corentin…dragons flying from Terian to the Central on the same day of the mission.”

I’m honestly surprised it took this long for word to get to her. Almost forty-eight hours. The elites are slacking on their gossiping, it seems.

“That’s correct. One was Draken, obviously. Another was Tanith. Keeper’s bonded dragon that the Mastery has been holding prisoner as long as he’s been trapped in the forest. The third…” I trail off, looking at my princess. Her soft eyes, warm smile, and nod are permission enough. “The third is Willow.”

“Willow? Your father said Willow was the seer?”

I roll my eyes because it looks like she wore him down enough for him to give her a name, but nothing else, so I guess technically he did keep our secret.

“She is. She has both the gift of sight and a dragon shifter, like Draken.”

“That’s impossible, son. Who is this girl?” she asks.

There’s no heat in her question or accusation, just merely concern and confusion. Just as we’ve all had a hard time believing everything surrounding Willow, my mom’s going to have a little disbelief as well.

“She’s my—our Primary, Mom. She’s our true Primary.”

Her gasp echoes throughout the entire breakfast room before the line goes quiet while she processes what I just said. Looking at Willow, she’s not concerned at all and reaches her hand out togrip mine reassuringly while we wait in the silence for my mom to speak again.

“Is she…your father said the mission after the academy was attacked was to save the seer. It was her. Is she okay? How could you all have kept this from me? I would’ve helped. I would’ve been there for all of you. I would’ve been there for her.”

The hurt in her tone cuts me open. I knew she’d feel some type of way about being kept in the dark, but once we can explain everything to her finally, she’ll understand that we made the best decision. We put the needs of our Primary above everything else and she’ll understand and respect that.

“I know you would have, Mom. She’s doing a lot better, but there’s still much we need to explain and—”

“And you’ll explain it to me today when you, all of you, report to the palace,” she barks, leaving no room for argument, and Willow covers her mouth with her hand to muffle her giggle.

This was obviously the part she saw.

“We will.”

“Gaster is to accompany you all. No doubt he knew all of this and kept it from me. Keeper and his dragon are welcome as well. I’ll prepare the wards for their entry,” she says in a much softer, calmer tone.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“I love you and I will see you all soon. Before the afternoon,” she says with emotion clogging her throat before she hangs up.

I sigh and close my eyes as I lean back in the chair and link my fingers behind my head. I feel like the realm’s shittiest son, but at the same time, I can’t help that. Willow’s situation and predicament called for secrecy and if there weren’t spies running amuck in the palace, I would’ve already told her the truth. It would’ve been different.

“Don’t beat yourself up, my boy. She’s not truly upset. She will be incredibly proud of you for the decisions you made when she knows the truth,” Gaster says softly, patting my hand.

“I know. I didn’t mean to hurt her, though. Not that she’s imposed herself into our love life beyond the simple nosiness. She’s always respected the boundaries we’ve laid about the topic, but we all know how strongly she feels about love and how bad she’s wanted it for us. She’s probably thinking I hid this from her simply because I didn’t want her involved,” I say.

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