Page 39 of Gift from the Nexus

Also, no one else has the power to wield the flame other than us, and my dragon lets out a sultry little purr, excited to watch our mate control our fire.

“Careful, sweetness. I have him hanging on by a thread,” Draken warns me heatedly.

All I can do is nod, because same. My dragon wants badly to push through and attack them. She couldn’t care less about anything other than getting closer to them.

When he finally drops my gaze, I push her back down enough again to focus on this one last thing we have to do before we can go home. Everyone’s standing around, patiently waiting to see who this is I’ve secured behind my wall, and I have no doubt Trex is going to freak out coming face to face with a small E.F. army.

There isn’t a millisecond of time between Draken dropping my flame, to Tillman locking Trex’s hand in stone, and Caspian wrapping him up in shadows. He doesn’t fight or yell or anything. He stands there just as bored and unconcerned as when we were in my torture room.

“Tit for tat, huh?” he says when I step in front of him.

“No. Nothing that happened to me will be happening to you,” I tell him honestly.

“That’s undecided,” Caspian retorts.

Trex’s eyes scan the many people standing around him. For the most part, the palace members and E.F. teams I’m not all that familiar with are standing back, giving us room, but still he’s surrounded by my Nexus, Oakly’s, Aria’s, and add in Dyce. There’re some imposing people confronting him right now.

“The infamous Vito heirs,” he says, shaking his head and looking down at me. “You should’ve run when I told you to. From the Mastery and from them.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Corentin asks coldly.

Trex pointedly ignores him and continues to stare at me to the point I know he’s seconds away from losing his eyes, so I turn to Lyker and give him a nod to go ahead.

“You’ll be safe where they’re taking you,” I say, stepping closer and bending down to grab the bag of vials and dagger I laid here when I trapped him.

Looking at Aria, asking only with my eyes, she nods in agreement, and I know she’ll weave a rune around his mind as well. I don’t spare him a backward glance because he just feels like a mystery I still have to unravel, and I don’t have the energy for it now.

“Aww, you got me a present?” Nikoli asks teasingly as I walk up to him and hand him the sack of vials.

“There’re five vials of the Bane of Essence. Will that be enough for you to try it and detect its ingredients?”

Time seems to stand still as the entire clearing goes utterly silent. No one moves. No one breathes. I knew this would come as a shocker to everyone because this means I’ve found our way into the forest, so I stay quiet as well, waiting for everyone to compose themselves.

Although my Nexus quickly steps up and surrounds me, getting a closer look, San’s the first to break. The need to know, his gift itching at him to learn something new, pushes him to open the bag in his brother’s hand, uncap the vial, and shove it in Nikoli’s nose.

“What do you smell?” he frantically asks Nikoli.

I stare in fascination as he continuously wafts the smell of the vial toward him, sniffing around as if he’s a chef catching a whiff of the gourmet meal he just prepared.

“I’m going to have to taste it to be sure, but yeah…Yeah, Willow, I’ll be able to detect the ingredients,” Nikoli announces excitedly, and for the first time since being rescued, a smile breaks out across my face.

Almost as if that’s the permission my body needed, my smile swiftly turns into tears as my body and mind seem to decide I no longer have to be strong, no longer have to continue to hold myself up. It’s the acceptance that what I was put through today wasn’t pointless. A difference will be made because of this and we’re so much closer to ending the Mastery than ever before.

“We’re going home.”

I bury my face into the warm, fiery neck of my sweet dragon as he lifts me off my feet and I seal my eyes shut tight.

There’s nothing else I need to do or see here.

“This is becoming a ritual I’m not too fond of, little wanderer,” Draken murmurs in my ear as he crosses the threshold of my room.

“I don’t mind being carried,” I mumble sleepily.

“Carrying you isn’t the problem. It’s the condition you’re in each time I do this.” His strain and heartbreak pulse through our bond, and I mindlessly reach my hand up, stroking his heart to calm him down.

My eyes pop open, and my head perks up as the smell of eucalyptus takes over my senses. There’s nothing in this realm I want more than anything right now than to stand under a scalding hot shower, letting the day wash away from my skin.

Slowly, he slides me down his body and holds me steady until I get my balance, then I turn in his arms, getting a look at myself for the first time. Well, not all of me, but what I see is enough.

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