Page 72 of Gift from the Nexus

There’s no answer as once again, Elementra shoves me back down, but my eyes water because there’re no coincidences. She’s standing in the middle of my bedroom, apologizing to me even though she has no clue I’ll even come to exist.

Gathering herself, she stomps out of the room without even a backward glance, but every room she passes, aside from that one, she destroys. She casts all her elements out and leaves them in complete disarray.

Reaching Franklin’s study, she kicks his door in. The locking mechanism stands no chance behind the force she put in thatkick, and it shatters to pieces on the floor while her elements attack the room with abandon. The only thing left untouched is the self-righteous portrait Franklin has sitting above his fireplace.

Lowering it down by vines, she runs her bloody fingers across his face, whispering, “Make no mistake, Franklin, you’ve done to me only what I’ve allowed. Little do you know, the next time I’m a prisoner of yours, I will be handing you your demise. I cannot wait to watch our daughter crumble everything you’ve worked for.”

Slowly, she lays her lips to his forehead, then pulls her hand back and punches straight through the frame. Straight through his heart, then again straight through his blank, lifeless face. The glass shatters beneath her knuckles, slicing her hand wide open, but she doesn’t even flinch as blood pools around her bare feet. Her rage burns through the pain and through me like it’s my own, and maybe a little bit of it is. I have the same hatred in my heart for him that she does.

If I were in my own body, I’d surely be on the verge of passing out from how fast my heart is beating. She knew. She knew what was to come and what had to happen, and yet, she still chose this path. She chose me.

Time speeds up as she shifts back into her wolf form and runs through the mansion, leaving devastation in her wake. When she hits the tree line, her legs push her to unimaginable speeds. She moves like the wind through the forest as the trees seem to bend and bow to her.

Skirting to a halt, she lowers her head and sniffs around an old oak tree. Around and around it she smells until the hooting of an owl above catches her attention and she tilts her head up. When the majestic-looking bird flies off into the night, she shifts back into her human form once more and lowers herself to her knees.

“Time to go home,” she murmurs before shifting her index finger on her left hand into a claw.

Starting from right below her middle finger, going counterclockwise, she carves out a four-point star in her palm. Then inside of that she does it again. And again. And again. Finally, once more. Five times she carves that star into her hand, leaving her palm a torn, bloody mess.

Placing her hand on the tree, she spreads the blood out in the shape again, murmuring, “Locus datus ab essentia mei esse. Per tempus et per spatium, libera me in desideratum locum.”

As soon as the words leave her lips and her points meet together, right there in the middle of the tree trunk, a portal opens up. The swirling vortex is as colorful as a rainbow, and even through her, I feel its raw power glide across me like a second skin.

With a long exhale, she reaches her arm through, and I beg Elementra to let me carry on, follow her because I can feel my mind untangling from hers.

“Please, I need to know. Please,” I beg. I scream, but Elementra doesn’t allow it. I’m shoved out of my mother’s mind, left standing there in an incorporeal form as I watch the portal close and the tree fades to nothing but ash as soon as my mother’s foot steps through.

“She knew from the very beginning what to expect, Ultima unum. You have not seen the last of her story, but rest assured, she’s sitting alongside me on a throne she deserves with her Nexus surrounding her. They are watching you and they are proud.”

That’s the last I hear as my eyes grow heavy, and the darkness sucks me in.

Opening my eyes, I’m confused as shit.

Before Elementra sucked me in, I was in the sky in my dragon form. Now, I’m sitting against the trunk of Tillman’s and my tree, staring off into the clearing.

What the hell?

“WILLOW.”

I jump up, running around the tree when I hear the bellowing of my name over and over. Panic, fear, hurt, and so many other emotions pound through my chest as my name continues to echo through the trees. Bursting through the edge of the path is not only my Nexus, but Oakly, her Nexus, and Gaster, all breathing hard, all screaming my name.

“What’s wrong? What happened?” I frantically ask, taking a step toward them, but no one answers me, no one even acknowledges me.

“You said you felt her,” Draken says, turning his worried, shifted eyes on Oakly.

“I did, I do. I sense her everywhere,” Oakly yells back at him, running her hands through her hair.

“Guys, what the hell, I’m right here,” I say, taking another few steps toward them, but again they all ignore me.

“Draken, you’re sure you didn’t see her anywhere in the sky? Maybe she flew outside the ward by accident,” Tillman says calmly, but there’s wildness in his eyes.

“I’m fucking sure. Do you seriously think I wouldn’t have stayed up there or brought her back if I did?” He growls, taking a dangerous step in Tillman’s direction.

“Whoa, whoa, easy, dragon, I’m right here,” I say, finally approaching the whole group, growing increasingly pissed at whatever the hell they’re playing at.

“Everyone, split up. Oakly, if you sense her, she’s here somewhere and she might be hurt,” Corentin orders and just like that, they all split off, heading in different directions, calling outfor me, but bypassing me completely as I stand here with a slack jaw.

What is happening?

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