Page 82 of Gift from the Nexus

“The rest, thankfully, are everyday items. Water from a water element is the base for the brew with a mixture of normal herbs and spices. From the testing, everything fermented for about a week. Jamie preserved the last two vials we have left over. One for if anything goes wrong or if I need to test it again. Now that we know the ingredients, we’ll save those for me to use to test against ours. Make sure we got it right,” Nikoli says.

Tillman immediately jumps right into it with Ry and the others, discussing what teams will be best suited for going where. Ideally, they’ll be sending guys out by tomorrow morning to start collecting the three ingredients we know the locations for and Gaster said he’d bring his supply here. None of us, not even me once again, pressured him to tell us where he keeps thissecret stash of poisonous herbs and rare things. We’re thankful it’s an easy and accessible ingredient.

“Were we expecting someone else?” I ask as a knock at the door sounds throughout the room.

Draken hops up, bounding over to the door excitedly, opening it wide for Walker and Vince. They each greet him as enthusiastically as always before turning toward me and giving me soft smiles.

Although I return the gesture, a wave of guilt rises because I forget sometimes how many people I have now that care about me. I haven’t seen them since before I was taken, so there’s no doubt they know, and they were worried about me. It’s still a foreign feeling, but a welcome one.

“Glad to see you doing so well. You gave us quite the scare,” Vince says as I walk over to see him.

“I know, I’m sorry. But I did learn a lot about my dragon. We’ll have some new things to work on,” I say cheerily, trying to ignore the emotions in my throat and distract him from any serious talk. Which works. His eyes alight with curiosity and excitement, which causes me to chuckle.

“I can’t wait to see,” he says, patting me on the shoulder and moving over to Corentin.

“Willow, it’s good to see you,” Walker says formally. Unlike Vince, he’s not going to say something sappy. Thankfully.

“You too. I didn’t expect to see you two today.”

“Well, your mate messaged and said there was an emergency, so we came right over,” he says, side-eyeing Draken ’cause it’s obvious there’s no emergency.

“Draken.” I snort, shaking my head at his dramatics.

“I don’t think I said emergency. I said we needed them,” he says with a chuff. One Walker matches, pulling out his communicator and showing it to me.

Come to the lab. Emergency. Need your help <3.

My head falls back as I laugh at the guilty but teasing smirk on Draken’s face. He knew exactly what he was doing. He sent that message less than five minutes ago and here they are.

“See, he said emergency and needed us in less than three minutes,” Walker says, putting the communicator back into his pocket as me and Draken die with laughter.

I won’t be the one to tell him what that really means, and Draken apparently isn’t going to either. Knowing him, he’s going to have the entirety of our friend group and possibly all the E.F. members sending each other hearts unknowingly.

“Well, thank you for coming so fast. It isn’t an emergency, but we do need your help if that’s okay,” I say once I compose myself and wipe the stray tears from my eyes.

“Of course. What’s up?”

I explain to him the Gingko berry, why it is we’re looking for it, and if his people have noticed anyone else collecting them with San jumping in and describing or asking anything I miss. Walker nods along knowingly, and I have a feeling we could’ve quit talking at Gingko berry and he would’ve known.

“They’re secluded to our territory of the swamp. We wouldn’t have noticed anyone coming and going because they’re in an unmonitored, isolated area. Plus, we don’t mind people coming around. It’s the other larger reptiles we fight with. A nonshifter, or even a smaller one would’ve been able to come in and out with no fuss from my group. That foul stench you were describing only occurs once they’re picked and they begin to rot. Before that, they’re riper, sweeter than most fruits, and carry a high level of antioxidants that make our—”

“Skin stronger. Your congregation has been eating them to strengthen your shifted form’s skin.” I finish for him, amazed by the natural use of the berries we thought earlier were completely disgusting.

“Exactly. There aren’t a lot of bushes, but they produce rapidly. Faster than we can eat them unless we decided to live on them. So there’s plenty for you to use. But that’ll be the kicker. Do you need them when they’re ripe or when they’re rotting?” We all turn to Nikoli, who looks a little green in the face just from thinking about them.

“Their aging processes is as quick as their production, quicker when cooked, correct?” Nikoli asks.

“Yeah. They taste the best when picked and eaten immediately. Once they’re picked, you have a couple hours, give or take, before they begin to rot,” Walker says with a smirk.

“Based on the almost intolerable taste when I isolated its palate, they weren’t as ripe as they could be when used. So once the ripeness begins to wear off, we’ll add them in. We’ll need to gather them last, make sure we have everything else ready to go first. I’ll be able to smell once it’s time to add them,” Nikoli says with a grimace and a nod.

Once the guys taper off from the Gingko berry and jump back into planning, I plop down on the small love seat beside Oakly. Even though it may seem like the two of us are chitchatting and teasing while the others nail down our next move, I’m listening keenly.

Hearing that in a short amount of time we’ll be entering a forest full of vampires, I repress a fearful shiver every time one of them mentions counter measures if the Bane doesn’t work. Thinking about what all could go wrong makes me sweat. I never want any of them to experience a bite from one of them. Pleasure or pain, I don’t want my men, my family, the E.F. members, any of them to feel what that’s like.

This Bane of Essence has to work. There’s no other option.

“What’s your plan for the rest of the day?” Oakly asks me, pulling me out of the dark thoughts creeping in.

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