Page 100 of Gift from the Wing

I go completely cold on the inside. Fortifying my internal walls as we prepare to go save members of our family.

The sound around the room grows again as everyone discusses and finalizes plans. I listen keenly, I do, but realistically, in my mind, these plans may be for nothing once we get there. Pyra may be swarmed with Mastery members and they each will meet their end today.

No one will receive mercy from me.

I keep my gaze trained on where a healer is doing a final checkup on Jamie as I cross the room, and everyone’s eyes follow me. There’s no doubt my murderous thoughts are bleeding out everywhere, but everyone is the same. They’re just not used to mine being so potent.

“How are you feeling?” I ask with more control than I actually feel.

“Better. That was a hefty dose of immobilizer, but we’ve got it all out. I’ll take a few more healing vials just to be on the safe side,” he says confidently, nodding to the other healer as they finish up.

“Good. I don’t want to upset you when I tell you this, but you need to be prepared.”

His eyes snap up to mine, on the brink of a freak-out, but all I can do is give him a tight smile. I don’t have anything else to offer.

“She’s drugged with something stronger. I don’t know what, but it’s not your typical immobilizing drug like I was given, or you were. You need to have extra healing vials with you. Keep close to Draken if you can, so if you need a magical boost, he can give it to you.”

“You…you think it’s that bad?” he asks.

“For her, at least, yes. I have no clue the state Ry or San is in.”

It seems the calmest of my best friend’s men has a murderous side to him as well because in the blink of an eye, his whole aura shifts to a rage I’ve never seen from him. As a medical professional, he’s typically pretty good at keeping his wits about him. But not now. Not with this knowledge about his Primary.

“Little warrior, Jamie, come on. It’s almost time,” Tillman calls out from the doorway of the command room.

Marching my way through the doors, my other three men are already waiting there for me, and as always, they surround me protectively. Their energies match that of my own. There’re no silly jokes to break the tension, no sexual innuendos to cheer me up, no chin tilting, no purrs, nothing.

Just deadly men ready to exact some vengeance.

“Child, a word before you go, please,” Gaster says softly, meeting us before we approach the large gathering of E.F. members.

Nodding, I break away from my men as they step to the other side to speak to Aurora, Neil, and Theo. Dyce and Roye will be joining us. From the bits and pieces I actually paid attention to, they all never leave Aurora. Half of them always stay behind.

Out of the corner of my eye, I catch a glimpse of Keeper, laying his head to Tanith’s and that tells me all I need to know about him joining us. I’m sure she isn’t all that thrilled about it, but she’s not stopping him.

“Willow, come back to me,” Gaster says softly as he turns to face me and grips my shoulders.

“Of course I will, Gaster. I always do.”

“No, child, I mean in this moment. I can’t allow you to leave here with the emotions rolling off you. You have every right to be angry, hurt,upset, and want vengeance. Everything you feel is valid, but the heartless detachment is not you, my girl. Come back to me now, before you go.”

His words fracture the icy encasing I’d placed myself in. I try my hardest to seal it back up, but he tries even harder to tear it down. He shoves himself at our bond full force, and no matter the amount of power, magic, gifts, or elements I possess, I simply don’t stand a chance against him.

“Gaster,” I croak. “Why?”

“Because this is not you. Do what you must and what feels right to protect and take care of the ones you love, but you do it with heart, with compassion, with love. I don’t mean that in a sense of allowing these vile creatures to get away with what they’ve done, but you’re much stronger when the love you feel for everyone is at the forefront of your intentions. You keep your soul pure, Willow. You do not allow it to be tainted,” he states firmly, pulling me into his chest.

And I fucking shatter.

I cry and cry until I can’t anymore. I let the hatred I’d been feeling up until this point bleed out of me and into him. He takes it and does away with it as though it is nothing. He holds me tighter, allowing me to fall apart.

When I pull back and wipe the tears from my eyes, my entire body feels weightless, and I sigh in relief.

“Better, child?”

“Much. I didn’t realize that was weighing me down.”

“It is not in you to be cold, Willow. Everything you do is with burning passion. This may be a deadly mission, but you approach it with the intention of saving your sister, her men, not with the intention of killing. That will be an event nonetheless, but that will not be your main goal.”

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