Page 107 of Gift from the Wing

“Not my Nexus, not my problem.”

“But Ry—”

“Is replaceable. Corentin’s who I care about the most. The others are added bonuses but again, replaceable.” She flicks her hair off her shoulder as if she couldn’t give a single fuck about anything or anyone but herself right now. “Anyhow…this was fun. I’ll see you in a few once they capture you and bring me my men.”

The delusional bitch saunters up to the railing on her side of the magma pit and when she leans over the side, looking down laughing, I hope and pray she falls in.

Of course that prayer isn’t answered and when she rights herself, there’s a deranged smile playing across her lips.

Then, in true psycho Gima fashion, she blows me a kiss.

Except, it isn’t a kiss…it’s a fireball.

And it’s not heading toward me.

The entire realm tilts on its axis as the sound of snapping vines draws my gaze back up above me. I watch in delayed horror as the last bit of the netting holding Oakly in the air burns to ash.

Just as her stone casing begins to fall from the sky, time seems to freeze as our entire life together flashes right before my eyes.

No. Impossible. We have a lifetime to go.

One hundred years, two hundred years, three, four… fuck, a millennium.

Elementra, you said…

You vowed none of my bonds would ever break. You…you…

Realization hits me like a ton of bricks right to the heart and I nearly crumble under the weight of it.

My bonds don’t have to be physically in this realm for them to stay intact.

No.

“Gima made her decision today, Ultima unum. Make yours.”

Her soft, otherworldly voice comes and goes just as quickly.

As does my decision.

I will always choose her.

Shouting, wailing, full-fledged fucking panic collides with my chest once reality seems to catch back up. The fear of the entire army behind me, my family and all, crashes into me so hard it becomes hard to think about anything other than that, but I forcefully shove it away and take a deep breath.

“Everything’s going to be okay.”

I push it to my men, Ry, San, Jamie, Nikoli, my brother, his brothers, Aria, Keeper, Roye, despite not knowing if they will even hear me, but the least I can do is try.

The silence that surrounds me is of my own creation. I block everything out. Everything. The shouting, the orders, the guttural screams, the hisses coming from the magma with each new stone that disturbs its peace.

And I take a deep breath.

Just as Oakly plummets past the railing…

I dive off the side.

Commanding my earth element out, I tear away the stone prison surrounding my sister as she free-falls at breakneck speed and tears well in my eyes as her purple hair blows around her and her sundress dances wildly in the wind.

She looks like a falling angel.

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