Page 146 of Gift from the Wing

“Yeah, well, there’s no telling the booby traps he has placed down here,”I tell her with a devilish smirk that has hers melting away.

As soon as Aurora leaves enough room for me to take a couple steps behind her, I follow right along, leaving Oakly to pick her own jaw up off the floor.

From the top, the staircase seemed so much longer than what it actually is, and only after twelve steps, I’m freezing at the bottom beside Aurora as Oakly slams into my back.

“Shit, why did you quit—oh my.”

The massive room is like Gaster’s office but on steroids.

The walls are lined with books on not only the first floor but the second as well. Years upon years of information is piled into this room and the smell of wood and mint is potent. I swear if knowledge had a scent, this room is saturated in it.

There’s a small kitchenette that has a kettle on the stove ready to go and three mugs are set out on the small table in the center. A never-ending fireplace burns softly, lighting the room in a dim glow, and my eyes water on the small, made bed.

A door that’s partially cracked on the other side of the room draws my attention, and my feet move faster than my mind. I can’t hold the waterworks back as I sling the door open wide and Aurora gasps behind me. His closet is full of his clothes and my nose fills with the smell of him.

He lived here. This was his room.

“Willow, Aurora, you should come see this,” Oakly calls out and the two of us hastily wipe our eyes before hustling back out the closet to her.

Standing at the small table, she’s holding an envelope in her shaking hand and she gulps as she turns it over repeatedly, checking the front and back.

“There’s one for each of us. Even me,” she says quietly.

The two of us nearly fall over ourselves as we rush to join her at the table, but we both freeze when we peer down at our names.

“Orien,” Aurora breathes as she picks hers up and rips it right open, not wasting another minute to get the closure she needs.

Turning to Oakly, she gives me a confident nod before doing the same.

I still peer down at mine, running my fingers around the pointed edges. Every time I receive a note from him, something changes. Something big usually, but I swallow down that fear and face it head-on.

Filia mea,

Remember when our games of hide-and-seek turned into scavenger hunts?

Well, some of the answers you seek will be found here, the south wing, and various other places.

Continue the path you’re on, my sweet girl, but just know, you’re no longer on it alone. Everyone and everything you will need is now in your life. Together, you will conquer it all.

CC xoxo.

Bringing the letter to my nose, I inhale sharply, breathing in the scent of him before smiling against the parchment. I can picture him now, sitting at this table, writing these letters to us.

“Shit!” Oakly screams, followed by a loud bang against the table that has me whipping my eyes to her. “A book just fell out of my letter!”

“We can see that,” Aurora says, laughing and crying as she wipes away the tears and folds her letter up close to her heart. I’m not going to ask her to tell me what it says. I believe if it gave her any guidance or information I needed to know, she’d tell me. Other than that, that’s her letter.

For her eyes only.

“What does it say, Oak?” I ask.

Clearing her throat and tearing her gaze away from the massive encyclopedia-like book, she peers back down at her parchment.

“Dear Oakly,

This isn’t how I wish we had met, but alas, I come bearing a gift to make up for my poor manners.

The book you just dropped on my table has never had eyes on it from anyone in this realm, other than myself. It is a collection of sorts that I’ve worked on over the years that I believe will come in handy to you. Not even the old man has seen this. He’s surely going to be prepared to fight you for it.

---