Page 165 of Gift from the Wing

Turning her hand out, he kisses the inside of her palm, then the bracelet we all made her as she strokes the ring around his finger. “Three weeks tops. For the next three weeks, we continue our training, research, everything. The guards will keep post at each one for the time being, then we will go ourselves to check and make sure they’re definitely closed. Yes, I know he has enough blood to open his own portal, but I don’t believe he will take that route first. It would expend far too much of his resources. After we confirm they’re still closed, we’ll track your blood right then. This is now a full-scale mission and we’ll treat and operate as such.”

“Okay,” she breathes.

That’s the plan.

“We’ll meet you all at the south wing. We need to make a stop first, then we’ll be in my room if you need us,” I tell the guys as they surround us in the gym.

After lunch, we carried on with the original plans of combat training this afternoon. For many reasons. One, Will was in her head about the visions and everything that came after. She needed an outlet, and I needed a way for her to calm her mind before we jumped into what we’re getting ready to do.

The guys give me a nod, then pass Willow around, drinking down her giggles and soaking up her affection. The training this afternoon helped get some of the more negative emotions out of the way and she’s ready to start her next training lesson.

Becoming balanced on her own.

“So where are we stopping?” she asks, smiling up at me.

“You’ll see, little warrior.”

Opening a transport, I whisk us away to a place she holds so dear to her heart.

When the darkness releases us, we step out into my greatest piece of work. The room we spent so many years planning, preparing, then perfecting once we met the woman who was going to make us one.

She happily hums and races around her bedroom in the mansion, checking and touching everything as if it may have changed or maybe it’s just because she needed to see and feel it all again. Her disappointment that we didn’t even come into the house at lunch was evident when we transported to the academy, so I knew this needed to be done.

When she scurries into her closet, followed swiftly to her bathroom, I chuckle and make my way to her desk. The object I need has been sitting here, waiting for us to retrieve it.

“Oh, Tillman, I’m so—Oh—” she stops mid-sentence and step when she rushes from the bathroom and sees me holding her box.

I run my hands over the smooth wood and let the now returned memory of that moment infiltrate my mind. My uncle was right in assuming I was questioning why I wanted this to be so precise. I had no clue at the time, but it felt so important, and I needed it to be perfect.

I smile down at my little warrior when she gently places her hand on top of mine while the other traces the rim of her box.

“It’s so perfect. It’s amazing to me you had never seen my tree, but the color of the box and the bark are nearly identical. I was convinced that someone had carved the wood to make this from it,” she whispers.

“Call it instincts maybe, I’m not sure, but I just knew.”

She hums and when she tries to take the box and place it back on her desk, I hold on to it.

“It’s coming with us, little warrior.”

“But…you know.”

“I do. I think we’ve all had an inkling to where we’d be staying for the foreseeable future, but none of us wanted to admit it. It’s a big change. This has been our home for over a decade. We’ve stayed very minimally at the palace since we started at the academy, and this is the only home you’ve known since being here. But it isn’t going anywhere, Will. It’ll always be here for us. We just don’t need to be here for now.”

Her eyes well with tears and I step closer to her, bringing her into my chest with my free arm. She has an attachment to this place just as we do, and she feels like she’s saying goodbye, but that’s not the case.

“This has been so impossible for me to just decide. I feel like I’m giving up so many amazing memories by not being here every day. Fuck, it’s crazy to be so emotional and indecisive over something like this.” She huffs.

“It’s not crazy at all and you’re not giving anything up. This place is ours, little warrior, and it always will be. I mean that very literally. It’s our Nexus’s now, and we never have to part with it. This has always been a vacation home of sorts to all the Vito generations before us. We were the first to decide to stay here permanently, make it our own, and Aunt Rory gifted it to us for good after Draken’s first year. Nothing about this mansion will ever change again if you don’t want it to and we’re only a transport away if you want to stay here for a night.

“You, me, hell, even the guys, we all feel that we’re supposed to be in the south wing right now. Why exactly, I don’t know. Could be secrets we still need to figure out, our own growth we need to work on, any number of reasons, but regardless of those, it’s time you accept the decision and put this war within yourself to rest.”

It didn’t dawn on me until Trex was explaining what was going on with her and her visions, that this hit me. It’s something I’ve had to overcome as well. Small things like this that linger in the back of your mind, distracting you randomly, are so much better off being put to rest. Little things add up after a while, and once you set yourself free by accepting your decision, the weight becomes so much less.

“I love it so much here.” She sighs, gazing around at the room lovingly. “But I know you’re right. I think I’ve told myself if we came back here, we’d somehow escape our troubles for a little while, but that’s not true. They’d just follow.”

“They would, but one day, that’s exactly what this place can be for us. An escape from reality where our Nexus can just be. Peacefully. It’s not going anywhere. And neither are we.”

Her small smile and glossy eyes turn up to me, and my heart thuds with the appreciation I see reflected at me. “Let’s go home.”

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