Page 166 of Gift from the Wing

Laying my lips to her forehead, I pull us through a transport and deposit us in the middle of my new room in the south wing. The ambiance here is exactly what she needs. It’s exactly what I need for what I have planned.

Strolling over to my desk, I gently set her box down beside my family pictures and release a nervous breath. Now that it’s decided we aren’t going anywhere, it’s time I rebalanced myself. Find that inner peace I’ve barely had a grasp on since we’ve been here.

With the frame in my hand, I turn back to her but then pause.

Standing in the middle of the room, barefoot and glowing now that she’s got that emotional decision out of the way, she giggles lightly as the moss carpet tickles her toes. The light coming in through the window casts a halo of light around her and I swear, this is the most stunning I’ve ever seen her.

“Whatcha got?” she asks, peeking through her bangs as I take a step closer.

Lacing my fingers with hers, I sit us down on the floor with her nestled between my legs and bury my face in her hair, taking deep breaths until my racing heart slows itself down.

Linking my arms around her until I can hold the picture frame in front of us both, I point. “This is one of my fathers, Ian. You’ve heard Aunt Rory talk about him. He was an Illusionist. The strongest one I’ve ever met in my life. This is Hudsen. He could manipulate electricity. An Electro. Sean, he was a Plantist. Think of being able to grow, control, and flourish any vegetation known, even those not of this realm. This is Wesling. I think it’s a little obvious, but he was a giant. And of course, my mom. Matilda, or as everyone who’s ever known her calls her, Tilly. She was a Shield. The best one to ever walk this realm. I don’t say that because she was my mom. Her reach was the largest one ever recorded, ranging up to twenty-eight people at one time.”

“She’s beautiful, Tillman.”

“She is. I’ve been told my whole life I look just like her.” I smile at the small snort that escapes her.

“You do favor her a lot, but I see each of them in you. Wesling’s height came through strong.” She chuckles, leaning further into my chest.

“I have a little piece of each of them, but the piece I’ve strived to hold onto the hardest was my mom’s balance. You’ve heard the horror stories of our grandma Drudy. Well, of her three kids, Mom was the most neglected. I don’t just mean the physical, what my grandma would’ve called discipline, but mentally, emotionally, she was completely ignored as if she didn’t exist.

“That rejection fueled my mom’s motivation to be the best at everything she did. Despite my grandma’s shitty treatment, she wanted her approval, bad. Desperately. So she worked hard, nonstop, and eventually became the fiercest E.F. member this realm has ever seen.

“Typically, the commander over the entire E.F. is a member of the Ruling Nexus, but the rumors and talk about Mom’s success forced our grandfather, who held the position, to succeed it to her. He made it a grandthing. Put on a show that it was in the best interest of the realm, for the ruling family, everything.” I sigh, shaking my head.

I was much older, long after she passed, that Uncle Orien and Aunt Rory told me this whole story. Mom had given me bits and pieces of the truth, but they spilled all the beans once I was old enough to truly understand.

“He didn’t mean it, did he?”

“No, he didn’t. After the ceremony, my grandma and her Nexus called all of them together. Uncle Orien, Aunt Rory, her Nexus, and my mom. Told my mom she was a disgrace for accepting this position and it was a test, to see what she would do, and she failed. They forced her to take the post at the academy. They gave her instructions to find and appoint an E.F. Leader and they would oversee the palace members.”

“Wait, one of your dads, he was E.F. Leader like you are.”

I chuckle at her quick thinking and good memory, then grip her hips to keep her from turning to look at me.

“You’re beating me to the best part of the story, little warrior.”

“Oh shit, sorry. Please continue.”

“Mom was much, much older to be finding her Nexus, but my grandparents didn’t care enough to try to arrange her one early on like Aunt Rory. They were content with whenever because they didn’t care, so by this point, my mom was in her thirties, Nexus-less, and didn’t give a fuck to find one. The only pleasant example she’d ever seen of one was Aunt Rory’s and they were still in their honeymoon phase.

“But lo and behold, she sent out the notice to the Nexuses around all the stations of the E.F. Leader Trials, and here came my dads, coming to compete. Approaching their forties, mind you, and Primary-less. The first time in nearly ten years that anyone had ever got her off her feet and pinned her in training was against Wesling. And her first awakening happened.”

A hot tear hits my arm, and I tilt Willow’s chin to look at her, but she quickly turns away, wiping them away before I can. “Gah, why is that so damn romantic?” She groans, something between a laugh and a sob.

I can’t help but laugh as she carries on, and I pull her as close to me as possible. “They were romantic. All the time. It was like Aunt Rory and myuncles multiplied by two. My dads had a long road with breaking through to my mom. Not that she wasn’t ecstatic that she had a true Nexus, but she didn’t know how to be affectionate. She’d only been that way with her siblings. But they never gave up and together, they helped her heal from the damage my grandparents had caused. Like everything in my mom’s life, she had to become the best at regulating her emotions, staying calm, collected, balanced. She mastered it, so she could protect herself, her men, and eventually…me.”

I swallow the lump forming in my throat. I never knew any other side to my mom beside the affectionate, loving, caring one. A side that apparently was very absent from her personality until she met my dads. It kills me sometimes to think about how she was treated.

Who does that to their children?

“A lot of parents, unfortunately,” Will whispers and I kiss the top of her head.

“My parents, they…” I blow out a harsh breath, getting choked up over memories I rarely let surface. “There’s something I want you to see, little warrior.”

When she tries to turn to face me again, I let her.

The calm demeanor rolling over her is an emotional state I’m desperate to feel. And maybe after this, I’ll find it again.

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