Page 176 of Gift from the Wing

I told her it didn’t really matter what she thought because the Primary is mine. All she said was, you pass. Ever since then, she likes to give me little nuggets of knowledge.

“What I’d really like is to just sleep for twenty-four hours straight. Maybe then, my mind would dream up some shit that could help us or at least tell me what to do.”

The hums of their conversation, the snickering, and all the other noises in the room become nothing more than a distant murmur in my ears. Her words play on repeat in my head as the thought that was sparked from something she said tries to creep its way through the mounds of information in my brain.

My sudden narrowing of focus has the libraries’ worth of books I’ve read since gaining access to this room flipping across my mind’s eye.

“Fuck,” I breathe, hopping up out of the seat and bounding over to the stairs that lead up to the loft of books on the second floor.

“Caspian,” my Primary shrieks, and through my single-minded focus, I remind myself to apologize for dropping her on her ass just now.

Come on, you sneaky little bastard, where are you?

My eyes and fingers skim the books at rapid speeds.

The one I’m looking for, I merely glanced through it because it was irrelevant to anything we needed. Or so I thought. It was more of a recipe book, and who the fuck am I to be brewing up tonics or elixirs. That’s Gaster’s domain and he obviously passed a little of that to my uncle because his handwriting was in it. Changing up some of the ingredients and measurements.

There’s one tonic in particular I recall flipping past and it’s exactly what we need.

“Gotcha,” I hum as I finally spot the decorative spine.

After pulling it off the shelve, I fly through the pages until I get to the tonic we’re going to need for this crazy-ass idea I’ve conjured up.

The Dream Tonic.

Using my finger as a bookmark, I make my way back down the small staircase and come face-to-face with everyone. Who are looking at me as though I’ve lost my mind completely.

“Get to Uncle Orien’s room,”I say through our link.

“What’s wrong?”Corentin asks.

“Either Caspian just found something amazing or he’s cracked,”Willow tacks on, I thought sarcastically really, until I look at her very concerned eyes.

“I’m sorry for slinging you off my lap. I got caught up in a thought,” I whisper as I wrap her in my shadows and pull her to my chest.

“So you’re okay?” she asks softly.

“Fine, Primary, better than fine. I believe I have a plan.”

That concern washes away to unrestrained curiosity, and I smirk down at her before laying a kiss to the corner of her mouth.

One of two things are about to happen.

One, she’s going to be completely on board with this or she’s going to call me crazy. Well, she may do both. We’ll see.

“What’s going on?” Corentin asks as soon as he, Tillman, and Draken stampede down the stairs into our uncle’s room.

Their eyes widen with worry as they gaze at Willow wrapped in my shadows, and they’re on us in seconds.

“Everything’s fine. Caspian has a plan for something,” she says, rubbing her hands across them, calming their frantic thoughts.

All eyes turn to me and with a wave of my hand, I instruct everyone to take a seat, but I snatch my Primary back when the dragon tries to take her from me. He relents with a growl and takes a seat beside the vampire, who smiles at him as though he’s so proud of him for that little warning noise.

“Here, read this to the room,” I instruct, opening the book to the recipe and passing it to Willow.

She cocks a brow at me for a second, then looks down at the words. Clearing her voice, she begins, “The Dream Tonic. The drinker of this tonic can be pulled into a vivid, controlled dream state, where they can create a reality of their own making. Dreams induced by the tonic feel lucid, sensations may feel intense, and the reality they weaved may be completely foreign to anything they’ve ever seen. The effects last for hours, allowing the dreamer to explore or bask in the beauty of a crafted dreamscape of their most wanted desires.”

She pauses, looking back up at me with confusion marring her beautiful face.

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