Page 18 of Gift from the Wing

His eyes shut down as his darkness descends. It’s a place he goes to often when he needs to be protected. A place he is slowly but surely making his home. Just as she is and if she’s not pulled back soon, it’ll swallow her whole.

Unlike my nephew, all she has is me, and sadly, I can’t be with her twenty-four seven.

“I’ll allow you to make a copy if you vow no one will see inside but this random teenager, and they can’t know it’s mine,” he says, clipped.

“I can vow that no one will see inside but them and me. I’ve already seen, hence why I’m asking for a copy. I wouldn’t have known to ask you without the sight showing me,” I tell him honestly. It’s as close to the full truth as I can give him.

“Fine,” he grits out angrily, “but I’ll be with you when you make the copy. The old man, not Tillman.”

He stands from his seat forcefully and stomps past me out the doors of the lounge. I tilt my head back, blowing out a breath, begging Elementra for some patience.

By the time I make it down the stairs in the mansion, he’s already gone, so I transport to Gaster’s front steps and find the two of them standing there, waiting for me.

“Let me see it then,” Gaster says quietly, no doubt sensing the tension surrounding us. Caspian hands his book off with a huff and in just a few seconds, there’s an exact replica made.

Passing both versions over to Caspian, he flips through them quickly, checking for accuracy. He hesitates only for a moment—his brief show of vulnerability—then hands me the copied version.

“Thank you, Cas, and I’m sorry.”

“For what?” he asks as I lay my hand on his shoulder, as well as Gaster’s.

Muttering the memory spell, the concealed Memoria stone lights up, and the two of them fall unnaturally still as the last few moments in time get stolen away from them, replaced with new ones. I forcefully swallow down the bile and tears clogging my eyes.

This never gets easier.

Every memory taken without permission slices away at me and the only thing that keeps me pushing through is the knowledge of what’s to come from all of this.

“As I said, you can’t tell your mother that Gaster and I are teaching you how to use your shadows to pass through her detection and tracking spells. It’ll be our heads if she finds out. You’ll have to take full blame once she does.”

Caspian crosses his arms, looking between Gaster and me with disbelief coloring his features. He’s been asking for her to remove the detection and tracking spells she has on him for years. For the first few years, he tolerated it. But it’s been nine years since his kidnapping and knowing she is monitoring his every move is only making him angrier, more resentful toward every adult in his life.

I’ve known for some time now, we were going to teach him this. I’ve already explained to Aurora that it had to happen, but he doesn’t need to know that yet. He needs to relearn how to have conversations with his mother.

“You’re really going to teach me? What if she flips out? I don’t want to deal with that shit.”

“She isn’t going to flip out, but it will spark a conversation that needs to be had between the two of you. It’s time you talk to her about your boundaries, and you need to understand her concern isn’t stemming from controlling you but wanting you safe. Regardless, yes, it’s time for you to know how to utilize your shadows in situations such as this, so we will teach you.”

A mischievous smile, one I haven’t seen in years, takes over his face as he rubs his hands together with the thrill of having his full freedom so close to his grasp. I already know I won’t regret this decision, so Gaster and I waste no time jumping right into teaching him.

Closing the book, I release another deep breath as I allow that memory to escape me as well.

I, of course, will always hold a sliver of regret about the memories I’ve taken from the ones I love, but this situation really and truly paid off. Cas grew to be able to speak openly to Aurora, sometimes too bluntly if I’m being honest, and Willow…

Willow memorized that book in a matter of days. She was approaching her seventeenth birthday when I gave it to her, and Franklin’s sessions of blood draining had picked up increasingly. It was to the point she stayed in a disassociated state. Reality was too much for her to bear sometimes.

Reading the things Cas had written in his book opened her eyes to many things. Firstly, and no dig at Caspian whatsoever, she said she felt like she was becoming this person, and she didn’t want to become jaded. She wanted to stay happy in the moments that mattered. She swore that if she ever met the owner of that book, she’d pull them from their darkness if it was the last thing she did.

It was so hard not to share his secrets, but I never did. I always just hoped and prayed she would be right one day.

A subtle vibration across my skin lets me know that Gaster just entered the foyer of the south wing, so gently, I return the Book of Shadows back to its rightful place on the bookshelf and exit the ward to meet him.

“What in the realm could you need of me this early in the morning, Caduceus? Today is a day of celebration. Waking before the sun is punishment,” Gaster gripes teasingly, but his curious eyes observe the ward that he desperately wants to see behind.

Poor thing.

“I need your help in the wing for a minute if you have time for me, old man.” I smirk as his eyes widen, then narrow.

“I’m in my prime, thank you very much, and is this some twisted joke of yours? You haven’t allowed anyone to enter this ward in—”

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