Page 26 of Gift from the Wing

“You’ve succeeded in all that I have asked, plus more. Ask what you please, Orien Caduceus Vito.”

“I’m not ready to leave her, not completely. I want to see what she grows to be. What she and the boys become. The small bits I’ve been fortunate to see are not enough. I want to be a part of their lives. I ask for more,”I say, sobbing as the pain spreads through every part of me and of my reality. I’m truly dying. I will have to leave them all.

I thought I’d prepared myself better, but that was a naïve assumption.

Elementra’s power washes over me, only to calm me because even she can’t stop what has already begun and I relish her feeling of home, comfort.

“Your request comes with a decision. Whichever choice you make, I will honor.”

Her otherworldly essence flows across my mind, and the options available to me become clear.

In either option, my Willow must endure horrors I can’t bear to watch, but I force myself to so she is not alone. Neither choice willalleviate that for her, but one choice gives me time with her. Forever with her. With them all.

Picking up her box from beside me, I open the lid and move her envelope over so I can see her stone.

“CC! Oh my God, oh fuck. Are you okay?”

As if my thoughts alone summoned her, my greatest blessing falls to her knees, dropping the box in her hand, shrieking beside me. With shaky fingers, she traces the markings of the beating I took.

“Wh-What happened?”

“Everything’s going to be okay,filia mea.”

Looking down at her stone again, I gently run my fingers across it.

“Tell me, Seer. Is this a present for today or another?”

“Another.”

Four

Willow

The connection in my mind snaps and I suck in a sharp gasp as I clutch my head.

Standing too fast, I sway harshly as the room spins around me. My face would’ve met the floor if shadows didn’t wrap around me to catch my fall while a vine wraps around my waist, gently pulling me back down to my seat.

Still, the room doesn’t stop its rotation as my mushy brain tries to solidify itself again and everything I see doubles.

“I…I still don’t understand. You skipped parts. We didn’t get to see what happened to you and I don’t understand your choice. CC, what did you do?” I ask out loud as I start to hyperventilate.

Although we just watched the memory from his perspective, that day tries to come to the forefront of my mind. What came after that is still blocked from me, but those emotions in that moment aren’t. The helplessness, the petrified way I felt seeing him lying against my tree, rushes me, and I don’t know if I want to scream or throw up. If he hadn’t shown us that just now, the entire occurrence would still be shielded from me.

“Take a deep breath for me, princess. I’ve got you,” Corentin whispers in my ear and his air fills my lungs.

Simultaneously, a healing vial is pressed to my lips, and I lock on to the watery whiskey orbs of Caspian. His body shakes violently, but his hands stay steady as he pours the liquid miracle down my throat. As soon as the last drop touches my tongue, he trails his fingers down my neck as if he’s following the liquid’s path to make sure I got it all.

“He was your firstGuardriabond, wasn’t he, Primary?” he asks softly, just to confirm what he heard, and at my nod, he turns to Gaster. “And yours as well?”

“Yes,” Gaster answers, wiping the tears from his eyes with a cloth.

Cas doesn’t comment further, and his features give me nothing. They’re a cloud of confusion, understanding, and anticipation. Any other time, I’d swear the chaos of this situation would have him giddy, but right now, he’s so…subdued.

Understandably.

“I can’t put it all together. The pieces that are still missing…”I trail off, hissing as the sharp pain in my mind sends a zap through my entire body.

“Stop trying to force it, little warrior. It’ll just hurt more. Everything will settle and come when it’s supposed to. For now, we have more answers than before,”Tillman says.

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