Page 46 of Gift from the Wing

“I’d like to show you all what we’ve been leaving out, if that’s okay?” I ask, turning to Aurora and my Patera-Nexus.

“Show us? How would you do that?” Roye asks skeptically, arching his brow.

Caspian and Draken snort and shake their heads while Corentin, Tillman, Gaster, and even Keeper smile at me. Aurora and the guys just look around as if we’ve lost our minds.

“My magic will need to lock onto your magical signatures, then I can broadcast the events to you. You’ll see it through my mind as if you were watching my memories.”

Quietness falls over them that makes me fidget in my seat. They’re shocked still with their mouths gaping open and the collective tension grows in the room.

“How…is that possible?” Aurora asks quietly after a long stretch of silence.

“It’ll make sense soon. As soon as I show you.”

She pulls herself out of her stupor faster than her men and gives me a confident, ready, and willing nod before hissing her men’s names to get them back on track. I chuckle as they shake themselves out and stare at me in amazement.

Most of the people I spend my days with, you know, my men, Gaster, Oakly, her Nexus, and lately Lyker, Aria, and their Nexus, have grown used to me being able to do shit normal people can’t, so it’s funny to me to see the royal family frozen in astonishment.

“Full disclosure, there’re going to be some things that are hard to see, and I apologize for that. There will also be parts I skip over. Trust that there’s a reason you don’t need to see it,” I murmur awkwardly, completely ignoring Draken’s knowing chuckle.

“Center yourself, little warrior. Think back to the moment you’d like to start, then breathe. These are your memories to control, not someone else’s, so show as little or as much as you want. Imagine yourself speeding through time on the parts you want to skip. It may even be best to black it out,”Tillman coaches gently in my mind and I instinctively start regulating my breathing.

“Everyone ready?” I ask and at the echoing consents, I push my magic out.

There’s a little resistance from my fathers-in-law, and by accident, I swear, I force my way right through it. I do shoot them a guilty smile when they startle, but that’s all the time for reactions we have before my mind sucks them in and I close my eyes.

I start at the beginning.

And by beginning, I mean the moment I walked up on my tree and found my gift on my birthday.

From there, I let them see it all.

Donald’s initiation, Gaster rescuing me, our original bond snapping in place, Oakly, her bond snapping in place. The moment in the breakfast room when Corentin and I had our awakening.

My first day of classes including that ass beating I took. Plus the ass beating Tillman gave Claven.

I don’t let them witness it all, but I show them the moments of Draken’s and my awakening. Followed by mine and Tillman’s.

I relive the panic I felt during Tillman and Caspian’s kidnappings. Caspian telling me the truth and my earth element breaking free. I skip over me running off to Oakly’s then returning. That feels too personal to share.

I smugly show off the altercation between Gima and me. Knowing what we know now, I wish I had done worse. Nonetheless, we carry on through the memories at the speed of light.

The at the time Terravile pack Alpha, Jarod, showing up at the academy. Me seeing his mark and putting together who the rebels plaguing Elementra are. Gaster teaching me the concealment and dimension spell. Followed by my first gift emerging. The sight.

For the obvious, I skip over Draken’s and my bonding, but I show them the morning after. My fire. My dragon. My first flight. The two-day coma.

Elementra.

The visions of Lyker that haunted my dreams. The deadly cures and why Gaster brought a batch of them here. The Alpha trials at Terravile. Me taking the deadly dagger. What would’ve happened if I hadn’t taken the dagger to the stomach. Saving Aria.

The morning following Tillman’s and my bonding. My gift of Mind Transference. How the sound of everyone’s voices brought me to my knees in pain.

The debrief we had where we discussed my first assumption of what the Mastery was doing to the individuals they were kidnapping. Meeting Layton, followed by his medically induced coma he’s still in. All the Terravile Mastery members dying in the castle that triggered my first trip to the past.

The Summum-Master. Keeper.

The beginning of our planning for getting in the Forsaken Forest.

The vision I had of what was going to happen to the academy. Even as deep in my mind as I am, a lump still forms in my throat. Fuck, I was so angry, scared. But it had to be done.

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