Page 63 of Gift from the Wing

“You barely even shook. Someone’s been working out, huh?” Draken teases, squeezing Roye’s biceps as soon as he shifts back.

“That was amazing,” I exclaim excitedly, then turn to the other two of my Patera-Nexus. “Who’s next? Oh, Theo, what was that thing you did to the fake Mastery member?”

“That was my gift,” he says, smiling, then cutting his eye to Roye, he hits him with that same blast of whatever his gift is.

This must be something they do a lot because Roye, although caught off guard, steels himself and doesn’t fly into the wall but does slide feet from us.

“Forcefields, Willow. Unlike a shield that would surround us in a protective barrier, I send mine out. Whoever is the poor sap to collide with it gets forced away. My element is air,” he says as he then wraps Roye in a vortex of it.

“Enough. Neil, your turn,” Roye barks, over being the guinea pig.

“Willow, if you would,” Neil says, holding his hand out for me to take.

Before I can even place mine in his, though, I’m snatched back, and all my men are yelling no at the same time.

“You boys are being ridiculous. I’d never hurt her. I’ll just make sure everything is in place as it should be.”

In place?

“He’s an Osteokinesis, little warrior,” Tillman informs me.

“Which is?”

“He can manipulate bones. Any way he wants to,” Caspian says, still holding on to me protectively.

Well, that’s terrifyingly cool.

“Can you crack my back?” I ask excitedly as the thought comes to me. I am a little stiff this morning and that would work wonders.

“Crack your back?” Neil asks, confused.

“Yeah, you know, when your bones or body feel stiff, you crack them to loosen up.”

He still looks at me as though I’ve lost it, but he nods nonetheless and I pull myself out of my guys’ grasps. They’re being crazy if they seriously think he’s going to do anything that hurts.

“Ah, I believe I see what you mean. You’re holding a lot of tension in your vertebrae,” Neil says when I finally lay my hand in his. His gift washes over me, and there’s this strange, itchy feeling flowing through my body.

I don’t have time to clarify or confirm with him when every bone in my spine cracks. I can’t help but arch into the sensation and I groan as the stiff feeling fades to complete relaxation. There’s never been a time in my life where my entire back has been cracked and shit, it feels spectacular.

“Better?” he asks.

“So much. Thank you.”

“Anytime. My element is water. It comes in quite handy when manipulating the fluid in the bones,” he says, then everyone chuckles at the shocked expression on my face.

Here I am thinking about how he’d make a damn good chiropractor and everyone else has murder on their minds. Granted, that’s a pretty perfect gift for either scenario.

Okay, so we’ve got Dyce our Tasmonium shifter with a fire element. Roye with super strength and earth. Theo is a Forcefield with an air element. Neil is an Osteokinesis aka bone breaker with a water element. Aurora, of course, an empath with an earth element.

Got it.

“Enough show and tell. We’ve got work to do. Come on, Roye,” Aurora orders playfully, laughing as Roye strings her up and pulls her to him in vines. The guys all groan and grunt, faking gagging noises while I laugh at the adorable affection. “Okay, okay, Willow, watch closely, then I’ll explain what I’m doing.”

I focus my attention on where Roye’s holding out his hand and Aurora is hovering hers right above it. The shift of energy in the air is their earth elements on the surface already. The power grows in the atmosphere as she slowly lowers her palm until they’re pressed together, and once they touch, the entire foundation shakes until a small flower bursts through the floor at their feet.

I could see the flow of the element the entire time as I called my gift to the surface. It traveled from both of their chests, down their arms, whereit waited in their hands until it was united. I just don’t know how they commanded it together.

When I say that out loud, Aurora nods. “Yes, we command our elements out individually as we would any other time, but the trick to combining them is I must command the two to mingle, at the same time he commands his to obey. That took us quite some time to perfect because anytime we spoke to each other, it would break the connection. We just had to learn to work together, become more in sync. This is where you all will have an advantage. Maybe speaking telepathically won’t break your connections. How about you give it a go with your air? That’s the element that broke free first.”

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