Page 74 of Gift from the Wing

“Yeah. Burning,” I pant out.

“Burning, as in you were burning?”

“I don’t know, Gaster…I don’t know.”

Although in my heart I feel the possibilities. Either that was my soul burning or the realm. The two would go hand in hand.

If a piece of my soul were to burn, I’d burn this realm to the ground.

Ten

Corentin

So many things to do. So little time.

The two weeks break I—if that’s what I can call it for us—put the academy on for our mission is rapidly coming to an end and at this point, it seems like my days are blurring together.

Classes will resume in a few days’ time, and the mound of things to work through on my desk is astronomical. The Summum-Master never retaliated on either the academy or Rebel Castle, so I feel confident allowing classes to start again. With extra security and protection in place, of course, but for now, Rebel Castle will remain vacant.

Running my hands down my face, I shake my head and dissect the heap of tasks that need to be taken care of by priority. It’s honestly hard to focus on anything related to the academy when my true desire and focus is everything that revolves around Willow and hunting down the Mastery.

The academy will always be one of my biggest responsibilities, but it seems so minuscule in the grand scheme of everything else. Alas, the students have no part in this war, and they rely on a safe environment to learn and grow in. So that’s what I’ll provide for them.

“Why so stressed, brother?”

The years of practice of not being fazed by Caspian’s sudden appearance instinctively kicks in and the flinch that surely would’ve come out of anyone else merely sends a twitch across my eye. He catches the movement, though, and smugly smiles as he rounds my new desk.

“Aren’t you supposed to be doing research on Willow’s bloodline, the portals, or anything else that could help with the thousands of things we have going on?” I ask as I lace my fingers in front of me and stare him down.

Arrogant little shit.

“That’s what I’ve been doing for two days now. I wanted a break to go check on my little Primary, then come see you,” he says as he plops down in the chair across from me, knowing good and well he’s got my attention.

I asked my princess to join me both yesterday morning and today. Yesterday, she declined for some alone time, which turned into a rough day after she entered the amplifier room, and today she said she didn’t want to distract any of us from what we have going on. Opting to spend time with my mom and practice more of mingling our power. I said that was fine, when really, it took everything in me not to drag her into this office, where she’d be by my side all day.

“And what was she up to?” I ask nonchalantly.

“Discussing dresses for the Spring Ball and our bonding ceremony.” This time my flinch escapes.

“You’re kidding?”

“Afraid not, brother. Looks like we’ll be attending both.”

“You don’t seem nearly as upset about that as I figured you would be,” I say, arching my brow.

“The ball will give me an opportunity to spy on all the families and figure out who the second family betraying us is. Whichever they are, they’re doing a fucking remarkable job staying under the radar. None of Mom’s little spies are picking shit up.”

“You don’t think we’ll have it figured out sooner? There’s still plenty of time before then.”

“No, I don’t think we will. We’ve uncovered too much to their liking as it is. They’ll be more careful, more cautious of everything they do from here on out. Without the vampire to lay more runes and Franklin gone,we’ve hit them where it hurts. They won’t make anything easy from this point on,” he says confidently and I believe every word of it.

Caspian has an amazing ability to think much like the good and the bad guy. Placing himself in the villain’s shoes is an easy feat for him. Pulling him out has been the struggle in the past, but I’m pretty sure those days are behind us now.

“And our bonding ceremony. How do you feel about that?”

“If it makes the little temptress happy, so be it. Plus, I enjoy stringing her up and ripping her nice clothes off her. You three lovesick fools will enjoy it as well,” he says with a feral grin, and I snort at his bullshit.

“Three? You’re forgetting one, Caspian,” Tillman says as he suddenly walks through my door.

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