Page 75 of Gift from the Wing

“Ah, Mr. I’m going to avoid my Primary until she forgets I’ve got trauma, what’s brought you here?” Caspian asks sarcastically and I don’t hide my snicker at Tillman’s deadly glare.

Yeah, we’ve all noticed it.

His head whips to me and his eyes narrow, causing me to laugh harder. It’s only a matter of time before my princess gets the truth out of him. Granted, Tillman really has handled his problems the best out of all of us, but regardless, Willow deserves the truth.

We’ve seen pretty much all of her, especially Caspian, and I’m sure there were things she would’ve rather preferred to never come to light, but they did. So the least all of us could do is share pieces of ourselves with her.

Even the dark parts.

His shoulders deflate and it’s obvious he heard those thoughts. I wipe the smile from my face while preening in victory on the inside.

“Thought you were down at the palace compound?” I ask.

“I was. I’m getting ready to escort Draken and Keeper to the prison and let Keeper remove some runes. Those prisoners don’t have shit we need, but according to Keeper, the more runes removed, the weaker the Summum-Master will get. Wanted to see if either of you cared to join?” he asks, crossing his arms all stoic and serious.

“I’m in,” Caspian says, immediately hopping out of his chair.

“I’ve got to stay and take care of things. Let me know if anything of value does come up. Did you invite Willow to join?”

“I did. She’s staying back. Coming to see you in a few, actually,” he says with a twitch of his lip, no doubt sensing the instant spike in my pulse and the excited thoughts running through my mind.

Caspian was teasing earlier, calling us lovesick fools without referring to himself, but I don’t have a leg to stand on if I attempted to deny that claim. Willow’s got me wrapped around her finger. The guys know it, she knows, and I for damn sure know it.

“I’ll see you all for dinner,” I say, dismissing them condescendingly, mostly teasing, with a wave of my hand.

My office falls back into silence as their laughs follow them out my door and I lean myself back in my chair as I gaze around the space. It’s perfect. Really, it is, and it provides me a kind of comfort I no longer feel in the office in my room back at the mansion. And a comfort I’ve never felt at the academy.

In here, I feel peaceful, more focused, and more motivated while working. Like every turn of a page or stroke of my pen is meaningful, calculated, and precise in a way that sets my anxiety at ease. My uncle did a phenomenal job setting up a space that is so entirely me but also encompasses a side of me that I didn’t even realize I’d locked away.

My point’s proven as I mindlessly fall into work and the time passes me by.

Quicker than I realize, I’m signing off on the last form that needed my attention from the academy. I gaze at the literal stack of things I needed to get done over the next few days and gawk in shock as if it’s all completed.

Grabbing a handful of files, I start flipping back through them, glaring in astonishment as they all are complete in my usual perfection. Checking my timekeeper, I rapidly stand from my desk as I notice only two hours have passed by.

What the fuck?

Impossible.

“What’s impossible, your highness?”

Whipping my head up, Willow’s leaning against the doorframe with her arms and ankles crossed, smirking at me in my panic. Just the sight of her has my heart rate slowing and the tightness in my skin loosens from the pressure of my gift.

“Something weird just happened, princess,” I tell her honestly. However I just got through that amount of work in that amount of time is impossible. Even with my keen focus, I never should’ve been able to finish it that fast.

Her face grows serious as she pushes from the entryway, shutting the door behind her with a blast of her air. In just a few strides, she’s in front of me and I’m pulling her into my chest. I breathe deeply, inhaling her sugary scent until my lungs fill like they’re on the verge of popping.

“What happened?” she asks, reaching up and cupping my cheek, looking at me with worry crossing every one of her features.

I run my thumb across her forehead, smoothing out the lines there that are forming because of me. I don’t want her to worry, nor do I think this is necessarily a bad thing, just a strange one.

“I just finished all my paperwork and caught up for the academy.”

“Oh…well, that’s a good thing, right?” she asks, confused.

“It is, but the weird thing is, that was easily two days’ worth of work, and I just finished it in two hours. I don’t even recall going through all of it, but I did. I checked. It’s all complete,” I tell her, pointing to the now finished stack of papers.

“May I?” she asks, laying her hand to the pile, and I nod.

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