Page 87 of Gift from the Wing

“One thing after another, little wanderer.”

My eyes cut to Draken, and I return the little smirk crossing his lips.

“One thing after another.”

Finally reaching the room that Trex and Codi are waiting for us in, my feet try to trip me up on my first glance at him, but I force the smile to stay on my face. He looks like he’s lost another ten pounds since I’ve seen him. His eyes are even more sunken in, now accompanied by large dark bags underneath them. His skin that was once just very pale is starting to turn gray.

“Don’t start planning my remembrance of life yet. I’m still here,” He snarks playfully, and it makes me want to sob. He looks seconds from dying.

“Stupid question, I know, but how are you feeling?” I ask as I lower myself in the seat in front of him.

Corentin’s quick with serving me a cup of coffee and then surprises me by putting one in front of Trex. He squeezes his shoulder and gives him a firm nod, which Trex returns. Something about the exchange makes the water well faster in my eyes and I rapidly blink it away before they all notice.

I feel like I’m looking at a ghost already.

What the fuck are we going to do?

“As well as I can feel right now, I suppose. You didn’t come to talk about me, though. What’s going on, Willow?” he asks knowingly, getting straight to the point.

“I had a dream last night.”

“Okay. About me? Was it a vision?” He cocks his brow.

“Yes, about you, but not exactly. Dec visited me,” I tell him and watch the hope, surprise, and confusion cross his sickly face in a matter of seconds.

“Is he okay? What did he say? Do you know where he is?”

“He wouldn’t really talk to me and what he did say wasn’t pleasant. He hates me, Trex. I’m not sure what the Summum-Master has told him, but he believes I’ve done something to you, and he swore to kill me for it.”

His mouth gapes open and he slumps back in his chair defeatedly. I feel like the realm’s biggest asshole for bothering him with this while he’s struggling, but if I’m going to get answers from anyone, it’ll be him.

“There’s no telling. During our annual meets, we aren’t allowed to speak about what we’ve been doing. We’re monitored the whole time, butI wouldn’t be surprised if the Summum-Master has made it seem like you kidnapped me against my will or something along those lines. So Dec and X probably do look at you like you’ve signed my death warrant.” He gives me a teasing smirk that I know means you kinda did do that, and I can’t help but snort.

“Where were your annual meets?” Caspian asks from the corner of the room.

“I have no clue. We were blindfolded and bounced through transports until we finally ended up together. It was never the same spots.”

Disappointing but not surprising. Those locations would be a good starting point for us, even if they weren’t promising.

“With his lingering threat, do you think he’ll visit me again? Is there something I can tell him to convince him that you’re okay and we’re looking for them? I need something to make him believe me, then maybe he can tell me where they are.”

He stares off into space, drifting into his memory as he thinks about his brothers. The room is silent as we patiently wait for him and I really want to pry into his mind to see what’s going on. Obviously, I won’t. I don’t think his brain can take much more.

A slow smile continues to grow across his face until finally a bolstering laugh bellows out of him, startling me out of my staring.

“Tell him he knows good and damn well that last blackened berry pie was mine.”

“Come again?” I ask, dumbfounded.

“It’s been a running joke since we were thirteen. Xander’s mom always cooked us mini pies on our birthdays. A mountain of them. I mean, the things were no bigger than a child’s palm, so we would devour them. For my birthday, I asked for blackened berry pies, and I saved the last one for a midnight snack. His ass ate it but has sworn for years he didn’t. I know he did. I reminded him of that every single year until, well…you know.”

Despite the sad ending that I know came, I smile at such a fond memory. This is exactly something I’d need to know to prove to Dec that Trex told me. It’s sweet, personal, and a joke the two, technically, three of them have shared. I’m glad they have moments like this to hold onto.

“Any other advice you can give me? I’ll try to work with my gift on finding him, but is there a way I can try to, I don’t know, summon him to my dreams?”

“Yes and no, I believe. Dec used to always say he knew when we were trying to contact him, but I don’t know if that’s true because I never recalled purposely doing that as a kid. Since we’ve been separated, I haven’t dared try, nor do I think the rune would allow us to. There’s possibly a way for you to think of him intently while you’re dreaming, but I’d imagine it would take you being willing to let your mental guard down. It had to be down pretty good anyway for him to get through your defenses this time.”

My face flushes and I ignore its growing heat. Yeah, I can confidently say they were down because dream Draken had me thoroughly distracted.

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