Page 89 of Gift from the Wing

I swear I want to yell at him, tell him to open his eyes, say something, but instead, I knot my sweaty, twitching fingers together. I wait patiently with quickened breaths as his gray skin begins to pinken and the sunkendunes beneath his eyes fill out. My gaze traces the aura starting to create a silhouette around him and I slowly smile as the yellow surrounds him like the sun.

“Trex, you all right?” Codi asks.

Finally, his lids flash open, revealing brown eyes that are brighter, livelier than they’ve ever been. At least compared to how I’ve ever seen them.

“Never been better, brother,” Trex says, then turns his gaze back to me.

My heart pounds in my chest as his eyes flare, his mind taking back at least a little bit of control over itself. I know what he’s about to do, and as I open my mouth to tell him no, don’t risk it, but he shakes his head at me.

“The nonmagical realm’s portal is the weakest of the six due to its lack of magic. It’s grown weaker with the vampires taking over the forest and Elementra’s power bleeding in there minimally. That’s why the Summum-Master’s able to pass through it with only a drop of your blood. From the nonmagical realm, he can pass through the other portals with your blood. It takes time, though. And yes, there are portals in all the other realms that reach each other. Your family only blocked out Elementra. A fatal flaw in their plan was not closingallaccess points until he was dealt with.

“Your blood, your family’s blood can open portals anywhere. You aren’t restricted to physical barriers like we are. The Summum-Master can do so as well but with a great loss of the stockpile he has of your blood, so he only does that sparingly. Only once in his lifetime if I can recall.

“You need to destroy that stockpile. It’s going to be hard. Not because it’s heavily guarded by members of the Mastery but because he has it protected by many powerful relics, runes, artifacts, things our eyes have never seen, from all the realms. Those will be your obstacles.”

“I…we don’t know where to even look,” I whisper, completely enthralled by his almost otherworldly voice as he just spewed all that information out rapidly.

His own gift is flaring to life, blocking out any resistance or pain he may be feelings telling me this. He doesn’t have long to take advantage of this momentary block, it’s evident in the trembling of his limbs.

“You’re not going to be able to look. You must track. Don’t take that lightly, naively believing it’ll be easy because you’re bonded to the realm’s strongest tracker. When I say it’s guarded by things we aren’t even aware of, I mean it.”

“How do you know this?”

“I’ve listened, spied, been completely compliant for years around him and Franklin. People tend to become loose-lipped when they think of you as nothing more than a slave. Donald likes to brag about all the secrets he’s privy to as well. They never thought in a million years I’d say anything that would jeopardize the well-being of my brothers and I’m notorious for acting like I don’t give a shit.”

By the time he finishes his sentence, his voice is back to normal and the bright, melted chocolate shine in his eyes fades back to normal. He sways just a smidge and gratefully accepts the second healing vial Codi hands him.

“Thank you, Trex,” I mumble.

“Don’t thank me, Willow. It’s the least I can do.”

Turning my head to the side, my men stand strong as if none of this is a surprise to them, but I feel the shock, excitement, and unwavering devotion to me filter into my heart from each of them. My gaze lingers on my dragon as he gives me a small smile and runs his thumb across his lips.

“One issue leads to another, then another and then we fix it all at once, little wanderer.”

Seems that way, dragon. It seems that way.

Twelve

Tillman

“You were perfect this morning, little warrior,” I whisper low to Will as I wrap her in my arms when we leave Aunt Rory and our uncles’ gym.

The feeling of her earth element still flowing through my blood makes me feel invincible. The power packed into her tiny little body is fucking insane and I swear everything within me swells with pride.

I chuckle at the blush crawling across her cheeks as she peers up at me through her lashes. She’s a bashful thing when she wants to be, and I’ll forever eat this shit up. Between my praises and dirty words, I could have her colored pink all day every day.

“You weren’t too bad yourself,” she purrs as her eyes travel the length of my body.

“Don’t go there, little warrior. I have work to do,”I groan low in my mind.

“Fine, but remember you started it.”

Her laugh fills my heart, and I lean down to cut the sound off with my mouth. I’d much rather just carry her back to our wing and spend the day with her in one of our rooms, but Uncle Roye’s already waiting for me at the end of the hall.

“You think the two of you fortified the gym enough we won’t break it anymore?” Draken asks when I back her into his waiting arms.

“No doubt. We used pretty much the full force of our elements together just then. I don’t think anyone, except maybe our Nexus, will be able to break it. Even then it’ll have to be intentional,” I tell him as I smirk down at her warmly.

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