Page 14 of Gift from the Wing

“Har-har, hilarious. Please allow me in before I faint. I need a favor from you.”

His face grows serious, as expected. Tillman will never be one to turn away from helping his family, but he must let go of the quiet, rigid persona, though. It won’t be tolerated.

Internally, I laugh at what’s to come and allow him to hear the sound, only to tease him with a little peek inside my mind. My poor nephews have been trying their entire lives to get a glimpse of everything I do.

“It’s not that serious of a request if you’re laughing,” he says, arching his brow at me.

My, how he looks like Tilly when he does that.

“On the contrary, my boy, it’s very important,” I say, pulling out Corentin’s shirt from my back pocket.

Whistling low, grabbing the shirt from my outstretched hand, Tillman holds it in front of him before handing it back to me.

“You have a death wish, Uncle? Touching Corentin’s clothes without his permission.”

“He doesn’t even wear this shirt. Since you originally made it, when has he ever put it on?”

“Never, but that’s beside the point. For whatever reason, he asked for a light purple shirt. It doesn’t matter that it sits in the back of his closet. He asked for it,” Tillman says, trying again to hand it back to me, but I push it into his chest.

“And trust me, he will ask for another once he gets over being pissy that it’s gone. But I need you to do something with it.”

“Do something with Corentin’s stolen clothes?”

Chuckling, I shake my head as I look down atmy feet.

These boys, I swear.

“Yes. I need you to make a dress out of this shirt.”

“A dress? Seriously?” he asks, incredulous.

“Yes, seriously,” I say, handing over a piece of parchment with Willow’s size written down. There’s plenty enough fabric to make it perfectly if he’ll just do as I ask. I hold my hand up when he opens his mouth and he halts his next question. “I’m sorry, Tillman, this is just one of those times when I can’t give you much. The dress is a present for a girl who needs it. That’s the most I can say.”

He looks at me contemplatively for a long moment, then glares down at the measurements. With a sigh and a clipped nod, he hands me the parchment back and his element coats the space. I sit in silence with a small smile on my lips as he gets to work molding the small purple sun dress and my heart thunders in my chest with happiness.

One day, he will know who he made this for.

“Is this good enough?” he asks as he holds it up.

“Perfect, my boy. One more thing, if you don’t mind. Will you wrap it for me?”

With an eye roll, he twists his hands around, creating a small box with a purple bow to match that I didn’t even ask for, and I have no doubt he’s wondering to himself why he did that, but I just stay quiet and smile.

“There. Anything else?”

“That’ll be all. Thank you, Tillman.”

“Yeah, yeah, don’t mention it. I’m going back to bed now if you don’t mind,” he grunts with a smirk on his lips as he turns from me.

Guilt quickly rises in my chest, but I swallow it down, whispering, “Of course. Sleep well, nephew.”

Muttering the spell, a small beam of light flashes from the Memoria stone around my neck to Tillman’s mind. He’s none the wiser as his body falls still as the last few minutes slink from his memory.

As our time together just now fades, I quietly backpedal out the door, then close it silently behind me. He’s hard and fast back to sleep as the light returns to the stone and I drift down the tree on a current of air as if I was never there.

One day, he will understand. They all will.

Myfeet touch the soil for a second as I envision the willow tree in the nonmagical realm, then open the transport. Moving from Elementra to the nonmagical used to take so much of my energy, but over the years, it’s become as easy as breathing.

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