Page 48 of Gift from the Wing

The bomb Keeper dropped about my bloodline being the guardians of the portals. I’m still ignoring that, but my time of ignorance is ending.

Concealing my naked body, I show the moment my gifts and elements exploded out of me after our bonding. I’m not even sure what it means fully aside from the fact that our souls are now truly tied together, but that level of power I released seems relevant.

Meeting Aurora. Her triggering my memories.

The South Wing.

Slowly, I start cutting away the strings of magic that’re tied to my mind, starting with Aurora and the rest of my Patera-Nexus, then making my way around my men. The moment I cut the last string, I sway in my chair and my vision doubles.

Fuck.

Without missing a beat, Corentin shoves a healing vial between my lips and tilts my chin back for me. I still can’t muster the strength to open my eyes. I had no clue it was going to take this much out of me, but this is also the first time I’ve shown months’ worth of memories.

My mind scrambles, attempting to put all the newly constructed pieces back together again and in the meantime, I sit here statue-still, regulating my breathing so I don’t throw up.

“That was…” one of the guys’ dads says, but I haven’t heard them talk enough, aside from Dyce, to know their voices.

“Give it a minute, Dad. She needs a moment,” Caspian says harshly. I grin despite the pain the muscles in my face cause in my head.

“Take another one, princess. That one is taking too long to kick in, or it just isn’t enough, but your pain’s killing me,” Corentin whispers as he presses another vial to my mouth.

“What do you mean?” I slur.

He laughs quietly, running his fingers down my temple gently.

“I’ve felt every part of you I’ve wanted to since we bonded as a Nexus, princess. There’s not a part of you I can’t feel.”

“You feel me all the time or when you focus?” I ask, far more aware than I was two seconds ago.

“When I focus.”

Blinking my eyes open, I look at him, stunned, then slowly, not to spin my brain around again, I seek out the others. They’re all wearing matching smirks.

They all can feel me. Not just through my bond.

Holy shit.

“I should’ve pushed harder. I should’ve made him bring you home the day you emerged. I should’ve ordered it,” Aurora says. Before I even turn to look at her, I hear the tears in her tone.

My heart splits open when I see the steady streams pouring out of her eyes. Her emotional pain cuts me deep and the darkening of her aura makes me wish I didn’t show her all of that, but they needed to see it. They needed to be caught up because our time is coming. I feel it in my soul.

Things are changing. Rapidly.

“It all worked out the way it was supposed to,” I say gently and she shakes her head, balling her fist on the table.

“What was your life like after he died and we lost communication? Did you…what did he leave you to live through there?” she asks angrily, and I understand that anger, but it’s not his fault.

Shaking my head, I give her a small, sad smile. “There’s no need to dredge that up. I don’t know exactly why I had to stay there, after my emerging or my eighteenth birthday came. You saw his memories and where he left it off. I still must figure that out, but you have to believe it was the right thing to do. I believe that.”

The argument is sitting on her tongue. It’s written all over her face. All over her men’s face. The tremble in each of their arms, the quiet, serious demeanors show the restraint they’re using to hold their emotions back right now.

“Listen, I know what you all just saw and found out is hard. It’s been very hard for us from the second I stepped foot in this realm, but regardless if we like it or not, it’s out of our hands. For the most part. We have decisions to make at every turn and those decisions have consequences that lay our paths for us. We have to accept the path that was laid for us prior to now. With our loss of memories, gaining them back, and everything wehave in front of us, we just have to move forward. We have a society to crumble and a realm to save.”

My words are firm, and I leave no room for argument.

If we start falling down the pits of could’ve, would’ve, should’ve, we’ll never get anything done. And if I continue to bury my head in the sand about the truth of who I am, we’re going to lose this war.

We can’t afford that.

---