Page 166 of Gift from the Source
“And you don’t think you should’ve fucking warned her? Us? Anyone?” Cas asks menacingly.
“No. She had to make her choices based on instinct and what’s inside of her own soul. If I warned her, she could’ve reacted differently. The power could’ve fully taken control of her because she would’ve been overthinking what she should do. She may have lost herself for a moment, but she had a reason to find her way back. Many reasons,”V explains.
I want to argue. I want to yell at him like the guys are doing.
Yet the words get stuck in my throat.
I was already overthinking the words I wanted to say before I even laid my hands on the relic. When the goddess told me what I had to do, if V had told me then what to really expect, I would’ve obsessed over this.
Then I would’ve failed.
I would’ve given in to that call easily.
“Do you truly believe that, little warrior?”Tillman asks.
“Believe what?” Corentin asks as he cups my cheek. I fall into his gaze as Tillman tells them my thoughts.
I don’t mind at the moment. I won’t hide this from them.
Corentin’s fingers flinch, and I close my eyes as I turn, laying my lips to his palm.
Turning my head to Tillman, the worry written across his emerald eyes hurts my heart, but I won’t lie to him. Any of them.
“Yes, I do believe that. I know it without a shadow of a doubt. That power was wrong, so very wrong, but it…it consumed me. I wanted to harness it. Use it selfishly for whatever I wanted. There’s no preparation or planning for a sensation like that. I think it was able to take control of me so fiercely because I was already worked up over what I was going to say. If my mind had been any more distracted, I would’ve been a goner. I would have turned into him.”
The lingering anger in them evaporates. What’s left behind is even more potent.
Fear.
The fear of losing me.
“It needs to be destroyed,” Cas says, calling his shadows to his hands.
“No, Cas, stop. Feel it now,” I shout frantically, casting my own shadows out to cocoon his. “The powers changed. This is how it’s supposed to feel and be wielded.”
The haunted look I haven’t seen in some time crosses his eyes. I fear he isn’t going to listen to me.
It’s a breath longer than I’d like before he finally kneels in front of me.
As he reaches his hand toward it, so do the others.
It’s not only the feel of the relic that’s changed but its appearance as well. The bronze is brighter as though it’s just been polished. The globe glows like a star in the sky and there’s no black smoke to be seen within.
It’s crystal clear.
The sensation of the power now, though, is difficult to explain.
It’s almost welcoming. Healing.
“It was a beautiful force once upon a time. That time could come again,”V says.
“It’s really time now, isn’t it?”
“It is, filia.”
I nod, pushing off Draken’s lap. He’s resistant to let me go, but he eventually does with a squeeze to my hip.
“Will I get instructions this go around?” I ask softly as I kneel in front of him.
