Page 41 of Gift from the Source
Pushing myself up, I stumble right back down when my wobbly arms and legs can’t bear the strength to hold me. The five-foot distance between me and the door seems like a mile long, but still, I crawl.
I crawl as hard and as fast as I can.
Every slide of my palm, every shift of my knee has indescribable pain lacing through my nerve endings and desperate tears spring to my eyes.
Don’t give up, Orien. A few more feet.
Push. Push yourself.
You’re there.
I fall through the door, face-planting the grass as I shove the steel with every ounce of my heart and soul. The second the sun touches my skin, I don’t waste any time.
“Take me to her,”I command my magic.
For a blissful, fleeting moment, darkness swallows me whole.
Light attempts to cut through my closed lids, but the firm surface at my back soothes my racing mind and heart. The familiar scent of woods, rain, and a touch of the not so pleasant stench of this realm is welcoming and I breathe a sigh of relief.
I made it.
My eyes open with a groan and my insides feel like they’re shrinking to nothing. I use my shaky hands to pull some cloth from my pocket to clean some of the blood off me before Willow arrives. She’s going to go into full panic mode when her eyes land on me, but I do my best to conceal the worst of the worst.
Leaning my head back against her willow tree, I use what energy I have left to reach around me and pull her present through the pocket dimension in the trunk. I’m careful not to sully her box with my blood, and I lay it gently on the ground beside me as I close my eyes again and breathe through the pain.
“Elementra?”
“Yes, Seer.”
“I ask one more favor of you. Please.”
“You’ve succeeded in all that I have asked, plus more. Ask what you please, Orien Caduceus Vito.”
“I’m not ready to leave her, not completely. I want to see what she grows to be. What she and the boys become. The small bits I’ve been fortunate to see are not enough. I want to be a part of their lives. I ask for more,”I say, sobbing as the pain spreads through every part of me and of my reality.
I’m truly dying. I will have to leave them all.
I thought I’d prepared myself better, but that was a naïve assumption.
Elementra’s power washes over me, only to calm me because even she can’t stop what has already begun and I relish her feeling of home, comfort.
“Your request comes with a decision. Whichever choice you make, I will honor.”
Her otherworldly essence flows across my mind, and the options available to me become clear.
I watch in horror as a monster bigger than her father comes into her life. It, I swear, speeds up the process of my heart stopping as I force myself to watch what he puts her through. Bile burns in the back of my throat, but I bear it so she isn’t alone.
I continue to be shown what will happen to her and become of her if I leave her here without giving her the stone.
I’m shown what I’ll be allowed to do from the beyond.
Then… the other option.
Through her grief and soul splitting, she’ll use the stone to run. She’ll go into hiding.
It’ll be much, much later in life that she makes it to Elementra and nothing of what I’ve seen of the possible paths for her and the boys will come to fruition. The true Nexus bond will still be there, but nothing will be as it could be.
Her other bonds. Her brother.
