Page 173 of Gift from the Source
Impossible.
They never had…
It was an ingenious plan.
I don’t try to pull away or move from her as her shadows continue to swirl around my wrist and up my arms. My own come out to join hers.
There’s a rage something fierce burning through me, but it’s being overshadowed by dots connecting around my mind.
The thoughts try to outrace my logical, but I don’t allow it to.
I latch onto all the pieces and put them together.
As it all begins playing out for me, I find myself struggling to breathe.
The years of planning this.
This is what he meant in his letter…
Her loyalty to the Summum-Master and Mastery runs deep. Deeper than you can imagine but will soon enough know. She was born into it, and she has festered like the monster she is.
She is so much like herown mother.
A hand grips my shoulder, and I whip my head to the side. Corentin’s struggling to regulate the air in his own lungs, but that doesn’t stop him from filling mine with his element.
“Cas,” he grits out.
“It all makes a lot of fucked-up sense,” I murmur. “I need to see Pran and Dillon.”
“Then that’s where we’ll go,” Draken declares, pulling Willow off the ground to stand before any of the rest of us makes a move.
I don’t even have to convince him.
The dragon will always have my back.
“I don’t mean this in a bad way, but you’re handling this both far better than I did and better than I thought you would,” Willow says as she lays her hand to my heart.
“Don’t take my calmness for anything other than me trying to get answers, Primary. I have every intention of killing the Gales off one by one. Slowly, painfully. But you know how long I’ve wanted all the answers surrounding what happened to me. I have all the important ones, the ones that mean the most, but if I can scrape up every little detail, I’m going to. And then, when I peel their skin from their bodies, I’m going to rub it in their faces that they spent so many years attempting to break me and my family. Only to fail in the end.”
My dark words don’t scare her away. If anything, the naughty little Primary can’t stop herself from leaning closer to me.
I lay my lips to hers and swallow down the soft little sigh she releases. That breath of fresh air just spurs me on, and I bury my tongue deeper.
“Ready, sweet Willow?”
“Ready.”
My brothers lay their hands on me, but I don’t transport us. I tug on my Primary and she immediately knows what I’m asking for.
Her gift floods my body along with my own and I move us through the shadows. The realm becomes a blur as I move us through the darkness. The thrill thrumming through hers and my brother’s chests motivates me even more. I soak up their elation as I pushmy gift as much as I can.
This is the farthest I’ve ever traveled by my shadows and it’s ten times the experience having them alongside me. Yes, it certainly takes longer than a transport would, but having my gift and hers surrounding us is a feeling I’m willing to lose a couple of minutes of travel time over.
I avoid the central foyer at all cost. Just in case Vicki Gale is still in attendance. I may have collected myself for now, but if I laid my eyes on her, there’s no doubt I’d abandon my plans and replace them with slicing her to pieces.
We shadow out in front of the door where we placed Maxima, and many more voices than just the three brothers’ come through the wall.
Corentin and Tillman arch a brow at one another, but I don’t bother waiting to see what they decide to communicate mentally.
