Page 193 of Gift from the Source
With a quick kiss to the tops of our heads, he hastily walks away from us before transporting out. I know the quick retreat is so we don’t see him get even more upset, but the pain is potent in my chest. Oakly’s trembling beside me doesn’t help.
“Everything’s going to be okay,”I mumble.
“Are you scared?”she asks.
“Fucking petrified.”
“Okay good. I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t the only one being a little bitch right now.”
A watery laugh slips out of me, and I pull my sister in for a hug. As the seconds stretch by, I tell myself repeatedly, this is just me telling her I love her.
The last thing I’m going to do is tell her what else we discovered this morning. She may faint and I can’t have that.
“Let’s go find our men,” I say when we break apart.
Turning around, we don’t take a step before our eyes are widening and our feet freeze in place. What was just a crowded garden is now completely empty. All we can see now is the backs of E.F. members who have formed a line way past where the trees once stood.
“Shit,” she mumbles.
I grip her arm and pull her forward with me. “Come on.”
Marching across the open space, either way I look, the line of E.F. members continues to stretch out. The surrounding forests have been trimmed and pushed back, but the forest that was once in front of us is gone. You can see for miles ahead and she also created a massive clearing around the entire perimeter of the palace.
My head tilts up to check the moon.
Time is ticking away.
The silent crowd splits, watching Oakly and me as we walk toward our men at the front of this massive line.
As the E.F. members close in behind us, a chant starts up. Each rumble comes from deep within them. No words are sung, but the vocals are strong enough to make the ground beneath my boots vibrate.
The distance between us and the front line seems to stretch longer as the war beat gets louder. In front of us, my Nexus, Oakly’s, Aria, my brothers, Keeper, Aurora, and my fathers-in-law turn to watch us take this walk.
The intensity in the air has my dragon’s wings unfurling in my chest. She readies herself. Her deadly claws burrow in and smoke blows from her nostrils with her warning rumble. I allow it to flow through my own as my eyes shift violet and nails morph into claws.
Four resounding growls sound in front of me.
A dragon. A wolf. A tasmonium. A lion.
A chain reaction flows through the space as echoes of the many species among us answer the call.
Each step I take, flames burn the grass beneath my feet.
The embers are doused by shadows that crawl across the earth.
Light pours from my palms as I lace Oakly’s hand with mine.
I meet the eyes of my family standing feet from me now and latch onto their minds.
“I will not walk to the end of this line and give some speech that’s not quite a goodbye but could pass as one. I do love you all, more than this realm we will defend. But I will not tell you goodbye. We will come out of this together.”
“Together,” they all echo.
Oakly and I are surrounded the moment we step close enough to be embraced.
Silence reigns as we bask in one another.
They are my forever.
