Page 252 of Gift from the Source
Thirty-Two
Oakly
Five years later
Easy does it, Oakly. Don’t fuck this up.
You blow up the lab you pulled the sister card to get, you’re not getting another one.
“Should I be concerned you’re talking to yourself?”
“Shit!”
My shriek ricochets off the walls and the tips of my finger graze the relic as I attempt to catch it before it hits the ground.
Thankfully, an air bubble encases it and gently sets it back on my desk.
I slowly turn to my sister with my hands on my hips, and she sits on my couch with her feet kicked up and arm thrown over the back.
“You’re as bad as your ghost boy, you know. What the hell are you doing sneaking in here like that? You nearly made me drop that relic I’ve been working my ass off on figuring out.”
“Yeah, and that sample you were about to scrape was going to make the whole thing turn to dust. It’s sensitive about where youtouch it.”
My gaze falls from her to the molded figure that resembles an hourglass, then back to her repeatedly.
Well, shit.
“In that case, what the hell took you so long to distract me? I was seconds away from scraping it.”
“The vision just came to me. I left the amplifier room immediately and came to you.” She chuckles like this is hilarious while I’m sweating fucking streams.
“What else have you seen about this little shit? I’m getting to my breaking point with it. Two years and not an ounce of progress with it. I’m ready to stick it in the room.”
I point my finger furiously at the wall that, if we commanded it, would lead us to another secret room we built.
That one is just for us.
We hide in there often and drink too much coffee, sometimes happy juice. It’s starting to be a collection of random things we find and like. There’s of course a mixture of our favorite things. Relics, books, artifacts and what have you, but it also holds some of the most dangerous things we possess.
Namely, the second Gods Binding, the Charm of Compulsion—which Keeper told me I could keep and study for however long I needed, aka forever—the Acidiate Cube, and the dagger the Summum-Master used to mark people.
We actually have rounded up a few of those in the past few years.
Each one we find comes here.
As does anything else that interests us.
Our reasoning for moving everything was simply because it’s easier to study them here. When they were in the room we created in CC’s bedroom, I constantly had to transport back and forth between the palace and academy.
That was fine before I took a more active role in the archives as well as helping when I’m needed for the E.F. Granted, that isn’t much, thankfully, but there’s always going to be little squabbles around the realm.
Now it’s all in one place and easy to access for me and Willow.
“How much trouble are you willing to get into today?”
“Depends. Are we getting in trouble just to get our guys’ attention or in the name of science?”
“Technically, in the name of science, but it’ll no doubt lead to being in trouble with the guys.”
