Page 56 of Gift from the Source
“Noticed that, did you? I don’t even have to focus on being silent. It just happens,” he says with a sinister little smirk.
I guess his stalking will be even easier.
Staring at him while he stares at Willow, I can’t help but think about all the power boost my brothers have gotten. Theirs have been gradually growing while mine seemed to burst free as soon as Willow’s dragon and mine bonded, then marked one another.
I mean, not that I really care. No one else but me can grow into a massive-ass dragon with blue flames that can burn anything. But I’ve learned enough now to know it’s strange that’s where mine tapped out.
“Finally, something worth my time,”my bird friend says, then hoots, causing Cas to flinch and glare at him.
I’ll come back to that…
“I’m fine. I mean, that was a lot to take in, but it was all worth it. Willow got the closure she needed on all fronts. So did we. We found out Darstein switched those vials to make Ale look like an idiot, which flipped the scriptfor everything. The second family betraying us is now in the light. Well, except I guess two of them are working with us, not against us. We need to kind of dig into that more. Nexus brothers were reunited. We got new cool friends. The portals in the nonmagical realm are closed and the blood was returned. It was a pretty productive day, I’d say. I guess now we just got to find out the Summum-Master’s identity and see if that leads us to destroying him.”
I have to list it out like that so Cas knows I’m following. There’re obviously some other things I left out, but as long as he knows I got the gist of all the shit that went down today, he’s not going to force me to listen to him rehash every bit of it.
“The Master of Master’s identity is already available to the one who would look for it. Why his identity is important will follow that discovery.”
“What? How would you know that?”My head whips toward the bird and his seemingly all-knowing eyes blink before he cocks his head to the side at me.
“You’re communicating with the bird as well. I thought it was more like an animal thing going on between the two of you,” Cas mumbles and I peer over to see him staring at us with his full attention.
“He’s not a bird, he’s a—”
“Do not speak my species. You all may call me V if you so desperately need a label.”
“Well, is that your name?”I ask.
“Mostly.”
Huffing, I roll my eyes and tell Cas what he said. That, of course, doesn’t satisfy Mr. Need to have all the information and he scowls at V.
“How are the two of you communicating? Is it like how Tanith speaks to us? Why are you clinging specifically to Draken?”
“There’s no babbling in the Shadow God’s mind. Just many questions and answers. He’s a smart one as well.”
“I’m sure he’d enjoy you perching on his shoulder.”
“No. He’s not the one who needs me.”
I arch a brow for him to explain. He doesn’t. Instead, he ruffles his feathers out and kneads his damn talons into my shoulder.
“I don’t think he’s in the mood to give answers right now,” I tell Cas and he hums.
He reaches his hand out slowly and goes to run his fingers down V’s wing. I try to hiss out a warning, but I’m too late.
That sharp beak plucks down faster than I can reach my hand up to stop him and Caspian’s high-pitched yelp echoes around the backyard. There’s a beat of stunned silence as he looks down at the blood pouring from the cut. When his shocked eyes look up at me, I die laughing.
“I take back what I said. He’s a fool,”V says before releasing a series of squawks.
“You of all people should know better than to touch someone all willy-nilly. How would you like it if I tried to pet your arm?” I gasp out, choking back my chuckles.
“That fucking hurt. Asshole bird,” Cas sneers.
My entire body shakes from my laughter as I watch him shadow away and pop up in front of Willow. I can hear him snitching V out and the restraint it’s taking Willow not to laugh just causes me to chuckle harder. The sly smirk playing on his lips as she gives in and fusses over his finger causes me to roll my eyes at his dramatics.
I love to see how needy my brother’s gotten with her.
As the sound of my amusement eventually fades out, I sigh. It really has been a long day. Yeah, I’m happy and pleased with everything we did and discovered, but damn, I’m ready for a break. I wanna laze in bed with my little wanderer and brothers.
