Page 72 of Gift from the Source
“I am nice and understanding,”Tillman chuffs.
“Yeah, if they’d have said no or weren’t offering this information to us, how long would you have waited before prying it from their minds?”
“Who’s to say I haven’t already?”
“Have you?”
“No. See, nice and understanding.”
Rolling my eyes discreetly, his laugh caresses my mind, and I ignore him. “Who’d like to start?”
“What I’ve had to do is going to piss you all off the most, so I’ll get it out of the way,” Dec says, and all eyes turn toward him. “I’ve always been tasked with infiltrating dreams. I’ve attempted to get in each of your dreams but have only ever been successful with Willow’s.”
Yeah, that, of course, was not the right place to start.
I send out a burst of calm to each of my men as I sense their guards immediately go up. It only slightly defuses their want to kill him, but it’s enough for now.
“The Ruling Nexus, the heirs, and the five families have always been on his list. I’ve successfully slipped into all the members on the councils’ dreams but two of them—”
“Dillon and Pran Gale?” Cas interrupts.
“Yeah. How’d you know that?”
“Lucky guess. How do you know who is who? It’s hard to believe before you were kidnapped as a teenager you gave a shit about any of us,” Cas fires back.
“I didn’t give a shit about the adults, no, but I knew who you all were. Aside from Willow. I don’t think there’s anyone in Elementra who doesn’t know about the heirs who all just happened to be a Nexus. The others, he has files on everyone. I need at least a sense of who a person is, their gift, to be able to jump into their dreams. He’s been able to acquire objects fromthe five, which makes it even easier for me. Before you ask how he did that, the Everglows or Gales would steal it, obviously. They’ve stolen from the Ruling Nexus as well, but it’s never been enough.”
Geez, this just keeps getting worse.
“Let’s remember he didn’t have a choice in any of this before you all get shitty with him,”I say as the guys’ disdain grows stronger.
“We know he isn’t the one to blame, princess. Still doesn’t make listening to it easier.”
My eyes soften at Corentin before nodding to Dec to carry on. His words may be calm and to the point, but the look of guilt on his face tells the true story. Much like Keeper and Trex, he isn’t proud of anything he’s done.
“Everything I found out, I of course reported back. Sometimes there were things of importance, sometimes there weren’t, or one of the Everglows reported it first. The reason…I was…” He trails off, looking down at his hands and the guilt that slices through me forces the breath from my lungs.
Whatever is about to come out of his mouth is going to be bad. His aura has completely shifted and even his brothers squeezing his shoulders isn’t helping.
“We understand the situation you were placed in. Trex, Keeper, Layton, the two of you. We aren’t holding you all responsible. We know who’s to blame,” Corentin says.
“You should blame me. I’ve done everything I’ve had to, to keep my brothers and Carrington safe. But at the cost of many, many others. At what point does that selfishness become too much?” His voice rises with his question, yet he keeps his head hanging low.
The hushed silence that follows is heavy.
I don’t believe any of us want to admit our truths.
“You’re asking a group of very diverse people an impossible question. None of us have the right answer for you. Some of us would never put someone else in harm’s way. Whereas I’d flood the realm and everyone in it for my Primary, my brothers, our family. I’d be selfish until my last dyingbreath for them. You can only ask yourself that question and accept the answer,” Caspian says.
His usual coldness is missing and instead, his tone is almost tender like that’s really his dying promise. There’s no limit he wouldn’t go to for us.
I don’t believe there’s a limit I wouldn’t go to either.
It’s hard to admit I’d put innocent people in jeopardy, but for them…
“I’m the reason that academy was attacked. Crestwood. I dream walked into the caster’s mind many nights in a row. The Summum-Master wanted to see how much influence I could have on the dreams. My objective was to visit him every night and not make myself known, but to influence the dreams, whisper plans into his mind. It took a week to convince him to let the ward down. It was practice for the other schools. When I told Trex and Codi this, Codi told me…told me the caster took his life after what happened to the students.”
The ground beneath the table shakes violently as Tillman stands and his chair crumbles like a can. His fists shake by his sides as he tries to get his breathing regulated.
