19. Nineteen
Five…four…three…
My heart thunders in my chest. Each beat feels like a drumroll, a loudness that syncs with the answers I’m running through my mind. The weight of my fear, her fear, my brothers’ fear, all bear down on me, threatening to suffocate me as I desperately clutch everything within, struggling to hold it together.
She was fine this morning, minutes ago, glowing from the aftermath of the pleasure Tillman wrung from her body last night. Now, my princess is about to fall apart at the realization that just hit her, the truth she’s trying to deny.
She’s okay. She’s alive. She’s not falling into a two-day coma.
She can just hear people’s thoughts…mind transference.
Two…one…
I release my breath in a controlled, slow flow of air and force myself to remain calm for her. Her eyes are swirling vortexes of panic and she’s on the verge of freaking the fuck out. I have no clue what or how she can truly do this, but one thing’s for certain. I see it clearly now. She somehow either absorbs or mimics gifts. And I’m not just referring to Draken’s and now Tillman’s.
When she gripped me hard enough that her nails sank into my skin through my suit, I knew something was wrong. She doesn’t have a reaction that strong to her memories or visions, so I knew whatever it was, was causing her pain. Then it only took a second of watching her reaction and hearing the words she was crying to figure out what was happening. It was like looking into the past. It was almost exactly how Tillman reacted. Only difference was he opened a fucking crater in our backyard.
Caspian’s power barricades us in a cover of darkness, shielding her from the eyes of everyone in the training gym. The moment she hit the ground, his shadows shot out of him in an instant, trying to protect her from whatever was happening. Unfortunately for us, there’s no protecting her from this.
“Yes, princess. You have the gift of mind transference,” I say calmly, watching her eyes merge from fear, to anger, to denial, and finally acceptance.
“How?” she whispers.
“I’m not sure. But based on both times you’ve bonded now, you wake up with that gift, so we can only assume it’s going to continue,” I tell her gently.
She holds my gaze for a moment, then slides her eyes to Caspian. It takes her a minute to piece together what I’m truly trying to say, but it clicks, and she sucks in a startled breath.
“By the time we all bond, I’ll have all your gifts,” she whispers. I give her a reassuring smile, cupping her tear-soaked cheek. I know it’s a fuck ton to process right now, but that isn’t all of it.
“Willow, what’s going on?” Gaster asks as Caspian allows him to walk through his shadows and kneel beside me.
“I…” she trails off, asking me with her eyes to answer for her.
“She has the gift of mind transference. It just emerged,” I say low, keeping my voice down.
I highly doubt anyone in the gym’s heard anything that’s been going on so far behind the thick wall of shadows, but it’s not a risk I’m willing to take. For the most part, aside from Lucas and his Nexus, everyone here is our most trusted friends and E.F. members, but only Oakly’s Nexus and Gaster know the true extent of Willow’s power, and I plan to keep it that way.
“My, my, child. Never in all the years I’ve walked this realm have I ever met someone as remarkable as you,” he breathes, giving her a soft, tender look.
“And how many years has that been?” she asks. Her eyes are still teary, fearful, but I see a hint of herself peeking through, taking this as an opportunity to try to get him to reveal his most well-kept secret.
“Nice try, missy.” He smirks, not falling for it at all. His pocket jingles as he reaches in to grab her a healing vial, and I make a note to myself to fucking always have them in my pockets from this moment going forward.
“It was worth a shot.” She closes her eyes and releases a long, drawn-out breath. Her face is pale, and I know she’s trying to fight the nausea away while the healing vial kicks in.
“Well, little wanderer, Elementra said to trust in your gifts. I guess you’re just going to get a heap of them,” Draken says in a teasing but gentle tone as he rubs her back. He’s trying to calm her with humor, something they both do that infuriates and works on me. It’s hard to keep a serious face when they say some funny shit sometimes.
“But five gifts, really? I think that’s an overkill,” she complains, blowing air out of her mouth forcefully enough her lips flap together. Everyone chuckles but me because I’m obviously the only one who’s put it all together.
“Seven gifts, princess,” I say, gripping her chin to look at me.
“What?” she asks, her laugh still lingering in her words.
“You could possibly end up with seven gifts, if mine and Caspian’s emerge. You’re already showing signs of five,” I tell her firmly, but softly, knowing she could perhaps freak out.
“No, only three. The sight, my dragon, and now this,” she argues, waving her hands around her head.
Gaster sucks in a gasp, and I don’t have to look at him to know he’s figured it out as well. I’d be surprised if Caspian hasn’t either. Fuck, it really wouldn’t surprise me if he’s known this whole time but just never said anything. Damn master of mischief.
“The reason you’ve been able to feel where we are and what we’re feeling so keenly is because somehow, you’re also using Gaster’s and Oakly’s gifts. They were your first bonds to snap in place.”
Her eyes swing to Gaster, and she examines every inch of him as if she’s searching for something, and he chuckles with a tender, knowing look.
“You’ve seen colorful glows, haven’t you, child?” he asks.
“Yeah, and I thought I was imagining it. Reddish orange. You were reddish orange the day you taught me all those spells,” she breathes. The air swooshes out of her like it’s a relief and overwhelming turbulence.
“I was so proud of you for getting the diversion spell, closely followed by the concealment spell, down on your first try. You were so determined and confident, my chest swelled with pride and admiration in those moments.” He beams.
“Holy shit. What do I do? Why the hell am I like this? What am I—” I cut the outburst of questions off with my mouth, swallowing the sound down, forcing her to focus only on me.
I know her well enough that I was prepared for the freak-out, the panic, and I had my distraction ready. I also know she’ll bounce back in a moment. As soon as her mind calms, she’ll be okay.
Her sweet little moans come faster, and she shakes like a leaf as the guys all close in around her. The tiny whimper she lets out as I pull away damn near has me groaning and giving in to her siren’s call.
“Better?” I ask as she glances up at me through her lashes.
“Much,” she says breathlessly.
It’s a gruesome fight to lock my bond up in its cage when she stares at me like that. I see every want, desire, and promise written in those silver pools, and every burning part of me wants to dive in. Tell the responsibilities and the realm to fuck themselves so I can just live my days undisturbed with her.
“Tillman, go let everyone know we’ll reschedule this debriefing for later today,” I order, running my thumb over Willow’s now swollen lips.
“No, no. Don’t do that because of me. If we start canceling shit every time something weird happens to me, we’ll never get anything done. I’m okay now.” She swears. The lust slowly fades from her eyes, leaving behind scorching anticipation and the promise that we’ll have our time soon.
“We can put this off until this afternoon if you want,” I tell her honestly.
“No, let’s get it over with so then we can relax this afternoon and work on figuring out my new predicament. I got a feeling the remainder of this week isn’t going to be much of a break.” She sighs.
Unfortunately, she’s right. Between what Tillman’s going to tell us now, interrogating the members of the Terravile pack, planning missions for the locations we already know could be possible hostage spots for the fuckers already in Rebel Castle, we’ve got a list of shit that’s got to get done.
Giving her a nod, I stand and reach my hand down to help her up. The guys don’t bother taking a step back to give her room to do it on her own, rather they all grab her in various spots and pick her up off the floor. Gaster left at some point, giving me and Willow a little privacy.
Honestly, he probably left because it’s awkward for him. I’m sure it’s weird to see boys he helped raise, kiss, touch, and flaunt over his basically bonded granddaughter.
“How do you feel, Primary?” Caspian asks, running a tendril of shadows down her face.
“I don’t know. I don’t know if I’m ready to accept this just yet, so I’ve shoved it down. I believe I have my mind locked up like Tillman instructed, though.”
“If the noise starts coming in again, do the same thing you did. Command the volume down and push the voices out. If you can’t, we’ll get you out of here,” Tillman declares, staring at her intently.
“I can feel you trying to push in, but I have it blocked. Is there a way I can learn to block out everyone but you four?” she asks.
“We’ll have to practice. It’s going to take some concentration, but we’ll work on it later, I promise. For now, just block out all the noise,” he says, running his hand down her throat. With a short nod and a kiss to his palm, she links their fingers together.
“Fuck, little wanderer, I can’t wait for you to hear all the naughty things I think about you,” Draken cheers, claiming her other hand.
The smile on his face screams he’s thinking about something right now. I swear it’s an extra gift Draken has to be able to detect when tension needs to be broken up. Sometimes he says some inappropriate shit at the wrong time, but for the most part, he always knows what to say.
“Draken,” she playfully scolds, laughing at his words.
Her previously gloomy, panic-ridden face is gone in a flash and by the way he smiles down at her, it’s obvious he did it on purpose before we step out in front of this room full of people.
As the dark shadow that’s been concealing us comes down, the noise in the room comes into focus before it silences as all heads turn toward us. It’s no surprise when Oakly attempts to bulldoze her way through us to get to Willow, her Nexus right behind her, each of them approaching us with stricken looks on their faces. No doubt their Primary was giving them hell about being shut out when Gaster wasn’t.
“Are you okay? What happened?” Oakly bombards Willow, examining her body, searching for signs of injury.
“Later,” Willow responds.
She and Oakly seem to have a silent conversation that only they understand, apparently. I can’t help but raise a questioning brow as they go back and forth, raising eyebrows, nodding, and grunting. Caspian’s wearing a shit-eating grin, watching the two of them, his fucking telltale signs he knows something the rest of us don’t, and that pisses me off.
“Fine,” Oakly grumbles, not pushing anymore.
I make another mental note to ask Willow what that was about later as I steer her over to the table where Lucas and his team and the palace team are waiting for us to begin. Tillman approaches and speaks for both of us, while I dial Lyker, so his Nexus and Rhett’s can listen in.
“Corentin. I was getting concerned,” he says seriously the moment he answers. The tone in his voice makes me pause instead of putting him on speaker. I hear Aria’s voice in the background going a mile a minute, and my princess can’t help but take notice, hearing the commotion from how close she’s standing to me.
“Everything’s fine, just had something come up,” I tell him vaguely; not that I’m worried about him knowing what happened, I’m just not announcing it.
“Can you give me a second? He just called…message her yourself…” he growls, cutting the flurry of Aria’s inaudible questions off. “Fine, fine. Fuck. Corentin, sorry, is Fortune Teller okay? Aria is having a damn fit and is convinced she felt a disturbance from her… How the fuck do you think you felt a disturbance? That makes no sense,” he growls again at Aria, but now my mind is back to racing. Willow, who’s been eavesdropping on this entire conversation, stares at me in both shock and understanding.
What the hell now?
“It does make sense. Ask her how she knows,” I order gravelly.
Elementra, I swear if this is another bond…
“She says because her gift is tuned into Willow’s from their dream-walking adventures,” he replies and I blow out a subtle breath of relief. Not another bond, just Aria’s Ethereal abilities.
“Tell her she’s fine and will call her later. I’m putting you on speaker now so we can get to the briefing,” I say more forcefully than I meant, but I’m almost to my fucking cap in surprises today and I’m ill I have to hear these details along with everyone else since Tillman had something better to do last night than fill me in.
There’s that jealousy of yours showing.
Cutting the communicator on speaker and tossing it on the table, I drag Willow onto my lap as we all sit down. I avoid Tillman’s gaze like it’s the plague because I feel it burning into my skin. I know I’m a jealous asshole, but deep down, I’m a happy jealous asshole.
Loud scraping draws my attention to my right, where Draken is dragging his chair as close as humanly possible to me and Willow. The noise makes my eye twitch and I sneer at him, telling him with my glare to cut it out, to which he just grins, placing his hand on Willow’s thigh.
Tickling around my wrist pulls my scathing look from him, to where Willow has her hands lying on my arms. Caspian’s shadows are trying to push their way between our skin so they can wrap around her hands. I shoot him a dark look, earning myself a satisfied smirk.
I’m going to kill them both.
Five…four…three…two…one…
Why they choose this exact moment to mess with me like they used to when they were un-fucking-ruly teenagers, I don’t know, but it’s both pissing me off and bringing me joy. We found Draken after what happened to Cas, but out of all of us, even me, Draken’s able to pull Caspian out of the darkness the most. Their unsustainable need to cause trouble, play pranks, and just bring chaos has always fed off of one another. Why I have to be their current target, though, I don’t know.
“Let’s proceed,” I command after Tillman finishes giving a brief to Lucas and his team on what happened in Terravile, up to the point of the Elders. I grip Willow’s hips tightly to stop her squirming, and that’s when I realize Draken’s trailing his hand up and down the inside of her thigh, and Caspian’s discreetly tracing her body with his shadows. Giving them both one last warning glare, they snicker, like this shit is pleasing them to no end.
“None of the nine Elders knew the identity of the Summum-Master. They’ve only met him once when he visited Jarod’s father. He keeps his face concealed, but there’s no doubt he’s male. One of their biggest beliefs is that males are of higher standard than females.” Tillman sneers. His hard eyes seek out Willow’s, then soften.
“Of fucking course. Makes perfect sense,” she mutters, crossing her arms, no doubt thinking about how her worthless father and that rapist scumbag called her a useless woman more times than she can count.
Vile idiots.
“Like we’ve assumed, they’re in both the nonmagical realm and Elementra. The Summum-Master has struck some sort of deal with the creatures of the Forsaken Forest to guard the portal that’s being used to move in between realms. I can only assume, knowing the creatures that live in the forest, life essence is being exchanged. The Elders were unsure of how he got the portal back open, but he successfully did it.” Tillman grimaces, and the majority of the table does as well, except for Willow, who’s looking around with confusion marring her face. Fuck, I don’t look forward to telling her what lives in that forest.
“They have a ranking system that’s based off the beliefs we hold but have been modified to fit their agenda. Recruits, pledges, soldiers, Enforcers, Masters, Deinde-Masters, and the Summum-Master. Masters have multiple trials they have to work through to prove their worth to move up to Deinde-Master. Jarod was a Master-Enforcer, for example. He was a Master of training the new recruits, soldiers, and he would’ve been promoted into a position like the one I hold, I believe, if he were to have become a Deinde-Master. The Elders called themselves Masters of Knowledge. It’s easy to assume only the high-ranking masters and the Deinde-Masters, could be aware of the identity of the Summum-Master,” he continues.
The similarities are there to how we run our society, but our rankings only apply to E.F. members and then the ruling family, citizens are just citizens, unless they pursue higher titles, like Gaster, who’s a Master Archivist. E.F. members start as recruits and work their way through third-level academy to become fully pledged E.F. members.
There’re enforcers like Lucas, Lyker, Rhett, who’ve served diligently and been promoted. Then Ry’s title as second, to Tillman who’s Leader, which I would equate to their system as a Deinde-Master.
The ruling family is just the Ruling Nexus, which are the men who are bonded to the Matriarch. They rule together as one, but the Matriarch is the center focus because she’s the keeper of balance. It seems the Summum-Master wants to replace that structure with his own dictatorship.
“What about what they’re doing to the people they kidnap?” Caspian asks. His eyes have darkened, and I see the terrors of what he went through creeping to the surface. No one knows as well as him the extent the Mastery will go to in order to experiment on a person. Well, he and Willow.
“They’re pushing their gifts to the max by torture, forced simulations to draw it out, and they’re taking their blood by the pints daily. They’re hiding the children who haven’t emerged, preparing them for what’s to come,” Tillman answers factually, but his grim, firm eyes show that he didn’t want to have to tell Caspian that.
“What the fuck for?” Lyker growls through the communicator.
“They’re trying to steal their gifts,” Willow whispers, causing every head to turn to her.
“How do you know?” Caspian asks, pushing off the wall, striding toward us.
“I don’t know, but I do. I can feel it. And the Elders even said, they were using their gifts to reward those more deserving. Why else would they be in alliance with nonmagical men? Those men are powerful in the nonmagical realm because of their social standing and money, but they have nothing to offer the Mastery here in Elementra without powers. And the blood, it’s life essence. They’re draining their life essence, but how would they transfer the power? It all comes back to the blood magic somehow,” she spews in a rattle of words, her breaths coming out short and her clammy palms are digging into my skin. She feels very deeply about this, completely sure, so I believe her wholeheartedly.
In a matter of seconds, my brother’s features morph through dissecting phases. Starting with analyzing everything she said, calculating the possibility of its truth, an argument within him, can it be achieved or not. Then I see the all-familiar darkness bleed into his eyes as he recounts what he lived through. The shadows cling to him as he snaps himself out of the nightmare, and finally, he accepts that her words ring deafeningly true.
He lifts a trembling hand to Willow’s chin, tilting her head up so he can lay a kiss to her forehead, then vanishes through his shadows, leaving her hand stretched out in an attempt to run her fingers down his face.
“He just needs a minute, princess. I doubt he leaves the gym, but he’ll stay in the shadows until he calms down,” I whisper in her ear, feeling the rising emotions within her. She doesn’t respond but nods and links her fingers through mine.
“What about possible locations for the hostages?” Lucas asks.
The Crestwood attack is his first ground lead mission and I know it’s eating him up that he hasn’t gotten further. His typical chatter that drives me fucking crazy is absent currently. The seriousness of the information we’ve come across has subdued his characteristically talkative mood.
“We’ve received intel on possible locations from the prisoners we apprehended on our last mission and hopefully during the interrogation of the Terravile members we’ll receive more. The Elders were unaware of any other than the forest,” Tillman informs him.
“I obviously need to read up on this forest,” Willow comments, noticing how everyone makes a foul face.
“We’ll talk about it when we get home,” I tell her, laying a kiss to her neck. “Lyker, anything to report since we left?”
“I decided to move forward last night with naming Rylan my temporary Beta. We’ll have an opportunity for a challenge in the coming weeks, but the remaining members are happy with that, and I don’t foresee anyone stepping up to challenge him. The pack has a long way to go to rebuild and restructure, but for the most part, everyone’s being supportive. There’s a select few who, despite their family members betraying them, are upset with having no information on what will happen to them, but nothing we can’t handle. Rhett will come in my place tomorrow to Rebel Castle and I’ll join in a couple days when things settle down more,” he reports.
“Sounds good. Tillman will be heading up the teams tomorrow, so have him report here at dawn,” I order, turning it back over to Tillman to finish up and dismiss.
“That’s all for now. After we get through interrogations, we’ll begin planning how we’re going to take on the Forsaken Forest,” he declares grimly.
That’s going to be fucking awful.
“So is everyone expected to be up at dawn tomorrow…or…?” Willow asks as we transport back to the mansion. I knew the question had been burning her to ask since I said it.
“Yes, princess,” I tell her.
Really, I’m trying to surprise her with a morning at Oakly’s. I’m not going to Rebel Castle, but I do have a ton of work to now take care of and I know she’d both get bored and distract me if I locked her in my office all day. So I already ran it by Jamie to make sure he wouldn’t mind since he’s staying behind with Oakly, and he easily agreed, jumping on the bandwagon of surprising Oakly as well. They don’t get a lot of alone time, and as much as I truly hate sharing her attention, I know she needs it.
“Ugh, I get out of working out and still have to wake up,” she complains teasingly, making us all chuckle at her dramatics.
“Who said you don’t have to work out?” Tillman asks and if I wasn’t ready for her reaction, her hair would’ve slapped me in the face with how fast she whipped around. Tillman’s smirk gives it away that he’s just fucking with her, so she holds back the sassy-ass remark I’m sure was getting ready to come out of her mouth.
“Can we work on my gift?” she asks Tillman sweetly, and I watch him melt like butter. I can’t blame him. She’s sweet as sugar. Most of the time.
She’s so resilient. I know it’s hard on her, all this random shit popping up. Visions, gifts, and her Memoria stone showing her so much in so little time, but each time she bounces back. She freaks out, but it doesn’t last long.
I hate the fact she’s this way because she’s always had to be, not because she wants to be. She either had to bounce back or give up, and she’ll never give up. It’s written in every fabric of her being that quitting on herself isn’t an option.
“Eager to spy on us, are you, little Primary?” Caspian picks lightly as he steps out of the walls of the mansion by the patio table. He doesn’t look as murderous as earlier, and the teasing tone he’s using with Willow is a good sign.
“Very funny. I’m not going to spy on any of you without your permission. Plus, I’m sure you all have a block,” she says with an eye roll.
“You can spy on me, little wanderer. I give you all the permission.” Draken winks.
Elementra, help her having to listen to his thoughts all day.
“Yes, we can work on your gift. And yes, we all usually have a block in place, but I, for the most part, have access to their minds even with their blocks up, I just don’t pry unless their thoughts are broadcast loudly or it’s necessary. I’m sure you’ll be the same way,” Tillman tells her. And I have no doubt he’s right.
It was a nightmare when his gift first emerged. One, Gaster and my uncle were trying to teach him how to block everyone’s thoughts from his mind, but until they successfully did that, he called our asses out about everything that filtered through to him. It didn’t matter the thought; he’d arrogantly flaunt it.
Two, I was still learning how to control my own gift and element, so I struggled to learn how to put up a block to keep his ass from hearing and reading my thoughts. Caspian didn’t stand a chance until his own shit emerged, then he locked his mind up tight.
“Where do we start? I’d really like to learn how to pinpoint reading one person’s thoughts at a time, like I can do my dominance,” she exclaims excitedly.
“We’ll start with all of us lowering our blocks, one at a time so the noise isn’t overwhelming, and you can practice on us. Draken, do you even have your block up?” Tillman asks, cocking his eyebrow.
“Nope. I wanted her to hear me first, so I was ready,” he replies smugly.
Snorting, Tillman shakes his head. “Okay, little warrior, picture yourself turning the volume back up and see if Draken filters in.”
I see her concentrate hard, then her face blooms red, lips parting on a gasp. Draken’s smiling from ear to fucking ear, so whatever he just thought was obviously dirty and I can’t help but run my thumb across my bottom lip, hiding my own smile.
“Yep, yep, I can hear him clearly,” she stutters out, frazzled.
“All right, Draken, enough, put your block up. Focus on me, Will,” Tillman orders.
She takes a moment, staring into his eyes. Unlike the flustered reaction she had with Draken, with Tillman, her eyes mist and she smiles like he just promised her the world, which knowing him, that’s exactly what he did.
“Corentin,” Tillman orders.
I try my damnedest to think of sweet, happy things, block out the sexual thoughts, the overwhelming thoughts of the day, everything that needs to get done, my new fears after what I watched her go through at Terravile, but it seems the harder I try to push them out, the harder they push forward.
Even focusing on the well aware smirk playing on her face doesn’t work, so I slam my block back in place. This is why I keep it up.
Unlike Tillman, I’ve never mastered how to quiet my mind. The thoughts, plans, to-do lists, needs of the Nexus, needs of the academy, everything’s constantly running through my mind.
“Always working overtime,” she remarks lightly, running her hand down my chest.
“Caspian,” I grunt, turning her attention to him and off me. We both struggle with the idea of someone hearing inside of our minds, but I did it, so he has to as well. Willow doesn’t hesitate for a second, stepping right into his space, and his shadows wrap around her, pulling her close.
“You don’t have to if you don’t want to,” she says, running her fingers through his shadows.
“Go ahead and try, little Primary,” he orders softly.
His gaze bores into hers. Tenderness warring with restraint. It took him a lot to trust that Tillman wouldn’t overstep any of his boundaries when it came to reading his thoughts, and they’re brothers, so I know he’s struggling with that same decision right now, but I have no doubt she’ll respect his space. After a small smile and a nod, she slowly backs away.
“Now what?” she asks Tillman.
“We’ll all lower our blocks together. Try pushing us out individually and just focus on hearing one of us,” he instructs. At his nod, we all lower our blocks.
Willow sharply inhales, shaking her head a little as our voices penetrate her mind. It won’t be nearly as loud as the gym was, but with us being a Nexus and our current surrounding position, it’s going to be overwhelming.
“I can separate you by your voices, but I can’t seem to figure out how to push you out one by one. Damn, you guys are so loud,” she states, closing her eyes and focusing.
“Imagine our voices as books in your library. Take one book at a time and put it back on the shelf. Start with whichever you want. The loudest, quietest, just pick one, close it up and slide it onto the shelf,” Tillman instructs quietly, not to interrupt her focus.
The wrinkles in her forehead smooth out as she takes his guidance. Once something is explained to her like that, there’s no stopping her. If she can relate to what you’re saying, she instantly catches on. It’s remarkable to watch and that ability has made her flourish at breathtaking speeds.
She’s fucking incredible.
“Thank you.” A small giggle falls from her lips as she peeks her eye open and glances at me.
“Aww, come on. You focused on him and not me?” Draken whines.
“You were definitely the loudest and most distracting, Draken.” She laughs, leaning toward him to give him a small kiss that he, of course, deepens.
“It takes practice, but soon you’ll be able to navigate through the thoughts like a pro. Just remember, it’s all about intention and focus. Single out in your mind who you want to hear, block out who you don’t. I’m not sure if it’s going to be easier or harder for you to work on us since we’re a Nexus, but we’ll practice one more thing, then give it a break. You’re going to have a headache,” Tillman tells her.
“Yeah, it’s already starting. What’s next?” she asks.
“Breaking through a block. You can practice on Draken. When you try to infiltrate his mind, you’re going to feel his block. It’s just like any other. It’s a wall, and you have to picture yourself breaking through it. There are two ways to do that. You can try to tear the whole thing down, or just bits and pieces to create a small opening.”
The smile that takes over Draken’s face is one painted in the thrill of a challenge and his eyes are daring her to do it. She meets him head-on with her own saucy little smirk and places her hands on her hips.
They stare intently at one another for a long minute before Draken’s eyes widen in surprise, flashing to slits, then back to normal. His gaze heats as he takes a step toward her, eating the small distance between them as he pulls her into his arms.
“Bad little wanderer. That’s cheating,” he growls deeply, causing her body to shiver.
“What did she do?” Caspian asks, stepping closer to her side.
“She somehow sent me an image of her naked. Once I was completely distracted, she burst through the whole block,” he tells us with his face buried in her neck, breathing her in.
How the hell?
“Tillman said it was about intention and focus. So I focused my intentions on distracting Draken like he distracts me. Being naked was the first thing that came to my mind,” she answers my mental question.
“I think he more so means, how were you able to do that, Will? I just learned how to send them snippets of anything after we all connected to rewatch yours and Elementra’s conversation and I have to be touching them,” Tillman clarifies.
“Oh, well… I guess maybe that’s how. If you can do it, and I’m somehow mimicking the gifts of those I’m bonded with, I guess I can do it. I just set the intentions in my mind of sending him a picture of myself and it worked,” she explains as Draken turns her in his arms to face us.
Me, Tillman, and Caspian all hum, not really knowing what to say. I guess that makes sense, but damn, the way her gifts and elements just obey her like it’s completely normal, natural is confusing. The relationships between us and our magic, elements, and gifts are supposed to grow and flourish with time, but it seems like with Willow, they emerge already in tune with her, like they’ve been with her, her entire life.
“That’s enough for today. Let’s get you a healing vial for that headache and some food. I need to explain the Forsaken Forest to you,” I declare, moving us in the direction of the chairs.
After I ask the kitchen to bring out lunch and Caspian acquires a healing vial from his shadows, we sit around the table in silence as we eat and prepare for this conversation. It’s not an awkward silence, but you can feel the tension in the air because the details I’m about to give her on this forest are not pleasant in the slightest and the guys know this.
“Okay, hit me with it. I can feel the hesitation and apprehension about this discussion. I’m assuming it’s about the Forsaken Forest and judging by what Tillman said about life essence being exchanged, it’s about the creatures from Essemist Keep,” Willow says, looking at all of us before she settles her eyes on me.
“I’m assuming Gaster gave you a history lesson on Essemist Keep?” I ask.
“Sort of. A brief introduction to all the realms that used to be accessible. Essemist Keep is home to those who survive off the life essence of others. Home to the vampires,” she tells us.
“Correct. We obviously weren’t around during the time the portals closed, but when it first occurred, many of the non-Elementra natives had a hard time coping to living here permanently and laws had to be rewritten in order for everyone to live peacefully, but for the most part, they all got on board, aside from some of those from Essemist Keep,” I tell her.
“Were there a lot of people from other realms stuck here?” she asks.
“Yeah. Not masses on masses, but enough that it required many changes. There were inhabitants from all realms now living in Elementra,” Caspian answers.
“Like I said, though, for the most part, everyone adapted to the changes well, and the others began to evolve with life here. Elementra herself imposed many changes before our family did anything. Nonmagicals who were here began to develop the ability to manipulate an element; some were even blessed with a gift. The Giants that were here began to shrink from their massive sixteen-foot average size to around eight feet, which is still remarkable, but not so imposing that it’s hard to coexist within a group of people and they kept the strength that accompanied their colossal size. The Casters’ and the Valorians’ gifts and magic grew powerful, and they shared their knowledge with us. Her last blessing to them was mixing them in with natives in the Nexus system.”
“Wait, so that means a whole heap of people born in the last thousand or so years probably has mixed genetics,” she states.
“More like everyone born within the last seven-hundredish years has mixed genetics. Including all of us,” Caspian tacks on.
“Pretty much. Anyways, the vampires from Essemist Keep integrated fine if they found their Nexus; they had a continuous source to feed from, whether it was by blood or otherwise. And even some who didn’t find or have a Nexus did fine as long as they abided by the rules of only feeding from willing sources. And that was the challenge. Many aren’t willing, especially those who are bonded—”
“Is that because it feels really good?” Willow cuts me off to ask, causing all of us to narrow our eyes on her. “I’m just asking. Some of the romance books I read back in the nonmagical realm describe it as feeling good… Sorry.” She apologizes sheepishly.
“Yes. Supposedly, it’s a very euphoric feeling that tends to lead to other things. Or it can be incredibly painful. It depends on which way the vampire intends for it to go. There were years when they ran rampant through Elementra, feeding from whoever they pleased rather than following the new law of finding a willing source or using the blood donations at the healing wings.
“It’s apparently more potent, more sustaining coming directly from the source, and they were unhappy with the compromises and continued to feed from whoever they pleased, willing or not. So the rogue vampires were caught and forced into the Forsaken Forest, where there are strong wards, even stronger than the academy’s placed around the perimeter to keep them in.” Instead of interrupting me again, Willow slowly raises her hand, causing us all to chuckle at her.
“Again, from what I’ve read… Don’t they go crazy without blood?” she asks.
“Sounds like some vampires got trapped in the nonmagical realm for all these books to be written about them,” Caspian comments, raising an eyebrow at her.
“Well, I’ve actually heard of all the beings from the other realms through the books I’ve read. I’ve obviously never met any of them, especially not a vampire, but yeah, it’s said that there are hot spots all over the nonmagical realm with them, and they have the ability to change a human into one with their bite,” she informs us.
That’s fucking insane to imagine a bunch of bloodthirsty new vampires running around wild in a nonmagical place. Thank Elementra they didn’t have the power to turn everyone they bit here, or we possibly wouldn’t be sitting here right now.
“For years, even still to this day, every day, donations of blood are taken and deposited in the forest, because yes, we soon learned what happens to a vampire if they’re cut off from blood. They do go crazy, vicious. Many people, unlucky or dumb, I’m not sure which they are, have ended up in the Forsaken Forest and are brutally torn apart within seconds of entering,” I gravelly tell her.
“So sadly, that probably means the Summum-Master is allowing them to feed on the people they’ve kidnapped,” she whispers, horrified.
“Yes, princess, I believe so,” I tell her softly, reaching my finger out to wipe the stray tear that escaped her.
The forest is full of unhinged vampires. Even with their appetite possibly being curbed by what that fucker is bringing them, after centuries of madness, you don’t just come back to normal. They’ll never be of sane mind again. It’s a death sentence, usually, to any who enter.
I don’t know how the hell we’re going to get through there.