Page 13 of Gift from the Source (Source of Elementra #5)

My eyes close as the darkness leaks from my fingers and enters the parchment. Now that the dragon has said it, I see it clearly and it maps out easily for my shadows to follow.

It isn’t a wall or a solid block. It’s a maze that leads to the heart of the tangled web.

This is a path I’ve already memorized. It’s the exact one he built when he taught me how to shift through my shadows.

Fuck. It’s moments like this I wish I could go back in time and knock myself upside the head.

As cautiously as I can, I command them to move. I’m steady and careful not to hit a dead end. I know if I do, I’ll be shoved out and whatever my uncle has set for an alarm will go off.

In practice, it would literally fling me to my ass.

In this case, I haven’t a clue. I fear I’ll destroy the book and whatever he’s hidden in it.

The metaphorical walls grow so slim, it’s like pushing a piece of paper through the crack in a doorframe. When they make it through the last corner of the maze and enter into the opening, I push my magic through the path they left behind .

The tangled web is an intricate mess of knots, but I pluck them all precisely. I don’t let myself second-guess my choices and just do what feels right.

Magic sizzles out around me with a wave of heat that caresses my face. I don’t release my breath until the cool breeze in my room chills my skin once again.

“Cas,” Willow whispers beside me.

Her bond tenses, causing mine to react the same.

Peeling my eyes open, I stare down at what’s left in front of me.

Caspian.

My name written across that envelope in his script makes my throat close up. Again, my hands shake with nerves as I reach over to the side table and grip the other letter, then pass it to Willow.

“That was just a teaser. Telling me to let go of my bullshit.”

She’s silent as she reads, although the humor she’s finding in his words bleeds into my chest. It’s a welcome reprieve from the stampede beating away in my ribcage.

“I’ll step out if you’d like for me to,” she says as she hands me the gag note back.

“I want to read it first, but I’d like for you to stay. Just be here,” I admit.

“I’m not going anywhere.”

I nod without looking at her for the simple fact that those understanding eyes may break the restraint I’m holding onto. The fear of what may come next is making the darkness rise in me.

I want nothing more than to ignore the goodbye I know I’m about to find.

It’s time. I need to face it.

It’s almost impossible to lift the envelope out of the seam of the book. It’s as though the weight of the responsibilities on his shoulders carried over into the words he inked on the parchment.

My magic coats my fingertips, freeing the paper and trapping me in the words that appear.

As I sit here, nephew, I can’t help but to think back to when you were a child. So free, curious, and full of loving mischief .

Nothing would’ve prepared me for the turn your life would take.

The day you were kidnapped…

I was in the nonmagical realm telling Willow about her mom for the first time.

I’m not sure if she’s shared that experience or memory with you all by this point, but there was a moment in her happiness that she began to glow. I was stunned and had no idea why.

Until I returned to Elementra a short while later.

The moment she glowed was the same moment Corentin didn’t reach you and lost control over his gift.

The realization that even across realms you all were heightening each other’s emotions was overshadowed completely by the anger and hatred I felt toward Elementra in that moment. I have no doubt she felt it all the way in the beyond.

It grew the more I heard Corentin bellow your name as he destroyed his room. He felt like he was too late and failed you.

I felt like I had failed all of you.

Elementra knew as well as I did, and hopefully you as well, that I would’ve done everything within my power to stop it. I rarely got visions while I was in the nonmagical realm with Willow and I’ve often wondered if the timing of that was purposeful. I would’ve changed the whole trajectory of many paths that day if I could’ve.

If I had known the girl you were spending all your time with was Silvia, I would’ve stopped you then.

I would’ve killed her the moment I laid my eyes on her.

Her loyalty to the Summum-Master and Mastery runs deep. Deeper than you can imagine but will soon enough know. She was born into it, and she has festered like the monster she is.

She is so much like her own mother.

I questioned Elementra so many times as to why she blocked so much of your life from me. When you were younger, even before your emerging, you were a blind spot and I never knew why.

Until now.

The visions Elementra allows to slip through my gift have been narrowed down to the slightest margin. By now, you’ll have seen through Willow and just your own knowledge of the gift, we can’t explain what we see because it alters the course. Some courses are already so small that any variation will destroy any reality that could’ve come from it.

You always had too many paths to narrow down.

You’re unpredictable. Always have been.

Even the creator herself has had trouble narrowing down your future.

I found it quite fascinating until that dreadful day.

Then I hated it.

I hated that you were so much like me.

Guilt ate me alive.

I firmly believed that it was too much of my influence that made you the way you were. I told myself so many times that I never should’ve encouraged your curious, secretive, and teasing nature.

I should’ve been stricter. I should’ve kept a better eye on what you boys were getting into. I shouldn’t have urged you to continue pushing your gift.

I should’ve been able to see.

But that’s not how any of it worked as we well know.

Silvia, the Summum-Master, the Gales, the Everglows, myself, and so many more all made their choices. Which resulted in only one path for you.

We never could’ve imagined the man who would come out of the nightmare they created.

And I’m so sorry for that.

The day you were rescued…

You’ve always held resentment toward me for not being there. I’ve seen it in your eyes so many times.

I’m not telling you this to make you feel bad for your feelings toward me at the time. You had every right to feel it because you had no way of knowing any different. I never told you differently and had no intentions to because I couldn’t. But in my heart, I know you’ve come a long way and can handle the truth.

The tip that came in that led your Aunt Tilly to you came from Dillon and Pran Gale. The moment they found out where you were and told me, I had a vision of what was to come.

I told Tilly the information I’d received and informed her there was an additional tip that came with it. I made up a story that my informant let me know of a planned attack elsewhere that would be happening.

I convinced her it would be best that I head that mission as a distraction and hopefully interference while she took care of you. She needed the best of the best with her if she wasn’t taking but a certain number of E.F. members, and I’d handle the rest.

Truthfully, I had a choice to make.

Run interference on the Summum-Master or go with Tilly and face the small army he’d bring with him when you weren’t brought to the forest.

I saw the difference between sacrificing one life compared to many. Tilly and her Nexus would’ve survived. Corentin and Tillman would not have. You would’ve been recaptured and by the time we got you back…it would’ve been too late.

I chose to keep him locked in the forest waiting for your arrival that would never come.

I chose that path, knowing my sister was going to be killed.

A part of me died that day.

In the vision, I saw that Tilly didn’t shield herself even though she could’ve easily done so. She was so worried about Tillman, Corentin, her men, you, that she chose to protect all of you above herself. She cared more about what she saw in front of her than the danger coming from behind her.

The entire time I held a ward and air shield around the forest, I sobbed. The entire time I told myself I should’ve told her to protect herself.

I should’ve done more.

I drank myself into a stupor many days following that.

Poor Willow sat in silence with me at her tree. We barely spoke for nearly five days. I didn’t drink in front of her, but the second I felt myself sobering up, I’d tell her I loved her, then I’d leave.

It wasn’t until your mom snapped at me to cut the shit that I forced myself to sober up. So many truths hit me like an earthquake when my mind cleared once again.

Firstly, it wouldn’t have mattered what I told Tilly.

She was the smartest, most capable, fiercest, and strategic leader I had ever known. She didn’t shield herself purposefully because she had already weighed the likelihood of everyone surviving. She was determined to keep you all protected, no matter the cost.

She never would’ve forgiven me if I’d swayed any decision she made and had cost her Tillman. She would’ve perished either way, sooner or later, because the grief of losing her only child would’ve destroyed her.

Secondly, when I went to the nonmagical realm that day, it was the first time I saw Willow and her silence clearly. The month you were gone, I searched endlessly for you but visiting her daily was always a priority. I was so distracted in that time frame, though. I hadn’t been paying attention to the shift in her.

That mommy and me day at her school that led to me telling her about her mom gave her a sense of strength. She began fighting back. Something she’d never done much, and I always warned her against. That month that you were trapped, growing stronger, darker, so was she.

So while I was blocking the Summum-Master and Tilly was saving you, Willow was refusing to allow Drin to draw her blood. That was the first time she was strapped to Franklin’s table and tortured.

All simultaneously…

A ten-year-old Draken was sitting on his bed in that barn, crying and healing from being beaten earlier. He was praying for Elementra to send him a savior. Someone who would love him.

You were praying for Elementra to end your life.

Corentin was praying for Elementra to save it.

Willow’s soul screamed out in pain. Begging for someone to save her.

Tillman’s soul screamed out in pain. Begging for someone to save his mom.

The heightened emotions from all five of you caused Tillman’s and Willow’s stretching souls to collide and the power boost he’ll one day have again burst free, wiping out the entirety of the Mastery members there.

I’ve never been able to get a straight answer from Elementra, but when I gave Willow that dress Tillman made from Corentin’s shirt, that was my experiment. I’ve always had the assumption that those two occurrences, Corentin’s gift coming through her and Tillman’s power boost, tied a piece of her to all of you and her smelling them triggered her emerging.

Her power was never meant to be bound. It wouldn’t have shocked me in the slightest if her soul found a way to wander across realms before it was supposed to.

I still don’t know if that’s one hundred percent true, but I’d be willing to vow my life on it.

I guess that vow really wouldn’t matter, though…

Today is the day I’m going to the beyond, my boy.

Something I know you already know seeing as you won’t read this letter for many years to come.

I’ve wanted to tell you all my truths for so long. There’s still so many I can’t set free, and I hope by now, you know and understand that. I pray that by now, Caspian, you’ve found some forgiveness in me.

I was never willing to put any of the burden I carried on you. Even if I could have, I never would have.

I’ve said it already, but I’ll reiterate. Your future has always been a blur for me. Many of the pieces I’ve seen have Willow or one of the others within them. Because of that, I will hopelessly assume she’s guided you home.

There’s no doubt in my mind that you’ve been searching the darkness, every crevice of Elementra, every book, scroll, and tome. Maybe by now, you’ve searched within yourself.

I know you’ve been searching for answers you desperately need.

I will give you the few that I can now, then I must go.

Today, the Summum-Master will take my gift, and my death will start a chain of events.

Many truths will begin to surface. There is a surprise at every turn.

I’m both sorry and excited for you .

Earlier I mentioned that Pran and Dillon Gale were the informants who told me where you were. Those two men have suffered unspeakable things. Don’t let the Nexus they belong to sway you into believing they are one and the same.

If you believe the years you’ve had to wait for revenge have been long, my boy, you’re going to be shocked to find out they’ve been planning theirs for over two hundred years.

Give them an opportunity to explain. Please.

They were unlikely allies in my time of need, and they eventually became two of the very, very few friends I would ever be blessed with.

My last secret I can share with you is this…

Our family changed history.

In such a profound way that it had to be rewritten.

Elementra never formally blessed the Vito line.

They didn’t win the Realm Trial.

You’ll find that story where you found this letter.

Protect it, Caspian. Do what’s right by the story you find.

My words could never express what you mean to me, my boy. When my sister found out she was pregnant, both times, I prayed that Elementra didn’t curse either of you with my gift.

She answered that prayer. To an extent.

She may not have given you my gift of sight, but my, did she make a mini me out of you. Every day I looked at you and saw myself. I vowed I’d never crush that. I’d support who you’d grow up to be, no matter what.

Sure, as I said, there were times I beat myself up about that and wished I’d done things differently, but as I continue to spew words across this parchment to avoid what’s to come, my mind changes every second.

There’s nothing about you I would’ve changed, fixed, mended, dimmed down, or anything else. I’m so proud of you, Caspian. I know you’re in a rough place at this time in your life, but I know you’ll overcome it. You’ll beat it.

You’ll defeat the darkness, and it will bend to your will.

Don’t spend your life mourning for me .

Don’t, in a few years, regret anything you did or anything you believed you did. I hold no ill feelings toward you, my boy. I’d never feel that way toward you. Only understanding. Always.

Call me a coward.

I must be, but I refuse to say goodbye.

Never goodbye.

If you need me, look for me in the pages. You will always find me there.

I love you, Cas.

Uncle Orien, xoxo

My eyes blink rapidly, and my lungs fill with air that I was depriving them of. Never once did my mind stray from the letter because I needed it all, all at one time. But now as I skim it again, I can’t help but wish I’d savored it. Read it slower so I had more time with it.

He gave me everything I wanted and needed. Not everything we need to know, but everything my mourning soul had hoped for.

He was proud of me. He never abandoned me.

Fuck, he had to make gut-wrenching decisions to save me.

“Cas.” I flinch as my name fills the silence. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“It’s okay, Primary. I was just…”

“I know. He…wants me to open my mind to you,” she whispers, and I turn my head to her slowly.

“Right now?”

“Yeah. If you’re okay with it.”

Fuck.

I blow out a heavy breath and my head hangs against my hands that still clutch his letter. I contemplate if I want to hear from him or not. He gave me what I needed, even went as far as to avoid making that a goodbye. I didn’t want a goodbye then and I don’t want one now. I don’t think I could hear him say those words.

But I also need to hear his voice.

All I can do is give Willow a tight nod and a pinched frown, but it’s enough for her as her gift caresses my mind.

“Don’t seem so fretful, nephew.” His chuckle rings from ear to ear and the weight on my shoulders lift.

“ You got something wrong in your letter. Old age was getting to you early,” I say sarcastically and his humor continues to vibrate through me.

“My apologies. I was a little distracted. I was worried the old man was going to die of a heart attack in the living room.”

Snorting, a small smile slips free. “Good thing we don’t suffer such afflictions.”

“Good thing indeed. Nonetheless, you were right that I did get something wrong. I wasn’t too off course, but we both know the truth now. I’m thankful for my mistake.”

Closing my eyes, I swallow the lump in my throat. “Me too. And I’m sorry, Uncle. I’m so sorry for treating you so poorly when you were literally saving my life. Saving all our lives. We didn’t deserve you.”

“Nonsense. You all were my greatest blessings, and I was so fortunate for each moment I got to spend with you. I’d say I wouldn’t have changed a thing, but that’s a lie. I’d have much rather been able to stay with all of you, but the future you all have in front of you was worth every single sacrifice. My presence is only needed for a fleeting second now, Cas, so I just wanted to let you know, your future is no longer a blur for me, my boy. I can see the possibilities clearer than ever before.”

“Is what you see promising?” I ask, testing my luck. Maybe from the beyond he can say more than he used to be able to.

“It most certainly can be. You all have already experienced many changes, but you are going to experience more. Be prepared. Be cautious, yet have an open mind to all who are going to give you advice or instruction. No matter how infuriating they may be.” He laughs again as I groan.

“That bird. Is he a friend of yours?” I ask.

“He is a friend to any who need him. He has always sworn his allegiance to Willow’s family line, but that is a story that needs to stay hidden for now. There is a story that needs to unfold. It is time. Find it in the pages, my boy. I love you both.”

The faint presence of him fades as Willow pulls out of my mind and I don’t give myself a second to mourn. There’s no need for it .

It’s as though I’m a kid once again and he just gave me my new favorite game or mystery to solve.

“Here,” I say hastily and pass my letter to my Primary without even looking over.

My fingers run around the rim of the Vito line book. Now that the barrier and enchantment spell has been lifted, I sense the true concealment spell.

He wouldn’t have left me a book that I can’t get into.

A constant shaking of a foot against my thigh draws my eye down to it and I follow the curve of the body attached to it. Willow’s eyes are glued to my letter and water wells in their depths. She doesn’t shed a tear nor does her bond feel sad. She’s engrossed and shocked with his revelations and theory.

“Primary,” I say, to which I’m ignored. “Primary.”

“Yeah, oh. I’m sorry, did you not want me to read it?” she asks quickly, laying the parchment against her chest.

“I wouldn’t have handed it to you if I didn’t want you to read it,” I say with a tilt of my lip and that earns me a teasing narrowed glare. “Reveal this for me.”

Her eyes grow comically wide as she takes in the large tome I practically toss in her lap. It takes all of a millisecond for her to ignore my request and begin scanning the pages.

“You can read that as well after I have,” I say, tapping my finger to the page. “Reveal the concealment.”

“Say please,” she orders with a dark smirk.

Naughty little Primary.

“Please.”

Her bond preens with her small victory. The soft tone of her voice surrounds me as the spell falls from her lips and my arms break out in chill bumps. Her power, even using it as small as that, is addicting.

Mix that in with my eagerness to read the secrets hidden in the words and I’m ready to jump out of my skin with excitement .

I don’t give her the chance to pass the book back to me, rather I just take it. She takes no offence, and her laugh soothes the racing excitement flowing through me.

This is how she feels about everything new.

Confusion begins to cloud my elation as soon as I look down at the parchment.

The fucking blank parchment.

Flipping the pages back to the very front of the book frantically, my eyes widen at yet another note.

This was the original written history of our family. This is the only written record of it in all of Elementra. Your great-grandmother, Persley Vito, wrote this account for how it actually happened, then hid this away.

Following that, her Nexus wrote the alternative version that has been passed down as the original.

That manuscript will reveal in Corentin’s office once this truth is revealed.

Find the answers, Caspian.

Uncle Orien xoxo

Turning the page slowly, the delicate writing in Elema Lingua Vetus jumps off the page at me and I sink into the words. My eyes fly through the pages as I fall into a story that happened so long ago.

I don’t blink. I don’t think. Hell, I may not even breathe.

I just consume.

Time passes me by without another thought in the realm and the pounding in my heart intensifies with every word. The tension, the anticipation, the way she’s so descriptive with the brutal accounts that transpired makes me feel like I’m standing in the middle of the arena watching it go down.

The end of the Realm Trials steals my breath from me.

I could not cast the final blow.

He had not once struck out against myself, my family, nor my Nexus. He could not. He was not capable. Alas, he was not worthy of the throne of Elementra either. The realm needs rulers who could protect them .

Through the whispers my Nexus could share through our minds, I forbade any of them from killing him. It was contradictory to the violent acts we had already committed to his family. The Dew family, the Newort family, the Beyla family. They all fell to us. The Vito family.

He would not fall to our hand, though.

In all things he was innocent and too weak to defend himself even if he wanted to.

It was as though this trial had made my Nexus forget that we had known him all our lives. Until the first thread of magic was casted, we were all comrades. I would not forget that.

Begrudgingly, Loris put him into a sleep so deep you could not find a pulse. To the surrounding crowds, it looked as though we stood over a corpse and they erupted with our victory.

We claimed our victory.

For one full month, we kept him asleep as we entered our roles as the Ruling Nexus. Hidden away in a cave within the forest of the palace.

The day we awoke him, he trembled with confusion, anger, and mourning. All of which we were understanding of. We had lost people too. He demanded answers, though, and I gave them to him.

After all, I still viewed him as my friend. That is what he was only a short time before.

I made him aware of my decision to spare him, but he was not satisfied with that.

A fire lit in his eyes that I had never seen. It was the determination he should have carried with him into the trial. Although it would have only served him his death.

The echo of his fury still rings in my ears at night. He did not take my words as I meant them. I had tried to explain it was unfit of me to kill one so beneath me when he had done nothing but what his family had told him to do. I knew he never wanted a part in the Realm Trials. He was not worthy of the throne, but that did not mean he should die.

When his anger grew to worrisome heights, I ordered him to leave before he said or did something he would regret.

His final words to me were that I would one day regret taking everything from him.

Including his right to a fair trial and Elementra’s blessing.

He staggered from that cave, never to be seen again.

I do not fear his empty threat. Elementra will bless my line with time. She will see that my first rule as the new Matriarch of her realm was one made with compassion.

My first compassionate, yet fair rule was to spare Malvolio Choice’s life.

I stand by my decision.

I jump from my seat, sending my Primary sprawling across the floor, and her yelp of surprise barely penetrates my mind.

Over and over and over I reread her words.

This can’t be right.

But it is. I know it down to my soul.

“What in the realm, Cas?” Willow asks, pushing herself up using the ottoman as support.

I can barely form the words.

“The Vitos never won the Realm Trial. Not truly. Therefore, we were never given the full blessing of Elementra.”

“What?”

“My great-grandmother spared a person’s life. Which means not every individual who took the vow of the trial died,” I murmur, looking at her with complete disbelief and understanding pounding at my chest.

“You’re saying…”

“The Summum-Master is Malvolio Choice. He was the last living opponent in a trial that never truly ended.”