Page 29 of Gift from the Source (Source of Elementra #5)

Twenty-Four

Willow

“Stay with me, Core. Stay with me, please,” I beg him.

“Get to him right fucking now,” I scream to all the others who can hear me.

Snatching Cas by his uniform, I open a transport.

I don’t even know where we’re going, but I command it to follow the tug to Corentin.

We pop up in the middle of a mob.

I unleash hell.

Each of my screams are paired with a deadly blow. Air, earth, water, and fire. Everything I’ve got I force into the bodies surrounding me.

The two of us tear through the circling crowd so we can get to the middle.

I know what and who they’re surrounding.

They’re trying to take what’s mine.

My fury burns through me and my tears scald streaks down my cheeks.

The agony racing through me hurts more than anything I’ve ever experienced. Any other severing holds no candle to this.

CC’s, Gaster’ s, the taste of Oakly’s.

The three occurrences together can’t match the pain of losing Corentin’s. The fragile strands left are begging me to repair them. Sow them back whole.

“I’m coming, Core. I’m coming.”

A vicious growl sounds from right above my head. Seconds later, Draken drops down right on top of the soldiers. His flames burn bodies to ash in the blink of an eye. I lose sight of him as he shifts.

The closing circle thins as Mastery members thud to the ground silently.

My gaze lands on my gentle giant, whose fists are clenched at his sides, head thrown back in an earth-shattering bellow.

I search the area around him and air gets trapped in my throat.

I choke on another sob.

Our entire family is circled around, protecting the prone form lying in the center of them. My sister and Aria are kneeling, holding his head as Jamie presses on his chest. His hands are glowing as he forces every ounce of his gift into my Corentin.

Aurora sobs as she screams and casts out brutal strikes. My fathers-in-law are no better. They’re machines.

Keeper zips through people, leaving them in pieces.

Tanith’s screech sounds in the distance.

My brothers bellow as they battle.

Trex, Codi, Xander, Dec.

Another strand cuts.

“NO!”

My war cry rings out across the battlefield and my feet push me to impossible speeds.

Any who are locked in fights with the E.F. that we pass I end quickly, viciously. I let each death fill the void starting to grow larger in my soul.

“Kill them all. Kill as many as you can, Tillman,” I beg as the distance between us shrinks.

More bodies drop.

Leaping over the dead and plowing through the living, I crash through the protective circle and crawl to Corentin .

Oakly and Aria try to touch me, but I sling their hands away.

His sickly pale skin, the black veins running through his arms. My shaky fingers trace it all, begging him not to give up on me.

“Do you see now the possibility of the power, dear granddaughter?”

His voice cuts through the madness in my mind and time seems to slow.

The fighting circle instinctively moves outward, splitting open to allow him space to step through. The distant fighting that’s still spread across the land rages on, but it becomes echoes of whispers as I glare up.

“None of this would have had to—”

A scream of fury tears through me as I stand.

I use my air element to move my family out of my way and I shove everything I have at him.

I don’t give a fuck what he has to say.

There is no reasoning with me.

There is no understanding to be found.

The same black that is leeching the life of my Nexus member collides with the purple blaze that bursts from my hands.

Earth, water, and fire join me. A strong hand grips one shoulder. The other becomes an inferno. Ice covers my back.

I split my power between the four of us.

The anguish tearing through them adds to the indescribable torment that my soul is experiencing. My men fall apart around me as they shove everything they have at the man tearing our lives apart.

His dark power leaks through our forces and I grit my teeth at the intrusion.

It tastes like death. A promise of no tomorrow.

“You will not win this war, Willow. This realm will bow to me and me alone.” He vows, shoving against our blessings even harder.

Any illusion left surrounding him falls away as his cape flings from his body.

Pale skin with dark vines traveling beneath the surface pokes out from his short-sleeved shirt. They’re alive, moving through him. His hands are completely black as all the power goes there to his command .

I stare into the voided eyes of what once was a normal man. A powerful man who could’ve done so much more. So much better.

The Gods Binding dangles from his chest on a chain. The smoke within it circulates between his body and the globe it’s been confined to.

My breath hitches as a hand grips my ankle.

I sob so hard the sky thunders.

Air softly travels through my body, into my chest, and out of my palms. I shake my head manically, fighting it off and pushing it back to where it came from. I try to split the forces that I’ve given Tillman, Caspian, and Draken and give some to him.

He rejects it.

“Corentin, please.” I beg.

“We’ve been practicing all wrong, princess. The instinct of your elements was always right. You were never supposed to split. You were always meant to be whole. We feed you the pieces of ourselves, you’ll nurture them and return them to us when we need it. We don’t need it now. You do.”

His words are desperately gasped out, but we all understand him.

My body is rushed by air, earth, water, and fire.

I beg them to stop.

“Take. Don’t give.”

The power flooding my body intensifies and I scream out as I push a little out to alleviate the pressure. Malvolio flinches at the hit and the guys push more, but I try to force the air back to Corentin.

The more he gives, the more he fades.

Another hand lays against my back and I bellow in agony.

“Why? Why are you here?”

“I couldn’t ignore the call of your soul any longer, child.”

“Go back.”

Another hand.

“Oak…No.”

“I’m so sorry, Willy. I will always choose you.”

A presence lies against my mind, and I shake my head viciously.

“CC, no. Please.”

“Be who you’re meant to be, filia mea.”

I’m nothing without him.

“Little warrior,” Tillman’s broken plea shatters my mind. “I love you so much, brother.”

No.

“Fly for me, Core,” Draken cries. “Clear your mind in the clouds and find me up there.”

Please no.

“I’ll be okay, big brother. You’ve saved me once again.”

No. No. No.

“Look for me in the morning air. The wind that whispers sweet nothings to the trees when the sun rises. The breath you blow to cool down your coffee. I will be there. You’ll always find me there. You have been the freshest breath of air and greatest gift ever given. I will love you endlessly from the beyond, my princess.”

“NO!”

With the force of a hurricane, his air sweeps through my blood, destroying every piece of me in its wake.

“I love you!” I scream.

His soul shreds from mine.

Darkness.

The light leaves my body as I pull everything from my bonds.

I allow the corrupt power pouring from Malvolio to hit me in my chest as I drop my hands and slice my palms.

I eat up the space between the two of us in seconds and my claws drag across his face. His bellow seeps into my heart.

His fist lands across my jaw as the powers he wields cuts through my uniform and pierces my stomach.

I feed on the pain.

The protective armor I came out here in hangs in tatters off my body from his blows. His shirt rips like paper from my claws.

My blood bleeds red, his black.

Other than the splattering from my wounds, the only color on his sickly shade is the massive red M that takes up the entirety of his chest.

The sight of it is my undoing .

I scream until my throat is raw. Then I scream some more.

The cloud of deadly smoke circles the two of us.

It no longer knows who its true master is. It presses us so closely together, the rotten stench of his breath wafts across my cheek.

“Look at you. You could’ve been greatness, granddaughter. You could’ve had armies, realms bowing at your feet. Instead, you chose this. Liars. Those who stole this realm from me and never were blessed,” he grits as he wraps his hand around my throat.

“With a chain around my neck and my blood as your weapon. You could’ve been greatness. Poorly executed, yes, but regardless, Persley Vito gave you a second chance at life. You could’ve fortified the weak, made them equal rather than beneath any. That would’ve made a difference worthy of a blessing. You were given so many chances. So many choices. You squandered them all.”

I choke out as I take the deepest breath I can.

Inhaling everything I can.

“Foolish girl. You’ve been so brainwashed. If you had joined me willingly, you could’ve earned the rights to rewards. Now you will be a slave to me until the end of time. Your children will serve me. As will theirs. On and on until I say otherwise.”

The grip he has on my throat grows tighter. It cuts off my airways, but I can’t fight him off.

“This is your ending, granddaughter.”

“No, it’s yours,” I croak. “I, Willow Vito, a daughter of Elementra, set you free.”

His eyes look down at the Gods Binding clutched in my bloody hands, then madness stares back at me.

“What have you done?” he bellows as he backhands me and the two of us fall from one another.

I shake out my head and push myself back up on wobbly legs. The Gods Binding drops from my hands, and I step over it to reach him.

With each limp, another part of me dies.

I leave a little of who I was in the bloody ground with every inch closer to him I get .

He withers in agony, screaming and convulsing below me as the power he stole slices from his soul.

As his sorrows echo through the otherwise eerie silence, I kneel beside his broken, pathetic form.

“The last time you were in this position, you were granted mercy that you took as belittlement and hatred. You let it fester. Your actions since are unforgiveable. Unforgettable. You’ve taken too much from this realm, the creator, the people…me. You’ve taken too much from me to ever receive a sliver of understanding or compassion. What I will give you, willingly, is a quick kiss from death. Nothingness welcomes you.”

“Wil—”

My flamed hand lies against the center of his chest. The thickest point of where his M touches.

The purple traces the lines, then sears straight through him.

His screams travel through the realm like a sonic boom.

My heart cracks open as I watch black eyes bleed to a brown that used to horrify me as a child. Then they shatter the same way mine used to as they cloud with familiar fear.

I hold onto the look in those eyes until they burst into ash.

Exhaling harshly, a tear slides down my cheek. A lump forms in my throat as I stand and sway.

I turn in a circle slowly as power pulses through the land. Mid swing, cast, or command, the remaining fighters for the Mastery all crumble to the ground as the souls they sold to the Summum-Master rip from their bodies.

All the surviving E.F. members freeze in confusion.

My torturous turn continues.

Another surge of power blasts through the air from behind me. It soars through the palace, then the rest of the realm.

It vibrates in my blood.

A blessing bestowed.

A sob rips through my chest as my gaze finally lands on the spot I was trying to avoid. My family kneels around him, mourning .

This isn’t an awful illusion, fever dream, or the worst intrusive thought I’ve ever conjured up.

It’s real.

Tillman, Caspian, and Draken stand in front of him. They leave a space for him as their bodies tremble violently. Their tear-drenched, red-rimmed eyes bore into me. They’re seeking comfort I can’t give them right now. I have none to spare as my hollow soul prepares to mend itself.

A piece of my soul given to save the many.

I did not agree to that.

It was a choice made for me that I did not want to make.

“Elementra, you made a vow to me that none of my bonds would ever be broken. You’ve honored that with the loophole that they’d mend together so I’d still feel them. That’s not enough. There is no limit when it comes to them.”

My eyes lock onto my broken men as my knees crash into the ground.

For them—the four of them—there is no limit.

I’ll search beyond the ends of the realm for them.

I scream bloody murder as the foundation beneath me cracks open with the weight of my grief. It sends a split down the earth that throws my family away from Corentin’s body.

My hands sink into the cold, unforgiving ground, and I command my blood to find their source. I call forth the seven gifts, my six fully intact bonds, and four elements within me. With every ounce of force I can muster up, I shove them through the fabric of our realm.

Tears flood down my face as I scream his name into the abyss. Everything that makes me who I am searches for him.

“Give him back to me! Please!”

Three hands lie on my body, and I sob even harder.

It’s not right.

It’s not balanced.

It’s not complete.

The five of us…

There was so much left to do. So much love to give.

No tilt of my chin will ever feel the same.

The taste of coffee will never be right .

The wind that blows the trees will suffocate me each day.

We were supposed to experience peace together. A happily ever after, after all the heartache and battles we faced.

My men’s grief piles onto my own and I crumble into the earth between them.

All the things we won’t experience together.

Our bonding ceremony.

Traveling the realms.

Him retiring from Headmaster.

The long vacation I know he’s been mentally planning.

Our coronation.

In two hundred or so years…the five of us would’ve had a baby. A perfect mixture of us all.

“Corentin,” I scream or sob, maybe even whisper.

I don’t know.

My heart and soul may still be ready to battle, but my body grows weaker the further I push it. It’s trying to force me to heal when all I want to do is fucking rage.

There’s a fire burning my fingers.

I push further.

I latch onto the pieces of my soul that connect to my men surrounding me and I mingle it in with my power. The vibrations of generations before me pulse through my blood and I command it to take me to him.

“I will find you,” I vow into the earth. “Through time and space. You are and always will be my desired place. You are my home. You complete a piece of each of us and we will never let you go. I’ll tear it all apart to find you.”

The fire that was burning through my fingers blazes like a volcanic eruption as it travels through my blood and sears through me.

I scream as I grip onto it and pull with all my might.

A blinding light flashes across the battlefield.

Then everything goes dark.

An endless blue sky is all I see when my eyes open. The grass beneath my fingers feels familiar and I sit straight up, gasping.

Green and blue meet in the distance.

I flip my body over and stare off into the boundless stretch. A curse falls from my lips as I hop up and start sprinting toward what I know is my tree in the distance.

The last time I was pulled into my subconscious like this, I spent days apparently making this trek.

Today of all days, my tree appears in front of me abruptly and I slam to a stop.

“Elementra,” I call out frantically.

I run around the perimeter of my tree, searching for a being I know won’t have a body, but a power nonetheless.

“Eleme—”

I swallow the rest of her name as a single wisp—more like a ball of energy—hovers in front of me.

The power pulsing from it is familiar and loving. A choked breath of air escapes me as I reach my hand out to it.

“Hey, Momma.”

Her energy radiates. Then it multiplies.

I turn in a circle as little energy orbs repeatedly pop up and surround me. The hum of the power held by the women before me caresses my skin. My chest rises rapidly as their collective love and strength welcomes me.

The orbs all begin vibrating before moving as one. They each join my mom, and I stare mesmerized as the ball of light begins to grow.

“Elementra,” I whisper.

“Hello, Ultima unum.”

Words escape me.

My mouth gapes open and closed as I think of something to say .

Part of me wants to apologize for what I just attempted to do. The other refuses the notion. I’ll never apologize for trying to protect my men.

“You have nothing to apologize for, Willow. I knew when I created the Nexus bonds that I was creating a force greater than even me.”

“Is he…did I…did you give him back to me?”

“I have done nothing,” she says and I sob. My knees try to give out on me, but I’m held up by her strength.

“Walk with me, Willow, before you must go.”

“I can’t. I need to get back to them now. Please just send me back.”

“There is much in the beyond I need to figure out, so I swear to not keep you long. You’re far stronger than you were the first time I brought you here. Only minutes have passed, and I will only keep you a few minutes more.”

Her power washes over me, soothing the raging grief and panic without my permission. I detest it, yet at the same time, I hold onto it for dear life.

We fall into silence as we walk—well, I walk, she floats—across the plain of my mind. I try to keep my questions, comments, and thoughts of everything that happened quiet. Even though she isn’t calling me out, I know she hears it all. She’s the one keeping my body, mind, and soul from going absolutely feral.

“What now?”

“You’ve accomplished what all before you lost their lives over in preparation for. You were our last hope, and you succeeded beyond our faith. What’s left to take care of is the aftermath. Then, you rest.”

“Will there ever come a time I have to do this again?”

“To this extent…not that I see. The forces are unpredictable at best, though.”

“V mentioned the forces to me. What are they?”

“They are as their name claims. Forces beyond our comprehension. They created the creators.”

My eyes widen a little at that. “They created you?”

“They did. I like to refer to myself as their experiment child. They made me different than the others. They observed what the others made of their creations and put some of those traits into me. I believe they just wanted to see what would become of me. Could I survive or would my counterparts destroy me.

“I have power in strengths closer to the forces, but the conscious and emotions of a creation, such as yourself. I get angry, I mourn, grieve, love, laugh, and many other things you all experience. Not all of my counterparts experience that. Power and logic reigns strong in them.”

“That must be hard. Managing those emotions when you have all this power. Not allowing yourself to become corrupt…Goodness knows I can lose my shit every now and then.”

Her soft laugh surrounds me, and I crack the barest of smiles. My heart is tender, and my mind is a mess. If not for her power clinging to me, I don’t believe I’d be able to form a lucid sentence.

“I have lost it a few times. Each time my point has gotten across plenty.”

“Are you talking about the visit you paid to the creators when they made the nonmagical realm? What did you do?”

“I am referring to that. I’ve never been one to show off my full strength in front of my counterparts. That day, though, when my eyes laid on the pitiful land they made of the nonmagical realm and the beings who were dying from being cut off from their resources, I did not handle my anger well.

“My fury made the foundation of their realms shake. I flashed my strength around. I made sure they saw me. I gave them no choice but to, or face a battle they would regret. Their mediocre apologies and lack of care for what they did to those beings and creating a land they refused to care for set me off even more. I spoke an irrevocable binding.”

“Which was?” I’m not sure if I actually say it or it’s a whisper in my mind.

“I declared I’d open enough portals all could travel through, not just them. Then I said I’d send watchers to make sure they stayed in line. I couldn’t continue to leave the fabric of my realm. I was pulling too much power from it anytime I left, but I wasn’t going to tell them that.

“In my hurt and heartache, I made a threat that had to become a reality. I made the hardest decision. I assigned my daughters the responsibility of protecting our realm as well as the individuals rejected by their creators or just any who sought a home. I would always provide a home for those who needed one. If they were of the right heart and soul, they could live among my creations and myself in peace. Over time, the ties between realms became blurred because of my power and my daughters weaving in and out. The other realms and their beings rely on that flow of power now. Power I’ve cut them off from.”

Tears well in my eyes at her words. They hit straight in my heart. I don’t feel like I’m speaking to Elementra the creator, but Elementra the woman who was rejected, looked down on, and basically made to have her worth and strength measured by a power greater than her own.

She is a dangerous combination.

Power and emotion.

It takes an unbelievable amount of strength to stay in the mindset of doing right by others when you could have everything you want at your fingertips.

Instead, she’s put everyone above herself. She’s made the most difficult decisions that no one else would want to. No one else would care to do what she has because why would you worry about this many issues when you could live among yourself and keep your power to yourself.

The responsibilities I’m inheriting seem bigger and more important now than they did a few minutes ago…

“After everything you’ve been through, I know it may seem more like a burden than a blessing. It will be worth it, and I will serve you just as you’ve served me. I vow that, Willow.”

“I know. I’m just…”

“Tired.”

“I am. I’m tired. My mind, body, and soul hurts from the secrets, the mysteries, the battles, the blood, the loss, the grief, and never-ending cycles.” A sob tries to once again escape me and her power pulses stronger, forcing me to take a deep breath. “I just need a break. Just a small one. Then I’ll be ready to fight the good fight again.”

“The sole responsibility of the filiae now rests on you. It’s time to begin making things among the realms right once more, but you have won your war. You’ve saved the realm. The plague is already dissolving from the land as we speak. You’re needed to mend the rest. You will know when and what you must do when each time comes. It’s not a secret nor a mystery I am keeping from you. It’s in your blood and it will sing in your heart when you are needed. You’ll know exactly what to do.”

A shuddering breath escapes me as her glowing orb grows larger and she takes on a body made of pure power. My body trembles from the love pouring from her.

She cups my cheek and dries the tears that flow down my face.

“Do I have to die or be dying to request something of you?”

“Never, Ultima unum. You may ask for anything and if it’s within my power, I will grant it to you. Your Nexus member is not within my power.”

My eyes shut tight as phantom pains slice across my chest.

“I just ask for more then. I can’t express how grateful I am for being able to communicate with CC through you and the Memoria stone. My mom through her words she wrote me in her book. But I ask for more. More freedom to hear from them. Not just when the realm needs to be saved or a new discovery within myself emerges. And if Core…a way for him as well. Please.”

“Give me some time to figure out what’s happening in the beyond. Then I will honor your request.”

A slow tear rolls down my cheek and a harsh breath escapes me.

“I didn’t mean to harm the beyond if that’s what I did. I just need him. I don’t know how we’ll survive without him.”

“You no longer have to live in survival mode. This isn’t a fight anymore, my girl. This is the ultimate form of freedom. It is the opposite of the death and destruction you’ve encountered since you took your first breath. It is life and creation. Be at peace, filia mea.”

Her light begins to fade in front of me and I’m left standing in my mind, sobbing as the weight of the realm lifts from my shoulders.

I become just as weightless as the responsibilities.

Take me home.

Take me home to them.

My eyes blink open to the sound of soft voices echoing somewhere around me. The ceiling gives it away that I’m in my room.

I take the realm’s largest breath and push myself up to sit.

All heads turn toward me.

One, two, three…

Tears well and spill out of my eyes faster than I can stop them. I try as hard as I can to choke the heart-wrenching sound from falling out of my mouth, but I can’t.

Why is there only three of them?

“Core,” I cry as I clutch my chest.

I’m seconds from ripping my heart out just to stop the pain.

“Eyes on me, princess.”