Page 33 of Gift from the Source (Source of Elementra #5)

Twenty-Eight

Caspian

“Donald, Donald, Donald.”

I cheer as I pull my chair across the room to sit in front of him. The way his eyes shatter as he looks at me makes a sinister smile cross my face.

“I must admit, this past month and a half with you has been amazing. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed our time together. I’m so disappointed it’s coming to an end.”

As soon as my dad mentioned he was in here, I had to shadow down here to make sure he was still alive.

I was prepared to rage at Elementra if she allowed him to die so easily like the others who hit the ground the moment Malvolio died.

I thanked her endlessly when I found him chained up like a pretty package in my Primary’s gift.

Granted, I know it probably infuriated her to have to bless him with a little protection.

Me cursing her daily probably would’ve been more infuriating, though.

I decided it wasn’t worth questioning how she did it, although I was very interested when I saw his M was no longer red like the others’, but a silver scar .

The color of it made me think of my Willow, so I carved a W right over it.

That sight enraged me.

Obviously, I had to slice off that whole patch of skin after that.

Almost every day since, I’ve come down here to pay him a visit. I bring with me enough healing vials that I can get him to the brink of death and back however much I please.

Not once have I done to him what he did to Willow, though.

I’ve been saving that for myself and my brothers.

Together, we’re going to do to him everything he did to her.

Well, almost everything. We aren’t the same kind of monsters he is.

He’s cried, begged, and pleaded for his life, but not once has he apologized. I don’t believe it’s occurred to him once to say sorry. Even a sorry he doesn’t truly mean.

When I think too hard about that, I see red and have to redirect my thoughts so I don’t actually kill him.

It’s made me wonder, though, if he just thinks I’m doing this to him for the hell of it. Does the vile shit he did to her even cross his mind as reason enough I’d torture him for this long?

“Tell me, Donald, what have you learned in the time we’ve spent together?”

He sneers at me until I solidify a shadow dagger in my hand, then he blanches. “That you’re as deadly as he warned you were. It’s clear now why they were obsessed with you.”

“That’s all you’ve taken from this?”

“Was there something else to be fucking learned?”

“I don’t know, maybe why you’re here in the first place.”

“Probably because of my bitch wi—”

The temperature in the room drops below freezing as my chair slams into the ground. My teeth grind together as I snatch his head back by his hair and shove my dagger in his mouth.

“Firstly, she is your nothing. Don’t think for a millisecond longer you have or ever have had a claim to call her your anything, you sick fuck. Secondly, you speak a single ill word against her, and I dice your fucking tongue up, then make you eat it. You understand me?”

He grunts a muffled agreement, but that’s not good enough for me.

“Say. It.”

The words are distorted as I press the tip of my dagger harder against his tongue. His screams cause the blood to pour down his chin and I smile in satisfaction.

“Good boy.” I pat his head, then slap him across the face at the sound of a knock at the door. “Ah, perfect timing.”

My water element drifts through my fingers and cleans away his blood before I reach the door handle. I swear the giddiness coming from the other side vibrates in my chest.

It may be a collective feeling, but I’m almost positive the dragon is bouncing on his toes.

“What in the realm took you all so long?”

“Willow, Draken, and Tillman decided to take an extra long shower,” Corentin says, rolling his eyes, and I catch the hint of jealousy.

Fuck me, I feel it too.

Now I know where all that excitement was really stemming from.

“Draken shouldn’t have been running his mouth,” Tillman says.

“I wasn’t running my mouth. I was speaking facts.”

“It’s not facts, though.”

“It is, T-man. Did I or did I not make her come on my tongue faster than you did?”

“Yes, but that’s because you made her come first. I had to put in more work than you did.”

“I’m seriously standing right here.”

I look down at my beautifully blushing Primary. Her face is flushed from both their little spat over her orgasms and from being freshly fucked.

There’s so much sass in her tone and her eyes, but she’s trying to put on a pointless front. Her bond tells me all her secrets as it flutters in my chest.

“We see you, sweet Willow. You’re all we see. Are you ready? ”

The lust that had been building in her eyes evaporates and they cloud over. I run my thumb underneath them to chase away the darkness and she tilts her face into my palm.

She grips my arm softly and lays a sweet kiss to my wrist.

“I’m ready.”

She is.

I move out of her way and allow her to walk ahead of the rest of us, but I stay close to her back to let her know I’ll always be here.

There will never be a time that I won’t be ready to chase away her darkness.

Corentin grabs my chair off the ground and holds his hand out to her as he sets it back up for her to sit in. She accepts it graciously and gives him a bright smile.

Then those deadly eyes turn to our guest of honor.

“Well, that’s a look I’ve seen many times. Just not on you.” Her voice is calm and low but laced with confidence that buzzes around the room. Her gaze scrutinizes every inch of his miserable ass before smiling in his face. “Broken suits you.”

“What do you expect when I’ve been left in the hands of a monster for weeks?” His venom pours out and I place my hand on Draken’s chest to hold him back.

This is her moment.

Then we can finish him.

“Try twenty-six years. From one monster to another. I have half a mind to keep you here that long just so you can experience exactly what that’s like.”

Oh, don’t tease me like that, little Primary.

Her lip twitches and I strengthen my mental block a little better.

Horror crosses his face as his eyes bounce to me, then back to her. “You wouldn’t.”

She sighs deeply and crosses her arms. “No, I wouldn’t. Not because you wouldn’t deserve it. You sure as fuck would. What you don’t deserve is any more of my time, energy, or resources to keep you alive. You’ve taken enough from me throughout the years. I surely won’t be willingly giving you anything else.”

“I wouldn’t have had to take—”

She waves her hand in the air and a glob of mud slaps against his mouth. “Eww, no, you won’t be doing that. I’m not sure why men like you, Franklin, and Malvolio try to blame your disgusting behaviors on me as though I made your choices for you, but I won’t be hearing you tell me how anything you did to me was my fault. It’s bad enough you’re too stupid to learn how to put up a mental block and I have to hear the bullshit in your mind. I can promise you I won’t be hearing it come out of your mouth.”

My eyes narrow on him, then I turn to Tillman.

That deadly glare aimed at Donald is all I need to know.

I was too caught up in how well she’s handling herself to truly pay attention to what my brothers were doing. Now it’s glaringly obvious they’re ready to snap his neck.

I forgot they haven’t spent the last six weeks down here slicing him up with me. I have more patience than they do.

She removes the mud from his mouth and gives him a few seconds to spit it out, then she stands.

“Unlike you, Donald, I take full responsibility for my actions and my decisions. Each and every time, no matter the consequences. There is a very distinct difference between hurting someone innocent for pleasure and hurting someone bad because they deserve it. I promise, you deserve everything that’s coming to you, and I stand by it wholeheartedly.

“By the blessed responsibility placed upon me, I, Willow Vito, Source of Elementra, sentence you, Donald Griffin, to death. For committing treason against this realm, plotting and attempting to harm the royal family, kidnapping innocent citizens, and breaking the laws in the nonmagical realm.

“For every broken bone, black eye, and bloody nose. For holding me down to get my blood drawn, strangling me, throwing me in a grave naked for days, attempting to drown me in freezing water, kidnapping me from my true Nexus, aiding in my torture, and marking me .

“For ripping away my innocence, raping me, and forcing yourself on me against my will at every turn. And for trying to break me. Your sentence will be carried out and upheld now.”

Her hands slam together, and I shiver as the most resounding blessing erupts through the room like a fucking volcano. The heat radiating off her is glorious against my cold skin.

Right now, she’s the embodiment of light and dark. Power and grace. Balance and chaos. Revenge and justice. Good and bad. Right and wrong.

She’s everything.

I’ve never been more proud of her.

The walls slowly stop trembling and their settling reveals the sounds of Donald fucking hyperventilating. His eyes are pinched shut and the tremors coursing through him nearly have him vibrating out of the seat.

As the room falls silent, we all look at him like he’s lost his mind.

He eventually calms down enough to open his eyes, and he scans them across us like he can’t believe he’s seeing us standing here still.

Honestly, I startle a little bit when he throws his head back, laughing manically.

“What the fuck?” Draken murmurs to me as he spins his finger in a circle motion around his temple.

“Fuck,” he suddenly shouts. “You almost had me there, Willow. Bravo. Bra-fucking-vo. Really and truly. You had me believing the bitch creator you love so damn much was about to smite me. The way you made everything shake, that was a very nice touch. Dumb bitch.”

He blows out deep, relieved breaths, then starts his chuckling back up.

The five of us arch our brows.

After a really awkward moment of silence, Tillman and Willow snort and glance at one another. Then they die laughing.

Draken throws his hands up at them, while Corentin and I shrug our shoulders.

Willow grips the back of her chair and drags it over to the wall, shaking her head and laughing the whole time. “You really are a stupid fuck, Donald. Elementra gave her blessing of your death. She was never going to kill you or smite you as you said. My men are going to do that for me. Dumb bitch. ”

She’s still smiling as she sits in the seat and crosses her legs. It takes me a moment to catch up, but when I do, I turn back to him.

He’s no longer smiling. Instead, his eyes rapidly bounce between the four of us like the sacrificial lamb he is.

“Wait, he thought…” Draken starts, but his laugh trips up his words. “Oh, this will be fun.”

He delivers that little comment with a punch right to Donald’s cheek. The sound of his eye socket breaking is just as loud as the piercing wail that leaves him.

Together, we pounce.

We easily fall into a rhythm with our swings. The guys follow my lead as in my mind I count off the times of everything she named.

I saw every time. I relived every time.

I’ve memorized every time.

The assaults have haunted my dreams anytime I haven’t slept near her.

Every broken bone. Every black eye. Every bloody nose.

He receives the same as he gave her.

The blood dripping from my knuckles fuels the darkness rising inside of me. I embrace it.

I have the luxury of doing that now because she owns it.

If I go too far, she’ll guide me back.

Tillman shoves a healing vial down his throat when his groans go quiet for too long. As soon as he startles awake, I pull the contents back out of his stomach.

We do that repeatedly so he can experience what it’s like to be held down and have something taken from your body unwillingly.

Corentin snatches the air out of his lungs and holds it until he turns blue in the face. I tell him there were six separate times he had his hands around her throat.

He strangles him to the brink of death exactly that many times.

His head sways around uncontrollably as Corentin finally lets him take a deep breath. He even pushes a little air into him to get him back on tract .

Once he’s cognitive enough to know what’s going on, Tillman kicks him and the chair he’s strapped in right into the grave behind him.

None of us strip him of his clothes like he did her. We won’t expose her to that shit, but I do wrap his entire body in a block of ice so he can experience the way it feels to have the cold seep into his bones.

I melt the ice around his body and Draken’s flame surrounds him.

As many times as he dunked her in that pool, let her sink, then pulled her up by the hair on her scalp, Draken and I recreate the sensation.

I crash my water element on top of him as his fire rapidly heats him up. The fucking pig squeals from the constant pins and needles shooting through his body.

The tortured sound does nothing but spur us on.

Tillman fills the hole so fast as we drop Donald on his ass one final time, he shoots out of it and his body slams back on a table. Vines seize him to hold him in place.

Light burns a handprint over his heart.

Claws dig into his hip .

Shadows puncture fifty-four holes across his arms and legs.

Apart from Trex, his fake Nexus brothers may have already met their demise, but he’ll reap what they sowed.

His limp and broken body lies on the table, unmoving.

I nod to Tillman to untie him and bring him down from the table, and I pass Corentin two healing vials. At this point, they wouldn’t save him, but they’ll keep him alive for another moment.

Turning, my eyes lock onto my Primary’s.

Her chest rises and falls at the same tempo ours does.

My brothers and I talked extensively both with and without her about whether we thought it was a good idea she stay in here for this.

Ultimately, like she just said to that fuck face, she told us she wouldn’t shy away or hide from what was going to happen to him. She knew what it meant for her to sentence him to death and us being the ones to deliver it.

She owned her decision and she’s owning her emotions over it now.

I reach my hand out for her, giving her the choice to finish this with us or not.

Whatever she chooses, I will support her no matter what.

I’m not the least surprised, though, when she stands from her chair.

My heart thunders in my chest as each stride she takes toward me, her bond thrums in gratitude.

She doesn’t have to be thankful to me for the things I did, though.

I will never stop fighting for her.

The four of us will always take care of her.

The feeling of her hand in mine settles my demons down and I run my fingers down her cheek.

She nods and I move to the side to place her in the middle of us, where she faces her beaten, bloodied, and broken rapist on his knees.

Wordlessly, we put our hands on her and push our gifts and elements through.

Her palm stretches out and a blaze of purple, red, blue, green, and white bursts free, devouring his body.

There isn’t even ash left of him when the power returns to us.

“It’s all over, little Primary.”