Page 39 of Gift from the Source (Source of Elementra #5)

Thirty-four

Corentin

Sixteen years after that

His 80 th birthday

What in the realm am I going to do?

Five…four…three…two…one…

I release the air I was holding in my lungs and allow a subtle halo of light to surround me. My gift and element chase away the nerves that’ve been creeping up in my throat this entire glorious day.

I was woken up with a wonderful little birthday surprise from my princess that immediately made the morning phenomenal.

She and my brothers had already had breakfast brought up to our room, my communicator silenced, and the day planned out to be as relaxing as possible for me in preparation for tonight.

I was a little reluctant for a party.

It’s been a long time since we’ve had parties for our birthdays.

Typically, we spend those special days wrapped up in one another. Most times we’re lying on a beach, cuddled in a cabin in Terravile, or just defiling the entire mansion or south wing.

The last huge birthday party we had was Draken’s fiftieth.

We spent that in Essemist Keep and let me tell you, the vampires know how to party. All damn night long. I was so exhausted.

The smile on my princess’s face, though, as she got spun around on the dance floor by Mr. Dericko, Keeper, and Draken made it entirely worth it.

So much has changed in the forty-six years she’s been here.

I took the changes in stride.

Some I thought I’d lose my shit over.

Some were the best decisions we ever made.

The biggest were reopening some of the realms. It was a culture shock that we were but also weren’t prepared for.

That day all those years ago when she healed the once known as Forsaken Forest, life sprouted about everywhere. We walked along the forest as she ran her hand over everything lovingly. Until we reached the portal.

The grass ring that circled a very faintly lit swirl was a shade of dark brownish green that looked completely out of place from the flourishing grass that was starting to surround it.

When the forest was infected, it would’ve resembled the only living piece of land there, but at that point, it looked like it was dying.

Willow slowly lowered herself to her knees and ran her fingers through the brittle blades of grass and sighed. She explained the way the Summum-Master was using her blood was tainting the portal.

She didn’t hesitate slicing her palms and bleeding life back into.

In the heart of Freedom Forest, the grass ring now sits starkly in silver and green colors around a vibrant swirl you step into if you want to go to the nonmagical realm.

Which I don’t know why anyone would honestly.

It’s my least favorite place to visit.

Part of me thought for sure she’d open Essemist Keep sooner rather than later.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.

It took seven years.

There were major changes that took place in the five hundred years of Keeper’s absence. Those changes had to be rectified on their side first .

The day she did open it, though, Keeper and Tanith came flying through in a blaze of glory. Although they’d already been granted access to come and go as they pleased, he wanted to celebrate the day.

Make it special.

It made me think back to the first time we traveled to Essemist Keep for Draken to meet his grandparents. Keeper went all out with a grand vampire celebration for us. That was an amazing adventure and a story best told by him.

He loves to tell it to any who will listen.

Nowadays, he’s here just as much as he’s there.

Willow didn’t talk about it much, but we were all internally curious as to why she wasn’t opening any of the others. When we did mention it, she always brushed it off, saying it just simply wasn’t time.

One night, roughly five years ago, she woke from the dead of sleep, hollering for us to wake up.

My heart dropped to my stomach.

It was like the night of the war all over again and my mind instantly flashed back to me dying. I couldn’t control my light. I lit up like the sun had collided with our bedroom.

She didn’t hesitate to wrap her arms around me and hold me until I knew there was no threat.

There have only been a few times in my life that that memory has haunted me. Each time, she and some sunshine surround me until I rein it back in.

That particular night, she apologized endlessly for scaring us but said we had to go. When we asked where, she said the giants needed us.

And needed us they did.

Mystara Hollow had practically turned them into mining and whatever they needed them for slaves.

She opened a portal right in the heart of the realm where the largest population of both giants and Mysterians were. It just so happened that at that exact moment, two of the Hollow’s leaders were there.

Her eyes shifted, purple flames licked her body, and she stepped forward .

Tillman and I nearly snatched her back because we most certainly didn’t have backup. While Draken and Cas laughed, called their gifts forward, and stepped up with her.

Her voice rang across the land as she stared the leaders down and told them this would be their only warning to leave Colosyree.

It didn’t take more than that.

Their petrified eyes widened comically as their knees hit the ground. One of them even mumbled Elementra.

In that moment, she truly did look like the embodiment of what we assume a creator would resemble.

She looked fucking magnificent.

She smirked at him and said, “A daughter of hers. One with far less tolerance for this bullshit.”

The sass coming from her in that very serious moment had the four of us chuckling around her and everyone else taking a step back. She dropped it, though, and gave the massive-ass giants small smiles when she saw their fear. That was the last thing she wanted.

The leaders of the villages around Colosyree came and met with us once the Mysterians left. Each of them was worried about what they’d do now as they didn’t want to be slaves, obviously, but Mystara had taken over their resources and basically ran everything for them.

Willow reassured them they’d be fine. She’d help replenish the land and the portal to Elementra would be opened again if they needed us.

She swore they’d find a home and help in Elementra.

I’d never been so proud of her.

To watch one of the giants now pass through the portal is an experience I don’t think any of us will grow tired of.

Unlike the ways of old when the portals were originally open, they’d pass through and still have their colossal size. Now, a few seconds after they step into the Everest trees of Aeradora, they shrink down.

They don’t feel out of place for a moment when they reach our lands.

Our travel to Colosyree was the first and only time so far we’ve seen the full extent of what her gift and responsibilities of being a Source entail. It was the most breathtaking experience .

I don’t believe it’ll always be to that extent unless another realm is in serious trouble. Which the giants were. She explained when we got back home that they were on the verge of losing who they were.

The power of their realm may not give them abilities, but the other-realmly capabilities they possess such as their incredible strength and protective instincts have created its own magic system entirely. Because of the chains placed on them, it was draining who they were at their core.

They needed her and she came.

It was so natural to her. She didn’t even bat an eye.

She’d always been so scared and nervous of what it would be like to rule a realm, but she was already making decisions and doing what was best for people.

She’s going to be a marvelous ruler here one day.

And I’ll be at her side.

A small knock at the door, followed by a quiet creak, has a shiver racing down my back.

My thoughts of her spoke her into existence.

Her hands run down my arms as she smooths my suit jacket out. The image of the two of us in my mirror slows my racing heart and I fill my lungs with the smell of her sweet coffee scent.

“I know you wanted a moment alone, but we all feel you out there. I needed to check on you.”

My shoulders deflate. I wrap my arms around her waist and pull her to my chest. Her head instinctively tilts up so her eyes can meet mine and I run my thumb across her bottom lip.

“I’m fine, princess. Just preparing to close this chapter.”

“You know you don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

My heart skips a beat and a little bit of hope rises in me. Although it isn’t true hope. It’s an excuse to hide what I’m really feeling.

I want to mask the fear I have of the biggest change I’m going to have to face thus far.

“You don’t think I should?”

She giggles as she sees right through me. “I believe you’re ready, but that doesn’t mean you have to. ”

“Do you think Layton’s ready?”

“Yes, I do. I think he’s going to make a very fine Headmaster.”

I exhale harshly as I meet my own gaze in the mirror.

Time hasn’t aged us much, but I see the noticeable difference in myself.

I have more laugh lines, which makes it harder to always look like a closed off asshole.

My eyes won’t hold a blankness anymore. It’s impossible to shut them down completely. Anytime I’ve tried, the thought of her, my brothers, and not being here with them anymore forces me to add light back to them.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years, it’s that I missed out on far too much by closing myself off. I have too much to live for now.

I live for them to the fullest extent.

I’ve accomplished everything I wanted to plus more at the academy.

Equality was so incredibly important to me and for the longest time, it felt like it was going to be an uphill battle to achieve.

The five families that were eventually appointed to the council, though, held the same values as we do. That made the changes so much easier for the entire realm.

The families that now sit in those roles are really good people. We’ve all met their children, who will one day serve with us, and we all get along surprisingly well.

We, as in my Nexus and my parents, tossed around the idea to the realm about having an election and switching council members every hundred years or so just to see how they felt about it.

That was not of interest to them at all.

The overwhelming majority of people liked the structure where there was a single family in each territory that looked over them, got to know them, and do what’s right by them.

We accepted that response and promised to make sure the families were always upholding their responsibilities to them, and we would do the same.

That’s the next chapter of life I get to look forward to.

“You’re right, princess. He will make a fine Headmaster. It’s time.”

“I know this is a huge change for you, for all of us, but it’ll be good for us and them. You’ve set him up for success and we’ll always be here for him, so it’s not like he can’t come to you if he needs you. Just like Carrington can go to Tillman. The two of them have been under the two of you nearly their entire time with us.”

“There were a couple times they scurried off.”

“Okay, you really can’t blame them for having fun when they met Orson and Flynn. Then again when Bric came along. You know as well as I do if our situations had been different when we met, you all would’ve swept me away and enjoyed me till your heart’s desire.”

My smile is slow as I think about that.

That’s exactly what I wanted to do.

My hand travels from holding her chin to cupping her cheek. “Despite the way it came about all those years ago, princess, you are and have always been the best thing that’s ever happened to me and my brothers. You are my source of light and the air in my body. I love you more than I could ever explain and describe. I love you to the beyond and back.”

Her smiling face softens and a slow tear rolls down her cheek to my finger. A shuddered breath leaves her as her lids close. “I’ve been waiting forty-six years for this moment.”

I cock my head to the side. “You saw a vision of this?”

She shakes her head. “This was the last piece of our awakening. Every future clip I got with the guys have already come and gone, but this moment, I’ve been waiting on for so long. Through my eyes at the time, you looked older than you did that day you sat at the table beside me. Fine lines were on your face from your smile. You held a woman tenderly as you whispered sweet nothings and I love yous. I, of course, learned that woman was me. I’ve been holding my breath waiting to hear those exact sweet nothings come out of your mouth. Never would I have imagined, though, that you truly would love me from the beyond and back.”

I hold the back of her head tenderly as I bring her even closer to me. Never in my wildest nightmare would I have ever imagined that either and I’m so incredibly thankful it wasn’t a prolonged experience.

The truth remains, though, I’ll love her beyond the end of time if there ever is one for me .

I lift her face back up and clean away her tears before kissing her softly. “No more tears, baby. Take me to my retirement party.”

She smiles against my lips. “Birthday party, my big eighty-year-old.”

“Don’t remind me.”

“Eighty has never looked so good.”

I place my hand on her lower back and lead her over to my door.

The two of us halt as we open it.

Cas is leaned against the wall with his shadows surrounding him. There’s a knowing smirk on his face as he looks between Willow and me. Tillman’s pacing and Draken…is stuffing his face with cake.

“Fuck me, I thought you were going to back out and I was going to be so pissed I retired a year earlier than you.” Tillman sighs, obviously invading my fucking mind.

“Get out of my damn head,” I say, then turn my attention to Draken. “Is that my birthday cake?”

His spoon freezes in his mouth. “What? No. Of course not. I’d never eat your first slice. I had Chef make a smaller one. I was starving and your nerves were making my dragon restless.”

“How did you convince Chef to make you a cake on my birthday?” I ask, crossing my arms.

“Told him it was for Willow obviously.”

Her snort vibrates through my side and I smile down at her.

“Come on. Let’s go announce my retirement.”

“After we sing you happy birthday,” Draken cheers with his mouth full of food.

Fuck me. Some things never change.

Thankfully.