Bright - Part Nineteen
This episode is part of a larger story, Soft Touch. If you haven’t yet, you can go back and read it from the beginning right here.
There’s a strange, suspended moment where we all just stare in silence at the storm that’s about to close in on us. Stunned, mesmerized, in complete disbelief. My heartbeat has stopped dead in its tracks.
This lasts for about three surreal, breathless seconds. Then I hear Roger let out a stream of curses, see Luca redoubling his grasp on the rope.
I lean over the edge of the cliff and find Aiden still staring at the approaching storm, motionless, frozen.
I manage to gasp a giant breath into my lungs, if only to power my voice so it can reach him.
“Aiden, hold on... HOLD ON!”
He seems to snap back into the present. I see him twist to look up at me, and then -
The storm reaches the cliff.
Torrents of freezing rain have been spilling from the sky, and now they crash down onto us. I bow my head and huddle against it, but it feels like my head was actually forced down by the immense, remorseless walls of water pouring onto me. In an instant, I’m soaked through, my hair drenched, my body shaking from the icy shock.
For a fraction of a second, my mind goes completely blank. Stunned and bewildered, all I’m aware of is that I’m really, really cold. Then I’m aware that the rain fucking hurts when it hits this hard, and from such a sharp angle.
Then suddenly I’m able to think again, and my thoughts leap directly to Aiden.
Holy fucking shit. He’s down there right now, completely exposed and vulnerable on the cliff face, with Hayes’s full weight on his shoulder. He’s attached to nothing, held there only by his grip on the rope. And he just got hit with the same gale-force blast of wind and water that we did, which was easily strong enough to tear the safety line right out of his grasp.
The thought hits me like an electric shock. My veins ice over. My heart plummets, drops, goes on a thousand-foot fall of its own.
I still have both hands fast around the rope, and I have no intention of letting go for anything, so I throw my head back to get my drenched hair out of my eyes. Rivulets of water spill down my face as I tip forward to look out over the edge of the cliff, silently willing Aiden to be there.
It only takes me about two seconds to get my eyes to focus, but those two seconds are filled with such gut-wrenching apprehension that I can barely breathe. I have no idea what I’m going to see.
I stop breathing mid-inhale when my eyes fall on the sight before me.
The wind and rain are barreling through the air below, smashing with brute force into the cliffside, dropping the visibility down to almost nothing. But through all the mayhem, I see it.
A gently curved wall of bright, opalescent gold. A barrier of heat and light, a glowing shield against the wind and rain. It’s an unbelievable, breath-stealing sight against the pitch-blackness on all sides. A radiant, blazing beacon of hope.
And there, in the middle of it - panting from exertion, curled up against the cliff face with his eyes closed - is Aiden.
He’s still holding onto Hayes. The wind is whipping against them, and I can see that they’re both getting hit with some of the rain. But the wall of Heliomancer magic is protecting them from the worst of the storm, and Aiden still has the rope firmly in his grasp.
I let out a hysterical, dazed laugh of relief that’s immediately lost on the ferocious wind. Roger and Luca are just now seeing what I’m seeing, and I can hear both of them shouting, even though I can’t make out a word they’re saying.
Below us, Aiden opens his eyes and looks up. He can only do that because the oncoming rain is not falling downward. It’s falling at a near-horizontal angle, blasted along by the extreme fury of the wind. Breaking against Aiden’s barrier.
His eyes find me, and he takes a deep breath, then shakes himself off like a giant cat. I see him drag his foot out of the rubble, bracing himself to try and take another step.
A massive spike of adrenaline shoots through my veins, sending off bright electric sparks through my whole body. Clarity rolls over my mind in one huge wave. I seem to see things more sharply, nothing fogging my vision. A surge of strength goes to the hands I have wrapped around Aiden’s safety line.
Somehow, my head is the clearest it’s been all night, and honed in on one thing, one thing only: getting Aiden back up to safety.
I start shouting to Roger, who tears his gaze away from Aiden and looks at me with narrowed eyes, reading my lips as my voice is swept away on the wind. He turns and roars something at Luca, and as one, we all throw our weight backwards, dragging the rope with us.
The careful, precise method we were using before is out the fucking window. The slope of loose rock might have held during any other storm, but in one of this magnitude, of this force - not a chance. The parts of it beyond the bounds of Aiden’s protection are already crumbling apart, torn free by the wind and shoved away by the rain.
We’ve reached the point of no return. The only thing we can do is try to pull Aiden and Hayes back up out of the deadly, storm-ridden darkness before everything falls apart.
The rain has made the stone of the cliff slick, which means no friction against the rope. But that’s also making it harder for us to hold onto the rope. We’re fighting against the lethal wind and downpour with wet, half-frozen hands, and one of Roger’s is already injured.
We couldn’t do this without me, Roger, and Luca all working as a team, but Roger is the strongest of the three of us. He’s definitely carrying the bulk of the weight, the driving force behind every hard pull of the rope. I can only hope and pray that his bandage doesn’t make him slip up. One momentary lapse in his grip could cost us everything.
The driving rain batters against our faces, and the bitterly cold wind roars in our ears. Far below us, Roger’s flashlight is shoved off of the ledge by the wind. It falls in a spinning circle of light before it’s swallowed by the darkness.
Aiden is doing the best he can to help us, sinking his boots into the crumbling face of the slope, scrambling upwards. Rivers of rain are waterfalling down the cliff onto him, and the ground is dissolving beneath his feet. A shower of loose rocks falls away with every step he takes, tumbling down to go the way of Roger’s flashlight.
But Aiden keeps going, getting closer, bringing the shield of golden light with him. Fighting his way up to us.
I’m so, so sharply aware that the only thing connecting him to us is his hand wrapped around that rope. If he lets go, he’s in free fall.
He’s so close, so close, I can see his face, his glowing blue eyes looking up at me -
A deafening crack of thunder splits the air, and Aiden’s concentration slips. Between the noise in his head and the noise from outside, he must have gotten overwhelmed.
Reeling and gasping, he staggers backwards on the crumbling slope, half-falling. This results in such a jarring and sudden yank on the rope that it starts to slide right out of my hands. I seize hold of it again, cling to it with all the strength I have.
I’ve been on my knees, but the rope nearly wrenches me flat onto my stomach, nearly pitch-poles me off of the cliff. Roger is the one who stops it from sliding any further, which I know because I hear his shout of effort from behind me.
Aiden jolts to a stop at the end of the line, but he’s destabilized the rock slope even further, and now it’s falling away in slabs, in big chunks.
The golden barrier of Heliomancer light flickers once, twice, then disappears as Aiden throws all of his focus into keeping his grip on the safety line, and on Hayes. Now we can only see him by the glow emanating from his body.
There’s a sudden, deep groan from the slope of rock, and at the same time, a noise like the crack of a whip. The sound brings my heartbeat to a standstill.
It takes me a second to realize what happened. Aiden clipped Hayes in by his belt, which just snapped from the force of Aiden’s fall. The very end of the rope tore free and whipped into the rock face, and now no one is clipped in. Aiden’s hand around the rope is the only thing keeping both him and Hayes secured to the cliff.
I can only stare down at them, aghast, my heart in my throat.
Aiden makes a split-second decision.
He kicks off of the loose rock and starts basically sprinting up the crumbling slope, destroying it as he goes. Using every bit of his natural grace, his pure physical power. And somehow, unbelievably, it’s working.
He’s almost there, almost there - I let go of the rope and reach for him -
And then the entire slope seems to shiver.
I watch in cold horror as it cracks into gigantic pieces, breaking beneath the raw force of the storm, and of Aiden’s ascent.
It all falls right out from under his feet.
The world goes silent for me. The rush of freezing water against me, the howling gale around us - I forget about all of it. I forget about everything except Aiden, who has just realized that he’s going to fall.
Once again, he’s forced to make a decision, and he does.
Hayes is slipping off of his shoulder, and Aiden has been trying to keep him in place. But now he lets Hayes fall into his arms, and then throws him the rest of the short distance up to us.
From the corner of my eye, I see Luca let go of the rope. His reaching hands catch Hayes by the arm, and he starts struggling backwards, dragging him up onto the clifftop.
I’m faintly aware of that, but my eyes haven’t left Aiden. The effort it took to hurl Hayes the rest of the way sent him staggering back on what little remains of the slope. And - he had to open his hand to do it.
The rope fell right out of it. The line is completely slack, nothing left on the end.
Aiden makes a desperate grab for it, and - misses, right as the slope falls apart into nothing and drops him into empty air.
The sound torn from my throat is instantly swallowed up by the wind.
But before I can think or react at all beyond that, a flash of Heliomancer light sparks beneath Aiden’s feet.
He’s not falling. He’s using the sheets of horizontal rain for footing. He’s running on water in midair.
Springboarding off of it, leaping and climbing through nothing, reaching for me. A flash of light sparks beneath his boots with each step, illuminating the steam he’s leaving behind.
I gasp in a frantic breath, reaching out for him. He’s close enough now that I can look right into his terrified blue eyes.
He pushes up off of the rain, throwing all of his effort into one last, desperate leap for me.
Somehow, in my heart, I know that he’s not going to make it. Our reaching hands are too far apart.
And… I’m right. Our hands don’t even come close, and Aiden begins to fall.
As if in slow motion, I see him drop away, his reaching hand still held out for me.
Without hesitating, I throw myself forward off of the cliff, diving for him. Suddenly we’re both flying, falling through open air.
I’m aware of what I’m doing, what it means. But that doesn’t seem to matter. In fact, I couldn’t imagine doing anything else. All that matters is my Companion Plant, all that matters is that he’s about to slip away from me...
I see his eyes widen as he realizes what I just did, see him open his mouth to scream. And then my fingers close around his wrist, and his automatically lock around mine.
At the same time, someone seizes hold of my ankle, jolting me out of my free fall and into a sharp stop.
Aiden is also torn out of his fall, and his entire body weight wrenches down on my arm. Pain explodes through my shoulder, and my other hand snaps up to seize onto Aiden’s wrist so that I don’t drop him.
We stare into each other’s eyes, panting, shell-shocked, hanging down over the side of the cliff.
There’s finally a lull in the wind, enough for me to hear what Roger is shouting from somewhere above us. “Luc, get his other foot!”
I feel a hand close around my other ankle, and then I’m being dragged back up. I cling tightly to Aiden, who starts kicking his way up the smooth stone of the cliffside, now bare of its slope.
With his help, Roger and Luca pull me up. Then Roger reaches down for Aiden, and Luca tries to push me away from the edge of the cliff.
But I won’t let go of Aiden. I keep my hands around his wrist and throw my weight backwards, pulling him up with me, even though this does no favors for my painful, throbbing shoulder.
Roger helps me, and - just like that, Aiden struggles up over the edge and touches down on solid ground.
I was already on my knees, but now I sink down and fall flat onto my back, shivering violently.
The rain is pelting down on me mercilessly, smacking against my bent knees and my freezing face. But it’s okay. I haven’t let go of Aiden’s wrist, and I know that he’s here with me. He’s here. He’s safe.
I close my eyes and let out the world’s biggest breath of relief.
I can hear the others all yelling to each other, Aiden’s deep, frantic voice above all of the rest. I open my eyes and find him kneeling over me, cupping my face in one hand. He can’t use the other, because I’m still holding onto his wrist like my life depends on it. He’s saying something to me, but I have no idea what. Kind of yelling at me, I think, like I did something unbelievably stupid.
I smile up at him, my heart filled with love.
Aiden stops shouting very abruptly, and suddenly his blue eyes - no longer glowing - fill up with tears. He drops his head and presses his face into my chest, holding tightly to the flannel beneath my jacket. He lets it go after a second, but only to gather me into his arms. He’s trembling even harder than I am, stroking his fingers through my hair. He buries his face into my neck, lets out a big sob into it.
I lift the arm that’s still cooperating with me and sink my fingers into his soaked chestnut hair. Grateful, happy, smiling.
Aiden suddenly pulls back and away from me, seizes me by my flannel, and drags me up to crush his mouth against mine.
“You - crazy - idiot!” he yells, kissing me between every word. “How the fuck could you do that, what were you thinking-?”
“Are you okay?” I interrupt, touching my knuckles to his stubbled cheek.
“No!” he shouts, tears spilling down his face. He starts pressing kisses all over my cheeks, my nose. “You - you gave me a heart attack, you dumb fucking idiot, you-”
I’m so happy to have him kissing my face like this that I let out a little laugh. Aiden freezes, then makes a very small, broken, anguished sound. He wraps me in his arms again, holds me tightly against him.
It feels so fucking good, the best feeling imaginable - but my arm really doesn’t like it. I let out a soft sound of pain, and somehow Aiden hears it.
He pulls back and twists around, yelling over his shoulder. Luca appears behind him and stares down at me, his green eyes slitted against the rain. He says something in Aiden’s ear, and Aiden gently, reluctantly lowers me onto my back. Luca drops down onto his knees on the other side of me.
“Jamie,” he says, speaking up over the wind. “You dislocated your shoulder!”
I look blankly down at my unmoving arm, still in something of a dream state. “Did I?”
“I’m gonna pop it back in on three, okay?” Luca says, taking hold of my arm.
“Okay,” I stammer, vaguely aware that this will probably hurt.
“One,” Luca says, then immediately does something to my arm, some sharp, fast movement that’s over in a second.
But it does fucking hurt, and it catapults me out of my haze.
“Ow!” I shout, instantly enraged. I snap upright, gasping, glaring at Luca. “What the fuck, man? What happened to two and three?”
Luca smiles, like for some reason he’s happy to see me sitting here yelling at him. He slaps Aiden’s shoulder, looking relieved.
“He’s alright, Aiden! He’ll have to take it easy with this arm for a while, but he’ll be fine!”
Aiden closes his eyes and lets out a heavy exhale, drops his head in relief.
“I’ll help you take care of it later, Jamie - just don’t move it too much, okay?” Luca swiftly gets to his feet again, tossing his drenched hair out of his eyes. “Right now I’ve gotta get back to Justin!”
All of my anger drops away as everything floods back into my mind. I look up at Luca through the downpour, cradling my aching arm to my chest.
“Is he okay?” I shout. “Hayes - Justin?”
“He’s breathing!” Luca calls over his shoulder, already on the move. “I’ll explain later, but - he is very, very lucky!”
I peer through the rain and see that Luca and Roger dragged Justin back into the relative safety of the trees. He’s laying there on his back, and Roger is crouched by his side.
To my absolute amazement, Justin’s eyes are open. He’s not moving or saying anything, and he looks confused and terrified. But Roger is talking to him, and he’s clearly listening. I think I even see him nod when Roger asks him a question.
And - the magic is gone from Aiden’s eyes, which means that nobody is in danger. Not anymore.
I let out a long breath, then a disbelieving laugh.
“Holy shit,” I stammer. “We made the fucking save! Aiden, oh my god - you saved him, you-”
I break off as Aiden suddenly seizes me by my jacket and drags me back into his arms, lets out another breathless sob into my hair. I can feel the stumbling and racing of his heartbeat through the places where we’re pressed together.
“Don’t you ever do anything like that again, you hear me, Keane?” He’s still shaking, trembling everywhere. “I don’t care if it’s my life on the line, don’t you ever fucking do that shit again!”
I put my good arm around Aiden, thinking to myself that I would do it a thousand times over, for him. “Okay, I - I won’t.”
Aiden lets out a sputter of outrage, pushes me back so he can glare into my face. “You fucking terrible liar! That wouldn’t convince anyone, that…”
He fades off, bites his lip, and then drops his forehead against mine, holds onto my flannel.
“Jamie...” he says, his deep voice overflowing with love. “You - I...”
He cuts himself off with a staggering breath, then falls silent. I guess that’s all he can manage to say right now, but it’s okay. I know my Companion Plant. I understand exactly what he’s trying to tell me. I’m trying to tell him the same thing, and I’m finding it equally impossible to find the right words.
So instead I curl up into Aiden’s arms, let him listen to my note.
The way I feel about him comes right from my very soul, and I know that I can trust it to do the talking for me.
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