Spirit - Part Fifteen
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.
The rainfall beyond the closed-in porch is spilling softly down into the flat, glassy ocean. Tapping quietly against the roof of the cottage.
The sun started going down midway through Leyla’s story. It sank slowly into the sea, tinting the iridescent, rainy mist in rosy hues. The sky was streaming with clouds that glowed in breath-stopping shades of gold and tangerine and molten red.
The star-dotted sky is a rich purple in color now, giving way at its heights to a deep royal blue. Gleams of moonlight are beginning to pool in the raindrop ripples on the surface of the ocean. The massive old trees of the coastal forest beyond the beach are growing darker and fuzzier in the low light, as the soft golden candles and lamps start to seem brighter.
The night is deepening around us. Over the steady, constant patter of the rain on the roof and the ocean, we’ve heard the faint sounds of little woodland creatures returning to their nests and burrows, or setting out for nocturnal excursions. The drizzly night air carried us the distant call of an elk, and at one point the soft hooting of an owl.
Leyla has gone silent. Leaning her chin on her palm, her white hair shining softly in the candlelight.
She trailed off after the part about stitching up Rose’s spirit with the sewing needle. She hasn’t said anything at all for some time now. She’s gazing up at the tapestry of magic on the wall over our heads, her sharp eyes very far away, the first stars of the night shining just over her shoulder.
Aiden, Kasey, and I have been staring at Leyla in rapt, spellbound silence the whole time she’s been speaking.
She’s been very matter-of-fact with us. Calmly walking us through the events of the night like she’s reporting back during a debrief.
Jahn followed me into the forest. I tried to lose him, unsuccessfully. He was determined to kill me. I wasn’t exactly sure why. I think he was under the impression that I played some role in the farmhouse collapse. Whatever the reason, he and I had a skirmish near the cliff edge, but one of the illusions that Rose made turned up…
Or -
Rose activated her magic to clear us all from everyone’s memory, even though it wasn’t quite complete. I had already done my part of the massive memory erase plan, which was to call in a favor with a trusted friend at the Agency. He swept all the physical files on the Port Sitka job, that night. Got rid of everything he could find about it. It was an enormous favor, but I’d saved his life once, and I promised him that he’d be saving mine…
Putting everything in such simple, straightforward terms. But with each word Leyla spoke, I could see the detailed tapestry of the memory moving deep within her eyes. I know that there were a thousand little things she was leaving out, things she probably can’t put into words.
I doubt she’s forgotten anything, though. She’s spoken about this like she can still see it all with perfect clarity, happening right before her eyes.
Aiden shifts slightly on the couch beside me, the first one of us to finally move. I slowly turn to look at him, my heartbeat running wild.
I think that - without either of us meaning to - Aiden placed himself in Rose’s shoes during that story, and I placed myself in Leyla’s.
At some point I took his hand and wove my fingers through his. I don’t know when, since I honestly don’t remember doing it. I quickly relax my grip when I notice how tight it is. But the moment I do, Aiden tightens his grasp on my fingers. Fastening our hands together.
I slowly blink my eyes up to meet his.
The oceanic blue is swept with a storm of complicated emotion, but the prevailing one is clear. It makes my heart stumble over itself, a hiccup in the rhythm of its beating.
I must be crushing Aiden’s fingers, but he doesn’t look like he cares. He moves on the couch, shifting himself closer to me. I gratefully lean against him, my dazed eyes very wide.
Kasey has been sitting perfectly still, with one hand pressed over her mouth. As Aiden sort of pulls himself back together, he puts the ghost glasses back on, then flashes her a look, like - holy shit.
Kasey matches it, taking a deep breath that she lets out very slowly. Her dark eyes are swimming with thought, processing everything.
Leyla’s eyes drop from the tapestry to me and Aiden. She gives a little start of surprise, like she almost forgot we were there.
Her flowing white hair is just as perfectly in place as it was when she began the story, but she smooths a hand over it, adjusting the crimson bow holding it back from her face. Slowly touching back down in the present.
“Anyways, I rented a little boat and went to go get Jahn the next morning,” she goes on, her warm, clear voice layering softly over the rain. “I’ll admit, I took my time about it. But he did repeatedly try to kill me the night before, so I felt justified.”
Aiden and I both let out a soft, dazed laugh, still submerged in disbelief.
“I’m still not… exactly sure what happened to Jahn,” Leyla continues, more slowly. “So far as I can tell, because he was so close to the memory magic when Rose set it off, he got what you might call an extra dose of it. When I picked him up he knew that he was tired and hungry and sore, he knew his name and who he was. But he couldn’t remember me, or how he’d gotten there. The last concrete thing he could remember sounded like it came from before he joined the Stasi. He remembered his mom’s house, out in the countryside in Germany.”
Aiden, Kasey, and I stare at Leyla in wondering silence.
“So I took him directly to the airport,” she says, settling back against the cushions in her chair. “Bought him a ticket under one of the false passports he had. I knew there was a possibility the Stasi would flag the name on the ticket when he arrived, but my hope was that they’d never be looking for one of his cover identities listed on a route to some tiny random country airport… the airport he remembered being the closest to his mom’s house. He got on the flight, I know that. It was the last I ever heard or saw of him.”
I finally venture a tentative question. “Did you know he was the one who shot Mags? When you helped him get home?”
“I had guessed it was probably either him or Scholz. I had no idea what had happened to Scholz, until now.” Leyla presses a thoughtful fingertip to her lips. “Truthfully, it wouldn’t have mattered to me that Jahn was the one who killed Mags. He didn’t even know he’d done that, not anymore. He was confused and lost. He just wanted to go home. I didn’t have the heart to leave him to find the path on his own.”
After a moment, Leyla adds -
“I think that roughly the same thing happened to the memories of the two CIA agents in the forest. I don’t really know. I decided they could take care of themselves, the bastards.” A scorching glare flashes through Leyla’s eyes. “They’re the ones responsible for what happened to Rose’s Tree. I don’t care that it was an accident.”
“Wh-? But Jahn tried to kill you,” I sputter. “Tried to kill you.”
Leyla’s eyebrows knit in faint confusion. “Well, that’s - different. Not as bad. I don’t know.”
Aiden bites back a laugh, catching my eye. I let my laughter escape me, weakly dropping my head into my hands.
“Jamie,” Kasey murmurs suddenly. “No dummy, don’t look at me, Leyla will catch you! Listen, I’m running out of energy. I can feel it. I’m gonna go back to Will, just to be safe. Let me know what happens when you get home, okay?”
I covertly give Kasey a thumbs-up. By the time I blink, she’s gone.
Leyla has lapsed into stillness and silence again, gazing up at Rose’s magic. All done with her story, at least for now.
But there’s still an important question that hasn’t been answered. A question that Aiden and I are dying to know the answer to.
“And Rose?” Aiden asks softly, looking at Leyla again. “What happened to her?”
Leyla takes a slow breath, glancing back and forth between our faces. She sits up some more in her chair, works something out of the pocket of her jeans, and slips it onto her finger.
“You can’t blame me for being careful when I speak about Rose, boys,” she informs us. “I wasn’t sure what you wanted with her. Thought I should get a sense of your intentions, first.”
Nobody answers. Aiden and I are staring blankly down at what Leyla just slid onto her finger.
It’s a wedding ring. Soft, oceanic waves of silver form the band. A small, oval emerald sits at the center, glimmering in the low golden light.
“I could barely sew,” Leyla goes on, scarcely noticing the stunned expressions on our faces. Her eyes are lingering on her wedding ring. “But I stitched Rose’s spirit back up as best I could. She’d had her roots broken, like her Tree. She was coming apart at the edges, and I was trying to stitch her back together, to give her - new roots. Ones strong enough to keep her here.”
Leyla stops, lets out a slow breath before she keeps going.
“I had no idea if it would work. I just had to believe that it could. I kept sewing until Rose’s spirit sort of - fell, very slowly, back into her body. I ran out of thread right before it happened, and the magic wouldn’t give me anymore. I was afraid that meant that I had done it wrong, and I hadn’t saved her. But it just meant that… I didn’t need any more thread.”
In tandem, Aiden and I lift our gazes from the wedding ring to Leyla’s face, then whip around to look at the front door of the cottage. We both just heard the sound of footsteps coming up the path, and a dog barking.
Leyla breaks into an affectionate smile, sweeping gracefully to her feet. “Oh, just in time.”
Aiden and I exchange a very swift little glance, then quickly get up and follow Leyla into the living room. We stop just inside, right as the door of the cottage is gently pushed open.
A woman steps inside, nearly carried in by a sweet rush of late-spring air and raindrops.
Her hair is blown into delicate, wispy curls around her face from the rain, her cheeks a softly rosy hue from the cold air. She’s a short little woman, soft and plump in figure, with slender shoulders. Wearing maroon overalls cuffed above a pair of tan boots, and a loose, white cotton top beneath that.
Her glossy silver hair is up in a messy bun near the top of her head. A few shimmering strands escape to form long, side-sweeping bangs that frame her rounded, freckled, pixie-like face. She has glasses with black rims, and behind them, eyes with thick fringes of black lashes. There’s a small package bundled up in brown paper in her hands.
A long-healed, slashing scar runs down her face, a stripe of sharp white.
Unlike Leyla, she has a very quiet, shy presence. Her shoulders are naturally drawn in together, like she needs to make herself small.
Leyla’s face lights up with immeasurable happiness when her eyes fall on her. Like everything she adores in the whole world was just put into her hands.
She glides forward quickly to meet her, taking light, graceful steps, her arms held out in welcome.
“Hello, my darling!” she calls, her voice bright with pure adoration. “How was the stitch ‘n bitch?”
“Well, as always, I felt a little silly going,” Rose laughs, carefully hanging her bag on one of the hooks by the door. “I never have anything to bitch about! But I did listen to some good bitching I need to tell you about. And I traded with Martha for some beautiful sea-green thread - I’ve been dying to show you!”
Leyla reaches Rose right as she turns around to face the inside of the cottage. Rose’s upturned face grows bright with a soft blush as she meets Leyla’s eyes. She bites her lip, smiling, then holds out the package in her hands.
“We stopped at the store on the way back, and they had those sugared almonds you liked. I thought we could make some - oh!”
Rose had rolled up on her toes to accept a kiss of greeting from Leyla. Her attention was all taken up by her, but she’s just caught a glimpse of me and Aiden watching in stunned silence. Aiden is leaning heavily on my shoulder, overwhelmed with relief, and I’m holding perfectly still, my fingers pressed to my mouth.
Rose instantly falls back flat on her feet, her dark lashes fluttering very fast in surprise behind her glasses. Her hands tighten shyly around the package she’s holding.
“Oh, um - hello.” She directs her tentative greeting to us, but looks at Leyla with questioning eyes. “I - I thought-?”
“I didn’t expect us to talk for this long,” Leyla explains, bending down to brush a reassuring kiss onto her temple. “But it’s alright, darling, you’ll see. They-”
Leyla breaks off, arching a puzzled eyebrow.
Aiden and Rose just locked eyes with each other across the living room, and the instant it happened, both of them froze to the spot. The two of them stare at each other with stricken, mesmerized eyes, shining with matching wonder.
Moving as if unconscious of it, led purely by instinct, Aiden takes a few steps closer to Rose. She comes to meet him, moving the same way. Like she’s drawn to him by some living current that runs invisibly between them.
They both slow to a stop when they’re face to face. Rose tips her head all the way back to stare up at Aiden, and he stares down at her, both of them silent with mutual fascination.
With Rose standing closer, I see that she has grey eyes, with the faintest tint of pale green. But her irises are flecked with tiny, irregular spots in a shade of deep, rich emerald.
The light of immense surprise and warm recognition is glowing in them. Mirrored completely in Aiden’s.
“Oh,” Rose breathes, spellbound. “You - you’re a-”
Rose cuts herself off as a tall man steps into the cottage out of the rain, bending his head like Aiden did to fit through the little doorway. Two Dalmatians come scrambling in at his feet. A fully grown one, followed by a tiny heart-nosed puppy. The dogs eagerly flock to Leyla, who laughs and lowers her hands to greet them. The grown Dalmatian affectionately presses his forehead to her leg. The little one zips around in very fast circles, overwhelmed with excitement, furry ears bouncing.
“Hello, you two disasters,” Leyla chuckles, then straightens up. “Hey, sweetheart!”
“Hey, mom,” comes the gentle, soft-spoken reply from the doorway.
The dogs come rushing over to investigate me and Aiden, but both of us are busy staring at the man who just shut the door after himself, shifting the grocery bag bundled in his arm.
He straightens up to his full height and tosses his hair out of his face. Despite all the years that have passed since the moments that formed the ghost memory of him, I recognize him right away.
Charlie pauses just inside the doorway when he spots us, stopped in surprise.
He’s tall enough that he has to duck his head slightly to stand in the entryway of the cottage. He’s slender, but solidly built. He fills out the clothes he’s in - a dress shirt tucked into some charcoal dress pants, like he just came from work. His sleeves are pushed back, his short hair slightly damp from the rain. There’s an official-looking ID badge still attached to his belt.
He has a beard cut close to his hard-lined jaw, and low, almost straight-lined eyebrows over eyes as big and soft and dark as they were when he was little.
Despite his build, he’s clearly inherited Rose’s quiet presence. He glances nervously between me and Aiden, hanging back by the door.
“Hey,” he says slowly. “Um…?”
He blinks in relief as Calla steps into the room from the dimly-lit hallway. Her hazel eyes brighten up as soon as she sees that everyone is home. She goes right to Charlie, whose eyes brighten in the same way as he stretches out an arm for her.
“Hey, dad!” Calla flashes him a smile as he wraps an arm around her shoulders. She leans against him affectionately, then nods at us. “These are my friends Aiden and Jamie. They’re from Ketterbridge. The ones who came to speak to grandma.”
“Hey, angel.” Charlie squeezes Calla’s shoulders and kisses the top of her head, then turns his dark-eyed gaze back to us. “Yeah, that’s right. I heard you two were coming.”
He pauses, throwing Leyla a questioning glance, then looks relieved again when she smiles at him in an all-good-here kind of way.
Clearly everyone in the family knew about our visit in advance, which means they all know why we came here. They all know we’ve been investigating the case - their case.
There’s a brief silence. It’s an extremely odd situation, and no one knows how to handle it. Everyone looks faintly baffled and embarrassed, except for me.
I’m grinning happily, surprised and delighted to realize that solving this case has opened up the opportunity for so many new friends.
“You’re Charlie!” I blurt out, crossing to him with a friendly hand held out. “Aw, man, we’re so excited to meet you! We know that’s weird, but it’s true. We’re really stoked that you’re alive!”
“Oh.” Charlie breathes out a surprised laugh, accepting the handshake I’m offering him. “Thank you. That’s, um - a very kind and strange thing to say. You must be getting along well with my mom, given you’re still in one piece.”
“She did try to tase us, but it’s all good, we worked it out!” I turn around to face Rose, beaming with overwhelming relief. “And Rose! You’re all in one piece, too! So we all have all of our pieces, that’s - whew. That’s great.”
“It’s early yet,” Leyla says gravely, with a glimmer of laughter in her eyes. “And I was just about to invite you to stay for dinner.”
“Really?” Aiden asks in surprise, to an enthusiastic nod from Rose.
“Yes - won’t you stay?” she asks, all in a rush. “Please do! We’re grandmas, we have more than enough food for everyone!”
“We’d love to!” I answer brightly, bending down to say hello to the Dalmatian puppy. “As long as you’re sure we’re not imposing-?”
“No, no,” Charlie says quickly, flashing us a fast smile. The kitchen is open to the living room, and he crosses to it, sets the groceries down on the counter, then turns to face me and Aiden again. “Not at all. Actually, I think we’re all curious to hear more about what-”
He breaks off as his phone begins to buzz in his pocket. He slips it free, then glances up at all of us apologetically.
“It’s work,” he groans, slipping his work bag off of his shoulder and onto the counter. “Sorry mom, mama-”
“It’s fine!” Leyla and Rose answer in unison.
Charlie answers his phone and opens up his work bag at the same time. “Walsh, I just got to my parent’s house for dinner, and you’ve had their cooking, so you know this had better be… what? What kind of issue?”
As one, Charlie’s family immediately moves to gather around him by the kitchen counter. Aiden and I watch them in faint surprise and confusion. It’s like Calla, Rose, and Leyla are all personally invested in whatever Charlie’s got going on at work. They’re all staring at him intently, suddenly tense and serious.
Charlie listens for a moment, his eyebrows slowly knitting in concern.
“Yeah, I know, that’s why we’re doing these tests in the first place…” He takes a notepad and pen out of his work bag, then briskly starts scribbling down some numbers. “Okay, well, we can fix that, no big deal. The thermals on the spacecraft… What - really? Since when?”
Leyla moves like a flash, sweeping Charlie’s phone out of his hand before he can blink, then putting it on speaker. Charlie makes a startled sound, then widens his eyes in exasperation at her. But there’s obvious fondness in his gaze, and he leaves his phone on speaker after he snatches it back.
“-missed her second and third check-ins,” Walsh is saying, in a very serious, unhappy voice. “We just wanted to let you know.”
Charlie bites his lip, thinking, then quickly pulls something out of his work bag. It resembles a handheld radio, but bigger and clunkier. Charlie begins pressing buttons on it, turning dials.
“Get me on the line,” he says into his phone, then ends the call. After a second or two, a soft chirp comes from the radio, and Charlie immediately starts speaking into it, anxiously tapping a fingertip on the countertop. “3, this is Reinhardt.”
A man’s voice answers, garbled with radio static. “Hey, Charlie, we copy. Go ahead.”
Charlie closes his eyes, his finger tap-tap-tapping away on the counter. “Is Commander Edwards on board?”
There’s a brief silence, broken by a new voice from the radio. A woman’s voice, strong and steady, with a natural rasp discernible even through the static.
“This is the Commander. I just got back.”
Charlie lets out an instant, enormous breath of relief, and so does all the rest of his family. Leyla gently squeezes his shoulder, and he gives her fingers a grateful squeeze in return.
He runs a hand over his beard, taking a second to pull himself back together before he lifts the radio to his mouth again.
“Good to hear your voice, Edwards. You had us worried down here. You missed two of your check-ins.”
“Yeah, I - I appear to be having a COMMs issue. I’m speaking into Jim’s mic. Did you register an issue on the nav, by the way?”
“Yes, at the same time, that’s part of why we were concerned about you,” Charlie answers, his voice still heavy with relief. “Glad they were unrelated. I’m gonna have ground send you a position to maneuver into while we figure it out. The nav problem and the COMMs problem.”
“Okay,” comes the Commander’s voice, after a moment. “Copy. We’ve stopped until we get the numbers.”
“Roger that, 3, we have you stopped,” Walsh says, his voice crackling over the radio. “You want to calculate the position yourself, boss?”
“You know I’m not at my console,” Charlie groans, despite the fact that he’s writing out some very fast calculations on his notepad. “You guys are lucky I’ve got my star charts memorized.”
Sorry about this, he mouths at me and Aiden, making a pained face.
“Holy shit,” I whisper to Aiden, staring at Charlie with wide eyes. “Space - space man.”
“Hold it together, dork-ass science boy,” Aiden whispers back.
“He’s steering astronauts, Aiden! Or - something like that! Oh my god, I’ve got to introduce him to Ellen-”
“Hey, are you using the handheld?” the Commander asks, bright surprise in her voice. “Wow. Clarity’s unbelievable. We’re reading you so clearly, Charlie.”
Charlie breaks into a small, quiet smile as he answers. “Good. I’ve been making some tweaks to it. Prefer that we’re never completely out of touch.”
Edwards lets out a raspy little laugh. “I’d prefer that, too.”
“I’m gonna get off the line here in a second so you can give Walsh all the values we need to figure out what went wrong,” Charlie answers, still scribbling away on the notepad. “Is it possible there was an error with the angle computation for the nav? It has to be accurate to .002 degrees. Are you observing any issues with that up there, 3?”
“No, boss,” Walsh cuts in. “No chance it was that.”
“Are you sure, Walsh?” Charlie’s eyebrows furrow. “Who did we hire to do the angle computation software?”
“Calla. That’s why I’m sure it’s not the problem. It’s actually running smoother than we ever had it going before.”
Charlie pauses, then lifts his eyes to Calla, an affectionate smile slowly turning up his mouth.
“Yeah, that’s not the issue,” she says firmly, drawing a sputter of laughter from Charlie.
“Alright-”
“Negative on any signs that’s the problem from up here, Reinhardt,” the Commander chimes in.
“Alright, alright, I get it!” Charlie laughs.
His eyes are warm with pride, just like Rose and Leyla’s are as they look at him from across the kitchen counter.
He gives Calla’s cheek a gentle pinch, then closes his eyes for a second and runs a hand through his hair, thinking.
“Okay, it might be something related to that temperature decrease we noticed earlier. We’ll have to look at the read-outs to see if there was a thermal effect causing some kind of bias. It’s okay if it was, at least for now. That’s why we’re doing this, to test out the new equipment.” Charlie circles something on his notepad, then lifts the radio to his mouth again. “3, get back into position 22 for now. Use auto maneuver, but take control if you don’t like how it’s moving.”
Edwards answers a second later. “Roger. Position 22, going now.”
“We’ll have the issue resolved real soon for you,” Charlie promises, the professional calm of his voice softening up a little. “It’s a very minor issue with the nav, though. Not a problem at all.”
There’s some static for a moment after these warm, reassuring words.
“Copy that, Reinhardt,” Edwards answers, her voice crackling through the radio. “Good to hear. We know we’re in good hands.”
Charlie lets out a big breath, stuffs the radio back into his bag, then looks up at all of us.
“I’m so sorry, everyone, but I - I’ve got to go back to work. Everything is fine, but this is a really good opportunity for us to work out some important stuff-”
Rose gestures at the door, leaning up to accept a very fast kiss on the cheek from Charlie. “It’s alright, honey, go!”
“Okay, thank you!” Charlie gives Leyla a grateful squeeze, then turns on the spot, scanning the living room. “Where’s my ID card?”
“You never took it off,” Leyla laughs, nodding at Charlie’s belt.
“Right, yeah - okay, I’m going!”
Calla beats Charlie to the door, where she snatches up her boots and starts pulling them on. “I’m coming, too!”
“Alright.” Charlie smiles down at her fondly, reaching for his keys. “The boys’ll be glad to see you. They’ve all been complaining about how you don’t swing by often enough, ever since the new boyfriend.”
“Bunch of whiners,” Calla snickers. “As if they don’t do the same thing on the rare occasion they land a date.”
Charlie lets out a laugh, and the familial resemblance between his smile and Calla’s has never been more obvious.
He winces apologetically at me and Aiden, shouldering his bag. “Oh, god. I’m really sorry to have to run out like this, it’s just-”
“Oh, no worries at all!” I quickly wave a hand at him. “Sounds important, Jesus Christ!”
“Yeah, we understand,” Aiden adds. “Good luck!”
Charlie flashes us an appreciative smile. He steps out into the darkening night with Calla, who gives us a wave goodbye before she follows him. Charlie curls an arm around her, shielding her from the rain, then leans down to laughingly say something to her. It’s the last thing I see before the door closes softly after them.
Aiden and I turn to face Rose and Leyla. It looks like they were having a silent conversation, passing unspoken messages to each other, but now they quickly look back at me and Aiden.
“Well, looks like it’s just us for dinner! Us and-” I catch the older Dalmatian’s collar in my fingers so I can read his tag. “Aw! Basil?”
“Mhm, and this little girl is Parsley,” Leyla says, as Aiden drops to a crouch to greet the puppy hopping around by his feet.
“Alright,” I laugh, gently scratching Basil’s back. “Just us, Basil, and Parsley, then. Unless - is Calla’s mom coming? Charlie’s wife, or…? I noticed his wedding ring.”
“Oh, I doubt she is,” Leyla answers, laughter glimmering in her eyes. “That would be quite a long way for Mira to go just for dinner.”
“Edwards,” Rose explains, when Aiden and I look at her in confusion. “She kept her own last name, so there wouldn’t be confusion over the COMMs system.”
Aiden and I stare blankly at Rose for a second, then twist to look at each other with startled eyes.
Oh, my god. I thought the raspy voice of the Commander from Charlie’s radio sounded inexplicably familiar, but she and Charlie kept it so professional that I didn’t quite make the realization. Now I see why the whole family anxiously crowded around him to hear what was going on. Why they all held their breaths with him.
Now I can see why Charlie worked so hard to make sure there was never a moment he had to be completely out of touch with his astronauts.
“Holy shit!” I sputter, turning back to Leyla and Rose. “Well - I can see why you don’t mind at all if Charlie has to miss dinner! You guys must be so proud of him.”
Rose and Leyla break into instant, matching grins that tell me they very much are.
“Carrying on his mama’s work, the way I see it.” Leyla folds her elbows on the kitchen counter, her eyes warm with deep affection. “He’s trying to engineer things that’ll make spaceflight safer. I like to think he’s the Guardian for the ones who are out in space.”
I meet Leyla’s eyes, finding myself warmed by that thought. The idea that even humans who have wandered that far away have a Guardian in some form, watching out for them.
“Charlie has always loved this stuff,” Leyla adds. “He grew up watching it all happen for the first time. And Calla grew up surrounded by the twenty-three space nerds at Charlie’s company. They had her building computers for fun. Ridiculous. What child wants to do that for fun? I mean, she did. I’ll admit that. But I had to get her out of there sometimes and teach her how to kick and punch things properly. Learning close combat, that’s what a little girl should be doing for fun.”
“Oh, now I get it,” I whisper, suddenly remembering the flight suit Calla wore knotted at her waist the first time we talked to her.
This explains so much about her, actually… I turn to look at Aiden, wondering if he’s reeling as hard as I am from all of this new information.
I find him and Rose staring at each other curiously again, their matching expressions of warm recognition back in full force.
“I can’t believe this!” Rose blurts out suddenly, half-laughing, pressing her fingers to her lips as she stares up at Aiden. “You’re…? And you still recognize me as one, too, even though…?”
Aiden nods silently, his blue eyes full of wonder. Rose gazes up at him in amazement.
“Will you show me?” she asks, holding her breath.
Aiden glances over at me. I give him an encouraging nod, and he takes a deep breath. When he blinks again, his gaze is swimming with white-blue fire.
Rose and Leyla both gasp softly, and Leyla snaps upright by the kitchen counter.
It’s clear to me now that both of them had already figured out what Aiden is. I’m not sure how Leyla knew, but I suspect it’s the main reason she decided to tell us the truth about what happened to Rose.
Despite that, it must have been a long time since Rose and Leyla have seen the light of Guardian magic in someone’s eyes, because they both stare at Aiden with rapt fascination. He nervously adjusts his snapback, the glow dancing softly on his cheekbones.
Rose exhales a slow, dazed breath, then gently folds her hands around Aiden’s.
“After all this time,” she breathes, shaking her head in disbelief. “Another Guardian.”
She exchanges a stunned glance with Leyla. Then she lifts her luminous, shining face to Aiden again, a beaming smile turning up her lips.
“Welcome to our home, honey,” she laughs happily, squeezing his hands, her eyes sparkling with joy. “It’s so nice to meet you.”
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