Sunshowers - 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.
A great shudder runs through the forest around us.
There’s a surge of light from Aiden’s hand, which is closed tightly around the hand of the Witch. A swirl of emerald and purple and gold shines and builds around their clasped fingers, throwing off cascades of multicolored sparks. The Witch screams and tries to wrench her hand back. Aiden doesn’t let go, so she yanks him forward with the movement.
Scraps of darkness break free and whip away on the raging wind like burning pieces of paper tearing themselves off of the Witch. Aiden holds on tighter as she tries again to rip her hand free from his, but she wrenches him right off of his feet, dragging him forward on his stomach as she staggers backwards on her knees, trying to regain her feet.
Aiden’s entire face is screwed up with effort. A sound reaches me through the crashing roar of the rainstorm and magic storm. A little cry of pain from my Heliomancer as all the corrupt magic mingles with his.
I’ve been standing frozen with shock, but that tiny sound punches me right out of it. With a gasping breath, I sprint to Aiden, then dive forward, throwing my arms around his waist as the Witch tries to pull him away. The connection sweeps open instantly, and a shrieking roar of painful magic claws through me, burning like acid, cutting like thorns.
But if I have that pain, it’s not in Aiden anymore. Even if I’m taking the tiniest bit off of his shoulders, it’s worth it, so I grit my teeth and just hold on…
The Witch screams again as dark, smoking shreds cascade off of her in flurries. They rise into the raging storm to form a localized tornado around us as they’re eaten up in midair by Aiden’s golden light. She throws herself backwards, now dragging both me and Aiden, him flat on his stomach, me sprawled out on top of him with my arms locked around him. Somehow even against the weight of both of us she’s managing to stagger away.
I let out a sharp breath as someone lands on top of me. An arm with some leather wristbands at the wrist closes around my back, and another hand reaches out to seize a fistful of Aiden’s soaked shirt.
There’s another hard jolt as Noah throws himself on top of Ralph, so that now all four of us are piled up, fighting to hold her in place.
Kasey sweeps up to float beside the Witch and starts shouting at where I imagine her ear might be.
“Stop, stop! This isn’t you! Don’t you remember who you were?”
The Witch stops to stare at her, panting with her whole body. Then she shudders as Aiden gets a better grip on her hand, sinking in more magic, more effort, his body trembling as he fights through the corrupted magic spilling off of her. He’s pulling energy from me, struggling through the agony of the wrong magic.
The Witch suddenly leans down and meets his eyes with hers. A totally different voice comes from her, this one deep and low, and angry.
You will not take her from me, Guardian, it hisses.
Aiden blinks his blue eyes hard, then scowls angrily up at the Witch.
“Oh - yes - I - will!” he pants, his deep voice rough with effort. “Let - her - go!”
Through the connection, I feel the powerful wave of magic surge out from him, charging up the arm of the Witch. She shudders all over, her hollow eyes blinking fast, and then -
The blast that goes through the forest hits me hard enough to knock me away from Aiden and send me flying through the air. I land hard in the soft mud, and lay still. Gazing upwards as a shower of soft golden Heliomancer light spills down over me. A gentle rain clearing away the smoke, falling down to kiss my face, droplets of gold mixed in with the droplets of rainwater.
It’s the last thing I see before my eyes close, and everything goes dark.
~~~~
Slowly and gradually, I become aware of warm sunlight slanting across my face. Distant birds warbling, a cool breeze against my skin. The rich, natural fragrance of a forest after a rainstorm.
My body is achingly sore. My clothes are crusted to my body. My fingers feel moss beneath them, but I’m toasty warm, like I slept in a bed heaped with blankets.
I take a deep breath, gingerly feeling my side with one hand. I have what feels like a wicked bruise, which is confusing. What was I doing last night to be this sore, and where am I?
My thoughts begin to swirl into some vague kind of coherence. I was doing something important, right? I should probably get up and find out what it was.
I blink my eyes open, my lashes fluttering against the peachy sunlight and the sleepy blurriness. My vision swims into focus, and I find myself staring up into an unfamiliar face.
Ah, she says, as I accidentally meet her eyes. Good. You’re awake.
I stare up at the sight above me with wide eyes, suddenly very awake.
A silver-haired woman is bent over me, leaning heavily on a gnarled staff. A staff that’s really a huge tree branch, complete with its twigs and leaves, with shining blue-green crystals growing out of the bark here and there.
She’s wearing a long, tangled dress of leaves, which looks like it grew right out of her emerald skin. Two long doe ears fall out from her hair, and two huge, graceful antlers sprout from either side of her head, draped with fluttering moss. A chain of little potion bottles hangs across her chest. Flowers and mushrooms sprout out of her skin in rich little profusions.
Most of my attention is snapped up by her eyes, though. She has six of them. Two very large ones where eyes normally are, a smaller pair just over them, spread slightly further apart, and the smallest pair above those, almost at her temples. Perfectly round, compound eyes, with a shimmering green and yellow sheen to them. Their placement is strangely graceful, with the elven shape of her face.
She’s clearly not human, but I can see that she’s very old. Her silvery white hair falls heavy in waves of disorder, carelessly tangled, with a few feathers caught in it like something nested there once. Her face is lined with wrinkles, her shoulders hunched with age, but it was something about her voice that told me. There’s a quality to it that I can only vaguely define as grandma.
I stare up at her in total silence, dumbstruck.
She nods at something to my left. Your pan has been worried about you.
I lift my head to see the saucepan anxiously pressing itself against my arm, apparently relieved to see me awake.
Struggling to pull myself together, I sit up and fumblingly reach to my other side until I feel someone’s arm and give it a shake. A soft moan of protest tells me who it is.
“Noah,” I whisper urgently, still staring up at the Witch. “Noah, wake up!”
“C’mon, Keane, shut up ‘n go away, I’m sleeping…”
“No, seriously, you really want to wake up right now, I promise!”
The Witch straightens up and draws back as Noah lets out a ragged groan and sits up, pressing a muddy hand to his temple.
“Are we outside? What happ…?”
He trails off, having caught sight of the Witch. His grey eyes go perfectly round, his hands freezing mid-movement.
There’s a soft snapping sound from the edge of the grove. Noah and I twist around to see Ralph come staggering tiredly out of the trees, one hand pressed to his ribs. His face is streaked with blood where his cheek got cut last night, his blonde hair dark with mud. His grey-green eyes are only half awake, but they fly wide open when they catch a glimpse of the Witch. He stops still, leaning against a tree trunk, staring.
“Where’s - where’s Aiden?” I stammer, getting up onto my knees. “Where is he, is he okay?”
I assume you mean the Guardian, comes the leafy whisper of the Witch’s voice. She points with her branch staff across the grove. He’s over there.
My eyes find a motionless shape through the early morning mist. He’s on his side in a bed of ferns, facing away from me. I drag in a trembling gasp, then stumble to my feet and rush over to him.
“Aiden!” I fall to my knees beside him, catching his powerful shoulder. “Babe, wake up!”
He doesn’t. But he’s breathing, and when I roll him over to pull him into my arms he feels warm as ever.
“What happened to him?” I ask fearfully, hearing Noah and Ralph come up behind me.
But it’s the Witch who answers.
He spent a great deal of magic freeing me, she explains, as the saucepan anxiously hops around at Aiden’s feet. And in his sleep he’s been keeping all of you warm and dry all night, whether or not he realizes it. That cost him some, too.
My heart is nearly crushed by the rush of molten love that hits me. I cradle Aiden’s head in my arms, then let the connection fall open.
Sugar Maple, I whisper through it. It’s me. I know you’re tired, but you’ve gotta wake up. Here, take this.
I send him a little inrush of energy, from what’s left of mine. The tiredness in my body grows deeper, but Aiden stirs in my arms, his rich beard scratching against my shirt. I tenderly stroke his cheek as his long lashes flutter, then slowly open.
He looks right into my eyes, and I beam down at him, pinching his jaw.
“Hi, Heliomancer,” I laugh happily. “Guess what! We did it!”
I move slightly to the side, so he can see the Witch standing there.
Supporting herself on her staff, she bows deeply, just like Thorn did when he met Aiden.
Son of Fate, rustles her whispering voice. Thank you for your help.
Aiden stares at her in blank amazement, and I twist around, hearing a soft whoosh in the air behind me. Kasey just appeared beside Ralph, who must have quietly summoned her.
“What happened?” she gasps immediately, rushing towards me and Aiden. “That shit knocked me all the way back to Ketterbridge! Did-?”
She freezes, struck silent by the sight of the Witch as she straightens up and sweeps her gaze over us. Unlike Thorn, the Witch does have a mouth, and it’s turned up in a smile that adds a warm twinkle to her six eyes.
She tilts her horned head back, lifting it to the sunlight. All of her eyes close. She takes a second to listen to the birds, the stirring of the trees.
Aiden gives the worried saucepan a reassuring pat as he sits up, then gathers me into his arms.
“Are you okay?” his deep, exhausted voice murmurs.
“Yes! I mean no! But yes!” I let out a dazed laugh and shake my head at him, my eyes very wide. “If you wanted to impress me, you’re all done! Maybe for the rest of forever? How - how did you do any of that?”
“I don’t know,” my tired Heliomancer mumbles, resting his temple against the top of my head. “Is it cool if I go back to sleep?”
Ralph drops down beside him, holding out a hand. “Here, Aiden. Have a little of mine.”
Noah quickly joins him on the other side, and Aiden fumbles for their hands. They only let him draw on their energy for a few seconds, but when his blue eyes open up again he looks much more awake.
“Are you okay?” I ask anxiously, pushing a strand of chestnut out of his eyes.
Yes, he is, the Witch confirms.
Awake enough now to have concerns, Aiden peers suspiciously up at the Witch, who seems amused by it. She leans down to be eye-level with him and makes an equally suspicious face, playfully mirroring his expression. He lets out a startled huff of laughter, then tilts his head to the side, looking at her more closely.
“You’re really the Witch?” he asks, still in disbelief.
My name is Violet.
“And that was you, before? But you look so different!”
That was a very corrupted version of my second form. Violet lets out a whispering, rustling sigh. And out of my control, I’m afraid. I can’t think how lucky I am that you came along. How did you find me?
“We were looking for you,” I explain, as Aiden and I get back to our feet. “We’re friends of Thorn.”
The Witch, who just removed a large pipe from somewhere in her dress, pauses and looks over at me in surprise.
Thorn! That old stick is still around, eh? She knocks out her pipe, crushes a leaf from her dress into it, and settles herself down comfortably on a boulder, letting her staff hover beside her. How is he?
“He’s - he’s okay,” I manage to stammer, briefly distracted as the Witch stretches out a pair of cloven hooves from beneath her leaf dress. “He’s worried about all of you.”
Of course, Violet says, with fond exasperation. She glances over at Noah and Ralph, who are still standing there frozen, staring at her in staggered silence. Are these two humans alright?
“Yeah, they’ve just - never seen anything like you before,” Aiden explains.
Noah and Ralph both kind of snap out of it, hearing themselves being talked about. Ralph gives himself a shake, and Noah clears his throat as the Witch lights up her pipe with a spark of magic.
“Sorry, we didn’t mean no disrespect!” he says anxiously. “We were - we were actually just saying the only thing this mission was missing was a beauteous damsel in distress for us to rescue.”
The aged witch lets out a cackle of laughter, puffing away on her pipe.
Beauteous damsel! She flashes me and Aiden a grin, nodding her horned head at Noah. I like this one. He knows the way to an old woman’s heart. Flattery and lies.
I let out a startled laugh, but I’m not sure I agree. Maybe she’s not quite a damsel, but she is quite beautiful, in a strange, ethereal way. Now she looks like something made of Guardian magic, something Rose could have dreamed up.
Is that why Thorn sent you to me? she asks. Because he was worried? I’d have thought he’d send you to check on Coral first.
“We met Coral,” Kasey jumps in, drawing Violet’s eyes to her. “She won’t let us get anywhere near her, though.”
Violet shrugs her shoulders. Naiads. Quite flighty, you know.
“Well, we were thinking maybe if we could return her lost hydria to her, she’d be willing to speak with us.”
Violet pauses, gazing thoughtfully at Kasey, then lowers her pipe and looks at Aiden again.
Why are you seeking us all out, Guardian?
Aiden hesitates, then looks down at me. I unzip my messenger bag and pull out the embroidery frame with the Witch artwork. I push it into Aiden’s hands, and he holds it up to show Violet.
“Rose sent me,” he says softly, as Violet leans in closer to peer at the embroidery. “She wants me to dispel you, all of the Six. Set you all free.”
Violet quickly lifts her eyes to meet Aiden’s gaze. Silence falls over the grove, only the sounds of the birds and the dawn breeze moving through the trees to break the quiet.
Yes, Violet finally says, closing her eyes. Release. I have long sensed that the time was coming, one way or another.
She points to the piece of art in Aiden’s hand.
And this… this is the way to release us. This is how we were made, and how we can be unmade.
She pauses, then asks -
Have… have you already released Thorn?
“No,” Aiden quickly reassures her. “He said he wanted to see you all safely dispelled before he went. He also said he wanted to see us safely through it.”
Is that so… Violet stares off into the distance, gazing deep into the forest. You may need that protection, humans. Do you know what lies ahead, if you attempt to dispel all of us?
“The Sorcerer,” Kasey answers, growing serious.
Violet looks swiftly at her, then nods slowly. It’s good you already know of him. He knows of you. He’s been watching you through my eyes these last few days.
Ralph finally breaks his silence. “He’s been controlling you, hasn’t he?”
Violet angrily tosses her head, her doe ears twitching. He has lost sight of everything. Even going so far as to take over me! My magic was corrupting very slowly with age, but it was enough for him to take control, given the power he’s acquired.
“Yeah, um…” I hesitate, then go on haltingly, “Thorn mentioned that the Sorcerer destroyed another one of the Six, and stole all of its power.”
Yes… one of us has fallen. Heartfelt sadness flashes through Violet’s many eyes. It was a great pity. He was my closest comrade among the Six. A dear old friend.
“I’m sorry,” I murmur earnestly, my heart aching in response to something in her voice.
That’s alright, human, she says gently. Except it means the Sorcerer has a great deal of power now… but not enough yet to get what he wants. That’s why he corrupted me and took me over. Because I can leave my territory, I could get more power for him wherever I could find it in the woods. I’ve been bringing it to him in small amounts for some time, but he never sent me out of the forest before now, in search of such large amounts. It must be because you are here now, Guardian.
Aiden blinks hard, considerably taken aback. “What - why would that change anything?”
Because you are a threat to his plans, Violet says, puffing on her pipe again. You’re both after the same thing.
I hold up my hands, closing my eyes in disbelief. “Hold on - the Sorcerer wants the roots of the fallen Guardian Tree?”
“How did you know that we want that?” Aiden asks Violet, bewildered.
I have seen some of your memories over the last few days, in using my magic on them. I saw that you were looking for the roots of the fallen Tree. And yes, he wants them, too.
“Why…?” I begin, then stop as understanding breaks over my head. “Oh, no… because they’re full of power.”
Yes. But now you’re here, Son of Fate. Violet’s eyes flick back to Aiden. He would gladly have your power instead. Especially if you try to stand between him and the roots.
Aiden takes a deep breath, closing his beautiful blue eyes. “Sounds like we have to, though, don’t we?”
It does.
Might I ask, Violet says slowly, if I could also remain until the Sorcerer falls, as Thorn plans to? I would like to see my forest free of his influence before I go, and Thorn is right. You could use our protection.
Aiden looks at the rest of us over his shoulder, then holds up a please-wait finger to the Witch.
She watches in vague confusion as the Team Ghost Office huddle reforms in front of her.
“Okay,” Aiden whispers, “I know what you’re all about to say-”
“All this work and you want to just not dispel her?” Ralph whispers back.
“Think about it, Ralph,” I jump in pleadingly. “We got her free of the corruption, that’s what all that work was really about! And it’s just for now, she’ll let us dispel her later!”
“I feel like it’s fucked up to forcibly dispel her, you guys,” Noah whispers uneasily. “Just be like, what - ‘no, now get back in the embroidery’? She’s a nice old grandma, c’mon.”
“Do we need to worry about her being re-corrupted, though?” Kasey whispers uncertainly. “The Sorcerer captured her before-”
“Maybe, but I kind of think that all of this is moot,” I jump in again, “Because clearly Aiden isn’t comfortable doing it if Violet doesn’t agree to it.”
Everyone looks at Aiden. He only gives his shoulders a slight shrug, but his expression gives everything away.
When the time is right, Violet’s whispering voice puts in, I will walk through the embroidery myself, Guardian. I promise.
Aiden shifts from foot to foot uneasily, then lets out a heavy sigh.
“Okay, but what are you going to do until then?” he asks, handing the embroidery back to me.
Return to my forest and wait. Conserve my power. I have very little left, and it seems you have others to find before you face the Sorcerer. You said you’re looking for Coral’s hydria?
“Do you know where it is?” I ask hopefully.
Not exactly, but I do know where she lost it. In the territory of the fallen illusion. Violet uses her branch staff to point in the direction of the mountains. Where the forest begins to grow up the mountain. He made himself a lair there. But I’m afraid you’ll need something of his to get in, and that something is -
“No, don’t say it,” Kasey interrupts pleadingly.
-also lost, Violet finishes, to an exhausted groan from everyone present.
“But we’re tired,” Aiden protests.
You don’t have to do it all today, tired humans, Violet laughs. Or any of it. Go home and rest. The Sorcerer is not close to breaking out of his territory or finding the Tree. Not yet.
“But what’s the other lost thing we need to find?” Aiden asks.
A token that used to belong to the illusion who is already gone, whose territory you’ll have to venture to. We each have one, a token of some kind. Coral has her hydria, Thorn and I each have a staff, and he had this.
Violet waves her branch staff, and an image swirls out of her head to flicker in the air before us, like a projection on an invisible screen.
She’s showing us a big, long leather necklace, with a circular wooden pendant on the end. Sitting alone and tangled up on a moonlit snowbank, slowly being covered up by falling white flakes.
He dropped it when he fell to the Sorcerer, the Witch says sadly. This is my memory of the last time I saw it. I went to pick it up, and I swear, it vanished right in front of my -
She breaks off as Aiden, who looks tired and a bit cranky, reaches directly into the memory floating before us, his hand shining with golden Heliomancer magic.
He grabs the necklace right out of the snow. Literally, he takes it right out of the memory and leaves the snowbank empty. A few icy snowflakes melt on his forearm as he draws it out of the stormy winter night and back into the sunlit forest.
Violet stares down at the necklace in his hand, then looks at him thoughtfully as she lets the memory disappear.
Oh, I see. That’s where it went. Right here. She pauses, then lets out a cackle of laughter, grinning at Aiden. That was a cheeky piece of magic, Guardian! Sometimes we do our best spells when we’re fed up, eh?
Aiden lets out a sheepish, startled laugh. “I’m not sure it was that good.”
Oh, no? Violet chuckles again. You just stole something out of the real past, through an illusion’s memory. The thing you stole is an illusion in and of itself.
“Can I hit whatever that is?” Noah asks weakly, gesturing to the pipe in Violet’s hand.
Oh, why not, Violet says, offering it to him.
“Wh-? Nope, okay, no thank you,” Aiden hastily cuts in, dragging Noah’s arm back as he reaches out to accept the pipe.
Alright. Anyways, hold onto that, Guardian. Violet uses her staff to point at the necklace in Aiden’s hands. It will help you find the hydria, and befriend the naiad. Beware the siren voice, though. She is not afraid to use it.
“Let me smoke the magic weed, Aiden,” Noah wails. “My head hurts from trying to keep up with all this.”
“Bad idea, dude, and how do you even know it’s like weed? What if it’s just the magic equivalent of tobacco?”
No, it’s probably closer to weed, Violet says, to everyone’s general surprise.
Kasey lets out a startled laugh. “I forgot that Rose made these illusions in the ‘60s.”
She gingerly comes closer to Violet, who watches her through puffs of green smoke.
“Hey, you know about magic. Can you explain how I got my voice to be heard by mortals last night, and made all the trees move and stuff? I’ve never been able to do anything like that before.”
Violet looks at her thoughtfully.
When did you die, little ghost? she asks, then lets out a chuckle when Kasey answers. Well, you’re practically a newborn! Haunting powers take time to grow in, I presume. I’m sure they’re only just beginning to show up for you.
Kasey stares at her in disbelief. “But Will is two hundred, and he doesn't have any… well, I guess he was incorporeal for a long time, so that - wait, but he can ghost run like I can, and we figured out how to do that around the same time… maybe we started roughly around the same time, because he only just got his body!”
She breaks into a beaming grin.
“Holy shit! Are me and Will gonna have more powers than we realized? Will I be able to like - zap fools who have wronged me?”
“Maybe!” I answer encouragingly.
Kasey smiles darkly, and Violet chuckles, then lowers her pipe, gazing down at herself. Her ears give a little flick as she watches the sunlight shine straight through her hand.
My power grows thin, she whispers, all six of her eyes rising to us again. I must return to my forest soon. I thank you again for your help, Son of Fate. And, ah - friends.
“You’re welcome,” we all chorus, too dazed to do anything else.
Violet turns her staff around in her hands, picking at the crystals. Before I go… how is Nolan? I haven’t seen him - really seen him - for a long time.
All members of the team glance at each other, having a silent discussion before Aiden turns back to Violet.
“Would you like to see him?”
Her many eyes blink down at Aiden in the rosy dawn light, surprised. Could I? Would that be…?
“Yeah, of course!” I answer brightly. “We’ll meet you at the ranger’s outpost, how about that? I’m guessing you know a fast, energy-conserving way to get there, not that it would be any help to us humans.”
True, she chuckles, then takes a second to think it over. Well, yes, I… I know a quick route, and I would like to see him. I don’t think I’ll have the strength to leave my portion of the forest for this place again. It would be nice to see him before I leave. One more time.
“We’ll head over and meet you there,” Aiden tells her, as she gets up and straightens out her potion bottles. “It’ll probably take us a minute, but just hang out where they can’t see you.”
Then I will see you there.
Violet gives Aiden a deep bow before she turns and glides off into the forest. Melting into the trees, until she’s all but invisible.
We all stand there silently, watching her go, and then a small explosion of noise from the clearing startles all the birds out of the trees.
“We fucking did it!” Noah roars, punching both fists into the air.
“You guys!” Kasey shouts delightedly, at the same time.
“Oh, thank god,” I groan happily, slumping back into Aiden, then spinning around to face him. “You! You were amazing! What even was that? I’ve never seen you - you’ve never done - I’m so attracted to you right now!”
“I am, too!” Kasey adds enthusiastically.
“Yeah! Wait, what?” I twist to face her indignantly as Aiden blushes in pleased surprise. “Kasey!”
“How you feeling, capitaine?” Noah beams with his whole face, clasping Ralph’s shoulder with his inky hand. “Having led the team to victory?”
Ralph just sank down to sit on the forest floor, but he flashes an exhausted, gratified grin up at Noah. “Feeling like… I want a cold one…”
“It’s like 5:45 AM or something but yes, definitely, like the way you’re thinking.”
“…and I want to see Calla…”
“Is she back from her trip yet? We’ll snag her before we head home.”
“…and I’m hungry.”
“Oh, our sandwiches!” I blurt out in dismay. “We left them outside of Eduardo’s! They’re probably ruined by now, right? After being out in the storm all night… unless - should we just-?”
“No,” Aiden says firmly. “No, Jamie, Jesus Christ. Have some respect for yourself.”
“No, I won’t! I’m starving! We haven’t eaten since lunch yesterday!”
“Eduardo better get ready for us,” Ralph laughs tiredly, getting to his feet. “C’mon, though, we need to get to the ranger’s outpost first.”
“Then let’s just grab something from Eduardo’s on the way?” I ask pleadingly, as we all fall into line behind Ralph, the saucepan hopping alongside us. “At least some leftover pastries, if his power is out and he can’t cook.”
“Not gonna argue with that. I’m starving, too.” Ralph stretches his arms up over his head, gazing up at the tranquil forest, deep satisfaction and peace in his eyes. “Think we earned one of those enormous meals Kasey likes to make fun of us about.”
“Ralph,” Kasey says, grinning widely, “I can legit haunt you, now. Isn’t that exciting?”
“Is it?” Ralph asks in alarm, when I repeat that for her.
I fall behind to walk with Aiden, throwing my arms around his waist.
“You!” is all I can say, beaming up at him with all my love in my eyes.
Aiden turns all shy and won’t look at me, so I know he got the message. I give him an adoring squeeze, and he pointedly avoids my gaze.
Ralph falls back to join us, looking at Aiden with fond exasperation written all over his face.
“I really suck at magic,” he says, in his best impersonation of Aiden’s voice. “I barely know how to do anything.”
“Wow, really?” Aiden asks indignantly. “What are you even doing, making fun of me for doing a good job?”
“No,” Ralph laughs. “I’m making fun of you over how fuckin’ bad you are at estimating your own abilities. If I ever need to know how good you are at something I’ll just ask Keane about it instead, going forward.”
“Oh, okay, you don’t even - I wasn’t underselling my abilities! Before last night I’d never done any of that stuff before.”
Ralph lets out a snicker of laughter. “It’s weird how you say that like it makes it less impressive.”
Smiling happily, I leave Aiden and Ralph to argue with each other and trot ahead to catch up with Noah.
“Feeling good, dude?” I laugh, catching the expression in his grey eyes.
“Feeling incredible, man! It’s finally time!”
“Wait, sorry, what?” I ask in alarm, speeding up as he starts to speed up. “Time for what? Noah? Time for what?”
“Ralph said I could break one thing in the hotel when the mission was over! It’s over, means it’s time I get to break my one thing!”
“Are you serious?”
Noah breaks into a run, so I join him, and Kasey speeds up to catch up with us. We actually didn’t get too far from the hotel last night before facing off with the Witch, so we’re already almost back. I can just make out a strip of the road beyond the treeline.
“God, Noah, really?” I call, pushing past a low-hanging branch. “The hotel is already so broken, and I can’t even imagine how the storm left it!”
“Definitely left it with one thing too many left unbroken, Keane, I’ll tell you that!”
Noah bursts excitedly out of the trees and into the sunlit morning. Kasey and I step out of the forest after him. All three of us stop still the instant our eyes land on the hotel across the street.
“Um,” Kasey stammers, after a moment. “Are you sure about that, Noah?”
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