To The Forest - Part Thirteen
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.
I let out a long, muffled moan of protest into my pillow when Aiden wakes me up shortly before dawn.
“Arrrgh, no…” I try to push him away, squeezing my eyes shut. “Fuck off, ya wee dick…”
A soft, huffing chuckle stirs the quiet semi-darkness of our hotel room.
“Fook off,” he murmurs quietly.
“That’s not even how I said it,” I grumble, burying my face deeper into the pillow.
“Nah, I know. I actually can’t really pronounce it how you say it, when you talk like this. Can you say it again? Wait a sec, though, I want to record it so Ralph can hear. He didn’t believe me when I described all this to him.”
I fruitlessly struggle to drag the covers over my head, which I can’t do because Aiden is holding them. “Oh, for chrissake, for once in my life could I just-?”
“Once in me life,” Aiden echoes, shaking with gentle laughter.
I sit up on my elbows and lift my head to scowl at Aiden, trying to kill him with my eyes. An incredibly ineffective effort, because it only makes him start laughing out loud. He gently sits down on the bed beside me and strokes his fingertips through my hair. His ocean eyes are warm and smiling, and his stubbled face is glowing with a light dusting of rain. The droplets have darkened the fabric of his shirt on his shoulders. The wind has tousled up his hair beneath his snapback.
He presses his nose - cold from the rain - against mine. At the same time, he pushes a to-go cup of coffee - warm, steaming - into my hand.
“Is this what Mary Keane sounded like when she was raising you up?” he rumbles, his deep voice deliciously cozy in the soft surroundings of the hotel room. “Follow-up question: does her accent get this strong when she’s mad in the morning?”
The answers are yes and much stronger, but I confine myself to a withering glare aimed at Aiden, whose eyes sparkle with laughter.
“I’ve been waiting for this all week,” he admits, breaking into a wide grin. “It’s pretty much the best. You could hand me literally every other thing I’ve ever wanted in my life, and I’d still be like, but where’s the redhead pretty-boy all naked and sprawled out in my bed, being bratty at me in an Irish accent?”
I let out a gasp of laughter, blush very hard, then sit up to try and scowl indignantly at him. “Careful, now!”
“I’m saying I love it, dummy. I’m saying I love you.” Aiden nuzzles his nose into mine affectionately, then draws back to smooth my sleep-tousled hair out of my face. “Toasted croissant waiting for you on the night table. Coffee in your hand, which I feel like you haven’t noticed yet, since you haven’t had any. It’s pretty good. From the place Joni suggested.”
I choke immediately on the sip of coffee I was starting to take, then drag the back of my hand over my mouth, staring at Aiden in disbelief.
Joni told us that if we had to set out really early, we could still get some coffee and breakfast at this place his cousin owns.
“She lives above her coffee shop, and she’s happy to hook you up no matter what time it is. It’s easy, just listen to these instructions, alright? You gotta bang really loud on the window, then be like - ANDREA, I KNOW YOU’RE FUCKING IN THERE, OPEN THE GODDAMN DOOR ALREADY! That’s the ticket. When I do that she usually comes down and smokes a bowl with me. Gives me the coffee, too!”
I’m guessing that Joni and his cousin are good friends, and that Andrea doesn’t mind this type of thing from him. That part makes sense. Where Joni seemed to hit some confusion is around the fact that Aiden and I are total strangers to Andrea, and that this changes things significantly.
Discussing it later, Aiden said he thought that sounded a little impolite, and I said I thought it sounded unthinkable, so -
“You went there?” I gasp, shoving Aiden’s shoulder. “You slammed on the window and everything?”
“Yeah, no, I went to a different cafe down by the docks. Just thought that telling you I did Joni’s plan might wake you up some more.”
It did. I let out a startled, indignant laugh, swat Aiden’s muscled shoulder, then finally take a long sip from my coffee.
The warmth of it melts down through my chest in the dawn cold, which has made its way into our room through the open window. I turn to glance through the half-open curtains. Rain is falling in soft, shivering gusts outside, as if carried and pushed around on the movements of the ocean waves. The light is almost white, and mist blankets the sea. It’s too early and foggy for the summer colors to show.
“Are we okay to hike and camp in this weather?” I ask, hoping that Aiden will say we actually can’t, and that our only course of action is to immediately go right back to bed -
“Yeah, no, we’re totally fine,” he says brightly. “It’s just a little rain, and the forecast says it’ll clear up later. Don’t worry, we can still go.”
I cast a longing glance at my still-warm pillow, then fix Aiden with a betrayed, wounded pout. “So you’re really gonna make me get up? Really, Aiden? I hate you.”
“I know, baby,” Aiden sighs tragically, with barely-disguised laughter in his patient, good-humored eyes. “As you should. Totally fair. Nothing could be more cruel of me.”
I blush again at the rare baby I just got from Aiden, my toes secretly curling up beneath the blankets. Sounds so good in that deep, deep voice, smooth as honey. And he’s slipped a hand under the blankets, so he can slowly stroke the crease of my thigh.
Regardless, I keep the pout on my face. “You know, vacations are supposed to be full of sunlight, and sex, and sleeping in.”
Aiden arches an eyebrow at me. “We’re not on vacation. We’re here to do Ghost Office stuff, remember?”
“Yeah, but-”
I break off, realizing he’s got a point. It’s just that going anywhere with Aiden is a little adventure, and last night did feel like vacation. We may have stayed up late talking over theories about old forest illusions, but we did it over a candle-lit dinner in a cozy little restaurant by the beach, then snuggled up in bed together in our hotel room, the windows thrown open to the ocean breeze.
“Whatever,” I grumble.
Aiden taps my nose and gets up from the bed. Stretches his powerful arms over his head, shaking out his rain-damp hair. He crosses to the desk and starts packing up his backpack. I set my coffee aside, heave out a huge sigh, then gracelessly heave myself out of bed. Aiden turns around just in time to catch sight of me.
“No, Jamie!” he sputters. “Don’t fall like that, I can’t catch you, I’m holding coffee and my headphones - alright, okay-”
His coffee falls onto the desk with a thunk and a splash. He nearly trips over his own headphones, but he gets to me in time to snag me before I can go slumping onto the floor of the hotel room.
“Purely for the drama?” Aiden groans indignantly, laughing as he drags me back onto the bed. “Wow, man! Okay, you know what?”
I let out a surprised laugh as Aiden wrenches me up into his arms, settles my legs around his waist. He gets a firm, tight grip on me, making sure I can’t move. I automatically loop my arms around his neck, gasping a little as the cold droplets of rain on his clothes press against my bare body.
I start squirming and whimpering in his grasp, trying to get free. He ignores that, already crossing the hotel room with me pinned against him.
“Just gonna handle this myself,” he laughs, flipping on the lights in the bathroom.
He turns on the shower, waits for a few seconds for it to warm up, then sets me down under the hot water. As soon as it hits me, the last traces of sleep melt away from me, and my eyes open all the way up. I lift my head, balancing myself with one hand against the wall, using the other to knuckle my eyes.
“I’ll come back for you soon,” comes Aiden’s deep voice through the gathering steam. “I’m concerned that if I get in there with you right now, you’ll bite me.”
“No!” I protest, coming back to myself from my sleep-addled haze. “No, hey - come in!”
There’s a pause, and then Aiden cautiously pokes his head back into the shower. “Oh? Is sweet Jamie back? Aw. I wanted a few more minutes of my whiney boy, truth be told.”
I let out a sputter of affectionate, abashed laughter. I lean forward to press my forehead to Aiden’s, putting my wet hands to his cheeks. He smiles softly, his full lips curling beneath my thumbs.
“But this is good, too,” he adds, pulling back to eagerly take off his snapback, then his shirt.
I push my hair out of my eyes, rolling up on my toes to kiss him when he steps into the shower with me. His huge hands come up to take me by my waist, and I melt against him, smiling up into his face.
“Hi,” I say adoringly.
He huffs out a laugh. “There’s my angel. Hi.”
“God, I’m sorry.” I wince guiltily at him, feeling a blush crawling up my freckled cheeks. “Did I give you a lot of trouble?”
Aiden does his best to fight down a smile, but it deepens the fine lines at the corners of his eyes. “You - nah, it wasn’t too bad.”
I gaze up into the beautiful blue of his eyes, warmth like summer unfolding in my heart. “Okay. Are we mostly ready to go?”
“I think so. We should have a nice amount of daylight to work with.”
He’s gotten more quiet, more serious. There’s the faintest undercurrent of anxiety in the depths of his words. Barely discernible, but I’m developing a very finely-tuned ear for the deep instrument of his voice.
“You’re gonna do great, Aiden,” I murmur earnestly, wrapping my arms around his sculpted waist. “You can handle this! Think how far you’ve come - remember when you barely ever used magic, and you swore you’d never do any to yourself, and I even had to talk you into it during rescues? And now look at you!”
Aiden lets out a soft, stressed-out breath, burying his nose in my wet hair. “I know, but I’m gonna be nervous anyways.”
“I know, but I’m gonna give you the pep talk anyways.”
He smiles into my hair. “Good. It’s still appreciated.”
“Like, I’ve seen you walk on water.”
“Okay, okay,” he laughs softly. “Don’t - it’s fine. I’m okay.”
He does sound okay, if still a little nervous. Just like he said he’d be.
I’m feeling okay, too, although I’m dreading the moment we meet the Demon. The mere thought makes my anxious heart begin to race. Rose was a powerful Guardian, once. I don’t doubt that she created powerful creatures when she formed these illusions.
The Demon was good to Leyla when it met her, but that’s how it was created. It was not created to be helpful to outsiders like me and Aiden. The opposite, in fact. It’s going to try to confuse or scare us in whatever ways it can, a thought which makes me shiver. The mere notion of that demon prowling around the forest strikes pure fear into my heart.
But Aiden is here, canceling that out. If it’s my Heliomancer versus an illusion, I know who I’d put all my faith in.
I’m not concerned about the fact that Aiden hasn’t dispelled something before. I’m actually glad that he didn’t learn anything about this from his mom. His magic tends to work better when he goes purely by his own instincts, as nervous as that makes him.
“I’ll be right there with you,” I remind him gently.
His response is to tighten his arms around me, almost imperceptibly.
“I know we still don’t know what three of them are,” I add slowly, after a moment, “But I’m definitely the most afraid of the Demon.”
“Mhm, goes without saying.”
“Which one are you worried about, Sugar Maple?”
I expected him to need some time to think about it, so I’m taken aback when he immediately comes back with:
“The Sorcerer.”
I draw back to stare up at him with surprised eyes. “The Sorcerer, why?”
“Because it sounds like the other ones are creatures, but the Sorcerer…” Aiden hesitates, his blue eyes growing fretful. “That one’s a pretty direct match-up, isn’t it? ‘Cause, I mean… that’s kind of what I am, too. It’ll be his magic up against mine. I’m kind of - afraid I’m gonna embarrass myself right in front of you? Get my ass beat by an illusion? You have all this faith in me, so that would be really… really, um…”
“Oh.” I let out a little laugh, shrugging my shoulders. “That’s funny. I’m the least worried about that one, for the same reason you’re the most worried about it. If it’s his magic against yours, then I feel good about it.”
Aiden blinks in surprise, a startled blush springing to his cheeks.
“A powerful sorcerer is someone experienced in wielding magic, Jamie,” he explains, as if I somehow forgot what a sorcerer is in the midst of all this.
“Yes, thanks for that clarification. And what are you?”
He widens his eyes at me, like I’m the one being ridiculous. “Not experienced?”
“Okay. We’ll have to agree to disagree on that one.” I tilt my head back under the water, savoring the steamy goodness. “Oh, shower. I love you. I’m gonna miss you so much.”
“Nice, Keane. The shower gets a sweet little I love you.”
“And I love you,” I murmur affectionately, leaning up to brush my lips against his. “Infinitely more than the shower. I’m stoked to see how you’re gonna dispel these things. I’m not worried at all about whether or not you’re capable. So there.”
Aiden blushes again. His long lashes flutter as he quickly looks away from me, nibbling his lip.
After a moment he messes up my wet hair. “Who’s getting who ready to go, here?”
“We all have our strengths,” I laugh, reaching for the body wash. “Thankfully one of yours is being able to get up early with no fuss.”
“No, there’s still a whole entire fuss,” he informs me, then snickers when I elbow his ribs.
“Just in case we run across an illusion today, do you have enough magic ready?” I ask, then stop in surprise as Aiden spreads his hands and drops his gaze to them.
Radiant golden light shimmers into being and flickers around his fingers in slow, undulating waves. Haloing his hands, throwing off glinting sparks. Aiden studies it appraisingly through his glowing ice-blue eyes, then looks up at me and shrugs his broad shoulders.
“Yeah, guess so,” he says, shaking off the magic like he’s trying to dry his hands. “Seems like I’m fully charged.”
The magic flutters away in iridescent droplets, evaporating into the steam before my dazed eyes.
No matter how many times I’ve seen Aiden do magic, it always knocks the breath out of my chest. A few seconds of silence pass before I recover enough to say anything. Aiden adds to the difficulty just by standing there showering in front of me. Steamy droplets of water are rolling down the contours of his bare thighs, clinging to his stubble and his luxurious chestnut hair, making a rivulet down the soft line of dark hair on his lower stomach.
“Okay,” I stammer, after a moment of intense struggle. “I - I’m pretty sure we’re gonna be fine.”
Aiden shoots me a smirky little grin, running a soapy hand under his arm. “Sure, if I ever recover from the brutal treatment I got from you this morning.”
“Oh, god, I’m sorry,” I groan, although in my hazy memories of this morning Aiden was all smiles. “I know I’m impossible when I’m like that! I’m begging for forgiveness, okay?”
“Are you?” he laughs, turning away to rinse the conditioner out of his hair.
I take the opportunity to drop down unnoticed.
“I’m down on my knees,” I tell him softly, with a little purr in my voice.
Aiden pauses, then quickly slicks his hair out of his eyes and looks down at me. He finds me as promised, on my knees before him.
He breathes out a soft laugh, catches my chin in his fingers, and uses it to playfully rock my head from side to side. “Leaning on one of your strengths, huh?”
I smile adoringly, longingly up at him. The blush in his cheeks deepens, his blue eyes glittering in the low light.
“We’re gonna be in a big rush to get out of here on time if we do this,” he warns me, already twining his fingers around a lock of my hair. “There’s a chance we’ll be late. And you won’t have time to shave.”
“Alright, whatever. I might have a scruff beard by the end of this camping trip. No big deal. So long as - you don’t mind the way I look with it, do you?”
Aiden’s little smile brightens immediately.
“Aw, man,” he sighs happily, cupping the back of my head in his hand. “I love camping.”
~~~~
By the time we hit the trailhead leading into the forest, I’ve remembered that I kind of love this, too.
If this turns out to be anything like our last camping trip, then I’m secretly looking forward to it. I’m just trying not to think too much about the dangerous illusions part.
The landscape makes it easy to think of other things. Just like Aiden said, the early rain has blown off on the brisk ocean breeze, carried out to sea. The water is radiant and sparkling and tempting, smashing in white breaks into the cliffside below, flooding the sea pools. Seabirds of all kinds are nesting on the cliffs, and they spring out to flash over the ocean, some of them diving to briefly fly underwater and resurface with a wriggling catch.
“That’s a good sign,” I tell Aiden, watching them as we walk side by side up the grassy coastline.
Aiden leans around me to see what I’m talking about. “What is?”
“The birds. They’re having a nice hunting day, flying out pretty far. See all those ones perched on that rock formation, all the way out there?” I point to a sloping arch of rock rising out of the ocean in the distance, dotted everywhere with feathery visitors. “Probably means the weather is gonna hold.”
Aiden gazes thoughtfully at the birds, then loops an arm around my shoulders. “Helps to have a science teacher on the team.”
“And a historian!” Kasey calls, bounding downhill to meet us.
I watch her approach with fond eyes. She’s smiling eagerly, and she’s made herself a cute little hiking outfit. Her long maroon pants have been torn into high-waisted shorts, the extra fabric used to knot up her black hair. Her button-up has been torn into a sleeveless crop top, and her silver jacket is knotted around her waist.
She stops before us and plants her hands on her hips. “You two are late!”
Aiden blushes, pushing the ghost glasses further up his nose. “We were - just-”
“Yeah, it’s okay,” Kasey giggles, her stern expression cracking immediately. “I was late, too. I was - saying bye to Will.”
“Is it bad that the entire team is routinely late to our own meetings for this exact reason?” I ask, my cheeks faintly pink.
Aiden breaks into a wide grin. “I think it’s great.”
“And the manager agrees, so.”
“Alright, there’s that resolved,” I laugh, holding up my hands in surrender. “Any other questions, or should we get going?”
The three of us turn as one to face the forest, stopped on the high grassy slopes before it. It seems to look back at us, its pines shifting softly in the breeze.
“Let’s go,” Kasey murmurs, gazing up at the swaying pines.
Without further discussion, Team Ghost Office sets off up the hill, and into the tree line.
We step into a shady stretch of forest. Trees, groundcover plants, and evergreen bushes are growing in their full summer bloom on all sides. The distant, crashing rush of the sea reaches us, blending gently with the quiet of the forest, which is broken up only by the occasional twittering of the birds. Pools of sunlight dapple the forest floor, dancing with the leaves.
I take deep breaths of crystalline, early-morning air as we walk. Enjoying the quiet, the soft sounds of our footsteps, the warmth of the summer sunlight.
After some time, Aiden drops his gaze to me, his blue eyes puzzled.
“Hey, Linden. Didn’t you tell me once that natural forests have curved or uneven edges? Only man-made forests have straight lines, right?”
My eyes flit over to him, widening in surprise. “Honestly, dude, do you remember every little thing I say to you? I should really be more careful. Sometimes I’m not even listening to myself. I wonder what I’ve said-?”
“So why are these trees kind of in straight lines?” Aiden interrupts gently. “The treeline where we came in was straight, too.”
I stare at him in surprise, then look around at the forest again. I’ve been gazing at it with more of an appreciative than a thoughtful eye, but… he’s right.
I shift my backpack on my shoulders and draw closer to one of the evergreens, looking it over curiously.
“What’s going on with you?” I ask it, laying a hand on the bark.
The trees around us are enormous, and they look like they’ve been here for ages, but… they’re nowhere near old-growth proportions. They’re much, much too small for that.
I had absent-mindedly noticed this before we even set foot in the forest, but I didn’t think too much about it. The trees at the outermost edge of a forest naturally tend to grow to only a small portion of their potential size. They bear the brunt of any weather to hit their forest, sheltering the trees behind them, so they have to be somewhat smaller. Growing tall is dangerous in windy places. It’s in the deepest parts of the forest that the truly mammoth trees grow.
But even factoring that in, there’s no doubt in my mind. The trees aren’t even the only indicator. The entire forest is handing me clues.
“Yeah, this definitely isn’t old-growth, or even a natural forest. We must be walking through something man-made.” I look slowly around at the sea of pine needles, turning it over in my mind. “I think… oh, you know what? Larches, that’s what these guys are! And lodgepole pines… fire-resistant trees, which means they were probably planted here to create a firebreak. To protect the real old-growth forest. It must actually begin further out than this.”
Kasey stares at me with her eyebrows arched all the way up, then lets out a disbelieving laugh.
“First trick of the forest,” she says, throwing her arms out wide as she sets off again. “This isn’t even the real forest! We’re not even there yet. Things really aren’t what they seem here, huh?”
“We’ll know the old-growth when we see it, though,” I tell her, hurrying back to Aiden’s side.
He’s already looking carefully around at the forest, his blue eyes scanning the trees for anything unusual. Kasey is doing the same, and so am I.
“Stay close to me, Jamie,” Aiden murmurs, lacing his fingers through mine.
That was always the plan.
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