“The others were watching,” he told her, sounding tortured. “I could not linger.”
“But why? Why couldn’t you stay with me?”
“I…carefor you, Hailey, but if the others knew, they would tear me apart.”
“Why would they do that?”
“We are creatures of balance, Hailey. We believe feelings are a perversion—a disease—one that should be eradicated among our kind.”
Hailey shook her head. “I don’t understand why.”
A patient smile played on his lips. “We live by two laws,” he said. “Never take a life before its time, and never extend one. Before we came to Earth, none of us were capable of…caring. Emotions don’t exist in the Aether.” He tilted his head. “But when we became trapped on Earth, we became infected with them. And those emotions, thosefeelings—they tempt us to break our laws…to extend some lives and end others.”
“You’re not allowed to care about me?” Hailey frowned and looked into the chasm between them. “There’s so much space between us now. Where have you been anyway?”
He hadn’t shown himself fully to her like this in ages…well, not that she remembered.
“I never left you, Hailey. I’ve been watching you…through the Aether.”
“Was it you in the pub?”
“It was.”
“Why did you leave?”
“Because you ran from me.”
“I didn’t run… I didn’t run fromyou,” Hailey stammered. “I ran, because I spilled beer all over you, and I was embarrassed. I’m really sorry. I didn’t want you to go.”
He closed his eyes and heaved a great sigh, looking suddenly very content.
“Will you walk with me, Hailey?”
He held out an incandescent hand.
Hailey looked at the chasm between them again.
“I can’t reach you.”
“You have to jump,” he said, hand stillextended.
“Will you catch me?” she asked as she pushed a pebble over the edge with her foot, listening as it bounced and ricocheted for several seconds, never hitting the bottom, and then she looked up at him.
“Or will you let me fall?”
“I haven’t let you fall, yet,” he told her, and Hailey pushed another rock over the edge, swallowing hard and trying to convince her legs to jump.
Stepping back, she shook her head and took a deep breath. It’s just like dancing, she told herself, and then she went for it, leaping off the edge as hard as she could and reaching for Asher’s outstretched hand. But she was way short and fell, arms flailing, grasping for an Envoy who didn’t catch her. Down, down, deeper and further into darkness she sank, unable to catch her breath to scream and dropping for several agonizing seconds until finally a powerful yank jerked her up and over the wall again.
“I thought…you were…going to…let me fall…” she tried to yell, but it came out breathy as she steadied herself on shaking legs next to him.
He blinked, looking confused and a little injured. “I will not let you fall, Hailey. I will never let you fall.”
“It felt like I was falling.” Hailey was catching her breath and waving her hand at the canyon behind her. “Where did the canyon go?” What had been a giant crevasse for Hailey to jump was from the other side nothing more than a hairline crack in the sidewalk.
“In the Aether, time and space move differently. I took your hand in the moment you stepped toward me.”
Very slowly, Hailey wiggled her fingers inside his hand and marveled at how his light wrapped around them. It was like holding hands with the air. Her hand looked exactly like a hand should: covered in skin and not emitting any light at all, but his was bright and beautiful and felt like…nothing.
