Daisy smiled. “She looks like you.”
“Did you do this?” Natalie asked. “Did you bring her back to life?”
“You put far too much faith in my magic. I had nothing to do with this.”
“But you knew she was up there.”
“I guessed, that was all.”
“You guessed? How did you guess?”
Daisy just smiled. “Some questions are better left unanswered.”
“What about this question? Will she be safe here? Is the barefoot man gone for good?”
“Yes but his mother is still out there somewhere and so are two more keys she might be very glad to get her hands on. You must be vigilant. Any talk of keys, you let me know.”
“Of course.”
The captain’s voice carried over to them. “Of course I have a ship. Do you think I’d be called the captain if I didn’t have a ship?”
“I don’t believe you,” Tanya replied.
“I’ll take you to it,” the captain said. “Right now.”
Tanya turned to look at Natalie. “Can I go, Mom?”
“Not just yet. Not until we’re sure it’s safe out there.”
“What about the battlements? Can I go see them?”
Daisy stood up. “I’ll take her. Come on, Captain, let’s give her the guided tour.”
“I’ll come too,” Jock said, taking Daisy’s hand. “We have some catching up of our own to do.”
Tanya ran over to the door, beckoning furiously. “Keep up, slowcoaches.”
Natalie watched them go before turning to look at Wallace.
A flicker of a smile was playing across his lips. “You have a daughter,” he said.
“Remember what I said about the butterfly effect?”
“Aye.”
“She…she died when she was eight months old. Only, she didn’t. Because she’s alive.” Her voice fell to a whisper. “She’s alive.”
“She’s beautiful,” Wallace said, leaning over and taking Natalie’s face in his hands. “And so are you.”
“Wallace, I-”
“I love you,” he said, kissing her a second later. It was a kiss powerful enough to send her heart thumping out the top of her head and into ceiling above.
Her fingertips tingled, her stomach doing cartwheels as they embraced. She ran her hands around his back and together they remained like that for a long time.
Finally he pulled away and she felt a deep senseof loss, her lips still tingling with faint echoes of what had just happened.
When she opened her eyes, he was looking at her intensely. “You were about to say something?”
