If I don’t sit down, I’m afraid I’ll pitch over, so I ease myself into a chair and flip the sketchbook open. My hand shakes as I slide it toward him. “I…think this means something.”
He peers over my shoulder, bracing his hand next to mine so the heat of his skin seeps into my back. “Is that symbol on the bottom?”
“Yes. It’s unique, right? The leaf…you don’t think it could be…?” I glance up at him.
The muscles in his jaw shift, slow and deliberate. “If it’s not, I’ll eat my Ranger star.”
I’d laugh if he weren’t one hundred percent serious. “I don’t know why I couldn’t see it before.”
AJ presses a kiss to the top of my head. “Because you weren’t ready. Remember what Dr. VanHorn said? That your memories were covered in layers and layers of bubble wrap? Maybe you had to feel safe before you could peel that bubble wrap away.”
He covers my hand with his. Strong and steady and reassuring. Safe.
There’s one thing I’m sure of. You, Aaron. It’s always been you.
I sit on AJ’s office couch, staring at the bulletin board filled with every clue, every article, every scribbled note he’d hoped would bring him one step closer to me—the shrine he built to my memory.
On the desk, the video call waits for Parker, Connor, and Zephyr to join. I cup the mug of tea in both hands, take a sip, and settle closer to AJ.
“Zephyr’s a little intense,” he says. “But I think you’ll like her.”
The left side of the screen flickers to life. Zephyr’s teal hair falls over one eye, and in her right hand, she holds a ceramic mug half the size of her head.
Her dark purple lips form an O, and her eyes widen. “Grace. Hi. I’m Zephyr.”
AJ’s arm tightens around me. But I’m not scared. Not yet, anyway.
“Um…hi.”
I wish I could find the words to thank her for all she’s doing. To thank everyone. But instead, I settle a little closer to AJ and fiddle with the hem of my sweater.
Parker joins next, a yawn hidden behind her hand. “Sorry,” she says. “Didn’t get home until after midnight because someone needed more time to finish his ‘grand romantic gesture’ while Grace and I were at girls’ night.”
“Well, that’s a story I need to hear one of these days,” Zephyr says.
Connor is the last to join, his arms folded, against a backdrop of a bookcase filled with photos.
“Zephyr, we’ve got somethin’ new on the lantern,” AJ says. “There’s a symbol on the bottom. Sendin’ you a picture of it now.”
She taps her keyboard a few times, narrows her eyes, and frowns at the screen. Her eyebrow piercing winks in the overhead light. “Well, if that’s a leaf, it shouldn’t take me long to figure out?—”
“Oleander,” I say, my voice steady. “It’s an oleander leaf. I…looked it up.”
Zephyr cracks a smile. “Good work, Grace. I’ll feed the image into my web crawlers and see what they spit out. Every little detail helps.”
“Tell her the rest,” AJ says, his voice low and smooth in my ear.
I take a sip of tea, my throat suddenly dry, and swallow hard. “There were horses. Or…one horse, at least. The room I keep seeing…it was all wood. Not painted. Or stained. Sealed maybe.”
She takes it all down. Everything I’ve remembered. The book with words my mind won’t let me see, the lanterns hung all around the big gaping nothingness I’m terrified to remember, and the taser.
I taste metal again. Sharp and sudden. My breath stutters. The laptop screen blurs. Everything’s dim. Dark gray and black and stifling hot.
“I’ve destroyed the watch and tossed her phone. I’ll burn the rest later. We should go. Now.”
“Grace?” AJ squeezes my forearm. I stare down at my wrist, at the thick scar I don’t remember getting, and a spot of blood wells on my skin.
But after a blink, it’s gone.
