All I knew was that I couldn't breathe.
Couldn't think.
Could only stare at this woman who had given me a gift no one else ever had.
She must have misread my silence because her face shifted and then uncertainty crept into her eyes. "I know you don't believe me."
She let out a nervous laugh. Looked away. "Maybe I'm crazy. I've been seeing it for a while now, and I thought maybe it was stress or lack of sleep or—"
“No.” I grabbed her hand.
Firm.
Tight.
Unrelenting.
My voice came out shaky. "I believe you."
Her eyes snapped back to mine. "You do?"
"Yes."
"So. . .you remember what your mother told you?"
I blinked. “What did you say?”
"I saw the paintings when I was on the hunt for your spies. . .your mother’s paintings on the walls. All the different animal-shaped shadows behind people.”
Something caught in my chest. "Yes."
"And then Hiro told me that your mother used to tell you both stories about that."
A smile tugged at my lips. "I'm surprised he remembers. We were so young."
"He remembers. He said she told the stories with so much love."
She did. She always did.
Nyomi leaned closer. "What else do you know about it? This has never happened to me before. I almost don't want to believe it, even though—" She pointed to the space beside me. "He's right there. Staring at me."
I turned my head and looked at the empty air over my shoulder.
Nothing.
"To me, he's just right there," Nyomi continued. "His eyes are wide open. Kind of surprised. Like maybe he didn't know I could see him either. I thought he did."
Even my dragon-shadow was caught off guard?
I turned back to Nyomi and studied her face. This woman who could see part of me that I had never seen myself. Part of me that had been with me since birth, watching through eyes I didn't know existed.
Goddamn it. What the fuck do I do with this?
Nyomi's eyes moved back to the space over my shoulder. "It's. . .leaning closer. Like it's studying me. I think it's curious."
"Curious?"
"About me. About how I can see it." She tilted her head, and I watched her eyes track movement I couldn't perceive. "It's beautiful, Kenji. In a terrifying way. Like looking at a storm or a fire. Something you know could destroy you, but you can't look away."
