“I’m okay,” he panted, realizing his heart was pounding. “I’m good. I saw it. A lot of the Summer Court. I think he knew... I think he was trying to show me.”
Elodie nodded slowly. “Yes, I think he did know, somehow. His presence is much less strong than it was when you started.”
“Do you think I could get any other information out of him, still?” Florian asked, looking down at the glowing thread in his fists. Elodie shrugged.
“You got information from him last time, when his presence was weak like this,” she said. “I think it will just depend on what information you want, and how close it is to the... the edge of his consciousness, I suppose.”
Florian nodded, envisioning when he had been standing in the mirror seeing Thaddeus gaunt and haggard and not at all like the healthy, active man he had been in the memory. That had been Thaddeus now, he knew somehow, and when he focused on the thought, it felt as if he was almost there.
“I’m going to try it,” he said, more to Thaddeus than to Elodie, though he didn’t really know if the spirit could hear him speaking aloud.
“I’ll pull you out if you take too long,” Elodie replied. “I don’t want you getting stuck.”
Florian frowned. “Maybe. Just give me some time to figure out what he knows.”
Elodie sighed. “I’ll use my best judgment.”
He nodded and closed his eyes again, imagining Thaddeus in the mirror opposite him. He reached out, and the other man made the same movement, their fingertips touching on the surface of the mirror.
“Can you hear me?” Florian asked softly, and Thaddeus gave a single, sharp nod. “Can you speak?”
The man stared at him for a long moment, then slowly nodded, though he seemed uncertain.
“I want you to tell me more about what happened,” Florian urged. “Do you know about the Arrows? What are we supposed to do with them once we have them?”
Thaddeus shrugged, making Florian’s heart sink. He didn’t fully expect the spirit to know, but it was a disappointment that they would still be in the dark. All he knew was that they needed all the Arrows—anything beyond that was only conjecture.
“Do you know if she’s still alive? Soleil?” he asked. “Do you still have some kind of connection to her, like you have to me?”
Thaddeus looked at him again for a long moment, his lips trembling as if he were trying to speak. Finally, he rasped out,
“She’s alive. I don’t know anything else.”
His voice was a rough whisper, barely understandable, and it sounded nothing like the Thaddeus of his memory. How much of him was really left? It was only a shell, Florian thought, and it made his heart squeeze with sympathy.
His eyes flickered down to where their hands met in the mirror, and he frowned.
“What happened to your ring?” he thought, remembering the gold ring that had been so prominent in all the memories of Thaddeus that he’d seen. Thaddeus frowned, his eyes following Florian’s down to his own hand, his ring finger.
“I don’t know,” he repeated simply. Florian sighed and let his hand fall away, Thaddeus’ hand mimicking the action.
“Is there anything else you can tell me that will help? Anything at all?” he asked, unsure what else he could even ask that might have any chance of getting an answer.
“Please just bring me back to her,” Thaddeus said, surprising Florian with how clear the words were. “I just want to go back to her. Please.”
Florian looked at him with uncertainty. The man’s appearance didn’t look any different, but somehow these words were more forceful, as if he’d said them with every bit of emotion he had left—as if they were the only thing keeping him tethered to Florian. Maybe that was it. The longer Florian looked at him, the more he thought that his eyes had a faint amber glow, similar to his own.They had only been a dull brown for so much of his life, but in death, he was a fae.
“I’ll try,” he said. “I... I’ll do my best.”
Thaddeus sighed, and his expression softened. The warmth of his eyes seemed to fade, and he nodded, then his appearance became more blurry. Florian winced, blinking hard as his surroundings brightened; and when he opened his eyes again, his awareness was back with Elodie in the liminal space.
“You came back on your own,” she murmured, looking down at him with a pleased expression. “Good. You did much better this time.”
He nodded and slowly released the shining thread until it disappeared back into his chest.
“Let’s go,” he sighed, suddenly exhausted. Without any further prompting, Elodie grasped his hand, and they were gone.
