“How long have we been walking?” I’ve avoided doing too much complaining so far, but I’m reaching the end of my rope. I drop to a crouch, trying to stretch my legs. Aiden stops next to me, his hands on his hips, his face exhausted. Even Kasey looks tired of this, and she can’t even get tired. “I’m sorry, guys, I need a break.”

The forest has fallen dark around us, and it’s not like we got a late start today. The moon slipped into visibility a long time ago. We can see even less now than we could before. While the rain hasn’t gone beyond a thin, steady drizzle, we’ve spent enough time outside that everyone is damp and cold. Except Kasey, I guess.

“How have we not found him yet?” Aiden’s low voice is hoarse from shouting for Noah. “Does anyone even know where we are anymore?”

“I know where we are,” Ralph cuts in. He hasn’t bothered to hide his irritated scowl since the search for Noah began, and now it’s even deeper than it was before. “We must have made a big circle. We’re right near my house. Where the arrangement is about to be: the game on the TV, a beer in my hand, and my ass on the couch.”

“We can’t go back until we find Noah, Ralph.” Aiden rubs his eyes tiredly.

“Oh, I can go back without finding Noah.” Ralph turns to aim his irritated glare at Aiden. “In fact, I consider it a generosity that I even spent this long looking for him. He owes me big when he gets back. It’s not my fault that he decided to be a stupid ass and get himself lost in the woods. He can find his own fucking way home. I’m hungry and cold and I’m fucking done.”

“Okay, this feels like a good time for me to once again suggest that we call the police.” I straighten up, starting to get my breath back.

“This feels like a good time for me to once again suggest that anyone who brings the cops down on my house is responsible for all the ensuing legal bills and my bail, how about that?” Ralph snaps.

“So you’re ditching us and we can’t call the cops?” I call, because Ralph has already turned and is marching off, apparently towards his house. “Seriously? You’re going to make us just keep looking by ourselves?”

“He’s a big boy, he’ll find his way home, even lost dogs can do it,” Ralph shouts over his shoulder. “And I’m not making you do shit. You boys can go back whenever you feel like it.”

The forest swallows him up and he’s gone. Aiden, Kasey, and I just stand there, staring at the spot where he disappeared.

“Is he out of earshot?” I murmur. Aiden holds up a finger, and a pause ensues. He nods and lowers his hand. “Great!” I say, back at full volume. “I’m just gonna say it, is that cool? What. A. Bastard. My god. I’m sorry, I know you guys used to be tight, but I’m saying it, it’s happening-”

“Don’t be sorry.” Aiden was glaring after Ralph, but now he’s looking at me with some degree of amusement in his tired eyes. “When you’re right, you’re right. I half-expected you to snap and say it to his face before this was all over. You’re the patron saint of patience, anyone tell you that?”

“It helped that we were all walking spread so far apart. I guess there’s one benefit to the fact we had to search for Noah all day. Can’t be clumped up for a manhunt.”

“Right. Noah.” Aiden turns to face the forest again. “Come on, we can’t leave him.”

“Great, more walking around the woods,” Kasey groans softly, and even I can’t do this anymore.

“Aiden, no. We can’t just keep wandering around looking for him. It’s been all day and we’ve gotten nowhere. I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling pretty rained on, and cold, and like I really don’t want to get sick. I am not a cute sick person. My nose gets red and stays red.”

“Sounds cute to me,” Aiden says, mussing my hair again. Even when I’m this tired, it stirs the embers in my heart, kicking them back into flame. I glance away quickly as he continues. “So what would you suggest? Keep in mind that if you do anything that leads to Ralph’s arrest, he will try to kill us both.”

“Yeah, that’s not gonna work.” I comb my fingers through my hair, fixing it. “I don’t make a cute dead person, either.”

“I do,” Kasey says, examining her fingernails. I shoot her a look before facing Aiden again.

“I was going to suggest that you listen for Noah.”

Aiden blinks in surprise. His hair, damp from the rain, is falling into his eyes. I reach out automatically and smooth it away so I can see what he’s thinking. He looks a little surprised by this, too; I don’t know why. Should I not touch his hair? He’s always touching mine.

“Listen for him, yeah, I - I guess I could. Here’s the thing - I can say with certainty that wherever he is, it’s not a situation that’s threatening to become fatal. So it’s not really like with Gabby, where I could pick her up because the energy was screaming at me.” He presses a thoughtful finger to his lip. “It would be harder, but - I could try, I guess. Couldn’t hurt to try.”

“Oh, shit. I’m gonna give you guys some space.” Kasey backs up. “I don’t want him to hear me, if he can. I’m out.”

She disappears like a wisp of smoke. I try not to react, lest I have to explain myself to Aiden, who is still watching me.

“Just try it, Aiden,” I suggest. “Let’s just see what happens.”

Aiden takes a breath, nods, and closes his eyes. He grows rigid and still, like he’s slipping into some strange form of meditation. But when he opens his eyes again a few minutes later, they are still their usual blue. That sweet, soft blue, the color of the water over a sandy stretch of ocean floor. Not the frosty, arctic blue that means he’s making magic.

“Not working,” I guess, and Aiden nods.

“I’m just gonna try again.” He sits down cross-legged on the forest floor, and I gratefully seize upon the opportunity to get off my sore feet. I seat myself next to him, so I can watch. This time he is quiet for longer. It’s a good ten minutes before he lets out a sigh of frustration.

“Not hearing anything?”

“That’s never the problem. It’s more like trying to discern the one untuned instrument, or the one wrong note in a song. If that makes any sense.”

“What if Noah is out of range?” I ask, and Aiden shakes his head slowly.

“Range is not an issue for me.” His low voice rumbles in my bones, especially with the extra worn scrapiness to it. “I know I can hear Noah right now, I just need to figure out which is his note. And then hopefully be able to follow it to him.”

“Too bad it’s not Ralph that’s lost. I bet his note sounds like a typewriter falling down twenty flights of stairs and then being fed into an industrial-size garbage disposal. Like, a broken garbage disposal that also talks a lot of shit.”

That huffing laugh comes to me through the darkness, warming my rain-cooled skin.

“That’s not exactly how it works, but I appreciate the vivid imagery.” Aiden smiles at me, but it falls away quickly. “Shit. I’m so terrible at this.”

“Hey, you’re fine.” I scooch across the forest floor a little closer to him. Damp leaves and twigs stick to my pants. “I know that last time was sort of frantic, but do you remember anything about what helped?”

“I guess…” Aiden tugs at his shoelaces, not looking at me. “It sort of helped when you talked.”

“Okay, yeah, and I don’t get that.” I poke his leg. “How can me talking on top of everything else possibly help you? Isn’t it just more noise?”

“It’s hard to explain,” he admits. “But when you’re hearing a lot of unpredictable sounds, sometimes having one familiar sound, it sort of... helps you understand everything else more clearly. I’ve tried it with music, and it helps, but not much. You talking is the first thing I’ve found that actually works.”

I can’t help but feel strangely warmed by this, that I can help him. Just by doing what I already like doing: talking.

“What should I talk about?” I ask, and Aiden smiles.

“You’re really going to tell me there’s nothing on your mind you want to talk about? I’ve met you before, so.”

What I really want to talk about is the conversation I overheard between him and Ralph, but last time Aiden told me it shouldn’t be something too distracting. What’s the very next thing on my mind?

“I’m cold,” I tell him.

He surprises me by hooking a finger through the belt loop on the side of my jeans. He uses it to tug me closer to him, until I’m right up against his side. He folds his arm over my shoulders, enveloping me in a circle of warmth. My heart rate churns up to a violent staccato, and if my face weren’t so cold, my cheeks would be burning.

“Um,” is all I can say.

“This won’t be like it was with Gabby. It could take a while,” Aiden murmurs, settling himself against the tree trunk behind us. A faint scent of aftershave escapes from his clothes when he leans back - vetiver, maybe? “I honestly don’t want you to get sick. We don’t want you with a perma-pink nose, do we?”

He uses his free hand to tap my nose. I swat his fingers away, drawing another soft laugh from him. My heart is at the edge of a waterfall, begging me to let it leap. I can’t tell if I’m warm because Aiden is like a radiator, or because I’m embarrassed, or because - well.

“You really wouldn’t like me when I’m sick,” I tell him.

“Is that so?”

“That is so. Kasey would have told you. I turn into a total bitch.”

Aiden leans his head back against the tree and closes his eyes, smiling. I use the moment to let my gaze drag down the slope of his throat, the gentle swell of his Adam’s apple, the droplets of rain clinging to his stubble. His arm is a little heavy on my shoulders, but nothing in the world could convince me to shrug it off.

“Last time I was sick,” I continue, “I don’t even remember this, but my mom claims that I sent her to the store to get me this specific type of candy. She couldn’t find it anywhere and I flipped out when she got home. I was all, don’t you even love me, I’m your son, how could you fail me like this, especially when I’m ill… Turns out I was remembering a candy I’d had exactly one time before. It’s only sold in New Zealand. Kasey brought me back one from her study abroad trip.”

The corner of Aiden’s mouth twists up again, but he doesn’t open his eyes or say anything.

“That’s what a fever will do to you,” I press on, desperately resisting the urge to thread my fingers through the ones resting on my shoulder. “But I’m actually pretty good when other people are sick. I make a mean soup. My mom taught me how to cook it. That shit can cure anything. Including like, full-body paralysis.”

I hesitate. Aiden opens his eyes and looks at me. Their bluish-white color almost seems to glow against the pitch black of the night around us. I can almost see the magic swirling around in them, like an overhead view of a hurricane.

“Keep going,” he says, and I do.

~~~~

The forest is blanketed by the kind of complete darkness you forget is possible when you spend a certain amount of time in a city. I can only make out Aiden by the patches of moonlight sliding over his hair and shoulders. Despite the lack of any visual markers to go by, he walks along with purpose, following some path only he can see. It’s been about twenty minutes since he suddenly jolted to his feet and set off, and he hasn’t said anything yet. I am still talking, about what, I don’t know anymore. I’m not sure whether to stop or keep going, but I’d hate to snap whatever thread Aiden is using to find our way right now.

“I feel like we walked through this area earlier today,” I say, just to say something. Aiden finally emerges from his silence.

“We did. I hope I’m not fucking this up.”

“Does it feel like you are?”

He considers it without breaking his stride.

“No. But that’s not always a clear indicator.”

Now that he’s sort of out of his trance, I jog up a little to walk by his side, instead of behind him. His eyes are still that shimmering blue, which I hope means we haven’t lost our way.

“You know, Noah is gonna freak the fuck out when he sees you. If I saw your eyes like that while I was rolling…”

“Pretty sure he’s on the comedown by now. Past it.” Aiden checks his watch. “Definitely, in fact.”

“We didn’t even look for the cemetery at all,” I groan. “Not the most productive day for us.”

“I don’t know about that. I’ve never been able to listen for someone specific like this before, not unless they were in serious danger. This is actually a step. We should be glad that Ralph left. We couldn’t do this in front of him.”

“Yeah… speaking of which. I’m sorry that I eavesdropped on you guys before. It wasn’t even on purpose, I just walked up and you guys were talking and I was just going to wait so I didn’t interrupt and then-”

Aiden draws to an abrupt stop. He closes his eyes for a moment, opens them, and groans. His shoulders slump forward.

“I lost him.”

“Shit.” I turn on the spot, take a few more steps forward. “Could he be-?”

My foot hooks on something, and I’m flat on my face before I can even process what happened. I land on something hard and uneven, and let out a little yelp as some irregular shape pokes me in the ribs.

It turns out to be Noah’s belt buckle.

“Holy shit!” Aiden sputters, reaching down for me. I grab his forearm and let him pull me up. Back on my feet, I use my phone’s flashlight to illuminate Noah, who is sprawled out on his back in the grass, his arms curled around his stomach, his teeth chattering.

“Oh, thank fucking god,” he groans. “Someone came. I’ve been walking around trying to find you guys for hours.”

“He was probably like a mile ahead of us the whole fucking time,” I whisper. Aiden grimaces.

“I don’t feel good, guys,” Noah mutters. His skin is startling in its paleness; apparently he lost his jacket at some point.

“Can you walk?” Aiden asks, extending a hand. Noah takes it and lets Aiden pull him to his feet.

“Where’s Ralph?” he asks, his voice thin.

“Noah, can you walk?”

Noah gingerly takes a step forward, and then another.

“Which way are we going?” he asks feebly. “Turns out forest navigation isn’t really my thing.”

“This way.” Aiden takes him by the shoulders and points him firmly in the direction we came from. “And I swear to god, if you go more than five feet away from us…”

“Trust me, I won’t.” Noah starts walking, and Aiden and I fall into step behind him.

“Hey,” I whisper, when Noah is far enough ahead. “You fucking found him!”

Aiden looks down at me, and his smile is glowing and bright, illuminating even the most tired parts of his face. A spark of the icy blue flashes through them again. He pauses, raising his head and staring out at the forest.

“What?” I ask, casting a nervous glance at Noah, who hasn’t noticed us stop. I am not willing to do another manhunt today, so I grab Aiden’s fingers and give them a gentle pull. He slowly shifts into movement again, his gaze dragging along the trees. “Aiden, what?”

He turns to me, his fingers still in mine.

“I picked something up,” he says quietly. “We may just find that cemetery after all.”