Of course, Aiden could just explode the lock, but the noise would be a problem. We’re still going to break it with magic, but we need it to be an easy break, quieter, less likely to send dangerous bits of broken metal flying in every direction.

Okay, I think it’s cold enough, I tell Aiden. We need to break the-

The window swings open, and Coburn leans out.

I stifle a gasp. I was looking at the window, not my phone, and I didn’t see Coburn coming. His eyes are wide and alarmed, scanning what little he can see of the grounds.

Aiden has his eyes closed, and he doesn’t notice.

I plunge so deeply into panic that I come out on the other side and find myself in a strange, ringing calm. Everything seems to be happening in slow motion.

Aiden. Don’t move. Don’t make a sound.

I feel him freeze. He doesn’t open his eyes.

I force myself to move slowly. Click my phone to black. Set it silently on the grass. Take the hand that isn’t clasped in Aiden’s, press it to his chest. Gently push him off of his knees and into a sitting position again. Fold myself down next to him.

We huddle behind the bench, and all I can do is hope that the combination of shadow and fog will save us.

“Hello?” Coburn’s voice is trembling. I watch him from below. He stares at his frozen window, his breath misting the air next to it, then looks out at the grounds again.

His gaze feels akin to a police searchlight, and my heartbeat is so loud that I half expect it to attract his attention and give us away.

A voice floats out through the window. “Mr. Coburn?”

Coburn spins so fast that you would think someone had just shouldered his door open.

“Oh, Tom! Good lord, I thought you’d gone home.” He disappears from the window, leaving it open.

Aiden, warm it up! Now, right now!

The frost coating the glass thaws at once, turning to moisture, beading on the panes.

“Come look at my window.”

“What? Your window?”

Two faces appear in the window this time, and I press back against the wall, as flat as I can go.

“It’s all wet,” Tom observes. “From the fog, maybe?”

“Wet, but-?” Coburn stares at it, dazed. “No, I just saw - I just felt-” He fades off, touching his fingers to the glass.

“Maybe you should wrap up for the night,” Tom suggests. “You seem tired, and-”

“Has anyone been seen around the building?” Coburn interrupts. “Could someone have done this?”

“Done what?”

“It was all cold.”

“Well, yeah, it’s cold outside.” Tom shakes his head, reaching for the window. “Why don’t you close it?”

“No! Don’t touch it.” Coburn slaps Tom’s hand away. “Look, where are the security guys who watch the grounds? Daniel and Martin? Go find them, send them up.”

“They should be on their rounds, and their names are Davis and Michael.”

“Who cares about that right now?” Coburn snaps.

“I only mention it because they’ve both worked here for a long time, and they might not like it if you call them by the wrong-”

“Do I seem concerned about offending a security guard?” Coburn almost shouts. “Go get them and - nevermind, I’ll do it myself! Get out!”

Tom’s face disappears from the window, as does Coburn’s. I breathe in what feels like the first lungful of air I’ve had in way too many minutes.

I fumble around in the dark for my phone, find it in the grass, and open the camera feed.

“Aiden,” I whisper, breaking the connection. His blue eyes blink open and find my face. “Coburn just left his office, and - he left his window open!”

Aiden twists to look up at it. “Oh, shit. How long do we have?”

I cram my phone back into my pocket.

“He went to find the guards, he thinks they’re on their rounds, but they’re actually in the security room, unless they’re coming back over here right now-”

Aiden bounds to his feet, pulling me with him. We both climb up to stand on the stone bench. He laces his fingers together, and I scrape the grass off of my shoe before I set a foot onto his palms.

Aiden waits until I’m balanced to boost me up. We’re lucky that he’s so damn tall and strong, because even when he pushes me up, and even with my arms at their fullest reach, my fingers come a little short of the window ledge.

I’m about to tell Aiden that I can’t reach it, but I guess he knows already, because with a sudden burst of force, he practically flings me up at the window. My fingers find their grip on the sill, and I cling to it tightly. My heart hammering, I haul myself up and into the office, Aiden’s fingertips pushing the bottom of my shoes to help me.

I collapse onto the office floor, a puddle of nerves, my muscles shaking from the effort.

There’s no time to catch my breath. I stumble to my feet and lean out of the window to help Aiden, but -

“I can’t reach you!” I whisper-shout. “Help me back down, this won’t-”

He hops off of the bench and backs up, looking at the wall like he’s doing some kind of calculation.

I reach for him again, confused. “What are you-?”

Aiden takes a running start, sprinting for the bench. He jumps onto it, springs off of it, kicks a foot against the wall, and uses his momentum to leap up. He reaches for me, and - his fingers catch my outstretched arms. I close my hands around his wrists and throw all my weight backwards, dragging him up the rest of the way. He helps, his feet scrambling up the side of the building. We fall together into the office, tumbling onto the floor.

I sit up and stare at him, panting.

“Holy. Shit,” I whisper. “I am so fucking attracted to you right now. Can we clear off Coburn’s desk and-?”

“Focus, dummy,” Aiden whispers back, ruffling my hair. “We don’t know how much time we have.”

“I can’t believe this is all for groundwork,” I groan quietly, getting to my feet.

“Would you prefer that we go downstairs and try to break directly into the highly secure Collection storage? Keep in mind we don’t know how they store things, or how many layers of security we’ll have to go through, or what alarms we might set off, or what the security camera situation is like, or how we’ll get out-”

“Okay, okay!” I flap a hand at Aiden as he stands up. “Whatever, let’s just do this!”

I mean. We’re pretty committed, now.

“Say hi to Kasey,” Aiden whispers. We both turn to face the hidden camera. Aiden gives her a wave, and I shoot her two finger guns. “Okay, now get going on the note. Hurry.”

Aiden disappears into the hallway, and I cross to Coburn’s desk. We could have written the note in advance, but we decided it would have a bigger impact if it was on paper that belongs to him.

There’s a slender pile of papers on his desk. I skim-read the topmost page: notes for an upcoming interview he’ll be giving to an antiques magazine. He’s working on edits, a red pen resting on top of the stack.

Perfect. I grab the pen and click it on. I write directly on top of his notes, in letters large enough to fill the whole page, then step back to look at my work. I’ve done more Halloween displays for the flower shop than I can count, and my spooky handwriting isn’t too bad, if I do say so myself.

I wipe the pen off on my sweater, just to be safe, then put everything back where it was.

Aiden reappears in the doorway.

“I barely had to open any doors,” he says. “People here leave their offices open at night, apparently. Guess they don’t expect anyone to get past the security g-”

He breaks off as we hear distant, approaching footsteps.

“Oh, shit,” I whisper.

“Come on!” Aiden vanishes back into the hallway, and I dart after him. At the last second, I turn to examine the office, then freeze: there’s a single, grassy footprint on the windowsill. I sprint to it, wipe it away on my sleeve, and dash to join Aiden.

We slip into another open office - the one directly across from Coburn’s - right as two people crest the top of the stairs.

“-telling you, you aren’t listening.” Coburn is agitated, jittery. “Someone must have tampered with the heating and cooling in my office.”

“Okay…” It’s Davis, and he sounds doubtful. “Why would someone do that, sir?”

“It’s not my job to figure out what intruders on the grounds are up to, it’s yours! Haven’t you worked here forever? Don’t you know that by now?”

Davis sounds decidedly stiff when he speaks again.

“There are no intruders. As for your window, well, it’s cold outside. A planter near that same window cracked from it, earlier.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, it’s not nearly cold enough for that!”

“I saw it with my own eyes. Broke all on its own.”

“But…” They stop in the hallway. Aiden and I are pressed up against a wall in the anonymous office, keeping out of sight, but I hear the footsteps cut off. “That just can’t be the case, Daniel! Go figure out what’s going on!”

And now Davis sounds practically icy. “How do you suggest I do that, sir?”

“Is everyone at this whole institution utterly useless? Go do another lap of the grounds. Make sure no one’s out there!”

“Happy to,” Davis answers, clearly reaching the end of his patience.

His footsteps start up again. They grow quieter the longer they go on; he’s heading away from us, back towards the stairs. We listen until the sound fades out completely.

A moment passes, and then comes the shuffling of Coburn’s footsteps. The slam of his office door closing.

Silence falls again.

Aiden and I exchange a look, then steal out into the hallway. It’s dim and drafty, only one set of lights switched on. We make for the stairs, all the way at the opposite end of the hall from Coburn’s office. Keeping to the shadows, just in case.

The stairway that leads down into the lobby of the Bratton Collection is lit up, but - there’s a light switch, right there. All Aiden has to do is flip it, and the staircase falls dark. We both drop to a crouch on the third step from the top. We should be basically invisible, but we have a good clear view of the hallway, so that we can see what we’re doing.

Aiden shifts at my side, and I hear him swallow. He’s nervous. It’s understandable.

I’m nervous, too. This is going to use up a ton of Aiden’s energy, and I’m really hoping that the nap he took in the car charged him back up. We’re in trouble, if it didn’t.

I give him my hand, and he opens the connection. Neither of us has to say anything; it’s mutually understood that we both need a moment to steady out before we start this. I listen to Aiden’s heartbeat, and he listens to mine, until they catch each other’s pace and begin to slow down.

When we’re ready, I open my phone, plug in the mini-speaker, and pull up the audio clip. I should have done this before we opened the connection. It’s difficult with only one hand, but I manage.

I turn the volume all the way up, wait for the nod from Aiden, and press play.

It echoes up and down the hallway: the sound of slow, heavy, shambling footsteps. I let it play right up until I see Coburn’s door open, then cut it off immediately.

He’s got the note clutched in his hand, and his face is so pale that he actually looks like a ghost.

“Hello?” He says it so quietly, like he's not sure he wants anyone to answer. “Daniel? Tom?”

Aiden and I remain motionless and silent, swathed in the shadows. Coburn stares down the dark hallway, then retreats into his office, slamming the door again.

I wait a beat, press play on the footsteps, then cut them off as Coburn steps out into the hall. He stops, braces himself, then starts walking right towards us.

Ready, Aiden? Now’s the time.

Aiden closes his eyes and takes a long breath.

We had figured out how he slammed the door, the last time we were at the Bratton Collection. It was an accident, but there was an explanation. It turns out that when Aiden manipulates temperatures, the shifting hot and cold air create a movement, a current. Not always, but depending on how quickly he pulls away heat or induces cold.

With practice, we’ve been able to replicate it, but tonight is the real test. He’s never done it on this scale.

My heartbeat thrums in my ears again. Coburn is getting closer, and soon he’ll be to the stairs, where we’re hidden.

I feel Aiden pull together a lot of energy, feel it gather around us like a storm. The hand not clasped in mine, he opens, like he’s trying to wrap his fingers around something.

He balls his hand into a fist, and yanks it back.

Coburn screams as every single open door in the hallway slams closed at once.

Simultaneously, the temperature drops steeply. Coburn shudders, then lunges into movement, flat out sprinting - right at us.

Aiden suddenly crumples forward onto the stairs.

The panic is instant, and I react without thinking. I fling my arms around Aiden, catching him before he can lose his footing completely. I drag him up against the wall, trying not to trip and send us both flying down the stairs. I can’t take us any farther. All I can do is hold us still in the darkness as -

Coburn tears down the stairs without a single sideways glance, his eyes perfectly round.

“Daniel!” he screams, and vanishes into the lobby.

I take a staggering breath, then give Aiden a shake. He was amazing, but - it cost him. He's half-conscious at best, and my support is the only thing keeping him on his feet.

“Aiden!” I can hear the desperate rasp in my own voice. “Babe, you have to wake up, I can’t get us both out of here, we need to get to the window before Coburn comes back with the guards!”

“I’m - trying,” he slurs, pressing a hand to the wall to steady himself.

“Aiden, you cannot pass out, we don’t have time, and I can’t carry you-” I break off, realizing. “Oh. You… you could carry me, though, couldn’t you?”

“What?” he mumbles, fighting to keep his eyes open.

“Open the connection, Aiden!”

He does.

“Take it,” I tell him urgently.

“Your - energy?” His eyes are glazed over, like someone who hasn’t slept in a week. “No - that’ll - knock you out, I think-”

“Yes, but you can get us out of here, I can’t!” I cup his face in my hand, press a kiss onto his lips. “I trust you, okay? Do it.”

“Are you - sure-?”

“Yes, Aiden, do it!”

A pull begins, through our connection. He’s trying to go slowly, I can tell, but - suddenly I feel like I just worked a double shift at the shop - no, a triple, or something - and now I feel the way I do after pulling an all-nighter, dizzy and uneven, my shoulders sagging - or maybe ten consecutive all-nighters - my eyes are closed, but I don’t remember closing them -

I’m falling, and too tired to do anything about it.

Two gentle, oversized hands catch me before I can hit the ground. I feel myself lifted off my feet.

“I’ve got you,” someone whispers, and everything goes dark.

~~~~

I can tell from the low rumble and the steady vibration beneath me that I’m in a car. But is it a police car, or is it my car? That’s the extremely important question.

I become aware of my jacket, spread out over me. A song from the playlist I made Aiden, playing softly over the continuous hum of the engine. And a hand, resting on my knee. I’m too exhausted to open my eyes, but I don’t have to. I’d know that hand anywhere.

I smile to myself, cuddle up again, and immediately fall back asleep.