Even over the phone, I can tell that Floyd is practically hopping around with excitement. He must be pouring off enthusiasm in contagious waves, because I hear Ida start barking.

"Holy shit!" he yells, with a clicking sound that means he's gesturing wildly with his ringed fingers.

Aiden and I are both grinning. Kasey is trying not to laugh, one hand pressed over her mouth. Will is amused, too, going by the arch of his blonde eyebrows.

“I mean, my god!" I don’t even have the speaker of my phone turned all the way up, but Floyd’s voice is echoing through the Ghost Office with every word he says. “How did you boys ever convince the fuzz to show you the evidence?”

I’ve been doing the talking, but now I hesitate, doubtful that my terrible attempts at lying will get past a former investigative journalist.

“Long story,” Aiden cuts in, and I shoot him a grateful look. “The point is, now we have this key, but we don’t know what it’s for.”

“Yes, the key - and the collapsed house!” Floyd says excitedly. “Preston certainly didn’t mention that! Ida, hush, sweetheart - did you say there was a green ribbon?”

I didn’t expect this to be the detail that Floyd would narrow in on. “Yeah?”

“That’s interesting. I distinctly remember seeing a green ribbon when I was exploring Port Sitka. It was tied up outside somewhere… God, it was so long ago. Where did I see it?”

“That might be unrelated, Floyd,” Aiden answers. “Didn’t you investigate this case after it had been cold for years?”

“Yes, but I could swear… give me some time to think about that one.” There’s a scratching sound, like Floyd is taking speedy notes. “And let me look into this house collapse, too. You said you saw the address in the notebook, Jamie?”

“Mhm. I texted it to you.”

“Excellent! You’ll have to check out that location, so add it to the list of addresses I gave you! If Botswick wrote it down, it must be important! My god, this is absolutely dynamite, I can’t believe that after all this time - when are you going to Port Sitka?”

“Weekend after next,” Aiden says. “We were gonna go yesterday, but we spent it, um - getting the evidence, instead.”

“Then go this coming weekend, surely?” Floyd asks impatiently.

“This coming weekend is Christmas, Floyd,” I inform him.

There’s a brief pause.

“Oh - I forgot! I’m sorry, my head is just filled up with all this new information! The lipstick on the cigarette butt, too…”

“Could it be from the other spy?” I ask him, and then, to Kasey - “Could women be secret agents in the 1960s?”

Floyd thinks the question is for him.

“Oh, yes!" he answers. "Women worked in all fields of intelligence, though they rarely get the credit they deserve. Not just as field agents, but as sources, scientists, translators, code crackers, occasionals…”

Aiden frowns at the phone. “Occasionals?”

“Agents who lived relatively normal lives and worked normal civilian jobs,” Kasey says. “They were called into active service only when their specific skills or knowledge were needed. The government had networks of them.”

Floyd, who was trying to calm Ida down during Kasey’s explanation, chimes back in.

“The point is, that cigarette butt could be unrelated, just something the fuzz found on the beach. But I sincerely doubt it.”

We all take a second to absorb that, exchanging thoughtful glances.

“Well, let us know if you turn up anything on the collapsed house, or the ribbon,” I tell Floyd.

“Of course! And you’ll let me know how the visit to Port Sitka-?” Floyd cuts himself off. “Oh, hello! Be right with you!” He drops his volume to a whisper. “Got to run, I’ve got a customer! The sign keeps sending them my way! I had to do a stock reorder this weekend, you’d never believe it - anyways, let me know how it goes, won’t you?”

“We will," Aiden and I say together.

“Excellent! You boys have a good Christmas!”

The line disconnects. Team Ghost Office stands there staring at my phone for a second, and then we all dissolve into laughter.

“Oh, my god,” Kasey giggles, hopping up to sit on the workbenches. “You weren’t lying. That man is a tornado of energy. Only Ellen could compete.”

“I can quite envision him scampering around his bookshop," Will chuckles, leaning back against the workbench next to Kasey.

He blinks in surprise as she reaches over to twine her fingers into his hair.

I think he’s still easily overwhelmed by his newfound ability to feel, because he holds absolutely still beneath her touch, biting back a smile.

“I think,” Kasey says, absently twirling a lock of his hair around her fingers, “That this case definitely does have something to do with Port Sitka’s Guardian. There was nothing in the evidence to explain those strange lights in the sky. Kind of squashes Floyd’s theory that it was some sort of spy tech.”

“Unless Botswick threw whatever he used into the sea," Aiden muses. "Like Calla did with the bullet."

Kasey tips her head to the side. “Every time you guys say Calla, I think you’re gonna say Callahan.”

“She’s named after the flower," I explain. "It's a coincidence. But I know what you mean, I always think the same thing.”

Will is looking at Kasey, a confused pinch between his eyebrows.

“Callahan?” he asks. “As in Caleb Callahan? I’m surprised the name jumps so easily to your mind, Miss Lavoe. I have only mentioned it once.”

There’s an abrupt, ringing silence.

Suddenly we’ve arrived at a conversation that we’ve been carefully avoiding ever since Will was summoned. And our options now are to lie to him, or to tell him the truth.

Kasey sits there in frozen, wide-eyed silence. It's clear that she didn’t realize what she'd said until it was too late.

Will looks around at us, then turns to Kasey, concerned. “Have I said something wrong?”

Her lips are pressed tightly together, her fingers pressed over her mouth. When Will looks at her, she gives herself a little shake. Very slowly, she slips down from the workbench, and takes his hand.

“Will,” she begins, then stops. Her eyes flash to me, but I’m so startled that I don’t respond at all. It’s very rare that I see Kasey at a loss for words. She gives me an exasperated, you’re-no-help type of look, then turns back to Will. “There’s - there’s something we need to tell you.”

She falters, then stops again, hesitating over her words.

We all turn to look at Aiden as his deep, rumbling voice fills the silence.

“Will,” he says. “My name is Aiden Callahan. That’s why Kasey thought of it.”

“Oh.” Will smiles at him, his confusion clearing away. “I didn’t realize. I don’t know why my mind jumped to Caleb. Common enough surname, that.”

“No. Well - yes.” Aiden is speaking extremely slowly, even by his standards. “But I share that name with Caleb and Ariana for a reason.”

For a moment, Will is frozen. Then his smile drops away.

He stares at Aiden like he’s trying to figure out if he’s missing out on some kind of joke. His green eyes drift around the group again, taking in our very serious expressions.

“What…?” His gaze goes back to Aiden, his eyes narrowed in disbelief. “You don’t - surely you don’t mean…?”

No one answers, which is an answer in and of itself.

Will stares at Aiden, thunderstruck, his eyes wide. There’s a long silence before he speaks again.

“You’re - a descendant?” He’s almost whispering. “Of Ariana?”

Aiden bites his lip, then nods, once.

Will stares at him for another moment, then lets out a shaky breath.

“I cannot believe I didn’t - didn’t realize…” He shakes his head, dazed. “You are darker of complexion than she. And so soft-spoken, where she never was. Taller even than Caleb...”

“It’s been two hundred years,” Aiden says gently. “Families change.”

“Yes, but I should have known,” Will breathes. “Your eyes - her eyes.” He lets out a ragged laugh, unable to break his gaze away from Aiden’s. “She was known for them. The girl with the sapphire eyes, the men called her.”

I unexpectedly find myself biting back a smile.

Sapphire isn’t how I’d describe Aiden’s eyes. They change with his mood, but they’re lighter than that, like the sandy shallows of warm ocean waters. There must be some variation in Guardian eye color, even if everyone in Aiden’s line was some shade of blue.

It means that those eyes are unique to him.

But at the same time, they have enough of Ariana that Will recognizes them.

Will finally tears his gaze away from Aiden. He looks down at Kasey, his eyebrows drawn together.

“But - Aiden is a Guardian,” he says. “Did you not say this is passed down through family?”

Kasey chews the inside of her cheek, then nods.

We all watch Will nervously, but no one is as tense as Kasey, who gently spreads a hand on his back. He stares at her, hurt and confused, suddenly breathing hard.

“Ariana - she was a Guardian?" Will stammers. "She did this to me? No, why - why would she-?”

He breaks off as Kasey takes both of his hands in hers.

“Before you get upset at Ariana,” she says earnestly, looking up into his eyes, “You should know that she left a letter for you.”

I open the box on the workbench where we’ve been keeping it, then show it to Will.

He sees the writing on the front, and takes in a sharp, trembling breath.

To My Darling Will

He forgets what he is, tries to take the letter from me. His fingers go right through the brown paper envelope, and he retracts his hand, blinking hard.

“We could try to speak for Ariana.” Kasey says, then nods at the letter. “But I’m sure she’d rather speak for herself.”

Aiden beckons to his fireflies. They float down closer to us, casting their shimmering golden light over the aged paper. Will hesitates, then says, in a scraping voice:

“Can someone open it?”

I’m holding it, but Aiden is the archivist, so I hand it over. He gently works a finger beneath the seal, opens the envelope, and extracts the letter.

I only catch a glimpse as he unfolds it, but I can see that this letter is much longer than the one Ariana wrote to Aiden.

Aiden carefully lays it out flat on the workbench, then steps away from it.

Will stares at it, his expression unreadable. He seems to have forgotten that we’re here.

We all move back to give him some room. He slowly approaches the workbench, and bows his head over the letter.

There’s a long, deep silence. Minutes slide by. Will doesn't move at all, doesn’t make a sound as he reads.

Kasey stands halfway between us and him, hugging herself. She doesn’t know how Will is going to react to this. None of us do.

The silence goes on and on, and then Will lets out a sharp, shuddering breath.

“Oh...” He hovers his translucent fingers over the paper, his voice perilously thin. “Oh, Ari, my love, my darling…”

He falls silent again, then drops his face into his hands.

Kasey surges into movement. She goes directly to Will, wraps her arms around him from behind, and rests her cheek against his back.

For a few seconds, Will is motionless. Then he turns in Kasey’s arms, allowing us a brief glimpse of his face. Just one look tells me that if ghosts could cry, Will would be a puddle right now.

He wraps his burly arms around Kasey, drops his head over hers, and presses his nose into her hair. She squeezes him tightly, rests her face against his chest.

“Are you okay, Will?” I ask softly, after a pause.

Will lets out a long breath. I’m surprised to see his eyes suddenly swimming with warmth and adoration.

“I cannot…” He shakes his head, runs a hand through his blonde hair. “I cannot believe that her love has kept me alive for two hundred years.”

Aiden and I exchange a startled glance, and Kasey draws back, blinking up at Will.

“We were worried that you might be angry with her,” Aiden admits.

“We also hoped that you wouldn’t be,” I add.

“It was an accident, Will,” Kasey murmurs. “She loved you so much, she just wanted to keep you.” And then, after a moment, “I - can understand that. Knowing you.”

She gets up on the balls of her feet, and kisses Will’s nose.

He stares down at her, then lets out an unsteady laugh. He strokes his fingers through her black hair. Leaves his hand on the back of her head, smiling down at her with overwhelmed green eyes.

“This,” he says quietly, touching a fingertip to her chin. “This is why I cannot be angry. I have always seen this existence as a curse, but - now I have you, and I see that it is a gift.”

Aiden looks over at me. I turn my head to meet his eyes, and he quickly glances away.

“It’s many gifts, in fact.” Will’s gaze lifts from Kasey to us, and he smiles. “Christmas among friends, for one.”

Aiden and I both smile back at him.

Will takes in an audible breath, a realization dawning on his face.

“Then she did know,” he says, almost to himself. “Ari, she - she knew that I was there, when she spoke to me through the garden window. She knew that I heard her. I always wished that I could tell her I was there, listening. Every night, to every word she said. That I never stopped loving her, just as she never stopped loving me.” He bites his lip, his voice suddenly rough. “But she knew. She knew all along.”

Going by the look on Will’s face, this realization is a gift, too.

~~~~

Aiden and I leave the Ghost Office shortly after. It’s clear that Will needs time to process all this, and that he needs Kasey to be there for him while he does. We leave the letter out on the workbench. Will is already rereading it by the time we step out into the snow.

I look over at Aiden as he backs my car out of the driveway. I’m thinking of the Christmas gift I made for him.

I was planning to ask for it back again. See if Aiden would give it up, so I could replace it with another copy of the book. One without my words scribbled in the margins, my thoughts underlined.

I’m so nervous for him to open it. It’s a written collage of my love for him, wrapped in poetry. It’s - a lot. Very possibly too much.

But now I’m thinking about the look in Will’s eyes when he read Ariana’s letter, realized that she put her love into words for him to keep.

And I’m thinking about how Aiden looked at me earlier, when he didn’t realize I could see his expression.

“Hey,” I say slowly. “About the Christmas gift I got you.”

“The answer is still no,” Aiden says firmly. “I’m not giving it back.”

“I wasn’t going to ask you to.” I reach over to smooth my fingertips up the nape of Aiden’s neck. “I’m officially giving up on that. It’s yours.”

He smiles at me, surprised. There’s a brief silence, and then he says -

“Well, now that I know you’re not gonna try and steal it back… you want to sleep at my place tonight?”

I remember how I always used to sneak back to my own apartment, rather than staying over with whoever I was seeing. But now...

Barely a night has passed that Aiden and I haven’t slept cuddled up together. Maybe I should give him more space, but I’m having a hard time forcing myself to stay away.

I return Aiden’s smile, and his grows even sweeter, even more radiant, the corners of his eyes crinkling. He wraps the hand that’s not on the wheel around mine.

The windows are down, but I’m not cold. And it’s dark outside, but there’s a quiet golden glow in the car.

I bring my Heliomancer’s hand to my mouth, push a kiss onto his knuckles.

Like the sun itself, he touches all things with his warmth, his light.