A soft veil of fog absorbs and diffuses the light of the sunset. It spreads up high over the water, enclosing the cliff faces, the coastline - everything but the towering Sitka spruces.

The mist glitters gently around us, obscuring everything beyond a certain distance. Turning different shades of pastel with the changing color of the sunlight. Golden, then pale pink, then a soft purple.

The fog suits our purposes. We wouldn’t want anyone to look out from the beach and see two people walking on the surface of the ocean.

Melty snow drizzles down as Aiden and I come to a stop on the sand. We’re at the place where the beach ends, and the coast becomes cliffs and boulders. It’s here that we’ll step out onto the sea.

The water is calm compared to the stormy mood it was in earlier. Still, this won’t be like walking on the river. There are waves, not always gentle ones. This is something new for Aiden, and he’s nervous about it. I can read it in his silence. In the intensity of his blue eyes as he stares out over the water, gathering his focus.

Not me, though. I’m not nervous at all. Well - maybe about the caves, what we’ll find when we get there. But not about this.

Aiden glances at me, does a double-take, and then huffs out a soft laugh. “You look ready to go.”

“Yeah, I’m feeling good.”

Aiden arches an eyebrow, waits for an explanation.

I tap his nose with my fingertip. “I just - I have more faith in your abilities than you do, Heliomancer.”

Aiden blinks, then smiles down at me, combs a strand of hair back from my forehead.

“Appreciate the confidence you have in me, Keane,” he rumbles, his deep voice vibrating through my body. “Sometimes I think that’s what I’m actually walking on, when I do this. Not the heat.”

While I’m still absorbing that, Aiden takes my hand, opens the connection, and steps out onto the sea.

I follow after him, smiling to myself.

The water dances beneath our feet, but we don’t fall. It feels like walking on sand. There’s a softness to the invisible barrier of heat that keeps us above the waves. A slight give, a constant shifting beneath my shoes. It’s different than walking on the flat, glassy surface of the river. But I have that same sense of solidity under my feet.

Aiden is walking fast, so I tug on his fingers, bring us to a calmer pace. He winces as he slows his step, then lets out a relieved breath when we don’t disappear into the ocean.

“See?” I squeeze his fingers, beaming up at him. “You’re so much better at this stuff than you think.”

Aiden gives me a small smile, then faces forward again, sinking into his thoughts.

We walk in silence for some time. To our right are the rocky faces of the cliffs, the Sitka spruces even grander and more awe-striking from below than from afar. To our left is the open sea, mostly hidden in the mist. The colors tinting the fog grow richer and deeper as the sun drops closer to the horizon. Beams of light break through here and there, falling across our faces.

Gulls crying out overhead, the rush of the waves beneath us, and rainlike sound of the wind through the trees above us. It all mingles in my ears.

I take long breaths of the salty air. It stings my sinuses, but then makes them feel sharply clear.

“It’s just-” Aiden says suddenly, “I would be more confident in my skills if I’d had any actual training. I needed a teacher, and Leigh - I mean, my mom...”

Aiden stops to take a breath, to choose his next words. I wait, watching him, gently smoothing my thumb up and down his palm. Trying to pretend I didn’t notice the sharp stab of pain that just came through the connection.

It’s just hard for me to teach myself, Aiden finishes, in his inside voice. There’s no textbook for this stuff, you know that.

“Well… yeah,” I say slowly, “And that’s fair, but - you do your best magic when you rely on your instincts, Aiden. Not what a textbook would tell you. I’m no expert, but I think you just need to trust yourself. Use your intuition.”

“I know,” Aiden says, cringing with frustration, “But it’s hard to trust my instincts when I don’t know if I’m doing the right thing. And they can only take me so f-”

He breaks off sharply as a strange, rushing noise comes from our left. We both stop, turning to stare through the mist.

A wave high enough to break over our heads appears from the fog. So close to us already that all we have time to do is gasp.

For a moment, time seems to stand still. The wall of water is only seconds away from crashing down on us.

Aiden flings out his hand, and I feel something happen. First through the connection, then out in the world. 

A pulse of white-hot Heliomancer magic.

I open my eyes just in time to see the wave shatter against the heat barrier, exploding over our heads into thousands of sparkling, sunlit droplets. Some of them turn to steam. Seawater rains down all around us, but the most that touches me or Aiden is a light mist against our faces.

Aiden had curled over me protectively, his one hand still held out where he threw it. I had seized hold of his jacket, was clinging to him tightly. We’re both still frozen like that, but now we turn to look at each other with wide eyes.

“You were saying?” I finally stammer, and Aiden shakes his head, lets out a disbelieving laugh.

He looks down at me searchingly, then presses a kiss into my hair. “Are you okay?”

“Mhm.” I nod, smiling up at him. “Good instincts, babe.”

Aiden is quiet for the rest of the walk, but I can tell that he’s not unhappy. Just deep in thought. He’s actually really happy. I can feel it through the connection.

And I can see it in his smile, which glows right through the shimmering magic in his eyes.

~~~~

It's dusk by the time we reach the caves, and darkness is falling fast.

The cave entrance is at sea level, which means that the ocean flows right into it. Craggy boulders jut up out of the water, making it clear why no one from Port Sitka has tried to explore this place.

The entrance yawns open into pure, pitch-black darkness. The calm that carried me all the way here begins to ebb as I stare into the cold depths of it.

Aiden notices, nudges my elbow. “No bears in there, Keane.”

I laugh, but nervously. Aiden looks down at me, then up at the entrance again, his eyes thoughtful.

He lifts a hand and lets out a waterfall of shining golden fireflies. They rise up around our shoulders, then drift ahead of us into the cave, lighting the way.

Aiden squeezes my fingers. “Better?”

Relieved and grateful, I nod at him. He smiles, then tugs on my hand.

Together, we walk on the ocean, directly into the caves.

The waves smash against the walls of the cave entrance as we move inside, and the wind blows the drizzle in after us. I feel the cold little flecks against my skin, feel the darkness on every side. But Aiden’s warmth and light wrap around me, keep me going.

We come to a stop, looking around as Aiden’s fireflies spread out through the main cavern.

The cave entrance is small, easy to miss if you’re not looking for it. But inside, it's a different story.

The low, narrow passage we just came through opens into a huge space. Stone walls form natural shelves before they begin the gentle slope that culminates in the arched ceiling.

It stretches high above our heads, a vaulted dome of rock.

The constant dripping of water has carved stone spires, formations that seem to flow in natural movement while sitting perfectly still. Before us, the water clearly gets very deep, forming a solid blue pool. But beyond that, it must be shallow again, because the waves have deposited enough sand to form a little beach. It leads up onto the cave floor, which is dotted with small saltwater pools.

The water everywhere - from the damp walls and ceiling, the glistening boulders, the tidepools, and the ocean itself - picks up and reflects Aiden’s light. Spots of shimmering iridescence, everywhere I look.

There’s a continuous soft sound of water dripping, layered over the rush of the sea.

“Whoa,” I breathe. “This is actually kind of - super beautiful?”

Aiden nods, silent and wide-eyed. We walk together across the deep pool to the sand, where we touch back down on earth again.

I do a slow turn on the spot. Beyond the entrance of the cave, I can see the sleet still gently sifting down. It feels oddly cozy in here, seeing that. It's something to do with Aiden’s warmth and light, his fingers threaded through mine.

This is more like a sanctuary than the creepy place I thought it would be. A world unto itself, touched by nothing but time, air, and the sea.

Aiden and I remain at a total standstill. Looking, listening, breathing. Nothing more.

Sometimes it knocks me flat on my back, the heart-stoppingly beautiful things that the world offers up to us so freely. Moments like this make me think about that.

Aiden makes me think about that, too.

There’s a long silence. My hand in Aiden’s, my eyes roving over the breathtaking heights of this stone cathedral.

I have to give myself a shake, remember that we came here for a purpose. I look up at Aiden, speaking with my eyes, and he nods.

We break apart and begin picking our way through the cavern, searching for any sign that someone came here once, all those years ago. I move slowly and carefully, but each step I take releases a soft echo. The water droplets that escape from the ceiling do the same when they make their tiny impacts.

Fish dart around in the pools that lay within the black stone floor. Washed there by the sea, and they’ll probably be washed out again when high tide comes. The science teacher in me could spend a really long time looking into these pools, examining the rock formations, staring up at the structure of the incredible stone ceiling overhead - but I’m searching for something specific, and nothing is turning up.

“Don’t see anything to suggest that somebody was here before us,” Aiden says, from the side of the cavern he’d been exploring.

“Me, neither.” I stop for a second, a troubling thought occurring to me. “Actually… Aiden, if the water forms these pools because of high tide, anything that was on the ground in here would have been washed away.”

Aiden winces, adjusting his snapback. “Shit.”

“But…” My eyes land on the naturally formed platforms of rock that extend from the walls of the cave. “We could check those. Do you hear us in any danger? Like - am I gonna collapse the cave system, if I go up there?”

Aiden listens for a second, then shakes his head. “No. You’re good. Need a boost?”

“Yes, please.”

I put the heel of my shoe in his interlaced hands, let him push me up to a higher place in the cave. I scramble onto the shelf, then lean over to look at Aiden. He makes an all okay? sign at me, and I nod before I straighten up to look around.

Aiden must have sent a few fireflies after me. They float up over the edge and come to drift around my feet.

I begin a slow walk along the ridge in the wall, being very careful - then nearly slip on something. A squeak breaks the quiet of the cave, the rubber of my Converse on the rubber of something else.

“Jamie?” Aiden calls, alarmed.

“I’m okay, I - I found something!”

~~~~

I hand it all down to Aiden, one by one.

The black, shredded pieces of rubber. The flashlight. And the flat, palm-sized package, wrapped up in the same kind of rubber I found above. Just like the go-bag we found at the farmhouse.

“Holy shit!” Aiden sputters, reaching up to help me down. "We struck gold!"

“I know! Can you fucking believe-?”

I break off as Aiden keeps me in the air for a few extra seconds, pops a kiss onto my nose before he sets me back on my feet. A stupid blush crawls up my cheeks, and I smack his arm, trying not to laugh.

“Babe! Focus! We just found like, murder evidence-”

“Right, yep. Sorry. Just - excited.” Aiden bends over the small collection of stuff. “Was it all just sitting together up there?”

“Yeah, look!” I unlock my phone and show him the pictures I snapped. “And check out that flashlight, man!”

Aiden turns it over. The entire thing is rusted, but on the front are a few legible words, stamped right into the metal: Rayovac Sportsman, Made in the USA.

“Doesn’t look like any flashlight I’ve seen.” Aiden rolls it over in his hand. “The entire thing is metal.”

“Probably because it’s from the 1960s!” I answer, grinning from ear to ear. “Bet you if we show that to Kasey, she could certify it!”

“And look, dude!” Aiden pokes at the old pieces of rubber. “Must have been a boat, so - I guess it wasn’t a cryptid after all, huh?”

“Yeah, and that would be very disappointing, except…” I hold up the little waterproof package. “I’m kind of excited to see what’s in here.”

Aiden breaks into a grin to match mine. I hand him my keys, and he cuts away the rubber with the precise, careful movements of an archivist.

“Oh, my god,” he breathes, holding up our find.

It’s a pocket notebook, an exact match to the one we found in the evidence we burned at the beach with Calla.

Aiden starts to open it, and I immediately seize his wrist.

“Dude! You know that Kasey is gonna murder us if she finds out we cracked it open without her and Will. Like - she’s a ghost, yes, but believe me, she’ll find a way.”

“Ugh,” Aiden groans. “I’m dying to see what's-”

“I am too, but - c’mon, you know we’ve gotta wait.”

Aiden lets out another irritated little sound, but he clearly doesn’t feel like getting ghost-murdered, because he carefully wraps the notebook up again.

“Was that everything up there?”

“Mhm.”

“Alright, well - I checked out the back of the cave.” Aiden points into the darker depths behind us. “Looks like it used to go deeper, but there must have been a collapse. It’s blocked off with boulders, no way out. We’re gonna have to walk back on the water, just like how we came here.”

"Cool." I smile brightly up at Aiden. “It was nice, walking here with you.”

He touches the pad of his thumb to my chin, looking down at me with affectionate eyes. Then he nods towards the entrance and bends to start gathering up our finds.

I nibble my lip for a second, then blurt out what I'm thinking.

“Hey, um - high tide isn't for a while. We have some time, so - do you want to stay and explore a little more before we go?”

Aiden’s eyebrows lift all the way up.

“You want to stay, Keane? You were the one saying how terrifying this place was probably going to be.”

“Yeah, well…” I shrug, trying to think of how to put it. “Being here with you is different. It's hard not to feel safe around you. And your light - your magic - I don’t know how to explain it. But it makes things beautiful. It makes everything beautiful.”

Aiden's teasing expression drops away into something much more serious, but still radiant. He stares at me warmly, biting down on his smile.

He looks like he’s searching for the right words to answer me, but in the end, he just shakes his head, lets out a quiet laugh, and nods.

So much warmth in his laughter, in the way the corners of his eyes crinkle up, in the way he looks at me. All the warmth I could ever want.

He does so much more magic than he knows, this Guardian of mine.

Whether it’s Heliomancer magic or Aiden Callahan magic, the wonder never seems to wear off.