“Jamie.” Kasey waves her hand in front of my face, one dark eyebrow quirked up. “James. James Keane. Jamie.”

I blink at her, then give myself a shake. “Oh - I’m sorry, what? What were you saying?”

“I haven’t said anything for like, the last five minutes,” Kasey laughs. “You didn’t notice, huh?”

“Oh, god. I’m so sorry, Kase-face.” I sit up straighter against the wall of the Ghost Office, my cheeks burning. “I’m just - a little distracted, tonight.”

“You don’t say. I know, babe. I can tell.” Kasey is seated cross-legged next to me on one of the workbenches. She leans back into her palms, fixes me with a little grin. “And I know what you’re thinking about. That’s your Aiden face.”

I stare at her, taken aback. “My what?”

“You know,” Kasey giggles. “The huge dopey smile, the big love drunk eyes, the-”

“Okay, can we not?” I try to put my hand over her mouth, realize that won’t work, and stop with my fingers just short of the ghostly glow of her face. "Goddamnit."

“Ha!" She breaks into a triumphant smile. "Can’t shut me up now, can you?”

“Terrible discovery,” I say beneath my breath, then laugh when Kasey swats at my arm. “Anyways, I do not have an Aiden face, and you can’t read my mind.”

Kasey smirks at me. “Okay, so you weren’t thinking about Aiden?”

I nibble my lip, avoiding her eyes. “No, I was - just thinking ‘bout the, the - um - yeah, no. No.”

“I love to watch you try to lie,” Kasey sighs happily, leaning back on her palms. “Never gets old.”

I groan loudly, tipping my head back, and Kasey laughs again. She knows that she’s exactly right, as always. I was lost in thought, my mind completely with Aiden. I can’t help it.

The fire in my heart, the love I have for Aiden - it never stops burning, not for a second. But after the morning we had, it’s burning particularly bright. The flames of it sweep through me in vast, glowing waves, putting a stupid smile on my face.

Long after the talk we had in my bed this morning, Aiden was still emanating his golden light. Even after we got up to get ready for work, he was glowing. He was like a sunbeam, walking around my apartment.

It was like he was so happy that he wasn’t sure how to handle it. He was overflowing with energy.

He followed me into the kitchen, even though he wasn’t dressed yet. I sent him to my room to get some clothes on, and he kept coming back to me having only put on one more thing - just his pants, just his dress shirt, just his watch, one sock.

“Seriously?” I laughed, when I turned around to find him standing there again, blue eyes staring at me, a dreamy smile on his face. “Aiden! You have to go to work!”

He was like that with me no matter what I was doing, all morning. While I made a pot of coffee, Aiden prowled around the kitchen, stopping suddenly every now and then to gather me up into his arms and start kissing me. He kept coming back, no matter how many times I laughed and pushed him away.

His eyes were shining with radiant happiness, but he said almost nothing. He was very quiet, the way he gets when he’s having a hard time translating his thoughts into words. What little he said out loud, he kept very short, sticking to a maximum of two or three words per sentence. Come here, Keane. More. One more.

I think that Aiden has wanted me to know what our moment on the beach meant to him for a very long time.

I understand why. Knowing what I know now, my perspective on that day has changed completely.

Before, that memory made me so unhappy that I refused to even let myself think about it. I had always been focused on how it ended. The part where Aiden suddenly and harshly lashed out at me.

But now… the good part of that memory has become the center. The part where we sat together, talked, laughed. The part I spent with my Aiden.

One of my most horrible memories, converted into a cherished favorite. One I could float through for hours, reliving each detail. Now that day is special, deeply important to both me and Aiden. Because we both know what it meant.

Kasey is looking at me, smiling quietly.

“Sometimes I’m still not used to seeing you like this,” she tells me.

I let out a helpless laugh, dropping my face into my hands. “Sometimes I’m still not used to feeling like this.”

“And the fact that it’s because of Aiden Callahan.” Kasey shakes her head, wide-eyed. “I may never get used to that, either.”

“No, I know.”

“Because, in high school-”

“Yeah, believe me, I know.”

“And now you two are moving in together. With me. And my ghost boyfriend.” Kasey looks at me, arching an eyebrow. “Life is full of surprises, huh? Afterlife, too.”

“You sound like Floyd,” I tell her.

“I take that as a compliment.”

“Oh, man.” I match her grin, trying not to laugh. “He would lose his shit, if he heard you say that.”

“I believe it,” Kasey snickers. “I’m excited to check out his shop, when we get the battery working.”

“Yeah, about that - I was gonna update you on the case. We’re getting pretty close, I think. Unbelievably. How, actually? We’re so underqualified for this.”

“Teamwork,” Kasey says brightly, then puts a hand to her chest, trying to look pained. “And the guidance of the long-suffering Ghost Office manager. Wrangling you two dumb fucking humans.”

“Hey, we haven’t exploded anything lately,” I protest. “Or started any fires. Or flooded anywhere. Or had to burn evidence. Or broken into, like, too many buildings-”

“Oh, god. Okay.” Kasey hovers a hushing finger just over my mouth. “Enough with this list. And I’m sure the explosions and fires will start up again when we actually get a piece of the Tree to make into the battery.”

“True. We'll probably make some mistakes. Aiden’s never made a ghost battery before.” I rest my elbows on my knees, thoughtfully twisting the ring around my finger. “But he is a descendant of Ariana.”

Kasey tips her head to the side, puzzled. “So?”

“So, she was some kind of crazy-good magical inventor. She made the time-travel conduits, the expanding letters, the locket with the secret latch, the map…”

“Well - yeah,” Kasey says slowly, “But those were her skills. Isn’t it the power that gets handed down? Aiden is a Heliomancer. It’s different, Jamie.”

“Yeah, I know. But I see a lot of Ariana in Aiden. Her thoughtfulness, and creativity... Aiden has that. And she herself believed that he was going to be a talented Guardian. That he was going to do great things with his magic. She said so in her letter to him, and - she was right. He has, already.”

I can feel Kasey looking at me intently.

“I’m just saying, I have faith in Aiden.” I twist the ring around my finger again. “Nothing but faith in him.”

Kasey is silent for a long moment, her dark eyes shining with warmth. She can definitely hear how much I mean it.

I clear my throat, shrug my shoulders. “But, I mean. It could take a while to get the battery right. And do expect some explosions, along the way.”

“I always do, with you two,” Kasey laughs.

I laugh, too, then turn my head, hearing the sound of approaching footsteps near the front of the Ghost Office.

I had left the rolltop door pushed up, open to the river, to the deepening evening. Aiden steps in through it, accompanied by a gust of spring breeze, with Will right behind him.

I break into a smile, love welling up in my heart as I get an eyeful of Aiden.

His chestnut hair, all messy from the wind. The warmth of his bronze skin against the cool shadows of the Ghost Office. His work clothes beneath his jacket, the collar button already undone. Raindrops on the lenses of the glasses, and clinging to his stubble.

He and Will were talking, but he pauses when he sees me, his face lighting up.

My toes curl in my Converse.

Will stands behind Aiden, his leaf-green eyes on Kasey. She springs lightly down from the workbench and vanishes in midair. Will must have known exactly what she was going to do, because he opens his arms just in time for her to reappear within them.

Aiden comes right to me.

“Hi,” he murmurs, stopping before me, his blue eyes sweet and shy.

He’s smiling, but he’s clearly feeling a little bashful about having told me the truth about the beach.

I tip forward to kiss him. I take his stubbled jaw in my hands, let the cold raindrops on his face kiss my palms. Let the scent of vetiver kiss my nose. Let one chestnut strand, chilly with night air, tumble down to kiss my forehead as it touches Aiden’s.

“Hi,” I answer softly.

Aiden stares at me, then swallows hard, his blue eyes blinking quickly away. The smile on his face spreading, crinkling up the corners of his eyes.

“So, um,” he says gruffly, clearing his throat. “The Shelby’s back at the rental place. Noah wanted the fun of driving it there, so now we don’t have to. He dropped it off, went today with Raj and Mel.”

“Wow.” I lift my eyebrows at Aiden. “They got the keys away from him, then? Because I tried to do that, and he looked like he was seriously considering beating me up. Got the sense he didn’t want to give the car back.”

Aiden huffs out a laugh, slips his phone out of his pocket, and shows me the text conversation pulled up on the screen.

Raj 7:08 PM: Brother it was not easy, but we did it. I had to sit on Noah and hold him down on the floor while Mel pried the keys out of his hand. Whole ass scene at the rental place, people staring at us n shit, Noah was yelling, I was yelling - he tried to bite me!! Literally feral, I’m telling you

Raj 7:08 PM: I’m gonna marry that man.😊

“Oh, my god,” I laugh, and then - “Oh, no - that rental was under our names, Aiden!”

“I know.” He lets out a groan, then another laugh. “Well, at least Noah did what we asked. He didn’t lose us our deposit. He just got us permanently banned from the rental place, which - I guess we should have had the foresight to ask him not to do.”

“Yeah, that’s on us,” I laugh, and Aiden lets out a soft snicker, slipping his phone back into his pocket. “Guess it wouldn’t be Noah’s bachelor party if somebody didn’t get permanently banned from somewhere.”

“I know, I just didn’t expect it to be you and me,” Aiden answers, and I press my fingers to my mouth, trying not to laugh again.

Kasey and Will join us at the workbenches, opaque hands intertwined.

“Hey, there’s our code-cracking team,” I say loudly.

Aiden and I give them a round of applause, and the ghosts both grin widely. Kasey does a little curtsey, much to Will’s obvious delight.

“Got your brains powered back up after your marathon?” Aiden asks, leaning back against the workbench.

“I should hope so! We slept for several days, as I hear it.” Will turns to me, his green eyes apologetic. “We must ask your forgiveness for appropriating your bed, Jamie. We had no notion that we would be such long-term occupants.”

“Oh, you’re fine, man!” I flap a hand at him. “I slept at Aiden’s place the nights you guys were there. Where have you been sleeping since then, by the way?”

“Right there.” Kasey gestures over her shoulder at the loft. “Not ideal, but it’s just temporary, ‘til you guys find your new place with room for all of us.”

The mention of our new place makes me realize - Aiden said he was going to keep looking on his own, but he hasn’t said a word about it since then. Has he been too busy to start searching? We’ve definitely had a lot going on.

I open my mouth to ask Aiden about it, but he starts speaking before I can.

“Should we get down to the case?” He sets his work bag aside, pulls off his jacket. “We have a lot to fill you ghosts in on.”

“Yes,” Kasey says emphatically. “We have to get the battery made, so Will and I can go to the murder bookshop.”

“God, Will,” Aiden laughs. “You ready for the places that Kasey plans to take you?”

Will smooths an affectionate hand over her back. “Wherever my adventurous wraith wanders, I shall follow.”

She tips her head back and presses a kiss onto his jaw, then turns to me and Aiden, leaving Will beaming down at her.

“Okay,” she says briskly, in a voice that means we're getting down to business. “Report, please. You went to see that lawyer in Port Sitka, right? Finley? Did everything go smoothly?”

“Did he believe you as agents?” Will asks.

Aiden and I exchange a glance, both of us fighting down a laugh.

“Ah - yeah, he did.” Aiden shakes his head, biting his lip. “Poor bastard thought we were there to arrest him.”

Will and Kasey stare at us, taken aback.

“What?” Kasey laughs, pressing her fingers over her mouth. “How do you even know he thought that? No, wait, no - don’t tell me-”

“Yep,” Aiden confirms. “He ran.”

“He tried to jump out of a window to escape!” I blurt out. “Aiden had to catch him and drag him back inside!”

"For fuck's sake!" Kasey flings her hands up in the air, lets out an agonized noise. “I can’t send you two anywhere without causing a scene! Someone jumped out a fucking window?”

Aiden’s eyebrows knit together. “Like - not through the glass. It wasn’t a big deal.”

“It all worked out in the end,” I quickly reassure Kasey. “We had a good talk with Finley. I mean, he cried, but he had kind of a breakthrough, I think. Aiden and I helped him work through some stuff.”

“Yeah, he was nice,” Aiden agrees. “He gave us some soap.”

Will stares at us, and Kasey closes her eyes, puts her fingertips to her temples.

“Okay,” she says. “Just answer me this, please. Did you get new information?”

“Yeah, we did," I tell her. “We’re starting to get a clearer picture of what happened in Port Sitka around the time of John Botswick’s murder. We’re definitely missing some pieces, though, and - there’s a lot we have no explanation for.”

“But we’re getting there.” Kasey opens her eyes, which are suddenly glowing with excitement. “The closer we get to solving the case, the closer we get to finding the Tree, the closer we get to making the battery… soon enough we’re gonna have to start making travel plans, Will!”

“How grand." Will smiles warmly, gives a strand of Kasey's black hair a gentle tug. "Perhaps we should ask your advice, Aiden? Kasey tells me that you have traveled far and wide."

“Um - yeah, I have.” Aiden rubs his elbow, gives Will an apologetic look. “But I’m not the guy you want to go to for advice. I didn’t stay anywhere very long. Never really, like - got to know a place.” He pauses, then brightens up. “Oh, wait. I could give you some ideas for Berlin.”

“We're gonna take you up on that," Kasey informs him. “But for now, let's get to work on the case. Battery first, plans later. Tell us what happened with Finley. From the beginning, please.”

Aiden begins to fill in the ghosts on our last Port Sitka trip, and I fall silent. I'm thinking about what he just said, about the years he spent traveling.

He’s still never told me what he was doing, what he spent so long looking for.

There’s still so much I don’t know. So much that Aiden hasn’t told me, yet.

It’s incredibly hard for him to open up about these things, which makes those rare moments when he does - like this morning, when we talked about the beach - all the more precious and special to me.

I look at Aiden as he speaks, warmth and affection flowing through my heart. I know that he has to take his time, and I intend to let him have as much as he needs.

We’ll get there. I know that we’ll get there.