“Are you okay, Aiden?” Kasey tilts her head back to peer up into his face. “Are you - sick, or something?”

Aiden’s distracted eyes glance off of Kasey, then do a double-take when he realizes that she’s waiting for a response from him.

“What?” He blinks at her, then gives himself a little shake. “No. Me? I’m fine. Why?”

Kasey narrows her dark eyes at him. “Because you look, um…”

I bite my lip, trying not to give too much away with my expression. I know exactly what Kasey is talking about.

Aiden just changed out of his work clothes, but somehow his jeans and henley are already all rumpled, as if he slept tossing and turning in them. His chestnut hair is a mess from his restless fingers pushing through it. He keeps stuffing his hands in his pockets, then taking them back out again, running his palm over his stubble.

And there’s a deep, burning glow in his eyes that hasn’t gone away since this morning.

Night has fallen, wrapping the Ghost Office in intimate darkness. Noah fixed the lights in here forever ago, but Aiden filled the big, airy room with fireflies before I could even reach for the light switch. He’s looking for ways to burn off some magic, I think.

He won’t let his eyes linger on me for more than a few seconds.

I can hardly look at him, either. I’m in no better shape than he is. The twin fires within us are blazing hot enough that it’s undeniably starting to show.

“I’m fine,” Aiden insists again, then gruffly clears his throat. “Can we just-?”

“Need you a visit to an apothecary, Aiden?” Will takes a closer look at him, his leaf-green eyes concerned. “If you’ve a fever, you might try opium to clear it up. Or some willow bark.”

“What-?” Aiden draws his head back sharply, then huffs out a startled laugh. “Opium?”

“It’ll set you right, that,” Will answers, with total confidence.

Kasey lets out a little laugh, gazing up at him affectionately. “Modern medicine isn’t one of the things I’ve had time to update Will on yet.”

As Will goes on making deeply questionable recommendations to Aiden, I turn my face towards the cool air flowing in through the open windows of the Ghost Office.

Focus, I tell myself desperately. Don’t let anyone see what’s going on.

“I know exactly what’s going on, just so you know,” Kasey whispers to me, a smirky grin on her face. “You two are so obvious.”

I blush instantly, which draws a snicker of knowing laughter from her.

“You have no room to talk, Kase-face,” I whisper back heatedly, speaking very fast. “You and Will were shut up in the Haunted House for days, remember?”

Kasey turns to look at Will with dreamy eyes.

“Fair,” she laughs softly. “I mean, yeah. Fair.”

“Yeah. So, proceed with the Ghost Office meeting, please.”

Kasey giggles at me one more time before she turns back to Will.

“-not sure I see what the concern is,” he’s saying to Aiden, looking faintly puzzled. “It’s quite popular to give a morphine elixir as a remedy, no? Even to babies. It’s how to soothe them to sleep.”

“Oh, okay,” Aiden says, wide-eyed. “Question for the resident historian. How did anyone survive to adulthood in the 1800s?”

“With tremendous difficulty.” Kasey plucks fondly at one of Will’s suspenders. “Wanna give them the info, boo? About the plan?”

“As you wish, my beauty.” Will smiles warmly down at her, then turns back to me and Aiden. “Before we begin our experiments with sharing ghostly energy to cross the boundaries of Ketterbridge, there is something from our last Ghost Office case that must be dealt with.”

“Our last case?” I blink at Will, caught by surprise. “You mean - your case?”

“Indeed. I’m referring to the matter of my pocket watch.”

Aiden and I both look down at Will’s golden watch. It’s a circle of shimmering brightness against the wood of the workbench, gleaming in the firefly glow. I’ve been so distracted, I didn’t even think about why Kasey asked me to take it out when we got here.

But now I have a feeling that I know where this is going.

Will’s watch was stolen from Aiden’s office shortly after we drew it out of the river. Kent found the watch in his mailbox the next morning and gave it back to us. We then took it to the Ghost Office, where we accidentally destroyed it, turned it into gold dust with Aiden’s magic. We had to use one of the time-travel conduits that Ariana made, go back in time, and steal the intact version from ourselves so that we could use it to summon Will.

That means Aiden and I must go back in time again at some point. Return the pocket watch to ourselves by placing it in Kent’s mailbox, completing the cycle. But we haven’t done that yet.

“You’re saying it’s time?” My eyes flit to Kasey, filled with surprise. “To give the watch back to ourselves?”

“We don’t need it anymore,” she explains. “Its purpose was to draw Will out of Ariana’s map with a corporeal form. We’ve done that.”

“You really don’t mind us taking it back to be destroyed, man?” Aiden looks at Will uncertainly. “Wasn’t it a gift from your father?”

“Yes, it was.” Will lets out a heavy, regretful sigh, staring down at the watch. “Would that I could personally hurl it into oblivion. Truly a shame that I must let others do it for me.”

This startles a laugh out of both me and Aiden. Aiden looks thoughtfully down at the pocket watch, picks it up, and turns it over in his fingers.

“We’re about to start experimenting with our ghostly abilities,” Kasey says, leaning back against Will. “And with some of Aiden’s powers. You two will successfully give the watch back to yourselves. We know that, since - you already did-”

“Time travel is weird,” I mutter.

“-but we should really get it out of the Ghost Office before Aiden explodes something, and we misplace the watch or the conduit-”

“I don’t always explode stuff!”

“-and make things much more difficult than they need to be,” Kasey finishes firmly.

Aiden and I exchange a sidelong glance, realizing that Kasey is right. As always.

Better to take care of this now. The longer we leave the watch and the conduit in a place full of magical happenings like the Ghost Office, the more likely there is to be an incident.

“Okay.” Aiden closes his fingers around the watch. “We’ll take care of it.”

Kasey gives him a thumbs up. “You’ve got the last conduit?”

“It’s here!” I set off down the row of workbenches. “We can do it right now.”

“Sweet!” Kasey smiles happily. “Get it done, and we’ll call it there for the day. We can start with the experiments later. I need you two, um - fully focused, for that.”

“We’re focused right now,” Aiden protests, and Kasey gives him a yeah okay kind of look.

I open up the lockbox on the workbench and take out the conduit, then pause to look down at it. The aged wood and complex symbols seem to gather up Aiden’s golden light. They almost seem to absorb it, to breathe it in.

I bring the conduit over and place it in Aiden’s hand. He holds it up to show Kasey and Will, who both give us an excited smile.

“We’ll leave you to it.” Kasey folds her fingers around Will’s. “See you tomorrow.”

Aiden arches an eyebrow at her. “Where are you guys going?”

“Back to our place.” Kasey casts a sly, lingering look at Will, then shrugs at me and Aiden. “You two are literally contagious, right now. So.”

Aiden and I stare at her, then both realize what she means at once.

“Oh, my god,” Aiden sputters, his cheeks reddening indignantly. “Are you s-?”

“Mhm, yep, I am.”

“What’s happening?” Will looks down at Kasey, confused but smiling. “Is-?”

Kasey vanishes. And she must have taken Will with her, because he’s gone, too.

“Really?” I tip my head back and let out an anguished groan. “Even the ghosts are getting down to it before we are!”

“Yeah, but - you realize what this means?” Aiden breaks into a bright, glowing smile, holding up the conduit. “We only have to work for five minutes, and then we’re done.”

I stare at Aiden, remembering all at once. The conduits can take us as far back in time as we need to go, but they only give us five minutes there.

“Five minutes.” I anxiously turn the ring around my finger. “Five minutes to do everything we need to do.”

“Right.” Aiden takes off the ghost glasses and his snapback, sets them on the workbenches. “But this time all we need to do is pop the watch into Kent’s mailbox.”

“True…” My eyes flit from the conduit back to Aiden’s face. “So it’ll only take five minutes. And then we can go home.”

Aiden nods at me, his head tilted slightly to one side. That hungry, blazing light shining out from his blue eyes flickers.

I bite down on my smile, then step closer to Aiden in the dusky glow of the fireflies.

“Let’s go,” I murmur softly.

Aiden catches a strand of my hair between his fingers, twists it gently. “Whenever you’re ready, Linden.”

“Really?” I blink up at him in surprise. “Just like that? We tried for hours with the first conduit before we got it to work.”

“Mhm, but I’ve gotten better since then.” Icy blue magic sparks, then flares to life in Aiden’s eyes. “And everything is easier once I’ve already done it before. So, if you’re ready-”

I make an impatient little noise, tugging on his henley. Aiden huffs out a soft, rumbling laugh. He slips the watch into his pocket, then threads his fingers through mine.

“Hold on tight, okay?” he murmurs, his soft-spoken voice stirring the quiet of the warm spring night. “Don’t let go of me.”

I close my eyes, bracing myself. “Never.”

The connection slowly eases open. I sense Aiden moving energy, guiding it slowly down to where the conduit is pressed between our intertwined hands. It pools in our palms, sparkling and bright, swirling and swelling.

The earth falls out from under my feet.

~~~~

Aiden and I land with a gasp on a sunlit street.

I nearly lose my footing when we hit the pavement. I save myself with Aiden’s hand, and he uses me to stay upright, too. We stagger into each other, out of breath and startled.

We both stare around at the quiet, empty street until our eyes land on the house before us.

“Aiden,” I whisper-laugh, shoving his arm. “You dropped us down right directly in front of Kent’s house? We’re lucky it’s so early, someone could have seen us!”

Aiden makes a sheepish face at me, blushing a little, rubbing his arm. “I didn’t mean to - it’s not an exact science, okay?”

I let out an affectionate laugh, leaning up to brush a kiss onto his mouth. “C’mon, where’s the watch?”

Aiden smiles, slips it from his pocket, and hands it to me. I open Kent’s mailbox, then stop for a moment, looking up at the house.

I can see one of the windows of Aiden’s old attic apartment from here.

“Aw, Aiden,” I murmur softly, staring up at it. “We’re up there, right now. Asleep in your bed. We’re crazy about each other, but - we haven’t even talked about it, yet.”

Aiden follows my gaze up to the window. He wraps his arms around me, bends to press a kiss onto my cheek.

“Wish I could go up there and give myself a hard shake,” he rumbles. “Be like - just fucking kiss him, dude, he wants you to!”

I let out a laugh, curling my fingers around Aiden’s arms. “No, don’t do that. I wouldn’t want to change anything that brought us to where we are now.”

“We can’t change anything about that, Jamie. Whatever we do here, we won’t change the way things happened. Because they already happened the way they did. Already brought us to where we are.”

“Good,” I say softly, running my fingertips over his stubble. “Perfect.”

Aiden doesn’t answer that, but I feel his heartbeat stumble before he gently lets me go.

He wanders up the path towards Kent’s house, checking to make sure no one is awake yet who might see us. I slip Will’s pocket watch into Kent’s mailbox, then close it up again.

“Well - that’s that.” I put my hands on my hips, watching Aiden. “Didn’t even take a full minute. What do we do now?”

“I’m not s-” Aiden breaks off abruptly, freezes where he is. “What…?”

I freeze, too, sensing magic moving around me.

“Jamie - do you feel like-?”

“Like we’re leaving?” I nod at Aiden, wide-eyed. “The conduit is taking us somewhere.”

“What? No. We should still have time, and I didn’t ask it to take us anywhere.”

I cast my mind around for an explanation. “Maybe… the conduit won’t let us waste any time?”

Aiden stares at me with obvious alarm. “What do you mean?”

“I mean - it might not let us stay at a certain point in time once we’ve done what we were supposed to do there. Maybe it’ll time-jump us twice, before it takes us back to the present? To two different moments in time?”

“Then where is it taking us right n-?” Aiden cuts himself off with a sharp gasp, feeling the same forceful pull of magic that I am. “Oh, shit-”

We stare at each other for a fraction of a second. Then I rush for Aiden, and he rushes for me. We reach out for each other, rising panic in both of our eyes.

“No, no - Aiden!”

I let out a gasp as the world disappears around us again. I close my eyes against the blinding brightness, trying to keep my fingers around Aiden’s.

But I had only barely caught hold of the very tips of his outreached fingers. He slips right out of my grasp.

Somehow I instantly know that the conduit is taking me somewhere, and Aiden somewhere else.

I fit a whole lot of thinking into a few frantic seconds.

When the five minutes are up, the conduit will take me back to the present. Wherever it’s taking me now, I’ll be there for four minutes. I trust Ariana to bring me back. I’m certain that she wouldn’t invent something that could potentially strand someone back in time.

And when we used the first conduit, Aiden only had to think of a place, not a time, in order to get us back to the present moment. The conduit will definitely bring us both back to the present once the clock runs down.

So - four minutes.

But where and when am I going to be for those four minutes? I’m without Aiden, so I have to try to choose on my own…

I can’t land on a concrete time or place. Not in the amount of time I have. I squeeze my eyes shut, then speak to the magic with all the force of my heart, hoping it will understand me.

Take me where I need to be.

~~~~

This time I land hard, lose my balance, and stagger backwards. I crash down into a bed of dry, crunchy leaves, then sit up on my elbows, gasping.

I scramble to my feet and look around wildly, struggling to catch my breath.

I… have no idea where I am. Or when I am.

I’m all alone, so far as I can tell. It’s dark, very late at night, but stars are blazing in the sky above me. My breaths puff into clouds of mist on the cold air.

I’m standing on grass, surrounded by autumn trees with golden and burnt orange canopies. But beyond the treetops are tall, illuminated buildings, glowing and glinting against the deep blackness of the sky. I can hear the distant murmur of people and cars in movement, even this late at night.

Am I - in a park? In a city?

I turn slowly on the spot, my eyes roving over the silent, shadowy park.

And then I stop still. I even stop breathing. I go perfectly, completely motionless.

I didn’t see him at first. He’s hidden in the shadows of the tree boughs, dappled with only the tiniest brush of moonlight. But there he is. Curled up on a faded sleeping bag with a flask in his hand, his eyes closed, and his head resting on his backpack.

Aiden.