Gabriel ran a hand through his dark hair. He glanced toward the bed, where his wife sat cross-legged with a book.

  Ryn was wearing one of his old concert T-shirts. That one they attended before their relationship had a name. The faded cotton hung comfortably over her cool, dark brown skin. Her dark hair was only recently done into a series of shoulder-length two-strand twists.

  Gabriel hadn't said much since returning from Caden's first training session. Hadn't sat down. Hadn't even removed his boots.

  Ryn said something. Maybe his name. Maybe something else. He didn't process it. His circuit continued. Four steps, turn, four steps. The metronome of boots on hardwood was almost as comforting as the motion itself.

  “Gabriel.”

  The tone was firm. Different from how most people pronounced it. More “ah” than “ay”. 2 syllables instead of 3. Dangerously familiar.

  Gabriel stopped and looked at her. “?Qué?”

  “You're going to wear a hole in the floor, honey.”

  Gabriel took a deep breath in place of a reply. The silver strands near Ryn's temple caught the light as she exhaled.

  "Is he dead?" she asked pointedly.

  "No,” he admitted.

  "Did Sadie think he was dying?"

  "No.”

  Ryn closed her book gently. "Then either come to bed and pretend to relax or go pace somewhere I can't hear."

  Gabriel's hazel eyes caught her brown eyes for a moment before nodding and pulling his shoes off. She exchanged the book for a bonnet.

  "I'm leaving my phone on, mi neblina. In case Sadie needs help with him," he warned her as he slipped in beside her.

  "Wouldn't expect anything else," Ryn said softly. They adjusted against each other with a familiar ease. She wrapped her arms around his middle and pulled him close, resting her cheek on his shoulder. He softened just enough for her to notice, but the tension stayed wound tight beneath Ryn's touch. She didn't ask what happened. She must have heard him call for Sadie. That would be enough to know something had gone wrong in training.

  Her breathing eventually slowed. Even. Asleep. He let his breath match hers for a while. Her grip was loose enough for him to slide out, but he waited instead. He lay still for a long time. His back was warm against Ryn's chest, her breath against his shoulder as he drifted in and out.

  He checked his phone. No response. He'd texted Sadie a couple of hours ago, but the message still sat unread. Gabriel stared at the screen for a moment longer before he slipped free.

  Gabriel stood there for a moment, watching as Ryn stirred enough to roll over. Her face was softer in sleep. He wished he could let go enough to stay, but the storm inside him wasn't ready to quiet.

  He tucked his phone into his pocket and stepped out into the hall. He closed the door behind him as softly as he could. Light from the hallway spilled into Caden's room as he opened the door.

  Caden lay on the bed, still under multiple thick blankets. The color was mostly back in the young rookie's face. He wore a small smile, different from his usual cocky one.

  Beside him, Sadie sat in a chair she'd dragged close to the bed. Her head was resting on the edge of the mattress. She looked far from comfortable. Her posture was a mess.

  Her hand was in Caden's, fingers fitting together like puzzle pieces. Both were breathing evenly. Asleep.

  He thought vaguely about the things he should be feeling– protective, annoyed– but what he noticed was his chest loosening. Relief, maybe.

  He shut the door and turned back down the hall. Maybe now he could let himself sleep.

  ****

  It was somewhere between late and early. The sun wouldn't be out for another hour or two.

  Caden wasn't tired. His staff was slid out into a cane, tipped with a marshmallow-like end. He adjusted the sleeves of his hoodie for the third time, trying to ignore the way the air clung to him wrong. Not cold exactly. Just odd.

  He told himself it was about building the same kind of familiarity he had when he lived in Tess's apartment. But if he was being honest, he needed the grounding, needed the silence. He didn't want to still be in the room if Sadie realized she'd been sleeping with her hand in his. He wasn't sure what that meant, and he definitely wasn't sure what she would think it meant.

  Flirting came easy to him. It was familiar and safe. But that… holding her hand had felt scarily real.

  He couldn't remember exactly when it happened. Maybe it was when her fingertips brushed his in his restless sleep. Or when his cold fingers half-consciously curled around her warm ones. Either way, once their hands were tangled together, it felt too…nice to pull away.

  If he let himself think about it too long, he'd have to admit to himself that maybe he didn't just want attention anymore. It felt safer to slip out before the spell broke.

  He didn't like the chill that had settled under his skin, either. Like his body was still running a few degrees behind. He thought maybe the movement would shake it off.

  He tried to put his focus on what his cane was telling him about the terrain, where the grass and the paths were, where the hills and the holes were.

  A new warmth appeared in his senses. Human shaped, though the temperature was as feverish as his tended to be.

  Caden turned towards the figure, gripping his cane a little tighter despite the stiffness in his fingers. "You know, sneaking up on someone is kinda rude."

  Silence. Then:

  "If they still noticed me, was I really sneaking?" A woman's voice. Alto. Laced with dry amusement.

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  Caden focused. The voice came from several feet away, near the tree line.

  "You say that like it was my fault for having functioning ears. Who are you anyway?"

  There was a pause. Not the dramatic kind. Thoughtful, like she had to consider whether he was worth the answer. "Grace."

  Caden tilted his head. "Just Grace?"

  "Would a dramatic codename make this more fun for you?" she asked, voice tinged with sarcasm. "How about the Green-Eyed Monster?"

  Green eyes. Like Sadie had mentioned both Josie and the intruder having.

  Caden let out a small, amused breath. "Nah. I think I prefer 'Grace'."

  She stepped forward a few paces. That was when Caden caught the scent. It was sharp, clean, but sour. Like the lemon peel and vinegar mix his nana used to clean with.

  "You're new here," she observed. "Who are you?"

  "Caden. Are you Josie's sister?"

  Grace went still. There was a subtle drop in her heat signature before it recovered.

  He took that as confirmation. "I heard about her." His voice softened. "I'm sorry. That she disappeared, I mean."

  Grace scoffed. "No, you're not. You don't even know her."

  That caught Caden off guard. "I didn't mean-"

  "You meant to sound kind," she cut in. "But kindness without any weight behind it is just noise."

  "I don't know why you're here," he tried again, "but if you're looking for her-"

  "I'm not," Grace interrupted anyway. "I know exactly where she is."

  Caden blinked, thrown off by that. Before he could ask, she sighed.

  “Josie is fine. But if you're going to interrogate me, at least let me ask you something first.”

  Caden nodded.

  "Are you loyal to them yet?"

  Caden hesitated. "I guess?"

  "Hm." She didn't seem angry. If anything, she seemed like she expected that answer.

  He closed his eyes in thought, feeling like he said the wrong thing somehow. "That doesn't mean I can't keep a secret from them though. Why are you out here?”

  Grace didn't answer right away. He felt as if she was reading not just what he said, but what he didn't say too.

  "You hesitated," she said eventually. "When I asked about loyalty."

  Caden gave a faint laugh. "I just joined. Of course I hesitated."

  "So who is it?" She continued. "You're not loyal to all of them yet...but you are to someone."

  He didn't say anything, just shifted his weight between his feet.

  "Is it the healer?" Grace poked. "Or should I catalogue you as a potential homewrecker?"

  He only sighed in response.

  "She's cute, isn't she?" Grace teased. "What was it that caught your attention, Caden? Did she patch you up after battle yet?”

  "She... she keeps giving everything to everyone else. She made it seem like she doesn't even try to heal herself."

  There was something raw and unpolished in Caden's voice. "I guess… I thought if she wasn't going to look out for herself, someone should."

  Grace's posture shifted. Intrigued.

  "I didn't join the team just because of her," Caden added quickly. "But for her to be limping, hurting, but still trying to take care of me? It kind of stuck.

  "I didn't want to put more weight on her shoulders. But I was. Am. Last night I tried to use my own body heat to create fire."

  “You're studying pyromancy?”

  Caden nodded. "Ended up getting hurt and making her worry even more. Sadie stayed up making sure I was okay. She could've just left me to sleep it off, but… she didn't."

  "And… I woke up a few minutes ago holding her hand."

  Grace snorted. "Romantic." Her tone was flat. Teasing, but not cruel.

  "It wasn't like that," he muttered. "I mean, not intentionally. I passed out and at some point I must've… I don't know. Reached for her in my sleep."

  He ran a hand through his sleep-messy hair, frustrated. "She was exhausted, and I was just lying there, taking up her time and worrying her and... I didn't even realize until I woke up and she was still slumped over in her chair with her fingers curled around mine."

  "And that made you feel guilty," Grace stated, not asked, it.

  "I don't have the right to want that," he said, voice low. "Not when I'm the reason she was up all night."

  Grace studied him for a moment. "You don't think you deserve her."

  He let out a breath. "Not think. I know I don't. Most dangerous is that temptation that doth goad us on to sin in loving virtue."

  Grace snorted softly. "Doth?"

  "I like Shakespeare," he muttered, rubbing the back of his neck.

  Grace tilted her head to the side. "All this melodrama," she teased, "over some hand holding?"

  "Hey, it was very meaningful hand holding! Anyway… You never answered why you're out here.”

  "Because I want to be. Are you going to tell them you talked to me?"

  "Not if you don't want me to."

  Grace laughed humorlessly. "I'll test your secret keeping skills then. And I'll keep yours too. Consider it mutually assured destruction."

  "This is about the artifact, isn't it?" Caden guessed.

  "So they told you about that too."

  He shrugged. "Only that Gabriel thinks you're looking for it."

  Grace let out an amused exhale. "Of course he would. He thinks the entire world wants that dumb thing."

  Caden shifted on his feet, still unsure what to make of her. "What does it even do?"

  "They say it's the key to balancing chaos and order. But that's not why I wanted it.”

  “Wanted? Past tense?”

  “Yes. I wanted it for my… we'll call her my boss. But I don't work for her anymore. So it doesn't matter.”

  Caden hesitated. "Is that why you're out here? You're out of work?”

  "I'm not out of work. I just moved on from that employer. As for why I'm here… this is a safe spot. The only problem is that those idiots keep trying to talk to me. You'd think they'd have realized by now that they can't hear me.”

  Caden felt a shift. Something sharp was peeking out from her carefully guarded mask.

  “They can't hear you?”

  Grace continued on without answering his question. “They should just run me off. I'm a security risk.”

  "For what it's worth,” Caden said, “I don't think you're as bad as you're trying to seem.”

  Grace was silent for a long moment. She started to take a few steps away, but paused.

  "Your teeth are chattering," she stated neutrally.

  "I'm fine," Caden said, though he crossed his arms a little tighter over his chest.

  Grace didn't argue. "There's an entrance behind the greenhouse. North side.”

  Caden blinked. "Why are you telling me that?"

  "Because if you freeze to death trying to get to the main entrance, who will I talk to? Here, follow me.”

  She led him to a door. If she heard the muffled tapping of his cane, she didn't acknowledge it. When they arrived at the door, she turned to leave.

  "Wait," Caden said. "That's it? You're just leaving?"

  Grace glanced over her shoulder. "For now."

  He frowned. "You're not gonna try to, like, fight me or something?"

  "Why? So you can tell them the ghost attacked Gabriel's new golden boy?" She shook her head. "Please. I'm not an idiot."

  "I mean… It would be a cool story. Getting attacked by a ghost," Caden mused.

  Grace took another step back into the shadows, the effect spoiled somewhat by Caden's ability to sense her body heat. "Nice meeting you, new guy. Good luck."

  Caden exhaled the breath he didn't realize he was holding, unsure of what had just happened.

  Caden slid his cane back inwards before he opened the door. He didn't know the base well enough as it was, and it was disorienting entering from that side. He quickly got lost. He had wandered for what couldn't have been more than 10 minutes when he heard a familiar voice.

  "Do I need to tie you to the bed?!"

  Caden blinked for a second, caught off-guard, before his usual cocky grin slid back into place. "Didn't realize that you were into that kind of thing."

  Sadie made a small sound of frustration and looked away, her posture going stiff. Her whole body seemed to light up in his sensing. She tried to stutter out a reply, which only emboldened Caden further.

  "I mean, I do like dominant women," he continued. "So if that's what-"

  Caden was interrupted by his phone buzzing.

  "Bed. Now," Sadie finally found her words, grabbing him gently by the arm. She led him back to his room as she spoke. "And if you get out again for anything less than necessity, I'll send Uncle Gabriel in to watch you tonight instead."

  "That's fine," he mumbled distractedly as he climbed back into the bed, not absorbing her words. "I just need to text my sister first."

  Caden picked a few messages to listen to.

  You forget about our call?

  Did you join a cult? What's going on over there?

  Seriously, call me. I'm about to report you missing.

  He mumbled a response, barely coherent as he instructed his phone assistant to text Tess.

  I fainted my bad

  The phone buzzed with her reply almost instantly, but he was already too far gone, slumping against the pillows with his phone still clutched in his hand. The last thing he heard before drifting off was the message:

  you better call me in the morning