Page 316 of Every Almost

"I want you to hear my name."

Charlie looked at her, confused. "Your name?"

"Mm hmm."

"Uh... Rey... as just proven, I already know your name."

"Yeah, but I want you to hear it."

"I don't understand."

Then Reyna moved her fingers from Charlie's jaw along her neck to the nape just behind. Charlie's eyes fell shut at the touch until she felt Reyna's fingers hit the spot where the Voxlink was embedded. Her eyes opened again, and Reyna was looking at her. Then, she felt Reyna press against an indentation on the Voxlink.

Suddenly, all the words in Reyna's room, the manuals on the desk and reports laid on the nightstand, blurred into symbols and marks that made absolutely no sense to her.

"What—"

But Reyna pressed a finger to Charlie's lips, silencing her. Very effectively, Charlie might add.

She stopped talking.

Reyna took her hand away from Charlie's mouth, then placed that hand on her chest. Just like she had the day Charlie landed in Borran's kitchen. Before the Voxlink. Before Charlie's whole life changed.

"You."

Reyna raised an eyebrow at her, which Charlie immediately took to meanshut the hell up.

Charlie nodded.

Reyna pressed her hand to her chest again.

And then she opened her mouth.

A sound unlike anything Charlie had ever heard in her life, a sound that she felt more than heard, came from Reyna as soft as a song. Charlie never realized that sounds could make you see colors, especially colors that created images you could only because of this sound, a key to visions unlike any other.

The sound reminded her of snow falling in a forest in deep winter, pristine and clear. But it also reminded her of the roaring water of a river mouth, pouring into the pools below. It sounded like a flower petal finding a voice at the same time that a lion roared with such fervor over its pride.

Charlie was captivated. Hell, she felt transformed.

She stared into Reyna's eyes and felt her world shift on its axis.

"That's you," Charlie whispered, knowing Reyna's Voxlink was still active.

Reyna nodded.

"That's your name. In Kaelari?"

Reyna nodded once more.

"Well, shit."

Reyna laughed, warm and settling, as she reached up Charlie's neck again and pressed against the Voxlink.

"God, your name is beautiful, Rey."

"Yeah?" Reyna asked, almost shy.

"Yeah," was all Charlie could say back.