Page 53 of The Unseen Hour

He tilted his head, flashing a grin at me. My heart stuttered.

“Glad I could do something for you, Starlight.”

“Thank you, Ry.” I waited to see what he would make of the new nickname. His face froze for a moment, then he laughed again. This time, his smile reached all the way up to his eyes, and the blue glinted within the grey.

“Ry and Starlight. A duo of would-be explorers who went farther than we ever anticipated,” he said.

When he said our names together, something thrilling and dangerous stirred in my chest.

CHAPTER 25

We’d spent two weeks watching and mingling with the Shades. I hadn’t seen my father, although I had come across a few vaguely familiar faces from Emrys.

It was disconcerting each time, and I could only imagine what Orion had gone through, watching the number of souls grow over the years. We’d started with more recent clusters of Shades first, so we hadn’t gotten anywhere near his siblings. I would follow his lead on how to deal with that situation.

I had tested Orion’s theories on interacting with the Shades. If I touched them and got their attention, I could ask them a question. Their responses were muted, and limited, but some of them did engage. Others were frustratingly silent. I’d found that trying to evoke strong emotions brought more reliable responses and heightened interaction.

“I’m sure you’ll see your son again someday,” I reassured a crying Shade whom I’d upset when I mentioned children being separated from their parents.

It hadn’t helped. The woman burst into tears and didn’t answer my questions about my father at all. I was thankful the Shade’s tears dried almost as soon as I stopped talking to her, and she went back to floating along with all the others, any signs of despair disappearing as her expression flattened once again.

“Any luck?” Orion asked as he joined me.

I shook my head.

“No. They barely speak to you at all before they get distracted. Some won’t even talk to me to begin with.” A few Shades stared right through me when I attempted to get their attention. “You?”

“I found someone from Mejje who said they had an Emrys-looking gentleman milling about. It wasn’t your father, though. He was far too portly to match your description, and the style of his clothing was nothing like you described. Or his eyes. Those were brown. Then I tried a section with Shades from several years back. I got a couple of reactions from people who knew your father, but no one that had seen him here.”

“You’re still doing much better than I am. I’ve upset several of the Shades, which I assure you was unintentional.”

I wasn’t trying to traumatize anyone.

Orion shrugged, and I watched the slight movement of his strong shoulders. I was back in my brother’s riding jacket today. When I wore Orion’s clothes, they were loose and baggy, but on him they were fitted and accentuated the muscles he’d gained fending for himself in the Ether.

“I’ve had a lot more years to practice, that’s all,” Orion said. “You’ve already figured out that eliciting those stronger, personal emotions livens them up a bit more. I’d had loads of frustrating one-sided conversations before I stumbled on that knowledge.”

“Have you spent a lot of time talking to the Shades?”

He’d said as much, but I hadn’t realized the amount of effort he’d put in. Of course he had. He’d had no one else down here. The Shades were his only option, even if they were duller than an old blade.

“I know a fair amount about some of these Shades. Not that they’re aware. They don’t really recall much from one short conversation to the next. I tried, though, for the first decade or so, to get them to engage. Since then, I’ve had some bouts in the ensuing years where I got lonely or frustrated enough with the isolation to try again. It’s easier as it gets nearer to the hour, since they’re livelier then. But it’s not a real friendship.”

He’d gone still, glaring at the nearest group of floating Shades. I was learning to watch his expressions, and the way they correlated to his moods. Remembering what he’d gone through in the Ether elicited an immediate frown.

I had all sorts of things I wanted to know, but I had tried to space out my questioning.

I didn’t want to cause Orion pain, any more than I wanted to hurt the Shades.

“Why don’t we take a break and eat something?” I suggested.

He uncrossed his arms, and I held out my hand. He took it without hesitation. We often walked like this. It kept me warm, and while I couldn’t say for certain, he looked more relaxed when we walked together.

The only drawback was that the contact was having increasingly strong results. I’d thought I would grow used to it. Instead, the more we touched, the more my mind wandered to questions like what his hands would feel like on other areas of my body. Whether the rest of his body would feel as warm, pressed against mine.

We stopped under a tree, and Orion rifled through a small bag we’d brought from the cottage. He pulled out a root vegetable that grew here. Deep purple, a bit like a potato, but soft without needing to be cooked. I bit into it eagerly.

Orion watched the Shades while we ate, and I decided to try a different tactic.