Page 63 of The Unseen Hour

“Once you told me about your father, I understood why you wanted to get here so badly. I’ve just never asked for more details about your methods. I didn’t want to imagine you suffering. And now you say you figured the entire thing out based on a few scraps of writing? If all you had to go on was the word of a few papers, that must have been difficult for you. I’m graced with company as intelligent as she is intriguing.”

I gaped at him.

“You’re not going to ask about the Holmes aspect of the whole thing?”

“We’ll get to that in a moment. After all, we have plenty of time to talk. I assume you’re not going anywhere?” He smiled, eyes glinting.

He helped me over another, larger log, and I sucked in a breath as he released me, still feeling the places his hands had been.

“Not for several months yet. And if I did, we’d be going together.”

There was no point denying it, because I had already made up my mind that I wanted to stay with Orion. I hadn’t worked out how that would play out in Emrys, when we were subject to certain restrictions again, but I was hopeful the two of us could figure out something.

If he wanted to, of course.

And the sooner we accomplished what I’d initially come down here for, the more time we would have to discuss that.

Orion held back a branch so I could walk along the path easier.

“How did you figure out a way to get down here in the first place, and come up with the antidote idea?”

“It wasn’t easy. There were times where part of me was tempted to give up.”

“Not that you’d ever give in to such temptations,” he said, an amused half-smile on his face.

I gave him my own wry grin in return.

“Of course not. Stubborn to a fault, that’s me.”

“I would have said determined.”

I threw back my head and laughed.

“I like your version, I must admit. Truthfully, if I’d been caught, it would have been devastating. For my reputation—which I could have survived without. But I wouldn’t have wanted to shame my family. The Hipnosi daughter, running around town in her brother’s trousers and breaking into the library, what would people have made of such a thing?”

Orion scowled.

“Hearing you say it aloud highlights how ludicrous it is. While I wish you’d had the opportunity to put your investigative talents toward something less morose than finding your way to the Ether, it undoubtedly required skill. I ended up here by accident. You found a way here purposefully. I gave up on any hope of sending myself back, or ending the Unseen Hour, until Death showed up with a plan, but you came prepared to work for both goals. Even though we’ve been unsuccessful at locating your father, your resolve hasn’t wavered.”

He helped me through a tangle of thick branches. Tree hoppers filled the area around us with song, and I could hear the chittering of the grey squirrels as they clambered up the trunks of trees.

I sighed.

“You’re not completely right about me. My resolve has wavered. I miss my father, and he is the main reason I wanted to come. The longer I’m here, though, and after talking to you and Death, the more aware I am that the stakes are much larger than even my love for my family. Seeing the Shades day after day makes that fact impossible to ignore. Everyone in that Meadow was someone’s … someone. My main objective is the same, but with Death’s help I want to ensure no families suffer like ours again. That’s part of why I wanted to talk to you about your brother’s journal. Your family has suffered, too.”

“I won't argue with you on that front. I’m torn on how I feel about the journal. Not that I mind you reading it,” he rushed to assure me, “but I don’t want to feel responsible for your being stuck here.”

“Technically, your brother is responsible.” Although I could understand he still felt, as an older sibling, that he was at fault.

“Actually, Starlight, that diary was mine.”

CHAPTER 29

All the words I’d fallen in love with, and the man I’d fallen for. It had been Ry the entire time.

“Yours?” I took a step back. “But it said R. Holmes. Reginald? Remington?”

“Rion,” he supplied. “I wrote it.”