Page 212 of Keldori By Daybreak

Liam grinned back at him from behind the glass, his arm around the shoulders of a slightly taller boy with darker hair. They both wore Von Leer University hoodies, and I recognized the main school hall of the campus behind them.

“Daithi.” Ciarán blinked several times in rapid succession, and his throat bobbed. “I didn’t think I’d see him again.”

“It’s called a photograph,” I offered. “We use cameras to take pictures and capture images exactly how they look to us.”

“Yeah, that sounds familiar.” He put the picture back on the wall and took the final steps into the living room.

Gray light filtered through a freshly renovated kitchen with white countertops, and a cozy living room boasted a well-worn couch, T.V., and another wall of photos. Ciarán pivoted slowly, taking in every foreign detail of his home.

“Do you remember any of it?” I prompted.

“No.” He looked down the darkened hall towards the bedrooms. “But do you feel that?”

“Feel what?”

He took a slow step down the hall, walking as if a single misstep might make the apartment disappear.

I prodded at the tether, trying to feel what it was he said he felt, but came up only with his own nauseating anxiety.

He stopped in front of a closed door, and I recognized it as his bedroom from the one time I’d been here.

Ciarán turned the knob and pushed inside.

Two twin beds pressed against opposite walls, and shelves bowed under the weight of books and knickknacks. Gray light pushed through the window above a writing desk, and I could see all the way to Gams’s shop through the rain.

Ciarán stood perfectly still in the middle of the room facing Riley’s bed. The cover was neatly made but had a cold, unslept-on quality. The bedside table was empty but for a glowing digital clock.

Liam’s side of the room was much more lived in. Books piled on the bedside table as if Liam had been meaning to get around to them. The bed, while as cold as Riley’s, had a t-shirt draped over the headboard and a crinkled to-do list on the pillow. The last item Liam had crossed off was “Pack for Von Leer”. A doodle of what I was pretty sure was Jonquil sat in the corner of the page.

The sound of a slamming drawer made me jump.

Ciarán stood over the desk with his hand pressed against the drawer, as if to contain some monster trying to fight its way out from inside. He’d gone pale, and a muscle in his jaw jumped with the force with which he gritted his teeth.

“What was that?” I asked

He shook his head in response but stepped back to make space for me at the desk.

I pulled the drawer open slowly, half-worried something might jump out at me. The light of the digital clock glinted off the glaze of nearly two dozen porcelain chickens.

My heart beat in my throat as I stared at the chickens. They were gifts from Gams, given to Liam over the years, and their Skal-imbued glaze had preserved Liam’s memories from day-to-day.

It was how she’d made it so non-Lucid Nightmares could exist normally in Keel Watch Harbor, and the last time Ciarán had held one, he’d regained Liam’s memories held in that chicken.

Now Liam’s complete collection sat in front of us. All of his memories were at Ciarán’s fingertips.

Ciarán reached around me to push the drawer closed. He wrapped his arm over my stomach and held me against him as we stared at the drawer together.

“Ciarán—”

“No,” he whispered. “I’m not ready.”

I didn’t understand, but I nodded anyway. I didn’t need Liam back for me. I wanted him back for Ciarán’s sake.

“I need to focus on whatever comes next,” he said, but it sounded like he was trying to convince himself more than me. “His memories might distract me or—”

He cut off and held me tighter.

“Or what?” I prompted.