Dorian Wraith's Arc

Chapter 18 of 27

Beak opened his eyes and stepped back from the cot. He looked tired in a way his small body could barely hold. He motioned the blond man forward. "Your turn. Touch his forehead. I'll open the door." Evander knelt by the cot and pressed two fingers to Dorian's brow. Beak set his own hand over Evander's and spoke a short word. Evander's shoulders jerked once, and then his eyes went still and far away. Inside, Dorian stood in the same gray field. A blond man he did not know walked out of the mist toward him. "Who are you," Dorian said. It came out flat. The man stopped a careful distance away. "Evan. Evander. I don't have long, so I'll show you instead of tell you." He raised his hand the way Beak had, and the gray broke into blue. A wide pool spread between them, ringed by pale stone, steam curling off the surface. Two figures swam in it, both stripped down to speedos. Dorian watched himself surface, laughing, and pull the blond man against his chest. He watched them talk in the shallows about a father, about running, about staying. Then the memory-Dorian's hand hit the water wrong and the whole pool locked into ice around them, sudden and white. The memory-Evander did not flinch. He put his palm flat over the memory-Dorian's palm on the ice and said, "Slow. You know how to melt it. You taught yourself yesterday." The ice went soft. The water moved again. They stood chest to chest in the thaw, and the memory-Dorian said, "I love you," like he had been holding the words in his mouth for weeks. The blond man beside Dorian did not look at the memory. He looked at Dorian. "That was the first time you said it. I've kept it. In case you ever needed it back." Dorian felt the weight settle, heavier than Beak's had. The pool. The cold. The word love shaped in his own throat. He turned to the man beside him and the name arrived whole. "Evander." Evander's face broke. He caught Dorian's wrist hard, as if to make sure the grip was real. "Yeah. Yeah, it's me." The gray at the edges thinned to nothing. Dorian opened his eyes in the cabin. Evander was still holding his wrist. Beak sat slumped against the wall, watching, saying nothing. "I remember you," Dorian said. His voice cracked on it. "Not all of it. Enough." Evander pressed his forehead to Dorian's and did not answer. Beak wiped his face with the back of his hand and stood. "Callie next," he said. "Then we have all of him."