“What’s wrong with me?” he whispered.
Nelson leaned forward, kissing the back of his hand, lips dry and chapped. “You foolish man. You foolish, wonderful man. You’re floating because there’s nothing left holding you in place. But don’t worry. I’ve got you. I won’t let you float away. Unexpect it, Wallace, and trust that we have you.”
Apollo nosed Wallace’s ankle, licking frantically at the leash as if to make sure Wallace was still there. “I am,” Wallace whispered, his voice soft and dreamy. “I’m still here.”
He raised his head, and everything else fell away. Mei. Apollo. Nelson. The leash, the tea shop, the fact that he couldn’t feel the ground. All of it.
Because a man stood next to Hugo in front of the fireplace, head bowed. He was handsome, though his cheeks were sunken, his eyes red-rimmed as if he’d been crying recently. His light-colored hair hung down around his face. He wore a pair of jeans and a thick sweater, the sleeves hanging over the backs of his hands.
“Cameron?” Wallace asked, voice cracking.
Cameron lifted his head. His smile trembled. “Hello, Wallace.” He stepped away from Hugo, looking uncertain. A tear trickled down his cheek. “You … you found me.”
Wallace nodded dumbly.
And then he was being hugged within an inch of his life, Cameron’s face pressed against his stomach as Wallace rose into the air as far as the leash allowed. It was different than it’d been before. Gone were the flashes of the life once lived. Cameron wasn’t cold like he’d been. His skin was fever-hot, and his shoulders shook as he held on as tightly as he could. Wallace was helpless to do anything but put his hands in Cameron’s hair, holding on gently.
“Thank you,” Cameron whispered against his stomach. “Oh my god, thank you. Thank you. Thank you.”
“Yeah,” Wallace said roughly. “Yes. Of course.”
CHAPTER
21
The next day, Charon’s Crossing Tea and Treats didn’t open as it normally did. The windows were shuttered, lights off, a blind pulled down on the window to the front door. Those who came for their daily tea and pastries were disappointed to find the door locked, a sign in the window.
DEAR VALUED FRIENDS:
CHARON’S CROSSING WILL BE CLOSED FOR THE NEXT TWO DAYS DUE TO SOME MINOR RENOVATIONS.
WE LOOK FORWARD TO SERVING YOU AGAIN WHEN WE REOPEN!
HUGO & MEI
* * *
Wallace floated a few feet above the back deck, watching Apollo run through the tea plants, chasing a cadre of squirrels that didn’t know he was there. He laughed quietly when the dog tripped over his own feet, tumbling to the ground before picking himself up and tearing through the tea plants again. Wallace barely felt the leash tugging at his ankle, tied to the deck railing to keep him from floating away.
He looked down at the man standing next to him, Wallace’s knees at the same level as the man’s shoulders.
“I don’t really remember,” Cameron said, and Wallace wasn’t surprised. “What it was like being … a Husk. There are flashes, but I can barely make them out, much less remember them.”
“It’s probably for the best.” Wallace didn’t know what it’d do to a person to remember their time as a Husk. Nothing good.
“Two years,” Cameron whispered. “Hugo said it was over two years.”
“You can’t blame him. He didn’t know. He was told there was nothing that could be done when someone—”
“I don’t blame him,” Cameron said. Wallace believed him. “I made my own choice. He warned me what would happen if I left, but I couldn’t listen.”
“It didn’t help that the Reaper tried to force your hand,” Wallace said bitterly.
Cameron sighed. “Yeah, but that’s not Hugo’s fault. All he wants to do is help, and I wasn’t willing to let him. I was so angry at everything. I thought I’d found a way to make it stop. Everything I was feeling. It was a slap to the face when I realized it wasn’t over. It goes on and on. Do you know what that’s like?”
“I do.” Then, “Maybe not to the extent you mean, but I get it.”
Cameron glanced up at him. “You do, don’t you?”
“I think so. It’s a lot for anyone to realize that we go on, even when our hearts stop beating. That the pain of life still can follow us even through death. I don’t blame you for what happened. I don’t think anyone could. And you shouldn’t blame yourself. Learn from it. Grow from it, but don’t allow it to consume you again. Easier said than done, I know.”
“But look at you,” Cameron said. “You’re…”
Wallace laughed against the lump in his throat. “I know. But I don’t want you worrying about that. I think … I think you helped to teach me what I was supposed to learn.”
“Which was what?” Cameron asked.
Wallace looked toward the sky, tilting back until he was almost horizontal with the ground. Clouds passed by, fluffy white things with no real destination in mind. He raised his hands, backlit by the warm sun. “That we have to let go, no matter how scary it can be.”
“I’ve wasted so much time. Zach must be angry with me.”
“You’ll find out soon enough. Do you love him?”
“Yes.” It was said with such a tangible fierceness that Wallace could taste it in the back of his throat, the remnants of a fire that smoldered and sparked.
“And he loves you?”
Cameron laughed wetly. “Impossibly. I wasn’t the best person to be around, but he took the worst parts of me and dragged them out into the light.” He hung his head. “I’m scared, Wallace. What if it’s too late? What if I took too long?”
Wallace turned over in midair, looking down at Cameron. He didn’t cast a shadow. Neither of them did, but it didn’t matter. They were here. They were real. “What’re a couple of years in the face of eternity?”
Cameron sniffled. “You think so?”
“Yeah,” Wallace said. “I do.”
* * *
Time seemed to move in fits and starts for the rest of the day. Hugo spent most of it with Cameron. For a brief moment, Wallace was intensely jealous, but he let it go. Cameron needed Hugo more. Wallace had made his choice.
“What’s it like?” Mei asked him. They were in the kitchen, Mei moving back and forth between one of the ovens and the stove. Just because the shop was closed, she’d told him, didn’t mean the work stopped too.
“What?” The leash was tied around the bottom of the refrigerator, cinched tightly so that his feet brushed the ground.
She hesitated. “Hugo said you…” She motioned at her chest.
He shrugged. “It is what it is.”
“Wallace.”
“Untethered,” he said finally.
She took her hand in his, tugging gently so his feet bumped the floor. “I’ve got you.”
He smiled at her. “I know you do.”
“I won’t let you float away. You’re not a balloon.”
He laughed until he could barely breathe.
* * *
He didn’t know what they were planning.