I took in a deep breath, and… it wasn’t because I was bracing myself, or preparing to shout or give an order. It was just to breathe, and I felt like I’d been taking half-breaths so I could keep the other half of my lungs reserved for something else, without even realizing I was doing it. I felt almost dizzy in the present now.

I blinked a few times, to get the moisture out of my eyes.

To extrapolate from there, thinking about Kenzie, who Aiden was here to help… Sveta, Byron, Rain, and literally everyone and every fucking thing else…

Fuck, fuck, shit, damn.

But it wasn’t a feeling like it was attacking me, or pressing in on me. I didn’t feel like a pre-existing wedge was being hammered or a weak spot tested.

Those wedges were still there, the weak spots were still there.

Just… they were only there, in their spots.

All the other stuff. Fucking all of the other stuff, were in the spots they belonged.

“What the shit are we going to do?” I asked.

“Go back to the others?” Aiden asked. “I need to pick up Kenzie’s things.”

“Small steps first, huh?” I asked.

“Or big steps? Flying instead of stepping?” he asked. “I want to get back to Kenzie. She was acting really weird the last time I saw her.”

“If that’s your instinct, I think we should follow it,” I said. “We’re done here. Thank you for showing this to me.”

I took hold of him. I felt him tense.

“How urgent, do you think? The higher we fly, the faster we can get back to her.”

“I don’t like heights,” he told me. “But… I want to get back as fast as possible.”

Kid was a bit gallant, wasn’t he? I could see why they liked him.

“Keep your eyes closed,” I told him. “Trust me.”

“I can still sense the distances with my birds,” he said.

But he closed his eyes.

He was as stiff as a board as I flew up high enough that I could move at faster-than-running speeds.

“Was it worth the delay?” he asked, as we flew, his voice tight. I could feel his heartbeat drumming against my side.

I hesitated to answer. It was worth it to me, but… I still needed to figure out if it helped in the big picture, or if the fact it helped me would let me help more in the big picture.

“I think it might have. We’ll have to see. I think I understand what Tattletale meant when she said we’d find answers, but not necessarily what we’re looking for. Why she sent you on Imp’s behalf.”

“Yeah?”

“This? This entire landscape? It’s not about them, not really. It’s about us.”

“What do we do about them, then?” he asked.