Folding the Sky

-43-

By the time he reached his sixteenth birthday, his kill count had already well surpassed one hundred, and as a reward he was allowed to go into town for one night and one night only. His parents had made sure he knew, however, that it would not end well for Aurora should he decide not to return.

He hadn't intended to stay out long anyway. The night air was gelid, even for him, and the wonder he might've once felt at the beauteous array of controlled chaos that was downtown Meathe had worn off on him like a tarnished piece of jewelry. There was nothing novel, nothing unique. Every environment was the same to him now, the nuances of the city reduced to merely its corners and backstreets, the shadows of its possible escape and entry routes. Every person was the same, too, just another pulse to be stopped. An hour into his stroll, he no longer knew why he'd even taken this reward in the first place.

Then he saw him. He was taller, and his hair was longer, rolling in deep curls upon his wide shoulders, which were shrouded in a heavy woolen coat. None of that mattered to Aldric, because he recognized him immediately. It was the slight lilting way he walked, leaning a bit to his left, and the way he set his jaw, like he was chewing on something even though he wasn't.

"Wil!" Aldric was calling his name before he could stop himself, before he could think it through. I'll tell him. I'll explain everything and it will be okay, and he'll understand, and then we will start over. "Wil, it's me!"

Wil turned, met Aldric's gaze over his shoulder. Aldric remembered thinking that he was stunning, alluring, like looking at a constellation captured in human form. Wil stopped, letting Aldric get close, though Aldric should've guessed by the unnerved furrow to his brow that something was wrong.

"Aldric," Wil had said, and this was the first blow: the coldness, the unfamiliarity, with which he said his name. "I thought you were...I thought you were gone. No one knew what happened to you."

"It's a long story. It's a really long story, Wil, but I can—"

"It's Wilhelm now," he said, clearing his throat. A rueful smile crept across his face, as sweet as it was painful. "We're not kids anymore, Aldric."

A rift opened up within him, something splintering, something pulling apart, the subtle yet undeniable sensation of destruction. "Wilhelm, I just—please. Can we get coffee, or something? Can we talk?"

Wil sighed, raising his watch. "I'm afraid I have a meeting at the university I need to get to."

Aldric swallowed. "I...oh."

Wil frowned for a moment. Then he stepped closer, his fingers snagging Aldric's sleeve, the way they used to when they were younger, just two boys searching through the undergrowth, cheeks ruddy and dirt caked beneath their fingernails. "I'm sorry," he said, dropping his voice to a whisper, so low that Aldric shuddered. "I tried to wait for you, Aldric. I gave it all I had, but it wasn't enough."

With that, he released Aldric's sleeve, melting once more into the crowd. For a while, Aldric stood blinking at him, watching his tall figure move beneath the golden streetlights until he was nothing but another human-shaped blur.

I tried to wait for you.

Maybe this was the curse forever on his head, though he hadn't realized it till now. He was always waiting, or being waited on. The time was never his to seize.

Aldric crashed back inside the warehouse, the door thwacking against the wall as he tossed it open. Jem, Kalindi, and Chike all looked up in alarm, but whatever questions they had died on their lips when they noted the look on his face. Let them stare. He was furious—with Zuri, with Sorin, with himself. There was no point in hiding it, even if he could.