IX
Lost and Found
He wasn’t able to find her until she led him to her with the sound of her voice, and the lyrics of her melody. They danced in the wind around him as he followed them to her street, her house, her window.
There, she lay on her side, her face toward the window. She must’ve fallen asleep as he followed the remnants of her song. Her breaths were even, but sometimes shaky, almost as if she’d been crying. Hard.
The words he spoke when he touched her were the exact match of her appearance.
Even in the dim light of the rainy sky, he could see her skin was soft to the touch and the color of light gold, with an olive tint to it. Her nose curved in an upward slant, a perky button of a nose to him. And her face, it was like an angel’s having a bad dream and can’t get out of it.
And when he looked at her lips, those rosy and full lips, he imagined what it would be like to taste them on his own.
Shaking out of his reverie, he continued to gaze at her troubled face. The occasional lowering of his eyebrows and pursing of his lips told him that she was not having sweet thoughts.
Unable to contain himself to the tree next to her window, he came closer, closer until his face was almost pressed up to the glass.
His fingers itched to touch her plait of lush, dark hair.
And her skin.
And her lips.
A latch closed the window he was looking through, one latch between him and her.
Jack palmed his hand on the glass, and immediately a sheen of frost swept over the panel. He willed the ice to go through the window and onto the latch until it was completely frosted over. Slowly, it turned with the force of the ice, until an almost inaudible click sounded.
For a minute, Jack thought that he must’ve woken the girl up, but no, she simply moved to lie on her back.
He slightly elbowed the window, and both panels moved out of his way. Jack floated into her room, and was taken aback by her scent.
Roses and lavender.
Breathing in deeply, he reveled in the exquisite combination that usually does not match, but with her, it did.
Closer and closer he floated to her sleeping form. Closer until his nose almost touched hers and his hands ached to feel any of her features. But he billow there, not touching her, just watching. Afraid that if he did touch her she would shatter and he would lose what he needed most.
What he loved most.
The thought pushed the breath out of him. He hadn’t loved anybody since he was mortal, and that was for his family. This love was different, new, alive.
His breath came back to him in a rush, and he sighed long and deep through his mouth.
Big mistake.
The girl’s eyes fluttered open, and though he was in his invisibility, she stared right at him, unaffected.
“She was right,” she said, her voice still groggy, but he could tell that it was the voice that sang the beautiful melody.