Rain dripped from grey skies. The steady droplets dappled the sidewalk and slicked the grass as Kendra stood, just out of their reach, on the porch. She loved how the rain sounded in her attic bedroom, but Seth was there sorting through his emergency kit, and when memories began to tug like this, Kendra preferred to be alone.
She stepped forward into open air, and looked up. Raindrops fell onto her upturned face, a little jarring, but not painful.
Do you ever look up at the rain, Kendra? It feels like the sky is falling.
For a while, she stood there, sometimes staring at the evening sky, sometimes closing her eyes to pretend there was nothing but her skin and the rain and the dark.
"Kendra?"
Kendra blinked and turned to see Bracken in the doorway. She didn't smile, but she felt the trace of one on her lips. "Hi."
"Hi." Bracken didn't quite smile either. The mouth was right, but his eyes were a bit squinted, brows ready to furrow at a moment's notice. "Just enjoying the rain?"
"Something like that," she said. "And thinking."
"Mind if I join you?" he asked.
"Not at all." She returned to the porch steps, where he gestured to with one hand, and sat close beside him.
This was Bracken's first visit to Fablehaven since restoring the shrine. There was no shortage of work to do on the Fairy Queen's new kingdom, but she had let her son slip away for a few days after almost a month of overseeing the project. He would have to return to her realm tomorrow.
It was hard to think of him leaving. There was plenty to do at Fablehaven as well, and with her whole family around her now, loneliness wasn't common. But Bracken was the first new person she'd been able to trust in a while. She had known him for only a small portion of her life and a mere sliver of his. He knew so many things, had so many stories, and so much of his long life he had spent alone in a cell. Now that the kingdom of light wasn't in immediate danger, Kendra felt like she had all the time in the world, yet it meant spending even less time getting to understand him, listen to him, just be with him.
"What were you thinking about?"
Kendra pulled her damp sweater sleeves over her fingers. The fabric looked speckled from the rain, which was coming down harder than before. At that point, she was glad to be back under the porch roof. "Just missing people. Whenever it rains here, it reminds me of Lena."
Bracken said nothing, only looked at her.
"And it's been so long since I saw Patton." She stared at a nearby puddle. "It hit me earlier that he's been dead more than half a century. Really, really gone. Not that I didn't already know that. But with the Chronometer and everything that happened last summer, it's so easy to forget. And now…"
Bracken's eyes strayed to the ground as he considered her words, then he nodded. "And now that Agad has the artifacts, you're forced to accept it."
She faced him. "It shouldn't be this hard. He was still dead when I first read his journals, and it didn't make me this sad then."
"Because you didn't know him then."
"Right. But… It's such a ridiculous problem to have. Maybe I'm close to the only one who's been able to go back in time and visit a dead friend, but I'm not the only one to wish I could. Everyone else deals with this somehow."
He raised his eyebrows. "You've faced more than your fair share of hardship. I think it's amazing how well you cope."
Her lips twitched upward for a moment, and then she breathed out through her nose in something of a sigh and laugh. Her eyes lost focus. "When my parents dropped us off here for the first time, just for two and-a-half weeks, I cried, and I marked the days on an old calendar I found in the attic." The smile was gone now. "I never really get used to people leaving."
It was quiet for a moment. Bracken put his arm around her shoulders. "Well, it's never certain, but the world has calmed. Your grandparents are healthy, your family is safe. I don't think anyone will be leaving soon."
She leaned into him, resting her head on his chest. "You're leaving."
His chest rose, then sagged underneath her head as he sighed. "I know. But not for long. And I'll always come back." Bracken's set his free hand on top of Kendra's between them. She grabbed hold of it, lacing their fingers together. Stars had appeared in the darkening sky. The patter of rainfall continued, and she sat there, content to feel him breathe next to her.
"What if Agad were to lend you the Chronometer again," he asked, "and let you use it one more time? Who would you visit?"
Kendra breathed deeply. "I don't know. I miss Lena. There's so much I wish I could tell her. But it might ruin things if she saw me before we knew each other. Sometimes, I still wish I could try." She shifted underneath his arm. "Maybe I'd visit you."
Bracken stared down at her, looking a bit surprised, and she met his gaze. "I could find you while you were at Living Mirage," she said, laughing. "Maybe we could play pinball together. I never got to see the dungeon rec center."
He laughed, too. "I doubt that would be much fun for you. I was an awfully boring prisoner, wandering crude, dark tunnels with my magic for a light." His shoulders straightened. "That reminds me, I have something for you." He let go of her hand to reach into a pocket, and Kendra sat up, curiosity piqued.
After a second or two, Bracken fished out a coin and cupped it in one palm, whispering a phrase too quiet for Kendra to make out. The coin shone, then dimmed.
"A communicator?" Kendra asked.
"Yes. Seth showed you how his worked?"
"Yeah," she nodded, mouth open a bit in pleased surprise.
"I may not be able to answer immediately every time," Bracken said. "Mother's realm is a busy place these days." He smiled and pressed the coin into her palm, taking her hand again. "But I will be listening."
Kendra leaned back into his shoulder, the smile on her face feeling just right. "Thank you. I'll be listening, too."