Second Look
By Laura Schiller
Based on: Stravaganza
Copyright: Mary Hoffman
"Blimey," said Matt Wood. "Has the party moved here?"
Ayesha's heart seemed to burst with relief as he sat up in bed next to her, his beryl-green eyes finally open after being closed for so long. She believed him now about stravagation; how could she not, after seeing people appear into thin air, Lucien Mulholland come back from the dead, and especially Jago Jones afflicted – and cured – of the evil eye?
Her first reaction to Jago's illness had been fear, followed by anger. It was deeply disturbing to realize that, instead of just ignoring her (which was bad enough), her boyfriend had gotten involved with some mysterious paranormal society, then cast a near-fatal curse on her ex just for being near her. She hadn't realized that Matt's insecurity and jealousy ran this deep. If her friends knew about this, they would probably warn her to stay well away from him. If he saw betrayal were none existed (Jago was arrogant, and she had no intention of going back to him), and nearly killed his imaginary rival, then who was to say Ayesha herself would be safe from Matt's power?
But seeing Matt turn pale with remorse as they poised the bowl on Jago's forehead in the hospital; listening to his stammered explanation and repentance ("I didn't mean for it to be this bad, didn't even know what I was doing") and watching the way his Stravagante friends all rallied around him later on, when he didn't come back from the other dimension, had changed her mind about him once again.
She looked around at this strange group of people Matt had fallen in with: Georgia and Nick, inseparable, loyal as horses to Matt as well as each other; Lucien, uncanny and foreign, but deeply human in his feelings for his mother and friends; even the bizarrely accented Mr. Dethridge, keeping a fatherly arm around Lucien's shoulders for support, both disoriented (jetlagged?) by dimensional travel. All of them here for Matt, to guard him and protect him. If this was a cult, all things considered, there were much worse cults for him to join.
She turned to Matt himself, and what she saw took her breath away. He had always been attractive, with his rugby player's build and those startling green eyes, but she was used to seeing him hunch over as if to make himself smaller, keeping his eyes to the ground, awkward and embarrassed at taking up so much space. Today, however, she saw a new sureness in the way he held himself, a brightness in his face as he smiled back at her. He looked deeply relieved to be awake, but more than that; whatever he had just accomplished in Talia during that long sleep, Ayesha could see at a glance that he was proud of it.
This was not the insecure, bitter boy who had cursed Jago. This was a man with confidence, the man she had always known he could be.
"I'm so glad you're awake," she said. "Took you long enough, through. C'mere."
To the beaming smiles and silent cheers of the Stravaganti (for the Wood family's benefit), Ayesha Siddiqi threw her arms around her lover and kissed him as if she would never let go.