Chapter 58

 

RENEE AND I pretty much slept walked from the diner to our motel room and it was only when the next morning came that either of us stirred.

The phone in the room rang somewhere in the distance and Renee sent it clattering to the floor.

“Hello?” I opened my eyes at her groggy tone and stretched out my back with a yawn.

“What . . . no . . . we fell asleep. Are you okay?” She turned to look at me. Her hair jutted out at funny angles and made me chuckle.

“Ursula,” she whispered. “Her head is fine. They are all there safe.”

I frowned at the clock. “Don’t they keep people under observation for head injuries for a while?”

Renee rubbed her eyes. “They got back yesterday morning.” She sighed. “Aeron, we slept for a whole day.”

It went some way to explaining why my back was so cricked. “Are the kids okay?”

Renee repeated my question as I pulled myself up. I took a shower, happy to hear Renee’s tones in the background, her accent, the one I loved. She felt calmer, more open than she had since back in Oppidum. It felt good. It felt good to know the students were all okay.

I went searching for towels and found clothes. “She left us stuff,” I told Renee, peeking out of the bathroom.

New stuff. Cool.

“All the students are fine,” she said, smiling at me. “They are being given a thorough medical. Doctor Andrews is keeping them all under observation so you’ll be able to see them before they leave.”

She replaced the handset and rolled out of bed. I still had dirt in my ear as I cleaned it out with the towel. I peeked at Renee, still covered in layers of it. She’d be finding it for a while.

“Haven’t slept that well since my birthday,” she mumbled. Then she met my eyes, cleared her throat, and turned around.

I frowned. “What?”

She motioned to me, not looking.

I looked down at myself and shrugged. “What, it ain’t my fault they make towels for short people.”

She cleared her throat once more. “Yes . . . well . . .”

I cocked my head and laughed as she headed to the bathroom, her eyes shut in protest. “An’ there was me thinking you appreciated guns.”

A towel smacked me in the face.

 

AN HOUR LATER we got fed in the diner by the same waitress. While we waited for food, I stared at the keys I still had from our first visit.

I had on a leather jacket, jeans, boots, and a t-shirt so it was more than likely a bike. Renee had on a similar outfit, which made her look so cool that I couldn’t stop staring at her.

“Quit it, dimwit,” she shot at me with a smile.

“You rock bike clothes,” I mumbled, finishing off my food.

She pushed the crispy bits of bacon onto my plate. “You too but the purple is staying until it heals itself.”

I sighed. She knew me too well. “You think Kevin will be alright?”

Renee shrugged, leaning her good cheek on her fist. She ran her fingers over the cup in front of her. “I don’t know. Frei never said much about her life with Huber.”

“She kicked Jäger’s butt.” I smiled at Renee, the sun warmed her complexion, her eyes soft in the light. “I hope he’s in custody some place.”

“No trace of him or Harrison but you’ll be glad to know Owens is in custody.” She smiled at me with a dopey expression on her face.

I scowled. “Told you I didn’t like her.”

She squeezed my hand, her aura fuzzy and calm. “Good thing I trusted you then.”

I smiled. She had and it meant a lot.

“How come you got Jed involved in spying on her?” I was pleased he showed promise, albeit in being sneaky.

“I caught him spying on me. I taught him how to do it properly.” She smiled and I leaned on my fist. I’d seen how faded her aura had been in St. Jude’s and how much she’d struggled. There was energy in her eyes now, electricity, life. Her aura looked stronger, happier and I couldn’t help but enjoy soaking her in.

“Light show?” she asked with a smile that made her energy dance.

“Yeah, I missed seeing it. I kinda missed you.” I cleared my throat, feeling mushy. I focused on my food, trying not to get all misty eyed.

She squeezed my hand again. I got a flash of her watching me play on her birthday. “I missed you too.” 

When we’d eaten our fill, we headed out to the parking lot. Renee led me over to a large cruiser. The passenger seat behind was all decked out like a comfy armchair.

“At least she got something right,” Renee muttered, pulling two helmets from under the seat. “Guess it’s only fair as I got to fly.”

I checked the levels and ran through all the other checks to familiarize myself with the controls.

“You realize this is Ursula’s way of saying happy birthday to me, right?” Renee took a seat and relaxed into it. “Let’s go home. Mrs. Squirrel is going to love this seat to curl up on.”

I grinned. Explained why she hadn’t said anything to Renee before. More so, I liked that Renee thought of Nan’s cabin as home too. “Wonder how she’s getting on.”

I started the bike and drove us, a bit unsteadily at first, out onto the highway. I relished the simple joy of chauffeuring Renee back to Oppidum.

The sun was already high in the sky and the ride gave us some much needed breeze.

“Aeron, how did you know . . . I mean . . . how do you sift through all the feelings to figure out how to read people?” Her voice was crackly in the headset but it was her voice, her accent and that felt like treasure in itself.

 “It took time. I still can’t read what’s going on in your head.”

“Trust me, that’s a good thing.” She placed her hand on my shoulder. “You know I could feel Owens wasn’t right just like you said. Never once did she logically give me cause to doubt her, I just knew.”

I smiled. Renee not-so-Black-and-white. It felt good to hear her counting on the instincts inside.

“Your heart doesn’t need teaching, that’s why,” I said as we hit the open road. I hoped she could hear me over the crackling. I opened the throttle and Renee whooped in delight.

“The feelings were . . . are . . . they felt so accurate, so vivid.”

It felt good to hear her open up. “Your heart is your greatest ally, that’s what Nan always used to say to me.” Sometimes it weren’t the taught skills but the natural instinct that guided us to the truth. That was even more important when dealing with people who had a lot of things going on in their hearts and heads.

My heart always told me that Renee cared, no matter what, even when my head was too busy listening to the evidence presented. I needed to listen to it a lot more. Love never fails, I just needed to remember that.

“Maybe seeing things through your heart helps you see them in their truth. You can’t teach it, you just see it, you feel it.” I relaxed back. The bike felt like it had been made for me.

Renee hummed away to herself as we roared along toward home. “You mean who they are inside?”

I smiled. She was humming Moonlight Sonata. “Yeah, maybe truth is clearer to see with the untrained eye.”