Chapter 35: A Room With an Open Door
The journey to Ace's room was not supposed to be much of a journey at all.
It was only a few rooms down the hall.
A short walk. A simple mission. Leave Rebecca's bedroom, turn in the correct direction, pass the room nobody wanted to talk about, and arrive at the first guest room without getting distracted.
That should have been easy.
Unfortunately, Kairo and Rebecca were five and six years old, both of them had strange powers, neither one of them had finished getting ready, and Kairo was still wearing bright yellow duck pajamas that made every serious moment in his life slightly harder to respect.
Before Rebecca could leave, she needed to fix her hair.
Her long auburn hair had become a wild mess during their sleep, spreading over her shoulders, down her back, and across half her face. Kairo had learned far more about her hair than he ever wanted after waking up with several strands in his mouth, so he watched from a safe distance as Rebecca stood in front of her mirror and began gathering it behind her head.
He briefly wondered whether she needed help.
Then he realized he had no idea how to help.
Kairo understood how to reverse the age of damaged objects. He could slow time around a falling cup. He knew several basic fencing positions, could identify a faulty temporal regulator from sound alone, and had recently become capable of running across walls.
None of those skills taught him how to tie long hair.
Rebecca gathered the thick strands with both hands, smoothed the worst tangles with her fingers, and looped a dark band around the bundle. The first attempt came loose.
She made a quiet annoyed noise.
The second held.
A few shorter strands remained around her face, but she looked satisfied enough.
Kairo gave her a respectful nod. "You did that all by yourself."
Rebecca looked at him through the mirror. "I always do."
"I was prepared to offer moral support."
"You were standing there."
He shrugged at her. "That was the support."
Rebecca rolled her eyes, but the edge of her mouth moved with the beginning of a smile.
While she checked the tie, Kairo reached beneath the collar of his pajamas and pulled Aurielis's golden watch away from his neck. The fine chain had twisted during sleep and now rested awkwardly against his skin. One of the links had rubbed the side of his neck enough to leave a faint red line.
He frowned as he untangled it.
"This thing is trying to saw my head off."
Aurielis gave a soft metallic hum against his fingers. "Oh, yes. A delicate gold chain is finally making its move. After years of waiting, jewelry has chosen violence."
"It is chafing."
"You spent three hours being used as a heated pillow by a psychic bat child. I do not think the chain is your biggest problem."
Rebecca looked over immediately.
Her eyes settled on the watch.
She remembered the dream. She remembered Aurielis's voice, her answers, and the strange way she had existed inside a space built from both children's sleeping minds. More importantly, Rebecca remembered how she had heard Aurielis.
Through Kairo.
The connection had been clear in the dream because everything there had been connected, but now they were awake again. The walls were real. The hallway waited outside. Aurielis's voice had returned to its usual place inside Kairo's head, beyond Rebecca's normal hearing unless she reached for it.
Rebecca rarely used her psychic abilities on purpose.
Most of the time, they used her.
Thoughts slipped into her awareness because people stood too close. Emotions brushed against her because someone was frightened, angry, or hiding something. She had spent much of her life learning how to push those things away.
This time, she reached.
She focused on Kairo.
Her mind extended toward him carefully, not with the uncontrolled force that had once dragged voices into her head, but with the same cautious feeling as putting one hand against a closed door to see whether it might open.
Kairo felt it at once.
The world did not change, but something deep inside him did.
A sudden, powerful awareness moved through his body. It felt like being watched from the inside, though not in a cruel or invasive way. It was closer to being completely recognized before he had decided what parts of himself he was ready to show.
Warmth spread through his chest.
A tingling current moved into his arms and hands.
Static prickled at the back of his head, around his temples, and behind his eyes. For one brief moment, he had the impossible feeling that Rebecca stood beside him and somewhere inside him at the same time.
Rebecca felt the contact from her side.
The moment her mind touched his, a wave of déjà vu rolled through her. Kairo's thoughts felt familiar, more familiar than they should have after knowing him for such a short time. She had the strange sensation of returning to a room she had never entered, remembering the shape of furniture she had never seen.
His mind was calm. Not empty. Not silent but Alive.
Thoughts moved through it in deep, steady currents. Some belonged to the present. His irritated awareness of the chain. The softness of his pajamas. The smell of dinner beginning to rise through the mansion. Other impressions sat deeper, blurred behind doors that Rebecca instinctively knew she should not open.
Older memories.
Another life.
A hospital room.
A clock showing 11:59.
A fear of running out of time.
Rebecca pulled back from those images before she could understand them.
Aurielis appeared between them before the connection could deepen.
Her voice came sharply into both children's minds, clear enough to make Rebecca's eyes widen and Kairo wince.
"All right. That is enough."
Kairo looked down at the watch. "I am literally doing nothing."
"That is not entirely true."
"I was fixing your chain."
"And your friend was trying to climb through your mind to say hello."
Rebecca's cheeks warmed. "I was not climbing."
Aurielis answered with the patience of someone choosing her words carefully. "You were doing something very close to climbing, sweetheart."
"I just wanted to hear you."
"And now you can. Mission accomplished."
The link remained open, but only slightly. Aurielis placed herself between the deeper parts of their thoughts, creating a gentle wall that did not break the connection so much as stop it from growing further.
She felt the shape of it.
Stable.
Natural.
Far too strong.
These were children. Strange children, powerful children, children whose abilities had already touched one another several times under extreme circumstances, but children all the same. The bond between them had begun forming before either understood what it meant.
Aurielis had seen psychic links between soldiers, magical partners, twins, lovers, masters and students, and beings who shared pieces of the same soul.
This did not match any single category.
It was still small, but its roots reached frighteningly deep.
"You two need to slow down," Aurielis said. Her teasing tone softened into something more serious. "The connection is stable. That is good. It is not hurting either of you. But you are both too young to start digging deeper into each other's minds."
Kairo pointed at Rebecca. "Again, she did it."
Rebecca frowned at him. "You did it first."
"When?"
"In the car."
Kairo stared.
Aurielis made a pleased sound. "She is correct."
Kairo's face folded into confusion. "What did I do in the car?"
"You touched her hand when she was overwhelmed."
"I was being nice."
"Yes," Aurielis said. "You were being nice. You were also instinctively opening your mind and allowing your temporal field to settle around hers."
"I did not know that."
"That is why I said instinctively."
Rebecca looked at Kairo. Through the shallow link, she felt his genuine confusion.
In the limousine on the way to the zoo, she had been surrounded by noise. Engines, voices, passing cars, heartbeats, thoughts. Then Kairo placed his hand over hers, and everything softened.
At the time, she had thought he was only calming her.
Now she understood that he had opened a door.
Kairo continued defending himself. "I did not open any door. I held her hand."
"In psychic matters," Aurielis replied, "those can be the same thing."
"That sounds poorly designed."
"Take it up with the architecture of the soul."
"I will."
"I believe you."
Rebecca started to speak. She had seen something inside him, a flash of a room, a clock, and a life that did not fit his age. Before she could ask, Aurielis interrupted.
"Ace," the angel reminded them. "The girl you both wanted to check on before this turned into an unsupervised psychic experiment."
Rebecca closed her mouth.
Kairo carefully straightened Aurielis's chain and placed it back around his neck. The watch settled against his chest, no longer twisted.
"Thank you," he muttered.
"You are welcome."
"That was for stopping the chafing. Not the lecture."
"I accept gratitude in all forms."
Rebecca went to the side of her bed and slid her feet into a pair of soft black house shoes. Small purple bats had been stitched across the tops. After testing the heel of one, she dropped to her knees and crawled beneath the bed.
Kairo watched her legs disappear.
He waited.
A muffled sound came from underneath, followed by something being pushed aside.
"What are you doing?"
"Looking."
"For what?"
"My earmuffs."
"You keep them under your bed?"
"I keep some under my bed."
"How many do you have?"
Rebecca did not answer.
A large storage box emerged first.
Then Rebecca.
She pulled the box into the open and lifted its lid.
Kairo stared.
The entire container was filled with earmuffs and protective headphones.
Some were large and heavily padded for outside use. Others were thin enough to wear around the house. Several had little bats on the sides. One pair was bright green. Another had black cat ears attached to the top. There were travel cases, backup sets, and what appeared to be earmuffs designed for formal clothing.
Kairo looked at Rebecca.
Rebecca looked at the box.
"You own a box of ears."
"They are earmuffs."
"A whole box."
"My hearing is complicated."
"I understand that. I am simply impressed by the amount."
Rebecca selected a smaller pair with dark grey padding. They were designed for indoor use, reducing background noise without completely blocking nearby voices. She placed them carefully over her ears and adjusted the band.
Kairo waited beside the door. He did not complain, nor did he rush her.
Aurielis noticed. "Oh, look at you," she said inside both children's minds. "Standing there patiently like a tiny gentleman."
Kairo folded his arms. "I am always a gentleman."
Rebecca walked toward him.
Aurielis replied, "You called a moon gullible less than ten minutes ago."
He shrugged, "That's because the moon was gullible."
Rebecca reached him and took his hand.
Kairo looked down at their joined hands. Then up at her. He gave one experimental shake. Rebecca's grip did not loosen. He tried again. Nothing.
"You can let go now."
"No."
"You are wearing the earmuffs."
"I know."
"You do not need my hand to calm your hearing."
"I know."
Kairo pulled gently.
Rebecca held on with the grip strength of a grown man who had spent years working with tools.
"My fingers need blood."
"They have blood."
"You do not know that."
"I can hear your heartbeat."
"That does not tell you about my fingers."
Rebecca opened the bedroom door and stepped into the hall, taking Kairo with her.
He looked down at her hand around his.
"Personal space is important."
She kept walking.
"I read that in a book."
No reaction.
"It was a very respected book."
Rebecca pulled him farther into the hallway.
Kairo sighed at Aurielis. "Do something."
"You appear safe."
"I am being kidnapped."
"You are going three rooms down."
Kairo, getting a little depressed, said, "Kidnapping is about principle."
The hallway outside Rebecca's room was wide and softly lit. Afternoon sunlight slipped through tall windows at the far end, warming the polished floor and turning the dark wooden trim a rich brown. The Langstrom mansion did not have the same cathedral-like scale as the Wakati estate, but it was still a home built by old money, scientific success, and generations of people who had needed more rooms than any family could reasonably use.
The smell of dinner drifted up the staircase.
Roasted vegetables. Butter. Warm bread. Something savory with onions, herbs, and pepper. Kairo stopped. Rebecca continued. Their connected hands stretched between them until she stopped too.
Kairo turned slowly toward the stairs. "One of the perks of having a bedroom near the stairs and kitchen," he said, inhaling deeply, "is that you get early warning when food is ready."
Rebecca nodded. "Grandpa's cooks make too much."
"That is not a flaw."
"They say dinner is not ready."
"How do you know?"
"I can hear them."
He nodded at that. "What are they making?"
Rebecca listened for a few seconds. "Chicken. Potatoes. Something with mushrooms. Bread."
Kairo's pajama-covered feet moved one small step toward the staircase. Rebecca pulled him backward. "We are going to Ace."
"I was only looking."
"You were moving."
"I can look with my feet."
She shook her head. "No."
Kairo sighed and 'allowed' himself to be dragged farther down the hall.
They passed several closed doors. A linen room. A sitting room that had been converted into a quiet study. A bedroom belonging to a relative who rarely visited.
Then they reached one particular door.
The brass nameplate remained polished despite the room being unused.
DR. KIRK LANGSTROM.
Rebecca slowed.
Kairo did too.
Neither child said anything.
The shared psychic link had weakened beneath Aurielis's control, but it was still enough for one thought to form between them.
We should look inside.
Kairo was not sure whether the thought had come from Rebecca.
Rebecca was not sure whether it had come from Kairo.
Their eyes moved toward the doorknob at the same time.
The door was closed. Possibly locked and for sure at least Definitely interesting.
Kairo imagined old research notes, scientific equipment, family photographs, and answers Rebecca had never been given. Rebecca imagined the same, along with pieces of her father that might explain why the adults spoke his name with sadness and fear.
Aurielis felt the thought.
"No."
Neither child had spoken.
Kairo looked down at the watch. "We did not do anything."
"You both thought very loudly."
Rebecca looked at the door one more time.
"Later," she whispered. Kairo nodded. "Later."
Aurielis groaned. "That was not the lesson." They moved on.
The first guest room waited near the end of the hall. Its door had been left slightly open, enough for a narrow line of light to stretch across the floor.
Rebecca pushed it wider.
The room beyond was large, comfortable, and carefully neutral. It had been designed to welcome guests without making any one visitor feel as though they had entered someone else's personal space.
A queen-sized bed rested against the far wall beneath a soft grey headboard. Clean white sheets lay beneath a dark blue comforter, most of which had been pushed aside. Two nightstands stood on either side of the bed, each holding a lamp, a glass coaster, and a small drawer.
An empty bookshelf occupied one wall, except for a few old novels, a vase, and a framed photograph of the Langstrom gardens in winter. A dresser stood opposite the bed, its polished top holding a mirror and a shallow decorative bowl for keys or jewelry.
Near the window was a small writing desk with a padded chair. The curtains were half open, allowing late afternoon light into the room without making it too bright. An armchair sat near the corner beside a floor lamp and a folded throw blanket.
The room also had a large closet, its doors closed, and a private bathroom beyond a second doorway. Kairo could see pale tile, a glass shower, part of a deep bathtub, and neatly folded towels.
A small sofa rested along the inner wall, decorated with two plain throw pillows. Beneath it lay a soft rug in muted shades of blue and cream.
Everything was clean and Everything was ready.
Very little belonged to Ace.
Not yet.
There were only three things in the room that truly mattered. The first was Ace herself.
She lay curled into a tight ball on the bed, facing the door. Her knees had been drawn close to her chest, and both arms rested near her face. Most of the comforter had been kicked away. Only a thin sheet covered part of her legs and waist.
Her face looked peaceful.
That alone made Kairo stop.
The first time he had seen Ace clearly, she had been dying. Her skin had looked grey beneath the sunlight. Pain had been built into every breath, every movement, and every pulse of psychic force.
Now she slept without tension around her eyes. Her breathing was slow. Her face was soft. For a moment, she looked younger than she had at the zoo. Kairo studied her position. "Do people naturally sleep like that?"
Rebecca stared at Ace. "I was going to ask you."
Kairo's scientific mind activated before he had decided whether this was a question worth answering.
"It is called the fetal position," he whispered. "It is one of the most common sleeping positions. People pull their knees toward the chest and curl inward."
Rebecca looked at him. "Why?"
"There are several possible reasons. It reduces the amount of body exposed to cold air, so it can help hold warmth. It also protects important organs and makes the body smaller."
Aurielis spoke gently from the watch. "It feels safe."
Kairo nodded. "That too."
Rebecca looked back at Ace.
Kairo continued more quietly. "It can also help with certain kinds of back pain and pressure. The position might make breathing easier for some people, depending on how tightly they curl."
Aurielis added, "But bodies do not always curl because of temperature or pain. Sometimes people make themselves small because they learned that small things attract less attention."
Rebecca's hand tightened around Kairo's.
Aurielis's voice remained warm.
"It can be self-comfort. The body remembers being held before the mind can remember anything else. When someone has spent a long time afraid, alone, or watched, curling inward may feel like building a little wall around the soft parts."
Kairo looked at Ace's arms near her face.
"Physical and emotional reasons can happen together," he said. "It is not always one or the other."
"Exactly," Aurielis replied. "People are complicated. A sleeping position is not a magical answer to a person's whole life. She may be cold. She may like sleeping that way. She may feel safer curled up. She may be healing."
Rebecca watched Ace's peaceful breathing.
"She looks safe."
"For now," Aurielis said. Kairo nodded. "That is good enough for sleeping."
The second important thing in the room sat on the armchair. Ace's costume.
The black-and-white clothing had been folded as carefully as anyone could manage after a disaster. The fabric still carried signs of the zoo. Dirt marked the lower edges. One seam had torn near the side. There were traces of dried grass, dust, and faint discoloration from blood that someone had tried to clean.
The outfit looked small without Ace inside it.
Less like the clothing of a psychic threat and More like a uniform someone had placed on a child and then forgotten to remove.
Rebecca finally released Kairo's hand and walked toward it. Kairo rubbed his fingers. "Freedom at last."
Aurielis laughed softly. "You survived."
"Yes, but it was a close call."
Rebecca ignored them, lifting part of the costume carefully between two fingers. She examined the fabric, the cards worked into the design, and the stiff collar.
The third important thing rested over the back of a nearby chair.
The Mad Hatter's jacket. It had clearly been cleaned, but it still looked unmistakably like something Jervis Tetch would wear. The blazer was brown beneath a bold striped pattern in blue and green. Decorative ribbons hung from one shoulder. A peacock feather had been tucked near the collar, its colors catching the light.
Beneath the jacket sat a folded red vest.
A small note had been placed on top.
Ace had not opened it yet.
The jacket did not belong in the quiet guest room. It brought a piece of Jervis's madness with it, though something about the way it had been folded and left behind made it feel less threatening.
A gift and maybe A goodbye. A promise from a man going back to a cell who did not know when he would see her again.
Rebecca touched the sleeve. "He gave this to her."
Kairo looked toward Ace. "Probably."
"Do you think she misses him?"
He shurgged. "Yes."
Rebecca turned. "He helped attack us."
"I know."
"He controlled everyone."
"I know."
"He is bad."
Kairo considered that. "He did bad things."
"That is what I said."
"It is a little different."
Rebecca frowned. "How?"
Kairo looked at the colorful jacket.
"He might be bad. But he was also kind to her when other people were worse."
Rebecca's expression remained uncertain.
Aurielis spoke before the disagreement could grow. "Both things can be true. Someone can love you and still hurt others. Someone can make you feel safe while making the world unsafe. Love does not clean every bad thing a person does."
Kairo nodded. "That."
Rebecca looked at the jacket again. Then at Ace. She set the sleeve down carefully. Rebecca's head tilted. Her super hearing reached through the quiet room.
Ace's breathing was controlled. Too controlled. The rhythm had changed the moment the door opened. Rebecca walked closer to the bed. Kairo followed more slowly. Rebecca stopped a few feet away. "You are awake."
Kairo looked at her. Ace did not move.
Rebecca continued, her voice gentler than usual. "We only came to talk. Dinner is almost ready downstairs. You can come with us if you want. Or you can eat in here alone. Nobody will make you come down."
Kairo was surprised.
Rebecca was blunt with almost everyone. She spoke in short statements and rarely softened herself for the comfort of others. Yet with Ace, she understood exactly what needed to be said.
You have a choice. You can stay. You can leave.
No one is going to drag you anywhere.
Ace's eyes opened. Slowly. Calmly.
The first person she saw was Kairo.
He stood near the bed in his bright duck pajamas, golden watch resting against his chest, silver-white hair partly hidden beneath the hood. He looked rested now, but his face still carried the softness of a five-year-old trying very hard to appear responsible.
Ace stared at him.
Several emotions crossed her face in quick, faint flashes. Recognition. Confusion. Fear. Relief. Something deeper that she did not yet have a name for.
Kairo shifted beneath the attention.
Ace pushed herself upright, drawing her knees slightly closer as she sat. Her eyes moved from Kairo to Rebecca.
Then to Jervis's jacket. Her expression softened at the sight of it.
She gave both children a weak smile and pulled her legs free of the thin sheet.
Silence settled over the room. A very heavy silence.
Rebecca did not know what to say now that Ace had actually responded.
Kairo had expected Rebecca to keep talking.
Ace had no idea what was expected from her. The two psychics could feel one another.
Rebecca's mind was sharp, young, and guarded beneath layers of sound. Ace's was much larger, older, and newly quiet after years of constant pain. Neither girl reached toward the other.
Their last true psychic contact had ended with a transformed bat creature crashing into a mental barrier while Ace's brain slowly tore itself apart.
Neither wanted to repeat that introduction.
Ace did notice something else. A new psychic presence. It was Small, Weak and Budding.
It came from Kairo.
Not a natural telepathic power, at least not in the same way as hers or Rebecca's. His awareness existed because a connection had formed around him. Rebecca's mind had touched his and left a door partly open. Aurielis occupied the deeper center, creating a warm golden boundary.
Ace found the structure fascinating.
She also found Kairo himself impossible to ignore.
Aurielis felt the silence becoming unbearable. "Say something nice," she told Kairo privately.
Kairo looked down at the watch. Rebecca heard her through the shallow link. Her eyes moved toward Kairo. Ace noticed Rebecca looking and turned toward him too.
Kairo found himself watched by two psychic girls.
He panicked. "Good morning."
Rebecca glanced toward the window.
Kairo corrected himself. "Afternoon."
He paused. "It is almost five, so maybe evening."
Ace watched him. Kairo's mind emptied of every useful sentence he had ever learned. "Ace," he said at last, "your smile brightens the day better than the sun."
Rebecca looked at him. Aurielis became completely silent. Kairo continued because stopping now felt worse. "And I like your hair. It is super cool. Nice pajamas too."
Ace looked down at herself.
She wore a simple dark shirt and soft grey pajama trousers that one of the doctors had provided before exhaustion pulled her into sleep. They were comfortable, plain, and several sizes away from anything she had worn as Ace of the Royal Flush Gang.
She looked back at Kairo. He gave her two small finger guns.
Ace stared. Then she said, "Thank you." Her voice was rough from sleep.
Kairo lowered his hands and looked at Rebecca as if asking whether he had done well. Rebecca gave him a slow, uncertain nod.
Ace continued studying him. She knew him. That was the frightening part. She knew his name. Kairo Victor Fugate Wakati.
She knew he disliked geese. She knew he liked warm food and quiet rooms. She knew he was embarrassed by the duck pajamas even while part of him liked that Beryl had made them for him.
She knew pieces of his previous life. A different world. A hospital. A death that should have ended him. A soul caught by time and placed into another beginning.
Ace did not understand reincarnation. Not fully. She only knew that his mind contained shadows older than his body.
More than that, she knew he had saved her.
The knowledge did not come from memory alone. She felt it in the deepest part of herself. Somewhere beneath her thoughts, beneath her powers, beneath flesh and blood, Kairo's life had become tied to hers.
Their heartbeats moved together. Not merely at the same rhythm.
In agreement.
His clock had fed hers. The red thread remained.
Ace understood with the strange certainty psychic beings sometimes carried that if Kairo died, the part of his life holding her together might collapse with him.
But as long as he lived, her own clock would keep moving.
She did not know whether that meant she was immortal beside him. She did not know whether it meant she had borrowed only years.
She only knew she was alive because this small boy in duck pajamas had reached into a place no one else could touch and decided she deserved more time.
Ace wanted to ask him why. She wanted to ask what he had done. She wanted to ask whether he regretted it.
Instead, she stared.
Kairo shifted again and made a small face toward Rebecca.
Ace almost smiled. Her body felt different. The pain was gone.
For years, her powers had begun with pressure. A twisting sensation deep behind her eyes. A needle of heat through the center of her skull. Then came the psychic force, tearing outward through channels that had never been meant to hold so much.
Now there was no pain. She could feel her abilities resting inside her, calm and responsive. They were no longer chains wrapped around her mind. They were hers. Ace slowly lifted one hand. The others watched. She turned her palm toward the blank wall nearest the bathroom. Power moved. There was no scream inside her head. No tightening around the aneurysm. No burning beneath her eyes. The white paint rippled. Color spilled across it.
Blue first. Then gold. Then deep red and green.
Shapes formed with impossible speed. A long table appeared, covered in teacups, cakes, flowers, and crooked plates. Alice sat at its center in a blue dress, looking surprised and amused. Beside her, the Mad Hatter leaned forward in his enormous hat, caught halfway through telling a story.
The March Hare appeared.
The Dormouse slept inside a teapot.
Cards danced near the edges of the scene.
The painting spread across the wall in rich, layered detail. Every face held expression. Every cup reflected the light in the room. Tiny threads could be seen in Alice's dress. Steam rose from the tea, though there was no actual heat.
It looked as though ten gifted artists had spent months working together.
Ace had created it in seconds. She lowered her hand. Then laughed.
At first, the sound was small. Disbelieving.
She touched the side of her head. "It did not hurt." Her laugh grew.
She looked at the painting, then at her fingers. "It did not hurt." Years of fear cracked open.
Ace laughed harder, not because anything was funny, but because joy had found nowhere else to go. Tears gathered at the corners of her eyes. She raised her hand again and changed the color of one teacup simply because she could.
No pain. No blood. No pressure. "It does not hurt," she repeated, her voice breaking around the words.
Kairo stared at her. He had never seen someone so happy about the absence of pain.
That thought hurt more than he expected.
Rebecca's face opened into the largest smile Kairo had seen from her. "That is one of the coolest things I have ever seen."
Ace turned toward the voice. The sudden attention pulled her out of the moment. Her hand dropped and Both palms flew to her face. The color across her pale cheeks became bright red. "I am sorry."
Rebecca frowned. "Why?"
"I changed the wall."
"So?"
Ace lowered her hands just enough to look at her. "I did not ask."
Rebecca shrugged. "It is your room."
Ace's hands slowly fell. "My room?"
"You can do whatever you want with the wall. Grandpa can repaint it if you leave."
The happiness on Ace's face became uncertain. She looked at Rebecca more directly. "You are Rebecca, right?"
Rebecca nodded. "Rebecca Langstrom."
Ace's eyebrows lifted. "Langstrom?"
Rebecca pointed at herself. "Yes."
Ace remembered the transformed creature at the zoo. The wings. The scream. The giant bat. Ace nodded to herself. "That makes sense."
Rebecca narrowed her eyes. "What does that mean?"
Ace blushed at that. "Nothing bad."
Kairo stepped closer. "It made sense to me too."
Rebecca looked at him.
He immediately changed direction. "Ace, this is Rebecca, which you know now. I am Kairo, which you probably also know because psychic things."
Rebecca pointed at him anyway. "That is Kairo Wakati. He is five. He is weird, but mostly safe."
He gave her a look. "That introduction was very rude."
Rebecca continued over him. "You are in one of my grandfather's guest rooms at our house in Cranston Estates." Ace went pale. "Cranston Estates?"
"Yes."
"The Cranston Estates?"
Kairo nodded. "Yup, Very rich people. Very large houses. Too many gates."
Ace looked toward the window as though she expected to see security forces standing beyond it.
Rebecca pointed toward the bed. "This room is yours."
Ace's expression froze. "What?"
"For as long as you want."
Ace looked around again. The clean bed to The dresser and then to The empty shelves. The strange painting she had placed on the wall.
Jervis's jacket. "This is not my room."
"It can be."
"Why?"
Rebecca walked toward the nightstand. Two envelopes rested beside the lamp. One was thick cream paper with ABRAHAM LANGSTROM written neatly across the front. The other was black and unmarked except for a small bat symbol pressed into the seal.
Rebecca pointed. "My grandfather wrote one. Batman wrote the other."
Ace became even paler. "Batman knows I am here?"
Kairo crossed the room toward the small refrigerator beneath the desk. He opened it and looked inside. To see things like Water, Juice and A few snacks. He selected a cold bottle of water.
Behind him, Rebecca answered. "Yes."
Ace stared at the black envelope.
"What do they say?"
"I did not read them."
"You could have."
"That would be rude."
Kairo looked over his shoulder. "She reads minds accidentally, but letters are where she draws the line."
Rebecca ignored him. "My grandfather took you in," she said. "He wants you to stay if you want to. You should talk to him because he explains things too much, but he usually answers questions."
Ace looked at Abraham's letter.
"Why would Abraham Langstrom help me?"
Rebecca shrugged. "He likes helping people when he stops pretending he does not."
Kairo walked back and offered Ace the bottle.
She accepted it carefully.
The cold surface rested against her palm.
Ace looked up at him. "And you."
Kairo waited.
"Why could you save me?"
He thought about Death and the red thread and the clock inside Ace. He thought about the pain that moved through his chest when he gave away part of his time. "I am still figuring that out."
"Why did you save me?"
Kairo shrugged. "The world needs more goths."
Ace stared.
Rebecca nodded seriously. "That is true."
Ace looked down at her plain pajamas. "Am I a goth?"
Kairo studied her. "You have the emotional history."
Rebecca added, "And the color choices."
Ace's mouth moved with the beginning of another smile. She had never been allowed to choose what she was. Cadmus had called her a subject. Joker had called her Ace. The Royal Flush Gang called her family when they needed her power. Jervis had called her child, queen, and friend, depending on which part of his mind was closest to the surface.
Nobody had ever asked whether she wanted to be goth. Or anything else.
Rebecca sat on the edge of the bed beside her, leaving enough space that Ace did not feel trapped.
"You should read the letters," she said. "Then talk to Grandpa. Ask him anything."
Ace looked at her. "And if I do not want to stay?"
"Then you can leave."
Ace's face tightened in disbelief.
Rebecca understood. "This is not a prison."
The words rested inside the room. Ace looked toward the door.
It remained open; no guards stood outside, and no restraints had been attached to the bed.
No cameras watched from the corners, at least none she could feel. No headband pressed against her skull.
Kairo leaned against the desk. "People might worry if you disappear because Batman gets dramatic and my grandfather does not like losing track of powerful children. But nobody is going to lock the door."
Aurielis muttered inside the link, "Excellent reassurance."
"I am being honest."
Rebecca patted Ace's leg once, gently enough to avoid startling her. "Dinner is downstairs. You can come if you want. If not, somebody will bring food up."
Ace looked at the water bottle in her hands. Then at the letters. She had so many questions that they felt like another kind of noise.
Why had Batman written to her?
Why did Abraham Langstrom want her here?
Where was Jervis?
What had happened after she collapsed?
What exactly had Kairo placed inside her?
Would Cadmus come? Would this family hand her over if the government asked?
Could she truly walk out of the house?
She nodded slowly. "I will read them."
Kairo reached toward the nightstand, picked up the television remote, and tossed it gently onto the bed beside her. Ace caught it through instinct and a tiny flicker of psychic force. The remote stopped in the air before touching her hand. She looked at it. Still no pain. Her smile returned.
Kairo nodded toward the large television mounted on the opposite wall.
"So," he said, "are you more of a Netflix person or a Hulu person?"
Ace looked at the remote. Then the television. "I do not know."
Kairo looked at Rebecca.
Rebecca looked at Kairo.
The exchange lasted only one second, but it contained a full conversation. This situation was more serious than expected. Rebecca leaned forward. "Have you watched television before?"
"Yes."
"What shows?"
Ace tried to remember. "News. Training recordings. Old cartoons sometimes."
Kairo's expression became deeply concerned. "That is not enough."
Rebecca nodded. "Not even close."
Ace looked between them.
Kairo moved toward the door, then stopped and turned back. "Have you ever watched a perfect show called The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air?"
Ace shook her head. Kairo placed one hand over his heart. Rebecca smiled. "Come on," she said. "We are fixing that."
Ace looked down at the letters once more. Then at the open door. A room had been offered to her. A meal waited downstairs.
Two children stood in the hallway planning to bother her with an old comedy show as though she had not nearly died several days earlier.
For the first time in longer than she could remember, the future did not feel like a sentence someone else had written for her. It felt like a question.
Ace placed the letters carefully beside her, still unopened for now, and moved toward the edge of the bed. "I want to see the show."
Kairo gave her an approving set of finger guns. "Excellent decision."
Rebecca stood beside her.
Neither child reached for Ace's mind. Neither tried to pull her from the bed.
They simply waited while she placed her feet on the floor and decided, for herself, whether she was ready to follow.
The door remained open And this time, Ace walked through it.