Chapter Text
Fringes of pink dawn were just beginning to creep into the starry sky outside the window of Jackaby’s personal library. I took a moment to gaze out into the garden and beyond, wondering what the day would bring. Maybe someone would stumble upon a body in a place a body should not be and my employer and I would have a case on our hands. Maybe I’d be called upon to deal with the leprechaun whose inebriated aura I could see stumbling through a neighbor’s yard. Maybe today would be the day that I was not swarmed by what felt like every newspaper reporter in New Fiddleham clamoring for details on the existence of various magical creatures or the war of the Annwyn or Charlie’s miraculous resurrection. With a shrug I dismissed my predictions. I’ve learned that days at 926 Augur Lane do not like to be predicted, and will often make an effort to be extra bizarre should they get the notion that I was attempting to do so. Regardless of what was in store, I still had a few hours before I’d have to face it.
When the Sight had passed from Jackaby to me, it had stubbornly refused to bring along any relevant lore regarding what I was Seeing. This, along with the difficulty of sleeping with one’s third eye permanently open, was why I spent the wee hours of my mornings in my employer’s vibrant library, learning anything and everything I could. I selected a book with a flickering glow that hung about it like a halo of fireflies, then took a seat in the comfortable armchair. The book turned out to be an anthology of various fairy species, but I did not get very far into its pages before I was interrupted by the sound of footsteps at the library’s entrance. I turned to peer over the back of the armchair. A smile broke out across my face when I saw who it was.
“Charlie!”
“Good morning, Miss Rook,” he said, his features brightened by his own smile.
Despite the early hour, he was dressed in a pressed shirt and a pair of smooth, dark policeman’s trousers. I put my book down and rose to meet him. “You’re up early,” I said. “Are you starting to feel better?"
“I still have some recovering to do, but I believe the worst is behind me,”—a twinkle danced in his deep brown eyes—“and I’m certainly better than I was a week ago.”
Apparently, the sudden return of vital force to one’s body was an exhausting ordeal, and Charlie’s days following his revival were plagued with fatigue. Of course he’d attempted to downplay it in a remarkable display of stoic stubbornness, but Jackaby had firmly insisted that he get some proper rest, and also that he stay here at Augur Lane for the time being so that my employer could monitor his condition. Neither Charlie nor I had objected to this arrangement.
I leaned up on my toes and gave him a quick kiss. “I’m happy to see you up and about again. Your aura’s looking much brighter too.”
He returned my kiss and gave a soft chuckle. “I have been meaning to ask you about that, if you’re willing to share. I’ve always been rather curious as to what this Sight entails, but as I’m sure you know, its previous owner can be rather cryptic about such things.”
I gave a chuckle of my own. Over the course of several months spent working for Jackaby, I’d managed to decipher a few of his quirks and unique mannerisms, but I’ve yet to meet anyone who could keep up with him when he was in his element, myself included.
“I’ll certainly try, though it’s all rather new to me as well,” I said. “When I first met Jackaby, he explained that he saw the true nature of things, the stuff hidden behind the veil of the physical world, so to speak. Emotions, intentions, magic, those sorts of things.”
“And that’s what comprises these auras you see?” Charlie asked.
“Yes, but it’s more than just seeing them. Come to think of it, calling it ‘The Sight’ is a bit misleading, because it affects all my senses, and more. It’s as if I’m perceiving every facet of the world at the same time, not just with my eyes or ears or hands.”
Charlie looked a little confused, so I tried to elaborate with an example. “Remember the pancakes Jenny cooked yesterday? When I smelled them I was filled with a sensation of standing in a field of golden wheat, and somehow I knew I was experiencing the exact plot where the flour in those pancakes came from.”
I had intended to describe my new powers with a hint of grand mystique, but when I realized I was explaining them through a convoluted allegory about breakfast food I felt my cheeks begin to flush. The whole thing sounded rather silly. To my relief, Charlie’s interest didn’t appear to lose any of its earnesty.
“So everything has an aura then? How do you know what each one signifies?”
“Almost everything has one, though I really have to focus to pick them up from more mundane objects. Aside from pure magic, people have the most intense and complex auras, and then books after that. I don’t know what many of them mean yet. Sometimes I can guess, if I’m already familiar with whatever is producing the aura, but most of the time I have to ask Jackaby.”
Now it was Charlie’s cheeks that took on a blush. “What does mine look like?” he asked.
“I was trying to avoid that example,” I smirked, “because I’m not yet sure if personal biases can impact the accuracy of what I see. Fortunately for you, my personal biases have convinced me to forgo such apprehensions and try anyway.”
I stepped back and looked Charlie up and down, trying to convert my fantastical senses into comprehensible human language. He rocked back and forth on his heels as I examined him. “Okay, I think I’ve got it. There’s a sheen of burnished bronze all around you, which I’m pretty sure comes from the Om Caini, since that’s how I saw them too. But there’s a lot of rich blues swirling about as well. The whole effect is rather like a perfectly baked blueberry cobbler.”
“Pastries seem to play an important role in your observations,” Charlie mused.
“I am simply a conduit for a power far greater than myself. If that power wants me to see baked goods, then baked goods I shall see. Besides,”—I gave him a playful nudge—“I’m rather fond of blueberry cobbler.”
The blush on Charlie’s face crept a little higher.
“You’re loyal and protective,” I continued, “though I knew that before I became the Seer. But being able to actually, physically sense that now is something else entirely. I can’t find the words to describe what I’m sensing, but it’s emboldening and comforting at the same time, kind of like a... a great shield, made of steel and velvet. And finally, there’s a vibrant ruby glow right about... here.” I put a finger to the center of his chest.
“And what might that mean?” he asked. I gathered from his teasing tone that he already had a solid grasp of that particular aura’s significance.
“That, Charlie Barker, means you love me,” I grinned. “Oh, and there’s a faint whiff of cologne about you too.”
“You noticed that as well?”
“You’re actually wearing some? I thought it was a part of your aura. Why did you put on cologne at four-thirty in the morning?”
The pink on Charlie’s face had fully consumed his cheeks and was now threatening his ears, and his chocolate brown eyes briefly flickered before locking with mine. “Thank you, Miss Rook, for putting up with my questions. But I do have one more to ask, and I wanted to be well-dressed for it.”
My heart skipped a beat. His proposal. I have no clue how it slipped my mind that morning, but somehow I hadn’t anticipated it. I suppose it proves my hypothesis about the futility of predicting one’s future in this crazy world. I’d even missed the ring. Nestled in his breast pocket, it sat just on the border of his golden blue and ruby red auras, blending right into both. Still clad in my nightgown and robe, I suddenly felt very underdressed.
Charlie took a deep, purposeful breath, his gaze still holding mine. “I had a chance before. But I failed to take it. And then it was almost too late. By all accounts it should have been. But now I’ve been given another chance, one that I never fathomed was even possible. You are right, Miss Rook. I do love you. And I won’t waste my chance again.”
My heart, apparently over its initial shock, hammered double time in my chest. I could feel a flush of my own pulsing from my cheeks to the tips of my ears. Charlie got down on one knee, reached into his pocket, and produced the brilliant, shimmering ring.
“Abigail Rook, will you marry me?”
Despite spending the greater part of a year investigating, battling, and living side by side with the supernatural, I consider myself a rather rational girl. Most of the time, I observe carefully, consider my options, and think before I speak. This was decidedly not one of those times. The word leapt from my lips before the thought even formed in my mind.
"Yes!"
All the tension of the moment transformed into ecstasy and giddiness, as though an alchemist had splashed the final catalyst into a bubbling, effervescent potion. A goofy grin split Charlie’s lips from ear to ear, and I felt a similar smile stretch across my own features.
“Yes, Charlie Barker. Yes I will!”
Charlie took my hand in his and slid the ring onto my finger. It was a perfect fit. I turned it over, watching the reflections of the library’s innumerable auras flicker across its contours.
“It’s beautiful,” I whispered.
“Then it suits its wearer,” Charlie said. If my face had been warm before, I was fairly certain it was now capable of melting Tibetan sky-iron. I pulled Charlie close and pressed my lips to his. By the time we parted, the library window looked out upon a sunrise that, had kissing my now-fiancé not already done so, would have taken my breath away.
I did not know how my day would go, but I was fairly certain it could not have had a better beginning.