Being on the boat made Eli regret he hadn’t bugged Sherry to use it sooner.

As soon as Ambrose navigated out of the no-wake zone and gunned it across the waves, Eli melted into the crisp white seats, letting the sharp wind whip past his smile, over his sunglasses, and tangle through his hair. He’d look ridiculous upon returning, he knew, but for the moment, he didn’t care. He just wanted to let the rhythmic bumping of the boat against the water lull him half to sleep in the sunlight.

“Did you ever actually teach?” Ambrose called over the humming of the engine. Eli cracked one eye open. He supposed he shouldn’t fall asleep entirely.

“Student taught,” he answered, sitting up in the small, rounded couch behind the driver’s seat. “Did it for a year or so before the agency recruited me.”

“What grade?”

Eli scoffed. “Sixth.”

Ambrose threw a smile over his shoulder. “And what grade did you want to teach?”

“Third.”

“Oh.” Ambrose paused. “That’s very specific.”

“It’s the only grade to teach, in my opinion.” Eli leaned over the back of the chair. “They’re old enough to pay attention, but young enough to be excited about everything. I mean, come on, it’s peak dinosaur time. It’s time to start teaching them about- about coding, and space, and watersheds, and…” He thought he heard a laugh over the engine, and looked up. “You making fun of me?”

“No!” His eyes still on the water, Ambrose reached back for him. His fingers briefly brushed Eli’s arm before pulling away. “No, I love it, really. I was merely enjoying your enthusiasm, is all. Please continue.”

Eli did as he asked, gushing away until they slowed in what felt like the very middle of the lake. The rolling autumn hills of upstate, burnt scarlets and oranges and evergreen, had been reduced to simple brushstrokes hemming in the blue horizon. Land almost didn’t look real anymore, like they would never reach it even if they sailed straight for it. Eli found he didn’t mind at all.

Once Ambrose had come to a stop and finished his puttering about the boat, he pulled the metal case from underneath a seat cushion and set it on the floor.

“Now,” he said as he flicked open the latches, “typically I activate this in the lab, under a lamp of sorts. The process is much more efficient that way. But…” He sat on the floor and squinted at the sun. “It’s rather special when it activates in full, unfiltered sunlight.”

Eli eyed the case warily as he sat next to Ambrose. “You sure it’s safe?”

“I did pre-treat it.” Ambrose paused before he opened the case. “You’ll want to take off your sunglasses for this.”

As soon as sunlight struck the glass vials within the case, it refracted and ricocheted across every curve of the boat in a dizzying clash of colors. A light mist rolled out from the case, and the reaction pierced that, too, until Eli felt like he was breathing in pure color. Forget the kaleidoscope that Ambrose had dove into during the mission- they were suddenly sitting in one, hardly aware of which way was up anymore.

Eli set aside his sunglasses and soaked in the reds and purples that splayed across his arms. Next to him, Ambrose’s white linen shirt glowed in a stained-glass pattern of greens and blues. The boat rocked once, and the colors switched, red and violet staining Ambrose’s neck and chest. Eli swallowed. It reminded him too much of the blood that was once on his collar, the bruises that once bloomed across his jaw. The boat swayed again, and Eli relaxed as the colors shifted back.

“Do you like it?” Ambrose turned to him with a soft smile. Eli stared, mouth parted. The only fault he could find here was that the stripes of teal light obscured the laugh lines on Ambrose’s face.

“Yes,” he breathed. “Beautiful.”

Ambrose leaned back against the seats, now drenched in orange and pink, and lazily dragged his fingers through the mist. Eli settled back to watch him move, smiling absently at the play of the light on his hands. As the mist slowly evaporated and the colors faded into pastels against the white boat, Eli found a question forming on his lips.

“Why me?” he asked. Ambrose lowered his hand.

“Pardon?”

“You could’ve killed me back in the compound,” Eli said. “Why’d you send me to the gala?”

“I already told you.” Ambrose clasped his fingers together in his lap. “You incapacitated my guards—“

“And circumvented Banneker’s system, I know-“

“No, you misunderstand,” Ambrose said firmly. “You incapacitated them. You didn’t kill them. Almost any other agent would have murdered them without a second thought and created a trail of blood to my doorstep.”

Almost any other agent. Eli paused as he watched the last of the pink light ripple across his legs.

“What happened to the other four agents?” he asked quietly. “What happened when you told them to follow the money?”

Ambrose looked down at his lap, unaware of the purple light brushing over his cheek. “I didn’t tell them to follow it. Not at first. For the first agent, I…” He fidgeted with the cuff of his sleeve. “I gave her a potion that healed her sister. An attempt to show that what I was doing had merit. She went to Pearce immediately, so eager to change his mind, then—then so angry at him…”

Ambrose’s voice slowly went hollow, just as it had done when he spoke of the phone calls. Eli’s stomach slowly twisted into a knot as he spoke.

“The second agent was a friend of the first,” he continued. “They sought me out after getting no answers from Pearce on her disappearance. The third and fourth were a team. Partners. In their case, I had an opportunity to turn them on my prey’s scent, like with you. I wanted to see what they made of that.” He rested his head against the seat. “The third made the mistake of going to Pearce, and the fourth, his partner…I didn’t reach him in time. Pearce got to him first.”

Eli clenched his jaw as he forced aside memories of Raven screaming in the hallway, angry and desperate for answers.

“I never intended for any of you to help me,” Ambrose murmured, his gaze focused on the sky. “I was only ever asking you not to kill me.”

As the last of the light dissipated, Eli reached for his wrist and squeezed it. “I’m glad you reached me.”

Ambrose tilted his head towards Eli. Though his smile was cracked in places, his eyes were still crinkled upward, blue irises glinting as if the icefall’s light had become trapped inside it. “Me, too.”

Eli didn’t realize he had been holding his breath until Ambrose squeezed his hand, then slipped away from his grasp to close the icefall case. He silently cursed himself. He was stupid, he was so, so stupid.

He had let himself fall in love with Ambrose Beake.