...I shouldn't have told her any of this. I should have just left it that I can do weird things, too.
"That's ... something," Jamie says and then stops.
"I have to find the Huntsman, Jamie. We're all in big trouble, but most of the people around here don't know it yet," I urge.
"Dylan ..." she doesn't finish.
"There's a reason that we're afraid of the dark. A lot of things in it are pretty damn nasty," I tell her. "But there's a lot more in the dark than you know, and they're asking for help, Jamie. Our help."
That seems to spark something in her. She looks up and slowly nods.
"I wish you could see the good things." And then I realize something. She can.
As soon as I pull out the orb-thing Grim gave me, it starts to glow and pulse with orange light.
I don't know if it's because I'm thinking of Grim or if it's just something that the orb thing can do, since it's a wisp's map, but all of a sudden, light splashes against one of the walls of the theater and we see something. It's just a glimpse, but we see it-Belle Lake. I can hear soft music that digs down to my soul. Jamie hears it, too. Shimmering trees rise from the floor as a breeze brushes warmly by us. The water ... it isn't really there, but Jamie leans over and watches it glow next to her. And I know that she feels how I felt the first time I saw the lake. She feels like she finally belongs somewhere.
And Jamie smiles. Well, that's not saying much, since most smiles always mean that I'm shit out of luck. But this one ... well, this one is a whole lot different. It isn't Diane's pity smile, or Shard's I'm-gonna-eat-your-heart-when-I-can smile, or the sheriff's creepy, possessed smile. This one really makes me want to smile back, and I do.
"Jamie, this is what we have to save."
After the mirage of Belle Lake fades and the orb becomes just an orb again, Jamie and me just sit there on the theater floor. Then, for a few minutes, we forget about the war looming over us. We forget about Stone and Glass.
Looking at her face, I want to say a thousand different things, but I don't say anything at all.
And neither does she.
But that's okay. That smile of hers is enough.
Magic isn't gone, only hidden.
