Page 112 of Scrooged for the Holidays
It’s not something we’ve done for anyone else, but Kai and Remi are there waiting for us. Her eyes meet theirs, and her gazesoftens for a brief second when she sees them, comforted that they’re here.
Remi steps toward us, eyes on Greer. “I beg to differ, love. You’ve seen that they do.”
“But—”
“Think of the moments we’ve shown you, how, despite what you’ve done, they’ve given you grace.”
“Maybe so, but I didn’t deserve it.”
“Regardless of if that’s true or not, they did.”
“Even in the end,” Kai says, moving to stand next to Remi, “Avery was there.”
“But I don’t understand why.”
“Because what you hoped for deep down is true. Avery, your parents…they do love you,” he adds. “Think about it, Princess. Really think about what we’ve shown you and why.”
Greer squeezes her eyes shut, the room silent with only the sound of our breath. Her eyes track back and forth beneath her lids as if she’s replaying every moment we’ve shown her in order. Little by little, her shoulders ease, and her aura flares brightly around her with more gold.
I glance at Kai briefly, nodding to let him know he said the right thing. Greer’s emotions are fully breaking free—she’s allowing herself to feel everything, to see how sheisloved.
A pulse of rose-colored pink floods through the room with her recognition, and when she finally opens her eyes, they’re full of tears. She allows them to freely track down her cheeks, and I finally give in to my urge to comfort her. As I lift my hand to brush one away, she leans into my touch. Her aura pulses again, this time, the golden color burning brighter with blacks and blues that match mine, Remi’s, and Kai’s. It’s stunning.
It’s her.
“Sam?” she asks tentatively.
I brush my thumb over the apple of her reddened cheek. “Yes?”
“You said thatcouldbe my future?”
“I did.”
“But it doesn’t have to be?”
My heart thuds in my chest, and I nod. “No, Greer, it doesn’t.”
“I can change it?”
I drop my hand. “The past may be written, but today and tomorrow are not.”
Her aura turns richer in color, the bold energy of it heating my skin. It isn’t until I feel Kai’s and Remi’s voices of awe in my head that I glance around the room to discover it’s glowing, the gold, blue, and black colors nearly encasing the four of us in its beauty with not a lick of gray in sight.
Greer blinks, her gaze following where mine had just been. Her mouth parts, and her eyes widen. Just like she saw my aura earlier, she sees hers now, too.
“What’s happening?” she asks.
Like so many things with Greer, I’ve never seen this happen before. The people we’ve helped in this way, we’ll see their auras change and shift as they go through their time with us, but they don’t see them like this, nor do they pick up our colors. I believe they’re visible to her because of the connections she’s made with me and my fellow guardians, intimate connections we’ve never had with anyone else we’ve helped.
Or anyone else we’ve come across, Kai adds, speaking the words I already know.
“It’s your aura, Greer. When you arrived here, it was colorless, but now—”
“It looks like all of yours,” she finishes for me. Her eyes trail from my black halo to Kai’s comforting blue one and, finally, Remi’s gold.
I nod.
“What does it mean?”
