The air vanished from my lungs.
Olivia stood before me. Not a memory. Not a face on a screen. Her here, solid and real, her own eyes swimming with the same disbelieving joy that was currently drowning me.
I launched myself at her, my arms locking around her frame with a force that was probably painful. I buried my face in the familiar softness of her shoulder, the scent of her laundry detergent and her perfume a time capsule to every safe moment I had ever known.
"You're here," I sobbed, the words fracturing into her shirt. The tears were immediate, hot and relentless. "You're really here."
"I'm here," Olivia whispered, her own voice cracking under the weight of emotion. Her arms tightened around me, a lifeline I had been clutching in my dreams for weeks. "I'm here, Aria."
Then a small, wiry force cannoned into us both.
"Aunt Aria!"
Kaleb.
