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Karou drew back Akiva seized her hand "What do you mean, I have more now?"

She shook her head Morein that splicedbefore her, and there was a flash of the irim twist of the lips but, onderment, a smile so beautiful it ached There were crinkles at the corners of his eyes, which were e was profound If he was beautiful when grave--and he was--slorious

But Karou would swear that he had not smiled

And that impossible Akiva, who had existed for that instant--there had been so else: his hands had carried fewer ers entirely bare of the in the puddle of his spilled tea The waitress came out from behind the counter and stood poised with a towel, uncertain Karou extricated her hand and sat back to let her wipe up theback and forth between them When she was finished she asked, hesitantly, "I was just wondering… I ondering how you did it"

Karou looked at her, uncoe, full-cheeked and flushed "Last night," she clarified "The flying"

Ah The flying "You were there?" Karou asked It seeirl "I saw it on TV It’s been on the news all ht Karou Oh Her hand went to her phone, which had been giving off snippy snorts and buzzes for the past hour or so, and she checked its screen Missed calls and texts spooled across it, most from Zuzana and Kaz Damn

"Were there wires?" the waitress asked "They couldn’t find any wires or anything"

Karou said, "No wires We were really flying," then gave her trade she was part of a joke "Don’t tell ry, and she left the back, regarding Karou with those lightning-strike wide eyes and that vivid, searching wariness

"What?" she asked, self-conscious "Why are you looking at me like that?"

He lifted his hands and raked his nails through his dense, cropped hair, holding on to his head for a beat "I can’t help it," he said, abashed

Karou experienced a fizz of pleasure She realized that over the course of the one froaze unguarded, and now that she’d seen--iined?--that iine it could happen again, and for real this tiod Be that cat! she reminded herself The one that stayed out of reach, and never--ever--purred Sitting back, she composed her features in what she hoped was the huist of what she’d learned froh she wasn’t sure he really understood about television, let alone the Internet Or phones, for that ive me a minute?" she asked hi

Her voice exploded in Karou’s ear "Karou?"

"It’s ht? I saw you on the news I saw him I saw… Holy Jesus, Karou, do you realize that you were flying?"

"I know Isn’t it awesoht you were dead soe of hysteria, and it took Karou a few minutes to calm her, all the whileto keep her feline cool

"You’re really okay?" Zuzana asked "He doesn’t have, like, a knife to your throat, forcing you to say you are?"

"He doesn’t even speak Czech," Karou assured her, then gave her a quick rundown of the previous night, letting her know he hadn’t tried to hurt her--had gone to extre with, "We, um, watched the sun rise from the top of the cathedral"

"The hell? Was it a date?"

"No, it wasn’t a date Honestly, I don’t knohat it was Is I don’t knohat he’s doing here…" Her voice faltered as she looked at him It wasn’t just the smile, or the ht shoulder was a mass of scar tissue He favored it; she’d seen that That must be how she knew Why, then, did she knohat the scars looked like?

Felt like?

"Karou? Hello? Karou?"

Karou blinked and cleared her throat It had happened again: her own naht past, unconnected to herself She sensed fro in action for a few beats past any acceptable span of zoning out "I’ you Where are you?"

Karou had otten "U there"

"No, you’re not--"

"Yes, I am"

"Zuze--"

"Karou Don’t make me hurt you with my tiny fists"

"Fine," Karou relented "Come on, then"

Zuzana boarded with aaunt in Hradcˇany, not far away "I’ll be there in ten," she said

Karou couldn’t resist telling her, "It’s faster if you fly"

"Freak Don’t you dare leave And don’t let hi anywhere," said Karou, and she looked straight at Akiva as she said it, and he looked back, molten, and she kneas true, but she didn’t knohy

He wasn’t human He wasn’t even from her world He was a soldier with scores of kills on his hands, and he was the eneether, stronger than any of that, so with the power to conduct her blood and breath like a syainst it felt like discord, like disharmony with her self

As far back as she could remember, a phanto else," but noas the opposite Here, in the circle of Akiva’s presence, even as they spoke of war and siege and enduring en drawn into the warhtness of him, like he was both place and person and, contrary to all reason, exactly where she was supposed to be