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“Surely,” he interrupted when he could take no more, and he wasn’t particularly polite about it, “it is time to count this as a victory” The oldthe hospitality of the palace guard until such a time as it is politically useful to release him Talaat’s resistance movement has disappeared without their leader to rouse them into action It would be difficult for us to be more decisive or more successful, would it not?”

He didn’t wait for the inevitable spate of further grievances; he simply did hi moment

Jhurat lay before him His choice His future His doom

And if he felt the loneliness of the desert more keenly than he had before, well, he hoped that ti sands, year after year Until there was only emptiness and the hint of memories, the wind and the sky Jhurat would endure So would he, one way or another

“Is this what brooding looks like? I’ve alondered”

Khaled stiffened Then wondered if he was adding auditory hallucinations to his collection of issues,him as unstable as his father, precisely as Talaat had warned—

But no He turned slowly, very slowly, and his wife—his beautiful Cleo—was sitting in one of the cu for all the world as if she’d never left

And, oh, the things he wanted The things he needed

He allowed hi for soant lines of her face, her body, the sleek riot of herinside his chest

“Nothing has changed,” he said, breaking the silence when it drew on too long “In fact, it is worse I ah to be a overn efficiently, or so ht me But I a and never-ending”

“I’m not your mother,” she said, and he rocked back on his heels at that He moved closer to the desk that separated them, then shoved his hands deep in his pockets because he feared they would do his speaking for him

The truth was, even this quiet, painful little conversation felt like a burst of sweet, refreshing winter cold in the ht all the air back into the palace, and he could finally breathe