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conversation before I went home for the holiday, I’d have turned up my hands and said, Sorry, boys, there isn’t much in my life I can honestly complain about.”
    He took a swig of the cognac. “But then I went home and arrived just in time to celebrate my brother’s engagement. And as it turned out, my brother is going to marry the girl of my dreams.”
    Iolanthe was shocked, not so much by the specifics of Kashkari’s revelation as by the fact that he chose to divulge something so intensely private. Granted she had met him only months ago, but nothing she knew of him had indicated in the least that he was the sort to be open about his heartache.
    â€œMy God,” murmured Cooper. “I’m so sorry.”
    â€œMy sentiments exactly.” Kashkari smiled grimly and raised the bottle. “Here’s to life, which will kick you in the teeth, sooner or later.”
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    The Queen of Seasons’ summer villa sat on a narrow peninsula that sliced into a deep, glacier-fed lake. The sun had just climbed over the peaks that ringed the lake; the water was almost the exact same shade as the luxuriant ivy that climbed over the creamy walls of the villa.
    Titus stood on the terrace that overlooked the lake. Overhead, from the trelliswork of the pergola, trailed tendrils of green vine and clusters of honey-colored florets.
    A beautiful venue, whether bathed in sunrise or moonlight. No place could ever be perfect enough for Fairfax, but this one came close.
    â€œAnd they lived happily ever after.”
    He came out of the Crucible to the much more mundane surroundings of the laboratory. After he and Fairfax had pushed and shoved the heavily inebriated boys back up the cliff to the house, he had come to the laboratory to work. The boys anyway were not going to get up before noon, and he wanted to finish making the new entrance as soon as possible.
    Life was uncertain, his particularly.
    He yawned. It was now almost nine in the morning. He exited the laboratory to an abandoned barn in Kent. From there it was a quick vault back to his room at Baycrest House.
    Fairfax was there, waiting for him, flipping the pages of a book she had pulled from the bookshelf—in deference to his rank, Titus had been given the best room in the house, with a private bath, a wide balcony that looked out to the sea, and two shelves full of leather-bound volumes.
    â€œIs it ready yet?” she asked. She meant the new entrance into the laboratory.
    â€œAlmost. I have to wait about twenty-four hours, and then I can complete the final step.”
    â€œI miss the Crucible,” she said. “It must have been at least three months since I was last inside.”
    After the Fourth of June, he had moved his copy of the Crucible to the laboratory to avoid confiscation by Atlantis. There was another copy in the monastery in the Labyrinthine Mountains, but they had neither of them been able to visit the monastery over the summer.
    â€œIt will not be long now.”
    â€œDid you have to shovel out bushels of flower petals?” she teased.
    Barrels. “No comment.”
    â€œWell, I am not going for the decor, in any case.”
    â€œNow you tell me.”
    She grinned. “Go to sleep. You look tired.”
    He fell backward onto the bed. “I am getting old. I used to stay up all night and look better for it.”
    â€œYour mirror lied,” she said, drawing a blanket over him.
    He took her hand and kissed the pads of her fingers. “Thank you,” he said. “For everything.”
    â€œWhat can I say?” she said, her voice growing fainter. “This damsel loves rescuing princes in distress.”
    He smiled as he fell asleep.
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    And when he woke up, he was still smiling.
    He had dreamed of the two of them on the terrace of the Queen of Seasons’ summer villa. But instead of kissing, they had been sitting on the ornamental parapet, and she had been telling him a long