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perfect. The air held the incredible mix that was possible only here, in southern Switzerland. The sun carried the Mediterranean punch of heavy heat and low humidity. But the slightest breeze, so long as it came from the north or the west, held an alpine edge. Afternoons like these carried the incredible mix of fire and ice.
    He wasn’t out here to admire the view. He just wanted to avoid any further arguments with Gabriella. Her face danced in the air before him. She flashed in reflections off the pond’s surface. She was there in the flowers. Birds sang, but Charlie heard her voice from happier times. Moments when he managed to hope that they might actually find a way to be together.
    Times like these, he feared each day only pulled them farther apart. He could not say exactly why. But Charlie had learned to trust his gut. And right now, his gut was telling him that the lady was lost to him.
    Their paths might remain in parallel for a time longer. But the gulf between them was impassable. Sooner or later, she would go her way. And that new way would be along a path he could not follow. What that might be, he had no idea. But standing here, isolated by what was about to come, Charlie found himself staring into a void that the woman would probably never fill.
    â€œCharlie.” Elizabeth Sayer walked down the villa’s stone steps and followed the path around the lake to where he stood. “We need to talk.”
    â€œCan it wait?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œAll right.” Charlie pointed them to a bench out of the sun. Most of the team found Elizabeth Sayer hard-going, a prickly pear whose center offered no real reason to take the trouble. But Charlie knew enough of the woman’s past to admire her for making it this far intact.
    â€œNot here.” She led him around the southern side of the house.
    â€œI need to get back.”
    â€œThis won’t take long.” She stopped where a narrow strip of green separated the villa from the stone wall. This side of the house held no windows. It was as isolated a place as they were going to find on the grounds. “Is Gabriella going to shut us down?”
    â€œOf course not.”
    Elizabeth’s hair was so white as to appear silver in the shade. Her features were an odd mixture of femininity and cold refusal, as though everything delicate and pliable had been frozen into a rigid core. Her gaze was as direct as her words, and as unbending. “Don’t be so sure. She’s scared enough to go off the deep end. She’s already sent away the students scheduled for this week’s trial runs.”
    â€œWe’re facing a crisis. We will deal with it. Life will go on. And our work with it.”
    Her gaze was intent enough to peel away his skin. She must have found what she was looking for, because she nodded once. “All right.”
    â€œIs that what you wanted to see me about?”
    â€œNo. I have a problem.”
    Charlie searched his memory, could not recall another time when she had even suggested such a thing. He came up blank. “Tell me.”
    â€œSomething’s been happening inside my ascents.”
    â€œSince when?”
    â€œThis is day three.”
    He felt the cold sweep up from his gut to grip his throat. “It started the same day Brett did his disappearing act?”
    â€œThe same hour. He was in one chamber. I was in the other.”
    â€œWhat’s happening?”
    She apparently found it easier to address her words to the side wall. “I ascend. But when I hear the instructions to open my other eyes—you know the point, right?”
    Charlie recalled the first time Gabriella had spoken those words to him. And shivered tightly with want. “Of course.”
    â€œWhen I do, I’m in a room. It’s all white. There aren’t any windows or doors. There’s no way out. Jorge’s been talking me up. When he says to go do what I’m slated to do, I bang on