“Amanda,” Sirius started as they left Kass’s place.

  She shook her head and walked away toward the stairs. “I’m tired I just want to go home.”

  “Okay,” Sirius replied, at first thinking it best to leave her be until she was ready to talk more. But then as the silence fell, he found he couldn’t just leave things like that. He blurted out, “I’m sorry. I thought, I’d just come here do a quick check, and everything would be fine and then...”

  “I wouldn’t need to know?” she finished for him. She’d stopped and turned to face him.

  He grimaced. When she put it like that it sounded bad. “I...”

  “If you hadn’t have come though...” Amanda trailed off and she met his eyes with a conflicted look.

  He gave a single nod acknowledging that they both knew checking on Kass had been the right decision, that part at least. “I should have told you,” he said plainly.

  She nodded and turned to continue walking.

  He didn’t say any more on that topic. It wouldn't have made a difference. He’d messed up and the only thing that would fix was not making the same mistake again. Sorry was a word he’d heard a lot in his life. Not once had it ever fixed anything. He resisted the compulsion to say it again. Instead he changed the topic.

  “What did Coal want in exchange?”

  She paused and turned to look at him again. She didn’t look mad. She really did just look tired. She sighed and gave her head a confused shake. “He wants me to go to some event with him, a ball, this weekend.”

  “Why?”

  “I don’t know. He said I wouldn’t have to do anything else other than attend.”

  “That’s got to be a lie.”

  She shook her head. “I don’t think so. He wasn’t lying but I don’t think he was telling the truth either. He said he’d help Cat out too.”

  Sirius sighed.

  “You don’t approve?” Amanda gave him a surprised look.

  He shook his head. “It’s not that. She’s definitely better off out of prison. I’m not even convinced she killed him or if she did it would have been to protect Katrina. It’s just, I hate that it has to be done this way.”

  “We’ve broken out of prisons before remember.” Amanda gave him a smile and cocked her head slightly. For a moment she didn’t look tired at all. She looked like that mischievous minx he’d married. She still was, still could be from time to time.

  He matched her smiled as memories filled his mind. Maybe they would be okay. “That was different.”

  She gave a laugh. “How so?”

  “It didn’t use aristocrats.”

  Her smile fell, although a trace of it remained in her eyes. She nodded.

  “You be careful,” Sirius told her. He knew she would. Once upon a time she’d been more reckless but since they’d had the kids she’d reigned herself in a lot.

  “It’s not me I’m worried about.”

  “I know.” Sirius understood. It was potential attention from other aristocrats that she feared, attention that could put their entire family at risk. Amanda’s firestarting abilities were unparalleled, not to mention her skill at general infusement use and ritual casting. Coal saw her as a sort of weapon, a threat he could hold over the heads of his enemies. But no one liked threats, and the other aristocrats would want to reduce those threats, disarm them in any way they could. Coal might promise to protect their family, he might even make a decent attempt of it, but aristocrats could be ruthless and even Coal wasn’t undefeatable. “Just make sure to keep a low profile.”

  Amanda nodded.

  Neither of them noticed the watcher at the other end of the hallway.

  Stella stood at the end of the corridor with only part of her head peeking around the corner. She spun when she sensed a new presence behind her.

  Bambi was there looking like she’d just come from one of her work negotiations, dressed in a suit with her hair neatly brushed and clipped at the top of her head with pins. “You let him see you.”

  Stella looked back in the direction Sirius and Amanda had gone. “I had to. There wasn’t enough time otherwise. I didn’t get enough warning.”

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “I thought that was the point of your last meditation?”

  “I had to cut it short to do a job for Murphy. Also, I lost the knife.”

  Bambi remained silent.

  Stella continued, not thinking much of it. “Someone took it from my apartment and I couldn’t see where it had gone. But it’s back now.”

  “You know where it is?” Bambi sounded surprised.

  “No,” Stella answered. “But I know where it will be.”

  Bambi looked relieved. “Will it be safe?”

  Stella nodded slowly. “I think so.” She could feel Bambi reading her mind. Stella didn’t want her to know this stuff though. There were choices that would need to be made, choices with uncertain consequences. A darkness filled one future so sweeping it ate everything. Blue eyes and chaos in another. Death in all of them, and she wasn’t certain which strand was the better one to pull. The only way to break Murphy’s loop seemed to be to kill Lily and Stella didn’t like that option. Lily reminded her of the child she couldn’t have, even though they looked nothing alike. These days every child reminded her of what she couldn’t have. Murphy hadn’t wanted her to know but she did. She buried the thoughts down deep, deep enough that Bambi would really need to dig, deep enough that Bambi would see it as a warning not to look because Bambi knew the risks of seeing too much of the future. Stella wasn’t sure whose side Bambi was on. Truth be told, she wasn’t even sure whose side she was on herself. There were so many choices.

  A moment later, Stella felt the weight recede from her mind. Bambi was so gentle and delicate with her reading that Stella sometimes wondered if she could read further than Stella could feel. But if she could she was a subtle enough about the knowledge she gleaned from it such that Stella was almost certain that she couldn’t. Bambi had given her that power in a way, or at least she had greatly increased it by training her in defenses against mindwalking. For the future, for a future Murphy and Bambi wouldn’t be around for. One in which Stella would never grow old. Stella’s immortality wouldn’t be like Murphy’s. She wouldn’t get do-overs. She didn’t have the freedom to make the mistakes he could make. She wondered at the darkness that she saw when she looked into the future now. Was it an end or an infinity?

  She was quiet long enough that she felt Bambi’s fingers wandering in her head again. They weren’t icy cold like her mother’s mindwalking had been nor were they rough like Gabriel’s. They were warm and reassuring, the way Stella thought a mother’s hands should have been. That was a danger all on it’s own. Stella didn’t want to trust but Bambi made that hard and so she gave away more than she intended to. Those blue eyes again. One possible future. Not Coal’s. Not permanent but that didn’t matter.

  “You saved her cause you like her.”

  Stella shook her head. It was only a half truth. She told the other half. “They will need her in Witchaven. More lives would be lost if she’d died here. I did very little beyond pointing out the tools he already had.”

  “You warned Coal.”

  Stella nodded. “He wouldn’t have helped without a trade though. I had to give him something and Grim would have been too distracted to pick up the phone if I hadn’t called Coal first. There was only a 60% chance Sirius and Cat would have been able to pull that off on their own.”

  “He will remember you if he sees you again.”

  “Perhaps, but would it be so bad”—she turned to Bambi—“If we had friends?”

  She could see the conflict that played out in Bambi’s eyes.

  “What about your old friend?” Stella pressed, sensing she was on the verge of agreement.

  “Who?”

  “The one who lives in the cabin by the lake. The one who bakes and draws. You were friends once weren’t you?”

  Bambi’s face registered surprise followed by resignation. “That was a long time ago. We were children. And now we have a job to do.”

  Stella nodded. “I don’t think Murphy would mind if you retired.”

  Bambi turned to go with a sigh.

  Stella tugged on a thread. “There’s a movie coming out next year that he want’s you to see. You won’t like it though.”

  Bambi frowned. “I haven’t seen it before?”

  Stella shook her head. “I thought you didn’t think the other Bambi’s were you?”

  Bambi was quick to answer. “They’re not, but they share a lot of similarities.”

  “Sometimes I wish I could meet the other Stellas.”

  Bambi gave a soft laugh. “Would you get on with them do you think?”

  “I don’t know. And I can not see what can not be. I like that they are out there though. In a way it makes us all immortal you know.” And it made her feel a little less alone.

  Bambi snorted. “Assuming they’re real. We don’t know how Murphy’s power really works.”

  “What makes something real?” Stella asked.

  Bambi groaned.

  Stella knew Bambi hated too much talk about philosophy but she couldn't help herself and she figured if she was going to live forever she should probably spend some time thinking about the nature of her reality.

  But Bambi read her mind easily this time. "Real is what you miss when you spend too much time thinking about philosophy," she replied.

  Stella pouted but took a moment to look ahead again. The conversation was going exactly where she wanted it to.

  "Some things don't have answers," Bambi continued. She paused on the stair then turned to face Stella as if the next point were important, "and I'm not saying you shouldn't ever think about such things, just that you need to live a little too."

  "Like making friends," Stella replied smoothly.

  Bambi clamped her mouth shut and was quiet for a few more steps.

  Stella waited for the inevitable concession.

  Finally Bambi replied with a soft sigh, "I walked into that one didn't I?"

  Stella didn't need to speak out loud. She just smiled and thought back, 'yes.'

  But Bambi wasn't done. "It's hard to be friends with people you are keeping secrets from."

  Stella shook her head. She didn't need to know the future to reply to that one. "Everyone has some secrets they keep to themselves. Not sharing is not the same as lying."

  "Do you think that's how Coal would see it if he found out you knew how to save his other mistress?" Bambi asked slyly.

  Stella frowned. "Natasha?" She shook her head briefly. "That's not my fault. Some deaths are inevitable. Trying to bring her back is what will get him where we want him. Her death saves the world."

  Bambi's sly smile didn't disappear. "It had nothing to do with you wanting him for yourself?"

  Stella shook her head. Bambi knew it didn't. She was probably just trying to get her own back for Stella’s earlier conversational maneuvering. The truth was an easy answer though. "Coal isn't mine to begin with. What we have won't last."

  Bambi gave her a puzzled look as she reached for the door handle that would take them out into the street and pulled it open. "Why continue dating him then?"

  Stella smiled. "Because it’s fun for now and because nothing lasts." She stepped through the door and gave a cryptic smile, "not even the world."