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For several minutes, the two of us lie there, Memnon playing with my hair and me tracing his tattoos. I nearly put myself in a trance, following those flowing, curving lines.

“What’s the strangest thing about the modern world?” I ask.

“There are many strange things about this world,” he says smoothly, as though the question isn’t completely out of the blue. “Cars, computers, phones, television. There is such precision to even common things, and there are so many choices—gods, the choices. There’s also the ease of existence. Things that once took hours you can now buy instantly and cheaply.”

“Is any of it off-putting?” I ask.

“It isalloff-putting.”

“You wouldn’t know it,” I say softly. This is a man who’s electronically deposited money into my account, who drove me in his car, then his motorcycle, and who is holding down a job, even if it is for the supernatural mafia. A man who has some grasp on modern fashion and who now speaks English flawlessly.

“I have spent whole weeks mining people’s minds for information on this modern world so that I might not fall prey to it,” he confesses.

I try not to think of what that must’ve looked like and how many people’s heads he must’ve pried into.

“Do you regret being here, in the modern world?”

“If you had asked me before I saw your memories, I would’ve saidyes,” Memnon answers. “Now, however, I know truly what you did. You, Roxilana, bought us a future when there was none, and you paid for it with your life. We no longer have armies or palaces, but we exist, little witch. You go by a different name and speak a different tongue and wear different clothes, but you are still my soul mate and my queen.”

And you are still my king.I almost say it, but I bite back the sentiment.

“I do have a family,” I say instead.

That was one of my deepest agonies in my past life—losing them. And it is something I took for granted up until my memories returned to me.

Memnon’s face lights with interest. “Your family,” he says, as though it’s only now clicking. “They were in your photo albums.” Despite seeing their pictures, it seems as though he’s only now putting together what that actually means to me. “I haven’t met them,” he says, and there’s true regret in his voice.

I nearly laugh. Of course he hasn’t met them.

“You’ve been too busy making yourself my enemy to get the chance to meet your future in-laws.”

I realize my mistake immediately.

Unfortunately, so does Memnon.

“My future in-laws?” His voice is dripping with delight.

I cannot evenexplainthe slip of tongue.

“I can,” Memnon says, listening in to my thoughts. “You rode me better than I ride horses. Of course you want more.”

Goddess above. I cover his mouth. “You are never to speak another lewd comment that involves me and horses.”

“Forever?” he asks solemnly, his response muffled by my hand.

“Forever and ever and ever,” I say, feeling a perplexing combination of relief and disappointment that the command seems to take.

“Aw, damn, soul mate,” he says, dragging my hand away. “Now you’ve just given me a challenge too good to pass up.”

He moves down my body.

“What is the challenge? And what are you doing?”

The sorcerer keeps lowering himself, the tips of his hair brushing against my skin. It’s not until he’s settled himself between my thighs and spread them apart that I become aware of what he intends to do.

“It’s dirty down there!” I say, attempting to close my legs.

He easily catches them and moves them one by one over his shoulders.