Page 3

"It was," Max agreed. "I'm that old." He winked.

Laleh giggled. "You're joking. Right?"

"Not at all. I'm over five hundred years old."

Kyra enjoyed watching the easy way he interacted with her nieces, drawing out smiles and questions even from Azadeh, who was the least talkative of the four. His ability to put people at ease and make them feel safe around him was endearing, even though he sometimes overdid it. She could see how some could interpret his teasing as offensive.

Not her, though, and not her smart nieces, who got his dry humor.

The conversation flowed around Kyra as they ate and drank coffee and chatted as if they'd been a family for years instead of just days.

Max glanced at his watch. "We should be heading out. Traffic in LA is unpredictable, and we don't want the others to have to wait for us."

A heavy silence fell over the table, and then Arezoo stood up, coming around to wrap her arms around Kyra's neck. "Bring our mothers, aunts, and cousins," she whispered fiercely.

"I will," Kyra promised, holding her niece tightly.

One by one, the other girls came to embrace her while Max stood a couple of feet away, giving them space for their goodbyes.

When the girls were finally done, he touched her elbow. "We should go."

Kyra hugged Jasmine, Fenella, and Ell-rom next,and then she and Max gathered their belongings and headed for the elevator.

"Hold on," Jasmine called after them. "I almost forgot." She produced a familiar velvet pouch from her pocket. "For luck." She handed it to Kyra.

"Your tarot cards?" Kyra asked. "But last night you said?—"

"I know what I said," Jasmine interrupted. "But I want you to take them. You left them for me to guide me through some dark times, but now you need them more than I do. It's just a loan." Jasmine pressed the pouch into Kyra's hands. "You'll have to return them to me. I consider it insurance that you'll come back."

Kyra's throat tightened with emotion as her fingers closed around the pouch, feeling the well-worn velvet between her fingers. "I promise to bring them back."

Jasmine pulled her into a fierce embrace, and Kyra held her daughter close, memorizing the feel of her, the scent of her hair. Twenty-three years had been stolen from them. After the completion of this mission, she vowed not to allow anything to take even one more day.

"I love you, Mom," Jasmine whispered, the words nearly undoing Kyra completely.

"I love you too, sweetie," she murmured.

2

MAX

The Audi R8 purred beneath Max and Kyra as he guided it along the highway. The car was pure indulgence, a low-slung beast that could hit sixty miles per hour in 3.2 seconds. Not that Max needed such speed for daily life, but five centuries of existence had taught him to appreciate life's pleasures when he had the opportunity.

It had taken some maneuvering to get a car that was not the standard issue most clan members had been given, and then having it modded with the custom self-driving and specialty windows required of all village vehicles for security reasons. Luckily, Toven had paved the way by getting two specialty vehicles first, so there was a precedent, and then Kalugal followed, getting himself a Mercedes-AMG S63 sedan. Once the floodgates had opened, many more village residents ordered fancy rides and the necessary custom modifications for them.

Kyra hadn't seemed to notice, though, and she hadn't commented on the superb vehicle, which was disappointing. After all, what was the point of having a luxury car if it didn't impress the ladies, right?

Instead, she was busy scanning their surroundings.

"Not many people on the road this early," she observed, her voice cutting through the comfortable silence that had settled between them.

"One of the few perks of leaving early," he said, downshifting as they rounded a curve. "But that will change as soon as we hit the freeway. Fortunately, we are going in the opposite direction of the morning rush-hour traffic, so perhaps it's not going to be that bad."

She nodded, her fingers touching her amber pendant. "I've never been to Los Angeles before," she said after a moment. "Or at least, not that I can recall. It's different from what I expected."

"How so?"

She gestured toward the sprawling cityscape stretching inland. "It's more vertical than I imagined. All those buildings clustered together in the center, reaching upward."