"Not in a very, very long time."

"But everyone's fallible, and if you look at it, this guy's record isn't that good. I mean, he still hasn't completed his sentence."

"Stop harping on that!" Darius said.

Blackstone whistled in surprise. "You guys are close. How come I didn't know that?"

'"You didn't ask'," Darius said, wondering how thick his friend was.

"I'm supposed to ask you which mages you know and which ones you don't?"

"You don't ask about my life. You never have. I've always counseled you on yours." Darius whirled. "It's part of my function. I'm supposed to celebrate when you get the girl because I'm as.e.xual. I'm not supposed to have a previous history because my life started when I met you. I'm not supposed to have a life outside of yours because you're always the hero."

Blackstone turned his beer bottle around in his hands. He was watching the motion as if he had just discovered it.

"Do you dislike me that much?" he asked quietly.

Darius closed his eyes. He supposed he deserved that. "You're my best friend."

"Who knows nothing about you. Who can't figure out when you're in pain."

"I'm as responsible for that as you are. You're right. I never told you these things."

Blackstone looked up. "You resent me."

"Why shouldn't I? You're everything I'm not."

"That's not true," Blackstone said. "You're a much better person than I am."

"Ah, the you're-a-nice-guy speech. Usually the sidekick gets that from the girl, but I guess it's okay to hear it from the hero."

Blackstone stood. "You can make as much fun as you want, but I'm very serious. You notice people. You told me for years that Emma wasn't right for me, but I didn't listen. You used your magic to help her in a very creative way when I kept telling her that something like that was impossible. You brought Nora to me that last night. You've saved my life twice and my sanity more times than that. And what have I done for you?"

Darius stared at him for a long time. "For the last thousand years, you're the only person who has treated me with respect."

"Nora does."

"She didn't at first."

"Emma does."

"She called me a little troll back in the Dark Ages."

"She's grown since then," Blackstone said.

Darius nodded. "Yes, she has. But you've been remarkably consistent. You've defended me. You've given me work. And you've been my friend."

"A poor one."

Darius shook his head. "The kind I needed."

"Past tense?"

Darius drank from the bottle. The porter tasted strange after the pale ale. He set the bottle down. "Ariel is different."

"Why?" Blackstone asked.

"Why is Nora different?" Darius asked.

Blackstone nodded. "Point taken."

He didn't say anything for a moment, then he took a swig of beer. Darius stared at him, wondering if he'd said too much. In all their years as friends, he'd never yelled at Blackstone, not about something personal. He'd only yelled at Blackstone when he thought the man was doing something crazy in his own life.

Did Darius hate his good friend? No. But he did resent him at times, and how easily everything came to him. Things hadn't been easy for Darius in a very long time.

"If you believe that Ariel is your Nora," Blackstone said, "then I don't understand why you're running away."

Darius shook his head. Maybe Blackstone would never understand him.

"I mean, you're not giving women much credit here."

"What?" Darius asked.

"Women," Blackstone said. "For every woman with a handsome husband, there are two who marry the homeliest guy in town. Haven't you ever seen gorgeous models on the arms of fairly ugly guys?"

"Ugly guys with money."

"That might be one explanation," Blackstone said. "But I think there might be other reasons. You think Ariel is gorgeous. I can see her beauty, but frankly, I think Nora's prettier."

"You think someone would find me better-looking than you?" Darius snorted. "You have a rich fantasy life."

"I think they might find you more appealing," Blackstone said.

"It hasn't happened in a thousand years," Darius said. "And I'm speaking from experience."

"Maybe you didn't give it a chance."

Darius frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"You're the one who told me that you're always rude. Maybe you've chased women off before they could get close to you."

"Don't you think they should overcome the rudeness?" Darius asked.

Blackstone smiled. "Do you really want me to answer that?"

Darius grabbed his beer and walked back to the sectional. He sat down near Blackstone and grimaced when his tiny feet didn't reach the floor.

"We're not talking about some imaginary woman. We're talking about Ariel," he said.

"Who interests you," Blackstone said.

"Who has a soul mate she hasn't met yet."

"Who's to say that this soul mate is right for her?"

Darius rolled his eyes. "That's what a soul mate is."

"But sometimes we pick the wrong ones. I thought Emma was mine for the longest time."

"I didn't," Darius said.

"You could be wrong about hers."

"I'm not," Darius said.

"Prove it," Blackstone said. "Stop running away from her. Be nice to her. Charm her."

"Charm is your department, or don't you remember, Mr. Prince Charming Prototype?"

Blackstone grinned. "I've never been a prince."

"But you are charming."

"Sometimes," Blackstone said. "I'm not asking you to be me."

"Good," Darius said, "because that's clearly impossible for me. I couldn't be charming even if I were good-looking."

And he knew that based on personal experience. No matter how he looked, women didn't flock to him. They just came closer when he looked like his original self than when he looked like Andrew Vari.

"All I'm saying," Blackstone said, "is fight for her."

"Why?" Darius asked. "So that she can leave me when her perfect soul mate comes along?"

Blackstone finished his beer and set the bottle on the floor. "I've never heard you be so defeatist."

"Maybe you haven't listened."

"You always supported me. In fact, you pushed me at times. I seem to recall you were the one who took me to Nora and who wouldn't let me forget how I felt about her, even though I thought I was going to be with Emma for the rest of my life."

"That's you," Darius said.

"That's my point," Blackstone said. "You do this for your friends, but not for yourself. I bet you're being n.o.ble so that your friend Darius can have her. But I don't see him here. He hasn't contacted her. She's trying to find him and she can't."

"Darius isn't her soul mate," Darius said.

"You know this because he told you?"

"He knows it." Darius finished his porter and then burped. He shouldn't have had the beer on an empty stomach.

"All right," Blackstone said for what seemed like the thousandth time. "Then you're being n.o.ble for some unknown soul mate, which is even more inexplicable. Being n.o.ble gets you nowhere. I did it for Nora and Max, and all she has to show for it was a slightly unpleasant divorce."

"You don't understand."

"You're right. I don't understand why you won't fight for the woman you love." His gaze met Darius's.

Darius closed his eyes and flopped backward on the sectional.

"I hired her," Blackstone said.

"So?" Darius said. He didn't open his eyes. "I quit."

"I want you to come back."

"Not while she's there."

"So you'll get the woman you love fired?"

"Stop saying that." Darius put an arm over his eyes, blotting out the light that filtered through his eyelids.

"Fired?"

"The woman you love. It sounds so pathetic."

"It sounds romantic," Blackstone said.

"Like you know romance," Darius muttered.

"What?"

"Nothing."

Blackstone sighed. "If I have to fire her to get you back, I will."

"What if I say I won't ever come back?" The words were hard to say. He didn't know what he'd do then.

"I don't know." Blackstone sounded sad. "I'd probably nag you for the next thousand years."

"Your restaurant won't be around that long."

"Says who?"

"Says the rules. How're you going to convince the world that you're not Alex Blackstone who has looked the same for the past two hundred years?"

"I have some ideas," he said.

Darius brought his arm down and opened his eyes. "What kinds of ideas?"

"I'd let someone else run it for a while, maybe."