"And I'm going to learn everything there is to know about you, because I want to know," she said. "Not because I have to."

Darius let those words sink in. "Nora--"

"If you tell me I'm too kind again, I'll slap you," she said. "That'll put an end to that argument."

"Yes, ma'am."

"And don't 'Yes, ma'am' me. I'm one one-thousandth your age."

"Yes, ma'am," he said.

She laughed. "There's the man I know and love."

Nora dragged him inside his house, which was built for a man much smaller than he was. His dog followed. And the afternoon, which had seemed so dark, didn't seem quite as hopeless after all.

Ariel finished washing the orange juice off herself while she tried to figure out what to do. She was feeling disconcerted. The world had changed, just not in the way that Darius thought.

Even if she went to him now, what would happen? Why would the universe put together two people with such radically different lifespans? Had his crime been so bad that he only got fifty years out of four thousand with the person he loved? That couldn't be fair. Or was he allowed more than one soul mate in that long life of his?

She frowned. She didn't like that idea. And she didn't know how to approach him. He was so convinced that she hated him now. Maybe Blackstone had had that reaction, but she hadn't. Darius's confession put her last six months in order. She finally understood them, and she felt much better for it.

A knock sounded at her door and she ran to it. Thank heavens he had come back. She had wanted to talk with him, and she didn't even know where he had gone.

Ariel yanked the door open, started to tell Darius she was glad he'd returned, and stopped.

Blackstone was standing before her, looking as if he hadn't slept in two days. Considering that he looked fine that morning, she figured something else was wrong with him.

"May I come in?" he asked.

She let out a small puff of air. No visitors the entire time she lived here, then two men in the same day.

"Why not?" She held the door open.

He stepped inside.

"If you're here to convince me to come back to the job," she said, "you're wasting your breath. I--"

"I'm not here for that." Blackstone shoved his hands in his pockets. What was it with magical men? Did they have to control their hands when they were nervous?

"Then what do you want?" She sounded ruder than she had planned to, but she was angry with him. She hadn't realized that until now.

"I came to tell you something about Andrew Vari."

Ariel slammed the door. Blackstone jumped.

"He was just here," she said. "I know everything."

"Everything?" he asked.

She nodded. "And I think you are being colossally unfair to him. He just had his whole life screwed up and you blamed him for not being honest with you? Where's your compa.s.sion? Don't you know what it's like to go through life taking care of others and doing nothing for yourself?"

Blackstone winced. "Nora already gave me this lecture."

"Good," Ariel said. "Dar left here all upset. You should make sure he's all right."

"Why aren't you doing that?"

"Because he thinks I hate him."

"Do you?" Blackstone asked.

"No," she said. "I'm in love with him."

"Does he know that?"

"I told him this morning." She crossed her arms.

"This morning he was someone else," Blackstone said.

"No, he wasn't."

"But you thought he was." Blackstone peered at her. "You need to tell him now."

"You've been mad at him all day and suddenly you're arguing his case?" Ariel took a step away from him. She had respected Blackstone until today, but now she wasn't sure what kind of man he was. "What's going on here?"

Blackstone closed his eyes and shook his head. "Nora reminded me that I mixed up my role in this little drama."

"Role?" Ariel asked.

Blackstone nodded. "I'm not the center of this story. I'm the sidekick. And the sidekick's job is to make sure everyone lives happily ever after."

"How do you plan on doing that?" Ariel asked. "You're not the matchmaker here."

"That's right," Blackstone said. "But my best friend is a good one, and I think it's time that you and he have a little talk."

Nora had found some chocolate chip cookies in his cupboard, and then she had brewed some Awake tea--apparently on the theory that Darius's system hadn't been stimulated enough that day. She fed Munin some of his puppy chow and made up a bed for him. The little guy ate as if he'd been starving, then fell into the sleep of the pure at heart.

Darius had just started his fifth cookie and fourth apology of the hour when the air crackled. Then Ariel appeared before him, Blackstone at her side.

Ariel looked confused. She blinked, then seemed to recognize where she was. And she didn't seem at all angry that Blackstone had brought her here.

"What's this?" Darius asked Blackstone. "Yet another way to make me feel guilty? I know what I've done to you. I know what I've done to Ariel. I'm trying to convince Nora to stop being so nice to me. You can all leave me alone. I'll be fine. I've been fine for three thousand years. A few more won't hurt."

Blackstone raised that eyebrow of his in that odd way he had and then he smiled. "I'm the one who should apologize," he said. "I treated you very badly this afternoon. You've always been a good friend to me, and when you've needed someone I haven't been there. Well, I'm here now-- and I'm in the way."

He held out his hand to his wife. Nora smiled and stood, slipping her fingers around his. They suited each other so well. Ariel watched them with clear envy. Darius felt that envy too.

"You couldn't tell couples they were meant for each other," Blackstone said, "or you'd screw up your stupid sentence. Well, I don't have a sentence, so I can tell you that you two are meant for each other, and if you don't get together, you'll screw up your lives."

"Aethelstan," Nora said, pulling on his arm, "that's enough."

"No, it's not." Blackstone's gaze met Darius's. "We're still friends, you're staying here, and you're not fired from the restaurant. You can come back if you want to work for an idiot boss."

"So nothing's changed then?" Darius asked, with a touch of Andrew Vari's humor.

Blackstone seemed to catch it. "Nothing's changed. Yet."

He put his hand behind Ariel and pushed her a step forward. She staggered toward Darius as if she hadn't expected the motion.

"Have fun, kids," Blackstone said, then he raised his arms. He and his wife disappeared in a clap of thunder. Ariel blinked, as if the magic had blinded her.

"I wonder what they're going to do about the car," Darius said.

"The car?" Ariel asked.

"Nora drove here."

Ariel put her hands on the back of one of his kitchen chairs. "Somehow I don't think that'll be a problem."

She stared at him for a long moment, as if she wasn't sure what to say. He stared back, feeling guarded and alone and manipulated. He'd already said his good-byes to her. What right did Blackstone have to throw them together again?

"I have some questions," Ariel said after a long moment.

"Okay." Darius picked up his sixth cookie, then realized he hadn't eaten the fifth. "Fire away."

"How come you magic people get more than one soul mate and we mere mortals get only one?"

"Huh?" he asked.

"You heard me."

"I did," he said. "I didn't understand you."

"Well, I figure it like this," she said. "You live for thousands of years, and I only live for maybe seventy-five. If I'm your soul mate, then you only get to be happy for, maybe, fifty years. And that's not fair. No matter what you've done--considering that you said it wasn't genocide or anything--you don't deserve that."

"I guess not." He was feeling a bit confused. Why was she going on about this?

"So I want to tell those Fates or is it the B Powers--?"

"The Powers That Be."

"Them," Ariel said, "that you deserve better than this. I mean, Blackstone and Nora are both magic, so they get the rest of their lives together. I don't know about the other people you've put together, but I a.s.sume their lives are pretty similar."

He nodded, not sure what to say.

"So I want to tell off those people in charge of your life. They haven't been nice or fair to you. And that's wrong. How come no one can see what a good person you are? Is it because you're sarcastic or because they put some other spell on you to make it seem like you don't do half the things you do and only I can see what you do because I see magic around the edges?"

He stood. Her cheeks were flushed, and she looked more beautiful than he had ever seen her. She was defending him. He had told her the truth, let her go, and she had come here, ready to defend him. What had he done to deserve her?

"If I asked you to marry me," he asked, "would you do it?"

She took a deep breath, tilted her head, and looked at him sideways. Then she blinked, as if she were coming out of a deep sleep, and said, "No."

All the hope he'd been feeling a moment before faded. He sat back down in the chair.

She came toward him and knelt before him, taking his hand in hers. "It's not because I don't love you. I love you more than anyone, Darius or Andrew or Andvari or whoever you are. I didn't think it was possible to love anyone like I love you. But marrying you just isn't fair. I won't live long enough to approximate anything like happily ever after with you."

d.a.m.n the rules. The Fates were even going to screw up his chance at being with his soul mate. But the Fates were right; if he told her that she could live as long as he did so long as they were a couple, he'd always wonder if it was the lifespan that kept them together.

"What if I tell you I'd take you for five minutes, if that's all I had?" He leaned toward her. Their faces were only inches apart.

"I'd say you're a fool. You can do better."

"No," he said. "I can't. I've lived long enough to know that you're the only woman for me."

She paled, and his heart sank even farther. She didn't want him. When she finally had to choose, she didn't want him. She had tried to hide it under a rational argument, making it sound as if she didn't want to be unfair to him. And maybe she didn't. Ariel was an inherently kind person, and he was asking her--forcing her--to live in a world that she hadn't even known existed a few hours ago. Talk about unfair. He was the one who was being unfair.

"You'd take me for only five minutes?" she asked.

He nodded. "And I'd cherish every single one of those minutes for as long as I lived."

She stared at him for a long time. He couldn't read the emotion in her green eyes. She was probably thinking of a way to leave him, to let him off easily. But he wasn't giving it to her. This was his last chance, and he wasn't going to screw it up.

"Five minutes," she said again. "Out of four thousand years?"

"Yes."

She closed her eyes and he felt bereft, as if he had already lost her. "Ask me again."

He had so expected her to say something else that her words barely registered. "What?"

"Ask me again. That question you asked earlier. Ask me again." She opened her eyes, and he saw pleading in them, but he wasn't sure what it meant.

"If I asked you to marry me, would--ah, h.e.l.l." He pulled her off her knees, stood, whirled them both around until she was sitting in the chair. Then he knelt in front of her. "Ariel, will you marry me?"

"It's not fair," she whispered.

"Answer the question," he said, taking her right hand in his left.

"I'd be the only one who'd benefit from this."

"No, you wouldn't, Ariel. Five minutes, fifty years. It's about living happily in the moment, not ever after. Ever after doesn't exist for anyone. We all die, eventually. Even those of us who have long lives. It's about living day to day, the best way you can, not knowing what will happen next."

He was drowning and she didn't seem to know it. He had allowed himself to hope and he knew it was wrong. The door would slam and he'd be here, alone, knowing that he had no future at all. But he had to try.

"Ariel," he said, "will you--"

"Yes!" She flung herself into his arms. "Oh, G.o.d, yes."