The street ended. Below us a vast graveyard of broken buildings stretched, some little more than heaps of concrete dust, some still faintly recognizable as their former selves. The moonlight gleamed on a million shards of glass. Wooden bridges spanned the wreckage. To the left, behind the empty shells of the buildings, turquoise and orange fog rose, like a faint aurora borealis that had fallen from the sky. Unicorn Lane, the place where magic raged and bucked like an infuriated wild horse. We would be keeping clear. Only fools visited the Unicorn when the magic was up.

We started on the long bridge.

“So what about you?” Roman asked. “You seem different.”

“How?”

“You were all clenched up before.” He drew his hand over his face, turning his expression somber. “Very serious. Robot Andrea.”

Robot, huh? I showed him the edge of my teeth. “You liked me anyway.”

“Well, how can you not like this?” He indicated me with his hands. “I’m only a man.”

“You are shameless.”

He grinned. “But no, seriously. Something happened? Or is it just because Katya was there?”

“Katya?”

“Kate. Your friend.”

“Oh. No, it’s not her.” I shrugged. “I spent a long time locking up a part of myself. I thought it was best that I suppress my animal side. You know, the bad part.”

He nodded.

“But it wasn’t bad. Turned out I had been smothering something essential inside myself. Maimed it. I hobbled myself like a prisoner in leg irons and then heroically limped through life. When I think about all of the fun I could’ve had, all the chances I could’ve taken, it makes me a little sick. But now I’m free. Maybe a little too free, but I’m enjoying it.”

“Enjoying is good,” he said.

“You understand about letting go, don’t you?” I asked. He probably didn’t get to let himself off the chain that often either.

His face turned grim. “I let go, lives end. People like me have many names. Volhv, kudesnik, which means ‘magician,’ charodei, which means ‘enchanter,’ but the most common term in history was mudrets. A wise man. People say that wisdom is bought with experience, which is just a polite way of saying that you’ll fuck up a lot, people will get hurt, and your guilt will gnaw on you in your dreams. Well, I’ve earned my wisdom, every drop of it. Let’s talk of something else. Let’s talk of how when we get to your office, you will offer me a cup of tea. You drink tea, right?”

I nodded. Maybe I would offer him a cup of tea. Why not?

“What kind of tea?”

“Earl Grey, if I can get it.”

“You put sugar in it?”

“No.”

He stopped, a shocked expression on his face. “No sugar?”

“No.”

“You have to have sugar. And lemon.”