It took the slightest shift of his head to bring his lips round to hers. He left her room to back off at any point, and she didn’t, and they kissed. He’d imagined the moment far too many times. And afterwards, every time, all the spectres of his regulated existence had risen from their unquiet graves to castigate him. This time, Alison Matchell’s lips still carried a faint sheen of cold from her communion with elder, ancient things. Even as they came together she had to shift awkwardly, because she’d been in one position for slightly too long. She ended up accidentally butting him in the temple and then almost biting him. It was, hands down, the most romantic moment Julian could remember. And in the next second he was pulling her to him, her reciprocal grip almost painfully tight. Years of suppressed longing sprang free of their shackles, running rampant through all the primal parts of his brain.

They broke apart, and he was suddenly aware that Cam’s grotesque avatar was right there—regarding them placidly and thinking who knew what. With a start he made to pull away, but Alison wouldn’t let him. She had already worked out that if Julian Sabreur had a moment to think, he would clam up again and that would be that. And he didn’t want to clam either. He wanted Alison. He wanted to throw propriety out the window this once and have what he wanted, what they both wanted.

They backed out of the avatar’s presence and found a suite of deserted windowless chambers. Here they claimed one of the leathery, yielding surfaces Cam had manifested for them to sleep on. Not exactly a honeymoon in a four-star hotel, and they were both short of a good wash. They also felt tired, old and unutterably insignificant beneath the shadow of vast events. But it just meant that what they did didn’t matter: they were free. He laid her down and she practically dragged him on top of her, wrestling with his belt as his hands slipped under her blouse.

When Kay came to find them, later, she was utterly delighted.

I

“The timing will be the trickiest thing,” Kay explained, looking over her impromptu audience. Mal and Lee, Stig and Auruthmer, all sitting there like schoolkids; Alison and Julian still pretending they weren’t an item. And at the back were Rove and his brute, because every Eden needed a serpent, apparently. Kay had never been terribly good at explanations to the uninitiated, but she’d prepped carefully, because this wasn’t going to be news any of them wanted to hear.