“I think you’ll have to talk to Father about keeping it secret. And maybe to all of us. Because it doesn’t just affect you. If people know you have powers, they’ll want to know why.”

“I’ll talk to Father.” He looked as if he was bracing himself for it. “And Kallikles and Phaedrus. And it will depend what my powers are, and whether they’d be useful. I wish I could choose what they would be. I’d love so much to be able to fly. Would you take me up again? Just for a little bit?”

“Of course.” It was lovely to meet such enthusiasm. I swooped up with him in my arms. We went quite high, so he could see the landscape, and then I let him direct me along the stream toward a cove. I took him down again then and set him down gently on the black sand. I spiraled a few times around the cove before coming down in front of him, on the edge of the sea. Only then did I see a man sitting against the base of the cliff, with his arms wrapped around his legs, watching us. Ikaros.

He looked stunned and delighted. There was no point pretending it hadn’t happened, because he’d clearly seen the whole thing, and besides there were no tracks in the sand. “Joy to you,” I said.

Porphyry spun around. “Ikaros! Joy to you,” he stammered. “We were just … that is I … my sister was just showing me…”

“She’s an angel!” Ikaros believed every word he was saying, but that didn’t make it true.

I flew over to him in one swoop and sat down in the sand beside him. I pinched the skin of the back of his hand. “Real,” I said. “Not an angel.”

“So was Sophia—Athene—as tangible and corporeal as anyone else,” he said. “She never pinched me, but I brushed against her several times and touched her hands when we were acquiring art together. But if you’re not an angel, explain to me what you are, and I’ll figure out how it all fits together.”

I opened my mouth, but Porphyry interrupted before I could. “Don’t tell him anything.”

He was standing, with his shadow falling over me. He had composed himself in the walk across the beach and no longer looked worried. “What? Why?”

“For one thing it’s not only your secret, as you were just telling me. But I’ve just worked out the most important reason is that knowing for sure would break his heart.”

I frowned up at him. “How? You said before he’d work out how it fit together, and that’s just what he said himself.”