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Julius was worried. “Rye’s not going to Phaze with his vicious woman at our house, right?” (Randa could only assume that he meant her house, but okay.) “She’s sure to be loud.”

“Tallulah Jayne wouldn’t be caught dead in a rented bungalow. She has a pink mansion on the other side of town. I promise you, she’ll take him there.” Randa shook her head. “I just hope Rye is safe with that redheaded tyrant.”

Kahn beamed. “I love how you are protective of all the Light Phases.”

“I just want to make sure you guys are safe. Just because you’re big, dumb idiots, doesn’t mean I’ll let people take advantage of you.”

“Rye will be fine. Your matchmaking was a success!”

“I don’t want the credit for hooking him up with Tallulah Jayne. He was supposed to find a nice, respectable Match. Not someone who has naked pictures of her, that guy from those Disney Channel movies, and a boa constrictor plastered all over the internet. And as for Ashley…” Craning her head to look out the restaurant window, Randa could see the doctor already getting into her car out in the rainy parking lot. “I just hope she doesn’t fire me as a patient. I don’t think her date with Julius was a success.”

“She is a sweet little girl.” Julius smiled fondly. “It was kind of her parents to let us babysit her on a school night.”

“Ashley is an adult woman.” Randa stressed for the millionth time. “Humans do not need to be ninety-three before you can date them.”

Julius refused to accept that reality. “I’m not about to Phaze with a child.” He shuddered, disgusted by the very idea. “No, if human culture is so backwards and vile, I’ll Match with a mermaid instead. Sex-tails sound interesting. Find me a date with one of those finned women.”

Randa gave up, dropping her head into her hands.

“You still have two other Light Phases you can find respectable, human Matches for.” Kahn commiserated. “In fact, I’m sure Mannus and Daven will gladly share a non-respectable one.”

Randa burst out giggling, because they absolutely would.

Kahn grinned like she’d handed him a trophy. One giant arm draped along the back of Randa’s chair, careful not to touch her, but undeniably sharing her personal space. Now that their energies were freely touching, Kahn seemed to be testing physical boundaries. He sat very still, waiting for her to tell him to move.

Randa didn’t tell him to move.

Kahn drew in a satisfied breath and relaxed.

Randa’s misbehaving energy coiled around him like a contented cat.

…And that’s when the memory sharing started.

.

Chapter Twenty-One

The weightless element that has lived within it flashes…

This essential consciousness needs no body for its travels….

There are moments when the two appear inseparable,

and others when they could be cut apart by the merest flash of light.

Charles Lindbergh

Randa was inside Kahn’s memories.

Even knowing the memory-sharing was coming, because it came for all Matches, it was still a shock. She’d been dropped into reruns of Kahn’s life. It was like she was really there, experiencing it all alongside him. Witnessing it and feeling it and understanding it. Kahn couldn’t see or hear her, but otherwise it was painfully real.

Randa turned in a slow circle, staring up at the towering trees of the Light House jungle. Even the gods seemed young compared to this forest. It was so old and the trees were so massive, she could feel their ancient souls. After she was finished touring all the human cities, it wouldn’t be so horrible to live in a kingdom surrounded by these sentinels. It was the most peaceful place she’d ever seen.

She would’ve expected memory sharings to be fuzzier. Water-colored impressions of distant moments. Instead, she could smell the richness of the soil on the ground and see the dew gathered on each leaf. She might as well have been standing in the actual forest.

This was Kahn’s memory, so everything in it had to be something he’d noticed and filed away. It was all stored in his head. Every detail was catalogued like the world was one big engineering diagram. For the scene to be this vivid, he must retain so much more information than most people.

Kahn was smart. She knew that. But to see the intricacies of his mind illustrated before her in high definition was kind of humbling.