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“Have you been helping her?”

“No way. I’m just saying that she seems to be on our side. …And that her mere presence suggests multiple timelines and possibly even dimensions. Like a Marvel movie.”

Job grudgingly accepted his word for it. Water Phases were honest, they were just eccentric, stubborn, and always picked up for the underdogs. “If you want to discuss academic theories, you should go back to teaching. You’ve been in this stalled place in your mind for too long. Maybe you could even reopen the university.”

“All the other professors are dead.”

“You could work with some of your old students.”

“They’re dead, too.” Tharsis’ voice went flatter. “Everyone I ever taught or worked with is dead. And there is no one left who wants to learn. And even if there was, what would be the point, now?”

“The point is rebuilding our society, for future generations.”

Thar shook his head, like that answer was unbelievably naive. “I don’t worry about the future, anymore. There’s no reason to bother. The universe --all of them-- is just absolute randomness, times infinity, and nobody is at the controls.”

“If you believe that, it’s all the more reason for you to take some control.”

Tharsis frowned, considering that point. “You think?”

“Yes! You have to snap out of this malaise, Thar. You may not be worried about the future, but other people still worry about you.”

“Why?” Tharsis went back to reading his book. “I’m the only one who’s got it all figured out.”

Chapter Nineteen

Two crucial elements of any team… Communication and timing.

Hell’s Kitchen

Kahn stared down at the vase of blood-red lilies, rage clouding the edges of his mind.

No flower arrangements had been sent to Randa in days. Now there was a gigantic vase of them sitting in her kitchen, polluting the early afternoon air. The stalker was back.

“Did Randa see these?”

“She opened the front door to check her mail, and they were waiting on the porch.” Julius ran a hand through his hair. “She’s sitting out there, right now. I think she wanted to prove that she wouldn’t be intimidated.”

“She’s alone?” Panicked at that idea, Kahn rushed over to peer out the open front door. He could see Randa sitting on the step, silently observing the quiet street.

He started breathing again. She was safe.

“Mannus and Daven are watching her discreetly. She’s never alone.” Julius assured Kahn in the Light Phase dialect. “Just let her have a private moment to collect herself.”

“I left her with you assholes for thirty minutes and this happened.” Kahn retorted in the same language. “Your advice is noted and ignored.

This was all the other Light Phases fault.

Since he was terrified of screwing things up with Randa, Kahn had been careful with what he said this morning. In fact, he didn’t talk, at all. Not an ideal way to win over his new Match, but it also wouldn’t get him renounced.

Instead, he’d silently watched Randa make pancakes. The Light Phases were fascinated with her cooking. She’d added chocolate, bananas, pecans, potato chips, and any other ingredients they wanted to try in the batter. She’d let them sample whipped cream, syrup, and powdered sugar for toppings. She’d even made the pancakes into rectangle shapes, when Daven complained that “all the best human breakfast foods are square, like Cinnamon Toast Crunch, frozen waffles, and Cheez-Its.”

Then Randa fried bacon. Rye nearly cried at his first bite. Mannus did cry.

It was a blissful experience to share a communal meal again. None of the Light Phases had had the heart to cook since the Fall. It brought back too many memories of their dead families. Eating together now felt healing. It signified their future. Randa had given them a new family to belong to.

She was now everyone’s favorite member of the Light House.

Randa had seemed happy, too. She enjoyed cooking, although Kahn wasn’t about to let the other Light Phases eat her food every day. First off, it was more work for her, and she worked enough. Secondly, everything she made should rightfully belong to him. He was willing to share meals with the other men sometimes, but there was a limit to his selflessness.