"Being circuitous never helped me, and I'm still not sure that it didn't do great harm." She has a lot of regrets about the things she didn't say, and more than that, about the things she didn't and still doesn't know how to say. Whatever is locked inside of her, she feels sure it could have changed something.

Bomb is purring like a little furnace now, fat and happy and wanting to be petted. Re-l indulges her for a minute, then picks her up by the scruff of the neck and drops her onto Gabriel's lap.

"Amuse her, will you? She's digging her claws into my legs."