He’d come back, Astrid knew, and forcing the issue would be a mistake. She still heard the four of them up ahead in the future—her, him, and the kids. Chattering, getting along. Happy. It didn’t help the hurt she was feeling now. He’d dumped her. Walked away, like Sahara. And she should’ve seen it coming—he dumped Roche, didn’t he? He was a dumper. Maybe I should seduce that marshal. It was an entertaining thought: Why restrict herself to one lover, after all? I’ll get a harem. The idea provoked a halfhearted giggle. Her true self, Astrid Prime, was aboveground for the first time in weeks. Since recovering from the sea-glass poisoning, she’d let Mark bully her into remaining within her cave of wonders. They’d expanded her chanting operation there, and she’d kept making objects that could save lives. Olive and the Lifeguards were recruiting more and more volunteers to forestall disasters when the unreal popped. The pile of portraits in Limbo was shrinking by the day; everything seemed to be going well.
