I’m not really sure how to start this next chapter, what with everything being so dreadful already. In fact, maybe it’d be better if you just put this book down and switched on the television instead. What’s that? You still want to know? All right, then. But don’t say I didn’t warn you and do try to remember that even though they killed the messengers in ancient times when they brought bad news, it is absolutely not the same for storytellers. You see, as Alex and Aries huddled together, hot and miserable in the dust, Jason was relaxing on a bar stool. That’s right. Relaxing. Oh, he’d heard those seven bells ringing too, but now, taking another sip of his mango fruit cocktail, they’d only made him wonder why Estella, the beautiful woman he’d met in the opera house that afternoon, was a little late for their date.
