‘It’s what I do.’ She finished and set down her spoon. Who licked their fingers?

She had a sudden blast of memory. Nikos’s mother, Annia, standing at her kitchen table, endlessly baking. She remembered a plum pie that was to die for…

Before she could help herself, she let her finger drop into the bowl, ran it round the edges and licked. Not sure whether she was tasting soufflé now, or pie from the past.

‘How’s your mother?’ she asked.

“Great,” Nikos said. “She sends her love. She says come home-though if I take you home looking like this she’ll have forty fits.’

‘I loved your mother.’

It was said without thinking. She hadn’t meant it. Or…she hadn’t meant to say it.

‘She hated it when you went away, Thene.’

‘Yeah. Well.’ Suddenly she’d had enough. More than enough. Emotion was threatening to overwhelm her. She stood up, too fast. It made her feel dizzy. Disoriented. Nikos was beside her in a flash, gripping her elbow, supporting her.

She should wrench away. He made her…melt.

‘I need to go home.’

‘My car’s close.’

‘You have a car? Here? In Manhattan?’

‘Borrowed from Stefanos.’

Stefanos. Of course. The third member of the guardians.

Stefanos, Alexandros and Nikos had been friends from childhood. Three intelligent boys, bound by one common goal. To free their respective islands.

They’d run together as a pack. Only, of course, while Giorgos was alive they could do nothing. But now…

‘Stefanos is still in New York?’ she asked. She’d seen him once, when she’d walked into a city hospital to visit a friend. She’d turned and walked out before he’d seen her. She’d even thought of moving to another city because he was here. But that was ridiculous. It was a big city.

‘Stefanos is in Australia trying to find the heir to the throne of Khryseis. He’s Prince Regent of that island. Like you, he doesn’t have a choice.’