Bo watched as the red sun glazed the grand domes and tops of the minarets with a golden light; and she heard the throaty, yearning song of the azan echo and curl through the hills and streets of Istanbul calling the faithful to prayer. She did not understand the words but the ache in the singer’s cry resonated within her. Like Majnun, she had fallen into madness and now searched the world for her beloved. Perhaps the song awakened her faith and brought down any hollow oath she’d made in the desert of her despair. It was time for hope, to feel the beautiful with the terrible, to go on.

To go on.

The Mediterranean Sea, sailing west

”Hate the game not the play-a,” Lauren said to Kenzi, the words coming out a bit starched.

”Okay, no,” Kenzi snickered. “You cannot start running my lines just because you have me quoting Neruda and shit.”

”I won’t stay out too late. I’ll be back at a decent hour.”

”I don’t care if it’s indecent. I worry about you, Lauren. About us. I mean, we have brought the word incredible to a whole new level, but—”

”Stop complaining. What do you always say? Learn to enjoy your shit.”

Kenzi snorted and dropped her forehead into her palms as she sat back in Lauren’s bed. ”Sunburns and seasickness.”

”What?” Lauren had almost made a clean getaway with one foot out the door. She closed it with a thud and prepared for the fight that had been brewing between them.

”You heard me,” her voice snapping and clearly hostile. ”That’s your shit now, Lauren, and we both know you’re better than that. Unlike me, you actually know how to do stuff. You hand out aspirins and Dramamine like candy. You take inventory of the number of bottles of aloe in stock—every day. You haven’t said one sciency thing in weeks. I’m starting to feel smarter than you and that can’t be good.”

Lauren advanced toward the bed, flipping the pictures on the bed like cards, then another and another, handling them roughly and briskly, as if the edges were on fire.

”Stop! Careful!” Kenzi thrust her hand out for Lauren to stop. ”That’s my work.”