And of course he was right; Zelda tilted her head back and looked up at the ceiling. "What they don't understand," she said, distant, "Is that - if it's not you, I'm just going to be alone." She had never been alone in her life.

Dionisia was married, February was married, Jo would always choose her adventures. Jack had Quidditch and a family and wealth. Nemo and Dory would get married, Leonid would get married, Julian would get married - Xena would do something with society if she could not become someone's stepmother.

This situation was a puzzle she could not solve, but there had to be something - there had to be something because these things were supposed to work out, because Alfred saw her in a way that no one else did, because eventually all the rest of them would be gone and grown.

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