“A—ris—ta?” Degan asked, sounding horse. “What is it?”“A rat bit me,” she said, once again shocked by her own rasping voice.“Jasper does that if—” Gaunt coughed and hacked. After a moment, hespoke again. “If he thinks you’re dead or too weak to fight.”“Jasper?”“I call him that, but I’ve also named the stones in my cell.”“I only counted mine,” Arista said.“Two hundred and thirty-four,” Degan replied instantly.“I have two hundred and twenty-eight.”“Did you count the cracked ones as two?”“No.”

“Turn left in two hundred feet ” the computerized voice said in a cheery voice. “There is no turn in two hundred feet you bitch ” I yelled toward the screen. “Zoom out.” Nothing happened. “ZOOM. OUT ” I said again louder before the screen responded to the voice-activated command.”

“What's the matter with her? [Jasper] asked Griffin.Griffin shook his head. 'Nothing. She's just two personas struggling for dominance in one body.'[Jasper] ... Poor little thing.”

“As we walked, Lara ratted off statistics that I only half listened to. They were unbelievable anyway.Over a million cubic feet of living space. More than three hundred rooms, thirty-one of which were kitchens. Ninety-eight bathrooms. Three hundred and fifty-nine windows. Two thousand four hundred and seventy-six lightbulbs.”

“I’m a bit of a novice myself.” She smiled. Then she turned back to Jasper. “And please, call me Payton.”Like one of my favorite quarterbacks,” Jasper grinned.Only with an a instead of an e. And slightly fewer yards in passing,” Payton said. Damn—now she’d already blown one of the three measly sports references she knew in the first two minutes.Jasper laughed. “Slightly fewer yards in passing—I like that.” He turned to J.D., gesturing to Payton. “Where have you been hidin’ this girl, J.D.?”

“A feeling rose in me, and I just let it, because what harm could it do? It only had another thirty-two adagio bars of life in this world. Twenty-four. Sixteen. Eight more bars in which I love you. Three. Two. One.”