Jake looked at the lantern light moving against the high ceiling of Raaya Villa and thought about a woman he would never meet, whose name had been carved into the stone of this building, whose maidens had crossed the world to find him, whose blood had mixed with his father's to produce a mark that looked like a lucky charm and turned out to be something considerably more significant than that.
He thought about thirty-six half-siblings, only one of whom had bothered to introduce himself, and about an uncle who had been keeping a seat warm and waiting.
He thought about Chelsea asleep somewhere in this enormous villa; Gran Rosalinda; and Eskar discovering that the servants' quarters of Raaya Villa were probably nicer than anything he had lived in before.
He thought about Karut's pleasant smile.
"Thirty-six," Jake said one final time, softly, to no one in particular.
Then he stood from his seat, thanked the maidens for the welcome, and told Raani he would talk to her in the morning.
