No cake, but so many candles.

Nickolas, sprawled in a chair, smiled a moment ago, as precious a gift as anything that could be in the little wrapped box pressed from one white hand into another.

Sound of wind, leather, silk, and then Janette is in his arms, marking his cheek with lipstick and holding him tight. She pins a brooch in the shape of a dragon at his collar, deliberately pricking him, delicately licking away the drop of blood.

In the doorway he sees a tiny figure, her eyes exactly like his own. Finally, all his children are together.