Three months had turned Oxford from a cold city of strangers into a private kingdom for Laksh and Arya. They were no longer the "Ice King and the Haveli Girl"—they were the university’s undisputed power couple. To everyone else, Laksh was still sharp and distant, but everyone knew that his "Firewall" didn't exist when Arya was in the room.

Laksh had officially moved into his Jericho loft, and while Arya kept her dorm for "strategic reasons" (mostly to keep Chloe from feeling lonely), she spent almost every evening there. The loft now had Jaipur rugs, half-empty bags of Indian chips, and two coffee mugs that always sat side-by-side.