Salim pauses. That name coming out of Niko’s mouth doesn’t ring true to his ears. Not anymore. Whatever inhibition refused his old name is gone, and now it’s the new one that doesn’t fit. “I’m Salo,” he says. “And as for kissing me, I’m not sure what you’re waiting for because—” Musalodi, no longer Salim, does not finish whatever he was going to say, his lips captured in a sudden and forceful kiss. It is familiar and yet different in electrifying ways, and it goes on and on until they hear the drone of the Ataraxis as it arrives with the rest of their friends.
