Arkady shrugs. "I would think that he could, but we never bothered to check. We never needed to." Arkady had promised Ashley that he'd never get married, and Ashley had also had no desire for marriage. They had belonged to each other, and no spouse would get in the way of that.

"Personally, I was hoping that Ashley would return as a ghost. I certainly wouldn't think he'd end up in the fields of Elysium." Ereuvir gave off the impression not of a Christian devil, but of something out of the Greek or Roman pantheon. He certainly looked like a Greek statue come to life. "Ashley was very wicked indeed. So am I. Ashley was the beauty of our family, and he wasn't above using it to his advantage."

The way Arkady speaks of Ashley being beautiful, it's not just an offhand comment or observation. There's a certain wistfulness in his voice when speaking of his brother.