"On behalf of your crew, kia ora and thank you for flying with us. We look forward to seeing you…"

"Look." Astra slid up the window shade and tipped her head. Bright light flooded their row, the sky a deep azure.

Eydis leaned in until her nose brushed Astra's cheek, close enough to feel the hitch of her breath, smirking when Astra stiffened.

"Behave, Eydis," Astra murmured, an endearing scowl forming as her gaze flicked between Eydis's face and the insolent hand tracing idle circles on her bare thigh.

Honestly, whose fault was it that Her Holiness had turned up for winter dressed like she wanted trouble? The Queen of Shadows was nothing if not hospitable.

"How do you expect me to behave?" Eydis purred, low enough to keep the conversation theirs. Her fingers eased under the mid-thigh stocking. "Summer clothes, scorching consequences."

Astra opened her mouth, then closed it with a fond eye roll. "Mm. Keep teasing and you'll regret missing the view."

"Please. What could be more breathtaking than…" Eydis leaned further towards the window, one arm looping around Astra's shoulders. Her voice, and perhaps her breath, caught at the first glimpse of what lay below.

A serpent of water twisted through dark-blue ranges, widening towards a calm ocean the colour of the sky. Near the horizon a long sheet of pale gold pooled and shimmered. Mountains stacked like frozen waves, their peaks white with snow.

The aircraft began to sink. Pressure gathered in her ears but it did nothing to make the sight feel less unreal.

"See it?" Astra said.

Eydis tightened her arm around Astra and brushed a kiss against the corner of her mouth, tasting the faint sweetness of honeydew melon.

Colour touched Astra's cheeks. "You okay?"

"I am. Thank you. For showing me."

"It's my first time here, too."

"And yet the sight did not move you, Astra?"

Crimson eyes held hers. "It did, still does." Astra leaned in and kissed her gently.

Eydis's heart still stumbled. Public affection was not Astra's thing, and it was not Eydis's either, unless her head was too full with… no. Unimportant. It was simply that Astra always seemed to know precisely what to do and what to say. Every time.

Astra lifted two fingers. The air around them shimmered, and the cabin noise dulled as if swallowed.

"So, what's the real story? The hand on my thigh was a distraction, wasn't it?"

"I… it wasn't only that." Eydis sat back, clicking her seat upright. "I don't procrastinate, but here I am."

"You deserve a break after everything." Astra squeezed her hand.

"It's more than that. It isn't like me to grow attached to a body that isn't mine. Or a world that isn't mine. I wonder…" Eydis searched the window for an answer and found only light.

"I have grown attached to both," Astra admitted with a tiny cough, cheeks warming.

Eydis cupped her face. "You are dangerous, Your Holiness. You're getting too good at flirting."

"Flirting?" Astra's smile rivalled the view. "No, Your Majesty. That was an unfiltered truth."

Eydis's smile matched hers. Astra felt a touch unreal, which made telling the truth easier than swallowing it. This body's owner sat closer to Eydis than she liked to admit, at least in temperament.

That led to the other question.

"Your power stayed with you. Mine leaked out because the Sins aren't tied to this body. My working theory." She chose honesty and met Astra's eyes. "Why are the mechanics different? And am I truly the only one with a doppelgänger in this world?"

Partly honest. She was thinking of Damien, too. If the knight had crossed over, he would have kept both power and flesh, the way Astra had. So why was it so quiet out there?

"I don't have a double," Astra answered carefully. "My… friend ran facial-recognition searches across global databases to see who I might be. Nothing matched. No record anywhere."

Resourceful. Eydis did not believe in coincidences. He had appeared not long after Astra crossed into this world, as if he knew exactly where to wait. He'd only helped, yes, yet he smelled of a long game.

Astra had likely noticed as much. Yesterday there had been smoke in their kisses.

A rumble travelled through the cabin as the plane touched down. Astra closed a hand over hers. "Don't worry too much. And welcome to Queenstown."

Eydis nodded and set worry aside, for now.

They breezed through customs. Their bags appeared almost at once, because Queenstown's terminal had decided to be a ghost town. The snow had not shown up this year, unprecedented, said the news, and the city had replied by cancelling most of its people. This was how a lakefront suite at the finest five-star resort had cost them a few clicks.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

Outside, the cold bit happily and the sky was a kind, postcard blue, lovely to look at and useless for snow.

"Hopefully the glaciers will fare better," Astra said, stealing the thought straight from Eydis. "There will still be snow up there."

"Artificial, perhaps. And also…" Eydis wondered whether she had grown careless with her face or Astra had become unreasonably good at reading it. "Is empathy part of the pantheon's power? Asking for science."

"You might be right."

Eydis gave her best appalled look, and Astra cracked a smile. They stowed their luggage in a sleek metallic grey rental.

"About the artificial part. As for the empath accusation," Astra added, "you have a tell."

"I am a fortress." Eydis straightened.

"Almost. Your lashes flutter when you are disappointed."

"How observant."

"I try. It helps to know whether you like a certain thing." Astra leaned close, lips near her ear. "Or not."

"Like a leather miniskirt."

"Like a leather miniskirt," Astra agreed, mouth tipping into an unholy little smirk.

"You are getting too good at this," Eydis said, sliding into the passenger seat as Astra settled behind the wheel.

"And what will you do about it?"

"Counterpleasures," Eydis purred. "The kind we both enjoy immensely."

"You are all threat." Astra laughed, tapped the pedal, then flicked the car into auto-drive. She turned and rose, arranging herself across Eydis's lap with that saintly confidence that made nonsense of the word saintly.

"You are not driving?" Eydis lifted a brow, though her hands were already exploring the soft hem of Astra's skirt, tracing heat along the inside of her thigh.

"The car is. I am otherwise engaged, since you teased me for five hours and made me reconsider joining the Mile High club."

"The what?"

Astra declined to elaborate. The car glided out. Light from Lake Wakatipu skipped across the windscreen and pooled into the cabin.

"You tempt me with modern diction. And your flagrant rebellion," Eydis said solemnly.

Astra's fingers teased the nape of her neck. Goosebumps rose like traitors. "I know."

Eydis bit her lower lip. She was still learning how far Astra could tip when pushed, and how much she wanted to be the push.

Fine. Fine. She had not planned to use this power, but who was she to refuse when the Virtuous Saintess sinned so decadently?

A red haze climbed the windows, lust's shimmer turning the car into an illusion chamber. From outside, the scene would only look ordinary.

Lust tried to speak. She swatted it back into the Deep and returned to the more compelling study of Astra. Her palm smoothed along Astra's thigh, thumb catching on the delicate lace, circling once before coaxing it lower.

Astra swore under her breath, lifted to help, then nudged the garment aside. She laced both hands through Eydis's hair and drew her in until their noses almost touched. The tug said hurry.

"Either way, I win this round." Her voice arrived deliciously husky.

How sinful.

"We will test that." Eydis kissed the dip of her collarbone, then the slope of her shoulder. "Concede and save yourself."

"Never. You only have fifteen minutes 'til we reach the town centre." Astra's deft fingers found the pearl buttons at Eydis's high collar and worked them open one by one, baring the kiss marks she had planted the night before in that ridiculously pink abomination of a room.

Eydis hadn't healed them for a reason. The reason sat clear in Astra's eyes now, bright and dark at once. At this rate not even stone walls or iron chains could stop them from f—well, that was a dangerous suggestion.

She let the cashmere fall to her waist and caught Astra's hands before the dress could go farther.

"No, Astra, you only have fifteen minutes."

Astra rocked forward and settled fully into Eydis's lap. Bare skin met skin, and the movement pulled a sound from them both.

"Count," Eydis said, both hands gliding along Astra's curves as she rucked the leather skirt to her waist. "Out loud."

"Fifteen." Astra kissed Eydis hard, then softer, then slower, rolling her hips once, and again.

Eydis could not get used to it, no matter how many times they had done this. Could not get used to the shimmering heat beneath all that ice that was Astra. Heat she offered only to her.

Mine.

She smiled against Astra's jaw and set her palm at the small of Astra's back, guiding the slow drag of her body against her thigh.

"Fuck," Astra gasped.

"Keep your voice down. The little lusty voyeur is easily excited, even if locked in the Deep."

Astra's chuckle broke on a breath as Eydis's hand travelled higher. "Must you mention Lust right now? You ruin the mood."

"I intend to occupy you so completely that no other voice matters. Not even mine, Your Holiness." Her fingers found exactly where Astra wanted it and pressed. "Now, where were we?"

Astra arched and tightened her grip in Eydis's hair. Almost a yank. The act pulled a growl from the Queen's throat. She angled her thigh, lifted with her palm, and found the rhythm that made Astra shiver.

"… Fourteen?" Astra managed, though the number landed shakily.

On the second pass Eydis added her thumb, and Astra's mouth fell open on a sound she tried to swallow.

"Repeat it," Eydis whispered.

"F-fourteen."

Eydis caught the corner of Astra's mouth between her teeth. "See? Fifteen is more than enough."

Fifteen minutes had been wishful thinking.

They were strolling along the curve of Queenstown Bay, after what felt like an indeterminate stretch in the car, because Astra, victorious for no good reason, had forced Eydis into the indignity of asking Greed to reassemble her spine.

She hoped that was hyperbole.

Afternoon light lay across Wakatipu; the Remarkables sawed cleanly at the horizon, their peaks frosted despite the lacklustre season. The wind came off the lake with a pine-tinged chill that tasted like the promise of snow the town had not been given.

Astra steered them with purpose past Patagonia's trays of handmade chocolates and gelato, past a gallery of blue mountains, past bars polishing their taps for evening. The air kept changing its mind between coffee, waffle cones and hot chips.

Eydis noticed as a flash of familiar red hair vanished towards Rees Street and told herself it was a coincidence.

"Destination," Astra announced, and the answer appeared before the sign did: a queue had already claimed a stretch of Shotover Street.

"A shrine," Eydis judged, eyeing the devout worshippers. "Must I atone here?"

"A burger. The burger. Queenstown doesn't count unless you try its finest burger joint."

Eydis gave her best unimpressed look and lifted her hand, violet shadows flickering along her fingertips. "We could disperse them."

Astra caught her hand and threaded their fingers together. "Or we could talk while we wait."

Eydis let the shadows dissolve and tried very hard not to think about the definition of whipped. She wished she didn't know the word.

"Good girl," Astra whispered, far too satisfied.

"You're pushing it," Eydis warned. Then, because she was a sore loser, she added, "Have you reconsidered joining the Mile High Club?"

Astra shot her an alarmed look, while Eydis ignored the reactions of the burger-faithful queued within earshot.

"When did you have time to Goggle that?"

"I own a degenerate forum user in my head, remember?" Eydis said, very dignified about it.

"Useful. Introduce us sometime."

"Time will tell," Eydis replied, stretching with a wince. "Once my spine is reassembled. I'd rather not hear the snide running commentary."

"So dramatic." Astra bumped her shoulder.

"Was I?"

Astra's shy smile lit the street and the water and something in Eydis as well. Utterly unfair. Eydis stroked her palm and tightened their interlaced fingers.

Even without snow, Queenstown felt inconveniently close to perfect.

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