"What are you two doing here if it wasn't stalking?" Melissa looked from Eydis to Astra.

Astra offered a shrug so microscopic it should have needed a microscope.

Melissa's eyebrow twitched. "I thought we'd made progress."

"Progress?" Eydis tipped her chin close to Melissa's. She remembered the night Natalia woke, and the private conversation between Astra and Melissa on her balcony.

"Careful, Doc," Eydis said softly but couldn't quite hide the threat underneath. "Do try not to get attached to her. I am fairly territorial."

"Attached to who now?" Melissa asked.

"Fairly is generous." Astra adjusted her lace choker in an attempt to cover something.

"Your order, please?" called the cashier.

Melissa realised her jaw was hanging, shut it, pivoted to the counter, and very gracefully did not collide with the next patron.

Natalia grinned. "Eydis, do you have to be so intense?" Her gaze skimmed Eydis's outfit and faltered. "I mean, you look, uh…"

Eydis touched Natalia's arm lightly. "I have not seen you in a while. How was…"

"They were gone, all at once." Natalia breathed out. "If it weren't for Mel, it would have been much harder."

Eydis's eyes softened. "Come."

She steered Natalia through elbows and backpacks to the table they had liberated earlier. Astra shifted to make room.

"Natalia." A complete greeting.

"Hey Astra." Natalia swallowed and sat beside Eydis. "Are you two travelling together, of course you are, listen to me, Captain Obvious."

"Much like you and Melissa," Eydis said.

Admiration brightened Natalia's glance towards Melissa, now at the pick-up counter. "Mel brought her yearly birthday getaway a month early to line up with our winter break. I… I'm honestly so grateful. She figured it'd be best if I celebrated—"

"Your birthday. Tomorrow. The twelfth of July."

"You remember?"

"You told Colette in the courtyard."

"You listened. I didn't know—You are just so…" Natalia stopped herself. "I thought you were only into politics, you know? The masquerade. So much has happened since then. It feels like something ended and something began, and I'm rambling, and someone should probably stop me."

Astra surprised them. "I agree. Completely. So you are water and Melissa is fire. Interesting."

Natalia looked bewildered. "No, it is the other way aro—wait. You read astrology, Astra?"

Eydis regarded Astra, amused by the revelation. She wanted to take Astra's hand, but with Natalia here, it might not be a wise move.

"First day travelling?" she asked instead.

"Queenstown, yes. New Zealand, no. The break's only two weeks, so I'm using all of it," Natalia said. "What about you two?"

"It's our first day anywhere in New Zealand," Eydis admitted.

"Seriously? You need way more than a week. What have you been doing till now?"

"I… might have been pursuing some intensely private study, for instance—" Eydis looked aside, feeling her cheeks warm.

"Eydis," Astra sighed.

"—planning how to travel efficiently. So, Natalia, any suggestions?" Eydis cleared her throat.

Natalia stared. "Wow—anyway. The South Island is beautiful. Since you've only got a week, no point going North. It's basically Alchymia with more sheep and slightly better views. Also, Mel said it might snow in a day or two here."

Astra leaned back. "The forecast disagrees."

"Perhaps her Gift suggested otherwise?" Eydis said.

Natalia nodded. "She mentioned something about denser moisture weight, or something along those lines."

Eydis considered this, but her gaze drifted back to Astra, who had fallen silent. The slight furrow between Astra's brows and the way her spine straightened told Eydis it was not a pleasant thought.

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Without thinking, Eydis laid her hand over Astra's. Their fingers found each other and laced by instinct.

"Let me confiscate a few."

"A few what?"

Eydis leaned close. "Thoughts. You are overthinking, and you are not sharing."

Astra's voice lowered for two. "Unseasonal warmth. Those men. My intel. There might be a link?"

Eydis thought it over. Owing to a certain distraction, they reached Queenstown without knowing its winter had turned warm. According to the local news, the phenomenon was affecting the whole South Island, not only this city.

A Gifted could control the weather, certainly, but keeping half a country mild for a month without bleeding mana was another order of power.

Ares?

And if it was him, why?

Fascinating.

"Perhaps there is. Although those men are not strong enough to author winter, nor to unmake it," Eydis whispered. "In a day or two the sky will tell us whether Melissa was right."

"And if she's wrong?"

"Then someone very gifted is playing god," Eydis whispered back, unable to hide the thrill it sent through her.

Astra huffed a laugh. "I should have known you'd find trouble refreshing."

"Really, now? You of all people know how I love a challenge," Eydis said, her voice softening to a purr, "intimately."

Astra's crimson eyes darkened. She caught her lower lip between her teeth and threaded their fingers tighter, her thumb sliding beneath Eydis's palm to tease the pulse there.

Eydis grinned as she felt Astra's body slowly ease. She was about to speak when she noticed Natalia's curious glance.

If curious was the right word for hurt.

Guilt pricked Eydis as she reluctantly released Astra's hand. For some unknown reasons, she had let herself get carried away again.

"Don't mind me. I know you two are together," Natalia said to Eydis. "You don't have to hide it. Not that you hide it well, which is kind of surprising, you know. You're usually a fortress."

Astra uncapped the water bottle and drank, hiding a small smile.

Eydis tipped her head. "What gave me away?"

"You gave Astra the look."

"Define the look."

Astra coughed into her drink. "Don't ask."

"The look that screams—I mean…" Natalia coloured. "That Astra's the only person you can see in a crowd. Unless you haven't told her how you feel—then, uh…"

Melissa, mercifully, arrived with four burgers, chips, and two soft drinks beading prettily. At once she seemed to catch the tension in the air, noting how Natalia's gaze had dropped to her own shoes.

"The look that belongs in a bedroom," Melissa told Eydis, matter-of-fact. "No one should have to witness it before lunch. For fuck's sake, cover those heart eyes."

She slid three Blue Bambis in front of Natalia. The girl finally beamed again. Melissa pretended not to be delighted and failed with distinction.

"Doctor, I didn't know your diction could be so illuminating," Eydis teased.

Melissa scoffed. "And still no sparkle. Also, stop with the grandmama words, would you? It's so performative I half expect a string quartet."

A string quartet chose that moment to strike up outside the burger joint. Violin. Viola. The works.

Melissa shut her eyes and whispered to herself, the cadence of someone counting sheep.

(It was lunchtime, it was a popular spot, and Eydis was exactly that commanding.)

"Such a good idea." Eydis smiled, which was not a promise to behave, only brighter now that violins had joined the ambience. "I have grown fond of Vivaldi."

Melissa rubbed her temple. "Psychopathic taste."

"I shall receive that as a compliment."

"Do not encourage her. I only just convinced her not to play The Four Seasons while we were…" Astra paused, realised her blunder, and took an extremely dedicated bite.

Melissa studied Astra as if she had grown horns. "First, was that innuendo? Do not answer. More importantly, did you just use a complex sentence?"

"I felt the same the first time I heard it," Eydis agreed.

"Eydis," Astra grumbled through a saintly chew.

Melissa wedged in beside Natalia. Everyone shuffled. Eydis suffered it with grace.

"Not that I care," Melissa said, which meant she did, "but since we are all here, coincidentally, no stalking involved, maybe we could go on a ski trip together."

Eydis raised a brow. "Is that some sort of plebeian inside joke, or do you simply wish to watch me glide?"

"You glide all the time. But no." Melissa stole one of Natalia's chips. "I come every winter for the slopes..."

"Rich snob." Natalia snorted.

Melissa rolled her eyes. "And not once have I seen you two."

"This town is not that small," Astra muttered.

"The two of you are hardly inconspicuous," Melissa said, cutting a glance at the patrons who had stopped pretending not to stare. "Even the chips are watching."

"Perhaps." Eydis tipped her head, hair sliding over one shoulder like silk; the black fur of her coat drank the light and gave it back in a soft sheen. "Most keep a distance."

"Obviously." Natalia squinted, then reached for the gold button at Eydis's collar. "Is that real gold?"

"No," Eydis said, watching Natalia relax. "South Sea pearls, apparently."

"South sea—right, I am not even going to ask." Melissa glared at the shine. "With that look, people must think you bite."

Eydis raised a brow. She only ever wanted to bite one person, and she was not about to confess that.

Natalia elbowed the doctor, halfway through burger two. "Mel. You don't have to narrate every thought."

"Anyway, I want to see you two wobble. Once. Like humans. I remain unconvinced. For science," Melissa insisted.

Eydis let her grin show a hint of fang. It unsettled the doctor by a millimetre. "What a complicated pretext to invite us along. I knew you were secretly fond of us."

"Already regretting it," Melissa murmured, mostly to herself. She did not deny the second statement.

Astra lifted one shoulder, crimson eyes bright and clear. "Game on."

Melissa blinked. "You accept."

"Doctor, you're a dreadful influence." Eydis sighed, already foreseeing a busy day.

One thing she had learned about Astra was that the Saintess could be endearingly childish when presented with a challenge. They had that in common. Unfortunately, Eydis's back and spine, and let us not be anatomically tedious, complained whenever she attempted to be on top of matters.

No, we shall not specify which matters.

"You have that look again," Melissa deadpanned.

"Mel," Natalia scolded as she attacked her third burger. "Keep your thoughts where they belong."

"They keep escaping," Melissa said to Eydis. "Like your dignity. You are becoming more human as we speak. I may have to revise my hypothesis."

This time it was Astra who chuckled aloud. Time seemed to freeze for a moment. Snowflakes, or perhaps magic, drifted lazily, and the restaurant's soft murmur dimmed, as if it wished to listen.

Eydis, being hopelessly weak against that sound, decided her dignity could be collateral. She tucked a silver strand behind Astra's ear, cupped her own cheek to tame the sudden heat, and let everything beyond the two of them dissolve into blur.

Maybe, just maybe…

Natalia had been right all along.

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