become part of the wind itself—the wind, the snow, the glaciers, the thick sheets of ice, she soared above it all.
She whooped in joy. The rush of air drowned out her voice as she sped down the slope with Jared.
It was beautiful up here, she realized. Cold, yes, but majestic and pristine and fresh. Why hadn’t she ever considered coming outside in winter before? Somewhere along the way, she’d been convinced not to. Concentrating, she tried to remember who on the staff had told her, but she couldn’t remember a specific instance. Her entire life was a blur of don’ts and can’ts, which had all but dissolved in the sheer joy of this glorious day.
They skied from top to bottom on all the runs except the most advanced and repeated the venture many times, taking the lift to the summit. The silver ball of Sakka’s little sun, never high in the sky this time of year, sank lower. Soon it would disappear below the edge of the world and the air would turn dangerously cold. There was dampness in the air too as wisps of silver clouds laced together over the sky.
“One more,” she urged Jared at the end of what should have been their last run.
He gauged the amount of daylight left. “Why not?” They climbed onto the lift. The chair swung dizzily above the ground as it soared upward. “And then a hot bath in the pool, drinks, dinner and you.”
Their snowboards collided as she leaned over to kiss him. “No bath, drinks, dinner. Just you.”
She felt his lips form a smile as he came back for a longer kiss. Her pulse sped up, this time because of their physical closeness rather than the exhilaration of the day.
As the lift descended toward the debarkation point, Jared frowned at the sky. “I thought the palace forecasters predicted clear weather.”
“Predicted?” His archaic Terran terms amused her. “There is no prediction involved. What they say the weather will be is what the weather will be.”
The first flurry of snow trickled out of the suddenly leaden sky. It landed on Keira’s heated pants and melted. Jared laughed.
“Off with the chief meteorologist’s head!” she cried. She lowered her goggles and prepared to ski off the lift. “I must practice my queenly rages lest you make me too soft,” she explained and hopped off the chair.
Jared met her at the base of the landing. He whipped an arm around her waist and pulled her close. “I like you soft, I like you hard. But I especially like you naked.”
She giggled against his mouth and he kissed her. Silver sunshine filtered through the lowest branches of the trees. More snow was falling now. The distant palace was almost invisible.
“We’re doing this run together,” Jared said, putting his arms around her waist.
“How can we snowboard together? It will never work.”
“That’s what they said about our marriage. Now, come on. It’s snowing harder and I want to get back.” He pushed off, taking her with him.
Keira yelped and gripped his arms when he took a turn much faster than she would have liked. They sped downhill. Snow piled up on her goggles. She turned up the heater. Slush streamed off her goggles and froze in her hair. “You are crazy.”
“I thought that’s what you liked about me.”
She was almost completely blinded by the heavy snow hitting her face. “How can you see?” She shrieked when they narrowly missed a stand of icy trees. “My goddess, you can’t see!”
“Who says I need to? I can tell by how hard you squeeze my arms whether I’m going to crash into something.”
She half screamed, half laughed as Jared expertly steered them down the hill. Laughing, they coasted to a stop where the slope finally leveled.
Boards in hand, they trudged through the snow to their rover.
The snow was falling heavily now and the wind had picked up. Keira sensed the change in the air. The temperature had plunged. Even the heating computers in their clothing couldn’t keep the cold out for long. Despite such technology, she and Jared would be dead by morning if they were to remain outdoors.
She shivered, grateful to see the rover, sitting where they’d left it, half submerged in snow. She waited under a sheltering stand of trees while Jared used his gloved hands to push snow off the hood and windscreen. “Let me get it started before I do any more digging and I’ll get the heaters online.”
Standing in the snow, he leaned over the edge