Grey itched the side of his jaw, hard, with the back of his gloved hand, but didn’t look at her. “I’m not better than anyone.”

Jaya decided not to comment on the harsh, self-flagellating way he spoke the words. “Well, it’s not that we’re better, exactly,” she said. “It’s that they must think we are. They have to feel that we were born more able to cope with dilemmas and problems on a large scale. It makes them feel safe, taken care of.”

“So it’s all an illusion?” Grey asked, his grip on his ski poles tightening. Jaya was aware of people laughing and talking loudly on the slope all around them, but all the bustle felt distant, like it was happening on a TV screen instead of in real life. “And you’re okay playing into that?”

“It’s for the greater good. So yes, I am okay with it.” For the most part. The parts where she was allowed to do only a very narrow scope of things and play the role of nursemaid to Isha, she wasn’t so sure about, though she’d never admit that out loud. Jaya paused and adjusted her ski pole. “But you’re not, I’m assuming?”

“Sometimes I get very tired of being who other people think I am,” Grey said, a muscle in his jaw jumping. More quietly, he added, “But other times, I think maybe I’m exactly what they think I am.”

Jaya noticed the switch from “who” to “what,” but didn’t call attention to it. “Who do other people think you are, Grey?”

He looked at her, blinking, as if he’d forgotten she was there. Shoving his ski poles into the snow with much more force than the action strictly required, he said, “It doesn’t matter. Let’s go.”

He flew down the slope, and after a pause, Jaya followed.

They skied for the better part of an hour, Grey pushing himself to go, go, go, not stopping for a moment to speak with her, riding the ski lift up before she was done skiing down. On about the eighth round, Jaya held up her hand a quarter of the way down the slope. “I think I’m done for now,” she said, wincing. “My legs feel like jelly.”

Grey skied up easily beside her, no hint of discomfort on his face at all. “Okay.” He began making his way to the lift, but Jaya put a hand on his elbow.

Pointing to a cluster of incredibly tall pine trees off to the side, nestled around a boulder in the darkness, she said, “Could we sit there for a little bit?”

Grey looked at the boulder and then back at Jaya, his eyes hooded and unreadable. “All right,” he said finally.

Grey