“Is that so.” Maybe she’s seen something like this in a stream or a drama. Misery tugs him closer and finds no resistance, none whatsoever. He couldn’t resist her if he tried. This is Misery’s subconscious, and she suddenly understands why she’s constructed this unusual space in the realms of sleep. Her body has wants and needs. “I could think of a few things worth celebrating,” she says. She hooks a leg over Jericho, the back of her knee fitting nicely against his hip bone. She’s always wanted to experience sex in zero-g, and she regretted not getting any while she was on the Duke’s ship. This might be the closest she gets to it. “Let’s fuck.”

This close, Jericho’s face doesn’t coalesce into a unified visage. It’s a sketchy collection of magnified, magnificent features she takes in one at a time: a watery eye, a swathe of cottony skin, fine lines flocked along the edge of a mouth. The edges of Jericho’s teeth shine like instrument keys. “If that’s what you want. We could do that.”

And they do.

Misery wakes in a strange place. Her quarters. Unfamiliar air and gravity, the hiss and thrum of spacebound living, the diffuse blue light tuned to night mode. Voidsbane, but she’s been through a fuck-ton lately, and things have been barreling forward so fast she’s had no time to breathe, much less sit down and think about what’s been happening. No wonder her brain is melting down. Sex dreams usually leave her mellow upon waking, but this one has her strung so tight her neck and belly hurt. Like she woke in escape mode. Misery’s conscious mind might be in denial about how much shit she’s in, but her subconscious knows what’s up.

She scrubs her hands over her face and does Saint Agneta’s pattern until her body stops feeling like a rocket about to leave orbit.

Misery returns to the reality of Angelsteeth and considers her surroundings. In the blue-tinged gloom Ruin floats above the gray slab of her supply closet, eyes glowing like twin suns.

“So you’ve got a friend now,” she says to the delusion. “You must be delighted for the company.”

“We are nothing alike, Misery Nomaki. But your faithlessness is no matter. Someday you shall see the truth.”