I cover her hand with mine, keeping it there. “Weird how?”
She exhales slowly. “I think Fortuna talked to me.”
I go still. Not tense. Just… listening.
“You are not joking,” I say.
“I’m not joking.” She bites her lip, then releases it. “I was spiraling about the complaint and whether I’d just torched my career, and then she was just… there. Made of light and metal and something like falling coins. She said I push so hard because I’ve been taught I’m too much and not enough. That I think standing between worlds means I belong to neither.”
A grin tugs at my mouth. “Goddess told you to stop being polite?”
“Basically.” Her eyes crinkle. “Very on-brand for Fortuna, honestly. No comfort. Just truth.”
“And you feel…?”
“Better.” She shakes her head as if she can’t quite believe it herself. “I feel like I filed the complaint, and the wheel started turning and Fortuna showed up to say ‘yes, good, keep going.’” Her fingers curl into my shirt. “Does that sound insane?”
“No.”
She blinks. “No?”
I tilt my head, considering. “Did she give good advice?”
“Brutally good advice.”
“Then I like her.”
Sophia laughs—real and bright and startled. The sound makes my chest feel too full. I want to hear her laugh like that every day.
“You’re just… accepting this?” she asks. “You’re not going to suggest I’m hallucinating or stress-dreaming?”
“You are too smart to invent goddess,” I say simply. “If your mind makes goddess, she tells you to be safe. To hide. This Fortuna tells you to be big. To fight. She is real.”
She stares at me for a long moment, something soft and wondering in her eyes. Then she rises up on her toes and kisses me.
It’s quick. Warm. The kind of kiss that says thank you and I needed that and you’re exactly right all at once.
When she pulls back, I’m smiling.
“What?” she asks.
“I like when you kiss me for no reason, Sophia.”
“That wasn’t no reason. That was very good reason.”
“Mm. What reason?”
“You didn’t laugh at me.” Her voice goes quiet. “You just… believed me.”
I turn my hand over, threading our fingers together. “Why would I laugh? The goddess saved me from ice. Brought me here. Why would she not talk to woman who is changing everything?”
She swallows hard. “My mother thinks I’m seeing patterns that aren’t there. My committee will think I’m paranoid.”
“You see patterns because patterns are there,” I say. “Is not same as making them up.”
“When did you get so wise?”
“I am not wise. Just very old.”
