I nod in acceptance and reach for the bar of soap next to the tub, thinking of the night.
“I didn’t know,” I glance back at him, “I didn’t know if you wanted me to take that walk with him.”
Keane shifts and brings his hands down to my legs, massaging my calves. “I meant what I said tonight. The decision was yours to make.”
“Were you upset?”
“No,” he shakes his head, “though I don’t much care for seeing your arm in another man’s.”
My heart thuds in my chest as I run the soap down my arm.
“I don’t trust him,” I say quietly, “nor the man from that night, Edam.”
Keane nods in agreement before his brows pull into a barely-there frown.
“You truly see something in their hair, don’t you?”
“It’s there,” I nod, “only in the Princes’ hair as far as I’ve seen.”
I look up from my wash and hold his gaze hard, “they’resnakes, Keane. I don’t know how else better to describe them.”
“I believe you,” he scowls, “they did something to you…”
I look at him in confusion, “what do you mean?”
Keane grips my calves and watches me with intensity, “you were staring at Isham’s hair for far too long, Alexis. Almost as if you were entranced. I had to pull you away.”
I remember Keane’s location summoning pulling at my chest, but I wasn’t staring that long…
“I barely glanced at the snake,” I shake my head.
“No,” Keane says quietly, eyes still holding mine, “you were watching it for a while, and the Prince was watching you. The whole exchange was not natural.”
“It only seemed like a blink.”
“It was far longer,” he grimaces.
“What did you see?”
“Nothing,” he narrows his eyes again, “I see braids, Alexis, nothing more. But then he all but admitted to what you both see when he named one of them…”
“Rivian,” I tense.
“Yes,” he nods.
“They move,” I tell him softly, “all of them move as if they have a mind of their own. The one I was looking at, Rivian… it had eyes. It watched me all night, even when I wasn’t near the Prince.”
The ground below the tub begins to tremble.
“I don’t trust him,” I repeat again, “and I know he is not a good person, Keane. I get the impression that he plays as someone who wants to be an ally. At least his brother didn’t act at being the good guy…”
“Neither of them should be trusted,” Keane replies quietly, “and we have no reason to travel to Livyatan.”
“You heard the full conversation?”
“Everything,” he nods.
He reaches for the soap and takes it from my hand, then lifts up one of my legs and runs the bar towards the inside of my thigh. I shift under the water and let him ease the tension from my body with the simple motion, sighing in contentment as I lean back on the tub.
