Offering his hand, he stands and helps her to her feet, letting the light of the cord connecting them fade.
“Perhaps fate knew I needed a faerie to accomplish that monumental feat,” he teases.
“Practice with me now, elf prince. Loth-lee-see.”
“Faer-ie,” he whispers near her ear.
With a shake of her head, she lets him go and wanders to the water closet, glancing over her shoulder at him as she disappears into the small room. When she emerges a few minutes later with her face washed and her golden hair corralled in a braid, he just takes her in.
She’s got to be the most beautiful woman he’s ever encountered.
“Keep looking at me like that, elf prince,” she says, and he grins.
“I have no intention of stopping.”
He holds out his hand, the memory of her magic tangling with his warming him deep within.
As they step into the corridor together, Cerian looks up, and Arisanna follows his gaze.
“Is everything all right?” she asks.
“Everything is perfect,” Viala says. “Forgive me for monopolizing Tharios’s time.”
“You’re his binding partner,” Cerian says. “It’s the rest of us who should apologize.”
“Hey, no apologizing,” Tharios says. “Either of you. I’m here for you all. Now let’s go see what we can do upstairs, little brother. Lead the way to this honeymoon suite I’m already jealous of.”
“What is a honeymoon suite?” Viala rolls the Nunian words around on her tongue.
“It’s a room designed for—”
“I will singe your eyebrows,” Cerian says, and Tharios laughs.
“I imagine it will become clear once we arrive,” Tharios whispers to Viala before turning back to Cerian. “Lead the way, and keep your fire magic to yourself.”
More Time
Episode 117
ArisannawassurprisedwhenCerian asked Tharios for help, but it’s doubtful they’d manage to conceal their jungle suite for much longer.
The hotel staff probably want to clean the room at some point.
When they reach the third floor, Tharios lifts the placard from the doorknob, and he glances at Viala. “Do we have one of these?”
“I saw one in a drawer. I wasn’t sure what it said.”
“Do not disturb.” Tharios translates the Nunian words into Elvish for her.
“That’s clever. Say it in Nunian?”
He reads the words in Nunian, and Viala repeats them.
“The letters are similar to Lothlesian letters, but the words they make are different,” she says.
Tharios gives her a rudimentary explanation of the sounds the letters make in Nunian. When Arisanna glances at Cerian, he’s watching, his own lips moving silently, and warmth floods her heart.
He wants to learn how to read Nunian.
