“Are you afraid, Daphne?” he asked.
The shadows around lengthened, and there was something unknown mixed with the smell of hot sand and fig trees.
“Why? Are we followed?” I squealed.
He chuckled. “No, we’re not. Maerya had led them astray. Nibble has also a couple of tricks up his sleeve… or wing.”
I frowned, rubbing my arms. The night is getting colder. He noticed it and slung his arm around my shoulders, a gesture so intimate and unexpected that I nearly stumbled.
“You need to breathe,” Emrys said. “Come with me. Just for a while. Let’s forget about all this.”
He led me through the moonlit streets until we reached a crumbling building with an ornate door.
“What is this place, Emrys?”
“A place to put our worries away,” he said and knocked.
A lithe old man in a white robe answered. Emrys exchanged a few quiet words with him. He bowed low, vanishing into the night.
Emrys stood in the doorframe for a moment, then waved at me to follow him inside.
Warm steam hugged me like a soft blanket. The scent of orange blossoms and musk filled the air, drawing slow, deep breaths from me.
“What is this place?” I asked, following him down the steps covered in ornate tiles.
“Have you heard of a hammam?”
“A bathhouse?”
“A sanctuary,” he corrected gently. “For the weary. An escape from the outside world. And we have it all for ourselves.”
We stepped into a space carved from another time.
Water trickled in silver threads from lion-headed spouts, feeding shallow pools that gleamed like melted glass.
Emrys turned, watching as I took it all in. “This one hasn’t been open to the public for… centuries. It belonged to a sultan who sought peace among silence and steam.”
The marble walls glistened, rivulets of condensation running down the polished tiles. Steam clung to the high, arched ceiling. Rose petals floated on the surface of the shallow pools, carved into the floor. “Cannot blame him. This place is magical,” I said.
I sat on the octagonal platform at the center. Thin linen sheets draped it, faintly damp and warm from the stone beneath. I scooped sugared almonds from the silver tray loaded with fresh dates, figs, and tiny glasses of mint tea. “And we’re here alone?”
He towered over me, his eyes almost black behind the veils of steam. “Mhm.”
I looked around. He was right. The golden light of the bronze lanterns cast shifting patterns across the tiled floor. Even the plunge pool full of dark, still water behind me was empty.
Blood rushed to impossible places in my body. “Why did you bring me here, Emrys?” I asked.
He tilted his head, his damp hair framing the angles of his face. “To give you a choice, Miss Daphne.”
I swallowed hard, looking down at my hands. Pearls of sweat were building at my wrists. My fingers trembled. “You mean—”
The weight of his gaze pulled me like gravity, and I looked up. Dear Lord, he meant it.
“If you want to walk away from all this, you’re free to do it.”
For some moments, there was only the murmuring of water and the wild beating of my heart.
“You’re letting me go with parts of your power still inside me?” I whispered. “Won’t that leave you… weakened? Vulnerable to the Renegade?”
