“Oh, sorry,” I muttered. The ladies must be servants, but I had no idea what that actually entailed.
I settled back into the chair, resigning myself to my current fate. The feeling of the brush running through my thick strands in front of the warm fire was actually kind of nice. My eyelids drifted shut, and for the first time, I let myself enjoy a little pampering.
Before I could get too comfortable though, Dey's voice pulled me from my relaxation. “I see you have met your servants,” he said, laying a hand on the shoulder of the female brushing my hair. “This is Kiahna, and her sister over there is Niahna. They have been at the palace for many decades, so they will do an excellent job of taking care of you.”
I stared at him. “Decades? No way. They can’t be more than twenty-five.”
He scratched his chin thoughtfully. “Actually I believe they are in their late sixties, though I am not certain. It has never come up.”
I scanned the women, searching for any signs they were nearing retirement age but saw nothing. Not a single crow's foot or frown line. “So this is magic then? You guys have some kind of power to look young forever?”
Dey chuckled. “Not exactly. Vitaeans with healing abilities simply live much longer lives. Our power repairs the damages of aging. As long as we remain near the Source our lifespans are quite expansive.”
I opened my mouth, but he raised a hand in a placating gesture before I could speak. “If you could hold that thought, Princess, the king is waiting in the dining hall.” He frowned at my robe. “And you are not yet dressed for some reason. Did I not give you enough time to prepare?”
“Oh, sorry. I think I might have taken a bit longer in the shower than usual.”
“I understand,” he replied, his lips twitching up into a grin. “I imagine you were verydirtyfrom earlier.”
The way he said dirty had my knees wavering. Was this how things were going to be? He knew I had been ogling his package so now he was going to bring it up every chance he got?
I glared at him, trying to hide my embarrassment behind anger. “I was actually. From you sweating on me all night long.”
His grin faded.
Stomping over to the nightstand, I snatched up my hoodie and shorts. Clothes in hand, I headed for the bathroom.
“There are many fine dresses in the wardrobe that you could wear,” Dey called.
“I think I’ll wear my own clothing, thank you very much.” Then I shut the door in his face before he could get another word out.
Chapter eight
We approached the dining hall, and my heart kicked into a higher gear at the anticipation of meeting my father. I lingered just outside the entryway, pleasantly underwhelmed by the space in front of me. After yesterday's throne room, I expected more opulence, more grandeur, more… Just more. This dining room, while spacious by normal standards, was actually fairly intimate. Only one unlit diamond chandelier hung from a much lower ceiling, and the brown wood flooring had an elegant maroon marbling effect throughout. A fire crackled merrily in the hearth that was set into the left wall, and a row of paintings hung above it, all portraits of men that I wagered were the past kings given their proud postures.
The long table in the center of the room, made of thick slabs of dark wood with various patterns carved into it, had chairs for about twelve people on each side, all vacant. The only occupied seat was at the head of the table, and after a tense moment, my father raised his head and looked over to us.
A smile swept over his face, and a thousand butterflies took flight in my stomach, all beating their wings at maximum speed as I rubbed my sweaty palms on my shorts.
“Raynella!” he boomed across the length of the table as he leapt to his feet. I had only seconds to take in his appearance before his long legs ate up the distance, and he enveloped me in a rib-crushing hug. His hair, so black that it appeared to absorb all the light in the room, cascaded down his back in thick waves nearly as long as my own. His beard, however, was trimmed short and neat. A diamond studded crown sat atop his head, though it was smaller and more subdued than the extravagant one from yesterday. A few scattered wrinkles around his mouth and eyes had me putting his age around forty-five, though he could actually be a hundred for all I knew.
He pulled back from the hug to look at me, that silly grin still plastered across his face, and I finally realized what I was seeing on his chest. What I initially thought to be an elaborately decorative shirt, was actually bare skin. Swirls of black ink covered his arms, shoulders and chest; similar to Dey’s tattoos yet far more expansive and intricate.
My attention moved away from the hypnotic designs to analyze his eyes. Identical to my own, they were an abnormally light shade of sky blue that almost glowed in the light, highlighting the faint golden ring around the pupil.
An intense need to say something filled me. This was my father. An actual living parent. I had played this scenario out in my head so many different times as I tried to fall asleep in the drafty orphanage, and every single thing I thought I might want to say vanished from my brain. I mean, how do you even act when the father that you never knew existed was also a king from a different world?
Any hope of saying something meaningful flew out the window when I instinctively blurted out, “Call me Rain.”
With his arms still clutching my shoulders, he laughed, a loud, boisterous sound that filled the room. I didn’t know what to make of it—I hadn’t thought my name was a joke—so I just gave him a small smile.
He pulled me back into another brief hug, then dragged me over to the table.
“Please sit, Raynella. We have much to talk about.” He gestured toward the chair to the right of his and Dey slid into the seat to the left. “And you may call me Verren,” he added.
“Thank goodness you speak English because I have so many questions,” I gushed. “Dey said earlier that I wasn’t even human which is ridiculous because—”
“Yes, yes, dear Raynella,” my father said pleasantly, cutting me off. He waved to the servants behind him, and they scurried away, hopefully to bring back breakfast. “All in due time. I have much to tell you as well, but first allow me to simply look upon my daughter. I had long thought we might never find you.”
