“What about you?” I asked Blossom. “You gonna send some seeds out one of these days? Make a whole field of blossoms?”
Blossom drew herself upright as if the mere thought were offensive.
I chuckled. “Is procreation beneath you? Or would propagation be a more applicable term?”
Blossom shook her head at me in disgust.
“Better guard your stamens against bees then,” I warned her as I stood up. “See you later, pretty girl.”
Blossom waved her leaves at me as I left.
“Guard your stamens,” I murmured under my breath and chuckled. “I suppose that's the floral version of gird your loins.”
I opened the gilded gate and strode into the pool area. Arach had decided to build a wall around the pool for a couple of reasons. First, he didn't want the children playing there without supervision; drowning is one of the few ways a Fire Faerie can die. Second, he didn't want the animals to drink the water. A warm, bubbling pool of water wasn't unusual for the Fire Kingdom and some fey creatures were just fine with drinking warm water. Animals using the pool as a drinking fountain meant that it would need to be refilled and cleaned more often. So, Arach decided to add the wall.
“Speaking of loins,” I whispered as I neared the pool. “I think mine are whimpering.”
Arach was swimming. Those three words don't do justice to the intoxicating carnality of the act. His powerful body shot through the bubbling water, his arms breaking the surface to glisten as they bulged, and his legs pumping. I swallowed past my dry throat and dropped our towels on a wooden lounge chair as Arach reached the far end of the pool—the deep end. He came up for air—lips parting to draw breath—then dove back under to come streaking back in my direction. The steps into the shallow end were right in front of me and that was where my husband was headed.
The Dragon King surfaced, water sluicing off his sculpted body as he stood. With casual movements that were nonetheless breathtaking, he slicked back his hair and wiped the water from his eyes. Gleaming, golden-yellow eyes open, Arach stepped forward, muscles rippling as more of his magnificent body emerged. He climbed the steps. Sunlight gleamed off his wet skin. I made a pathetic sound. Then I attempted the impossible: to track every drop of water as it slid down his body. But there were too many of them, going to too many glorious places. I finally gave up and focused on Arach's tight abs. Gleaming, hard, begging for me to—
“Vervain?” Arach asked as he leaned down to look in my face. “Are you all right?”
“Huh?” I blinked, coming out of my daze. “Yeah, sure, just fine.”
“I'm so glad you talked me into building this pool. It's like the hot springs but with room enough to swim. Just glorious.”
You'd think that swimming in what was basically a gigantic Jacuzzi in the heat of Summer would be torture, and it would be if you weren't a Fire Faerie. For us, it was bliss. Hey, Arach and I are dragons; we enjoy taking a dip in molten rock—a bubbling pool on a hot summer day is a cool dip by comparison.
“I'm glad you're happy with it,” I said.
And Arach wasn't the only happy faerie. Several members of our court were out there with us, either lounging on the wooden furniture or swimming. Fionnaghal and Taog had brought their three children, one of whom I'd named Dexter's daughter after. I'd thought it was only fair since Fionnaghal had named her other daughter after me. Deidre, the Hidden-One girl, had been so excited to learn that the nurial shared her name. Hidden-Ones love nurials because they're one of the few animals who aren't afraid of them. A fact that Dexter exhibited by jumping into the pool near the Hidden-One children.
Yeah, the pool was going to have to be cleaned anyway. At least the heat would keep it fairly hygienic. Or turn it into bacteria soup. I frowned at the thought. Thank goodness faeries can't get sick.
The children shrieked gleefully when Deidre, the nurial, jumped in after her father. Little Vervain wasn't so little anymore, she was the tallest of her siblings, taller even than my boys. She had four arms, two legs, and a tail, all covered in golden-brown fur. She swam after the doggy-paddling nurials—their six legs speeding them through the water—while her stockier siblings chased after her.
Deidre, the Hidden-One child, had six legs just like the nurials, but her legs were thick like an elephant's and covered in greenish-gray skin. She didn't swim too well and had to cling to the sides when she ventured into the deep end, but she could float. Then there was Daoir, the single boy in the brood. He only had two arms and two legs, and his hands bore three fingers apiece, but he had an impressive pair of tusks that swept out of his wide mouth and horns that went down the center of his head to the ridge of plates on his back. His yellow eyes were bright against the dark green of his skin.
“Daoir, be careful with your tusks-s-s,” Taog, Daoir's father, called out from his lounger. Yellow fluid dripped from his teeth as he lisped past them. “Don't hurt the nurials-s-s.”
“I know, Dad,” Daoir grumbled as he made it to the shallow end.
“Don't give me that tone,” Taog chided. “With great tusks-s-s come great res-s-spons-s-sibility.”
I blinked. Did Taog just quote Spiderman?
Then a pack of Phookas ran by, whooping and hollering.
“No running!” Neala, their mother, shouted after them.
The pups were only eight-years-old but they were the size of teenagers and had attitudes to match. This meant that they pretended not to hear their mother and went straight to the deep end of the pool to cannonball en masse. The Hidden-One kids growled at being splashed, then went after the Phookas. A water battle ensued.
Neala sighed and shook her head as she joined Arach and I. “Perhaps you should make a separate pool for the children, My King. It looks as if they're taking over.”
Arach frowned at the churning water. “Perhaps I should.”
Then he roared to get the children's attention. They all went silent and turned to stare at their king.
