“Well, until they rescue us, grant your brother and me a quickie divorce, and kick my ass back to America, you’re stuck with me. Don’t want to cooperate? Fine. I’m not letting you out of my sight,Your Highness.” I dip into a shallow curtsy, just to get under her skin.
“That’s going to be awkward, because I have to wee.” She ducks out of sight to do her business, and when she’s done, she rolls her eyes to discover that I’m still waiting for her. “I told you, I am more than capable of looking after myself. You can piss off.” She flips her hair and picks up her pace, patting her thigh so Comet follows her as she catches back up to the group.
I sigh.That went about as well as expected.
I whistle, calling Comet back to my side. “Comet! Come here, boy!”
“Keep him back there,” Brooke calls over her shoulder. “He stinks.”
“Don’t listen to her.” I bend to pick up the stick Comet has dropped at my feet and am almost knocked backward by the smell of rotten eggs. I cover my nose with my hand. “Okay, wow. I don’t love you any less, but you need a bath.”
He cocks his head, begging for me to play with him, and despite the gag-inducing smell, I can’t help but smile.
“Don’t forget who your human is, okay?” I scratch him behind the ears. He picks up the stick and presses it into my leg. I laugh. “Fine, fine!” I pull back my good arm and let the stick fly. It lands out of sight and Comet takes off, leaping over a ridge to retrieve it. His bark carries easily through the quiet air, and I’m starting to wonder what’s taking him so long when he lopes back over the ridge.
“No stick?” I ask.
He nudges my hand with his dripping-wet snout.
I laugh. “Are you the smartest boy ever? Did you already take that bath?” It’s just his muzzle that’s wet, though.
He barks again for my attention, and I jog with him over the ridge. The land gently slopes down to a small crater filled with a deep pool of water in the center, and the rotten egg smell intensifies. Comet’s stick is floating near the shore.
“You found water!” I rub his head affectionately and reach my hand into the water to retrieve the stick.
Then I pull my hand out in shock. “Did you feel this?” I slowly dip my fingers into the warm water again, closing my eyes as a soft sigh escapes my lips.
When Theo and I were on the run and facing the end of our lives, even the smallest luxuries felt like heaven: a bed, a shower, clean clothes. But I was wrong.
Heaven is a Portuguese hot spring.
CHAPTER22
The tranquil blue-green water is the temperature of a steaming shower at the end of a long day. Hot enough to turn my skin scarlet, on just the right side of scalding. It feels so amazing that I sink my uninjured arm in up to my shoulder, and my sore muscles turn to goo.Bliss.
“Wren?” Brooke’s voice floats through the trees.
“Get over here!” I call.
Henry reaches me first and sees me soaking my arm in the water. “What’s that smell?”
“Forget about the smell and feel this water.”
“One does not simply forget about the smell of swamp arse.”
I laugh. “You will when you feel it.”
Victoria dips her hand into the spring and her eyes widen in surprise. “What is it?”
“A hydrothermal spring,” Brooke says as she joins us. “The groundwater is geothermically heated by shallow bodies of magma.”
“How do you know that?” Victoria asks.
Brooke shrugs. “Everybody knows that.”
“I can assure you they don’t,” Theo says. He pulls his shirt off in one fluid motion and catches me watching.
I quickly pull my gaze away and glance at the sky. The setting sun has already dipped below the treetops, and it’ll be dark before long. Comet’s already resting under a tree, we’re all exhausted, and as much as she’s trying to hide it, Victoria looks like she needs a break.
