As she poured it into the water, the steam seemed to thicken, wrapping around me like a heavy blanket. My muscles loosened almost instantly, and a strange warmth spread through my limbs.
Probably just the heat, I told myself. Or exhaustion finally catching up to me.
Dear?
That word scraped against my nerves. Brynn hadn’t called me that earlier—her tone had been formal, distant. My unease coiled tighter, but I forced a smile, telling myself I was imagining things.
She rubbed the shampoo between her palms, then placed her hands on my head, scrubbing my hair with her fingertips. It was like a massage, and I tilted my head back, allowing her full access. Tingles moved through me, and I found myself melting into the warm water. My breathing slowed, and my eyelids grew heavy. Tension rolled off my muscles.
She took a nozzle and rinsed off the suds. “Feel better?”
“Much.”
She massaged my shoulders and her fingers kneaded the last bit of stiffness from my muscles. “Oh, Brynn, that feels so good.”
“Tell me, my dear. The servants in the court were whispering about a vampire enforcer you were trying to protect.”
I stiffened immediately. There it was again—dear. Brynn hadn’t struck me as the type to listen to castle gossip, but I didn’t really know her, did I? Maybe I was making assumptions… or maybe exhaustion was making me paranoid. “Why?”
“He must be very special for you to risk so much protecting him.”
I took a deep breath and leaned back. “Yes, he is.” I wished he could see me now—safe for the moment, clean, preparing to wear something beautiful. I wished he could tell me this would all work out. That we’d find each other again.
Her fingers dug deeper, turning me into jelly again. “This enforcer—is he dangerous?”
“Not to me.” The words came out too quickly, too defensively. I swallowed hard, forcing myself to sound calm. “But he’d go after anyone who threatened the Santi family.” I bit back the wordsor hurt me, pressing my lips together before they slipped free. I wasn’t ready to share all my secrets.
“The Santi family—who leads them?”
My tongue felt thick, my thoughts sluggish, like I was floating somewhere far away. “Angelo. He’s...” I blinked slowly. “He’s everything to Enzo. Boss. Brother.”
Something about her tone made me break out in gooseflesh. Too casual, too…interested. I blinked, shaking off the unease. “Why all the questions?”
“I was just curious because we were supposed to have the queen’s brother, Killian, rule. But now we have Queen Alanna instead. Sometimes I wonder what it would have been like under Killian’s leadership.” Her fingers paused in their massage. “What about your Enzo?”
Wait. Did I say Enzo’s name? I tried to go back through our conversations, but I was so tired, I wasn’t sure.
Brynn returned to massaging me. “Is he loyal to Angelo personally, or would he be open to serving someone else if the circumstances were right?”
Would Enzo leave Angelo? I tried to think through the fog in my mind. They were brothers in every way that mattered. But Enzo had been furious when Angelo threatened me because I accidentally hurt his mate, Serenity. That anger had been real, raw. Would it be enough to break their bond? I didn’t know.
“I don’t know,” I finally said. “He was furious when Angelo threatened me because I accidentally hurt his mate, Serenity.”
“I see.” The sweetness drained from her tone, replaced by something deeper, colder…wrong. My heart twisted as the sound warped, becoming unmistakably masculine. “So the way to get the Santi family in line is through their mates.”
Shitshitshitshit
My stomach did a belly flop. That voice—I knew that voice. My heart banged against my ribs as terror shot through me.
I jerked forward in the tub, water sloshing violently over the edges as I whipped around to face whoever was behind me.
The figure beside me shimmered, features blurring as if seen through rippling water. Skin shifted, bones popped and cracked as the illusion peeled away.
Her delicate face melted like wax, pale eyes bleeding from soft gray to piercing blue. Black hair drained to icy blond. Her slight frame stretched, shoulders broadening until the towering form of Ari knelt where Brynn had been seconds before.
His blue eyes gleamed with cruel satisfaction as he watched the horror dawn on my face. “Thank you for that information, Joy. Most enlightening indeed.”
I scrambled backward in the tub, pressing myself against the far edge, suddenly acutely aware of my nakedness. Water splashed everywhere as I tried to put distance between us, but there was nowhere to go.
