“Did you need something?” she asked, her voice floating to him from behind a large door of smoke-colored glass.
His gaze darted toward her without hesitation, and his mind emptied of all rational thought.
Oh, Kjeld had seen her naked before. Twice, because he was keeping count, but this was different.
This time she evoked a kind of confidence in her nudity. Standing inside an enclosure of shadowy glass with a waterfall of hot water sluicing over her flushed flesh, she watched him watch her. Suds of creamy soap slid between the valley of her breasts, gliding down her flat abdomen, soothing the scars that marked her. She cocked one hip to the side as she scrubbed her hair, lathering the silky strands while she piled them on top of her head.
Caelian’s sapphire eyes held him captive, and he found himself unable to look away. He wanted to commit every inch of her to his memory. The swell of her breasts. The dip of her full hips. That perfect little spot at the hollow of her throat. Because he knew he would never get the opportunity to see her like this again.
“If you aren’t in need of anything, then I suggest you leave.” She turned then, letting the rush of water rinse the shampoo from her hair, the bubbles drifting down her spine and over the curve of her ass. “I don’t appreciate being gawked at by males who want nothing to do with me.”
“Thank you,” he blurted the words out, ripped them from his soul.
She glanced over her shoulder, her gaze snapping to him, and the look on her face was vicious and sharp. “Excuse me?”
“I wanted to thank you, my lady.” He rolled his neck, then popped his jaw, his nails digging into the delicately carved wooden door. “For…agreeing to release me once your magic is fully restored.”
Caelian spun, then yanked open the smoky glass door, a gush of steam flooding the bathing suite.
“I agreed tonothing.” She spat the words out, her face ablaze with fury, her eyes brewing with a storm of midnight stars. “This was a decision I made of my own free will. Because in case you forgot,General, you never once asked me to reverse it.”
Kjeld froze, her truth cutting through him with the sting of a thousand cold iron blades. She’d called his bluff without him even realizing it. All those tireless months he wasted loathing his life, dumping the full blame of it upon her shoulders, and never had he thought to ask her to take it back. He thought he was such a martyr as he wallowed in his own self-pity, that it never even occurred to him to ask if she could reverse it. If she could use her faerie magic to wish him back to normal.
Damn it.
Pressing her lips into a tight line, she lifted her chin in a show of superiority.
“Is that how it works?” He ground the words out, meeting her taunting gaze.
“Of course that’s how it works. I’m a fucking fae of House Celestine. All you ever have to do isask.Though it would appear you were too busy cursing my existence to recall that words have power.” She slid the glass door closed, obscuring herself in a haze of smoke and steam. “Now, I must ask you to please leave me, as I would like to shower in peace and get a little more rest before I ask Elder Lothaire to take me to Wenfyre.”
His blood boiled, gurgling with the rage of a smoldering inferno. “Not a chance, Starweaver. I refuse to let that bloodsucker take you anywhere.”
She turned her back on him again. “I’m afraid that’s not your choice. I know you would prefer to remain here, since Brackroth is your home. And it’s clear you’re capable of holding your own with Queen Viktoria, which means my presence is no longer required. So, you will stay and I will go.”
Kjeld shook his head, disbelieving the absolute nonsense that was pouring out of her mouth. Yes, he had every intention of returning to Brackroth once all was said and done, but she was out of her stars-damned mind if she thought he was going to let her go gallivanting off with a vampire.
“Caelian, you cannot be serious.” He stepped further into the bathing suite.
“Do you mind?” She heaved a sigh and tossed one scathing look his direction. “You’re letting in all the cold air.”
Fuck’s sake, when did she become so exasperating? Or perhaps she had always been this way and he never noticed. Maybe getting a breath of her magic meant her spark was slowly coming back as well.
Either way, Kjeld slammed the door shut with purpose.
She didn’t even bother to look at him again.
“You are not going?—”
“Not your decision,” she chimed in a singsong voice.
“It’s out of the question, Cae.” He folded his arms over his chest, determined to put his foot down. No way in hell was she going anywhere without him. “Your brothers will kill me.”
“But I thought that was what you wanted from the start. To die a noble death?” She shut off the water, turning slowly to face him, a wall of steam and fogged glass concealing most of her from view. “Pass me a towel, will you?”
He snatched a fluffy gray towel off the nearest hook as she cracked open the glass door, thrusting it toward her. He watched as she dried herself off, taking her time, like she meant to provoke him. But when she wrapped the towel around her, knotting it between her breasts, and made to step out, he stood firmly in her way. Barricading her in the shower.
“Move,” she snapped, twisting her wet hair and wringing out the excess water.
