“Fuuuuck. You two are into some kinky shit,” Fabia says from behind me.
Ignoring her, I turn to Irin. “Free him and heal whatever needs to be fixed. Then move him to another room on this floor. Don’t let him leave though until I speak to him.” Allowing him to migrate over so he can try to kill Evangline might help fix this mess of hers, but I won’t overrule Arienna’s decision. So we’ll discuss it later, and if she still doesn’t want him to be here, I’ll figure out another way to soothe his wounded pride and cool his anger.
“He might be too far –” Irin starts.
“He won’t be.” Evangeline would’ve cast a spell on him to let her know if he was dying. She wouldn’t have risked a Vylian wariq’s life just for a prank now that his death could lead to another war.
Leaving my guards to deal with him, I head for the shower. The fact that Arienna hasn’t reacted to Redric at all worries me. I want to believe she can handle this life –mylife, but –
I shake my head, shoving out such thoughts.
She is Raza’s queen.
She will be fine.
But when I try to place her on her feet in front of the shower so I can take off our clothes, she clings to me with a whimper. My chest tight, I kiss the top of her head.
Balancing her with one hand and then the other, I remove the knives strapped to me. Unable to take off my clothes without releasing her, I simply open the shower door, turn on the tap, and carry her inside. She shivers against me, so I turn up the heat before sitting down with her on my lap.
Blood pours off her and onto me. Grabbing the bottle of shampoo, I wash her hair. She doesn’t say a word as I shift her head out of the spray or when I massage her scalp. I move my fingers gently over her body, checking to see if there are any wounds she’s too shocked to feel.
Nothing.
Thank gods.
“Close your eyes,” I murmur as I scoop a handful of suds off her. After leaning over to make sure she’s obeyed, I scrub her face, then her neck. Pulling off the straps of her jumpsuit, I let it pool around her waist and peel off her bra.
“Tell me what happened,” I say as I lift her until I can tug the jumpsuit off her legs. Cradled on my lap, she lifts her head to look into my eyes.
“It was an accident.”
“I know. But I need to know who it was so we can protect them together.” Flinging her jumpsuit over the top of the shower, I start to wash her legs.
“Really? You won’t kill her?”
“I promise.”
Shuddering, a huge weight falls off her shoulders as a sigh relaxes her face. “Bubbles did it.”
“Bubbles?”Who the fuck is Bubbles?
“Yeah. She’s the giant yondu living in the room –”
“A giant yondu is in the castle?” Instantly regretting my promise not to kill it, I focus on washing the rest of the blood off her. That explains so fucking much; the heads were absolutely destroyed.
“Yes. It’s living in the secret room.”
I’m going to kill Evangeline for letting her get anywhere close to a giant yondu. Even foxes don’t mess with them, and yondus are smaller than squirrels. The fact that my wife has interacted with one enough to name it is making me feral.
“Close your eyes.” Tilting her head back into the spray so she can’t see my irritation, I rinse the suds from her hair. “You know it can’t stay in the castle,” I say gently.
If the Court finds out an animal is responsible for the deaths of their seconds, they’ll kill it. And if they don’t, the yondu fucking mating season isn’t that far away. Then it’ll fuck everyone in the castle to death. Or worse, if it’s a female, it’ll go into heat and call hundreds of males to her. And then they all will fuck everyone in Raza to death.
“But she’s so lonely –” Arienna starts.
“If she stays, the Court will kill her.”
“But –”
