Page 17 of Smoke and Flame

After a sharp nod, he left.

She went into the bathroom.The classic, modern fixtures surprised her.The room she and Morlie lived in was only a closet-sized place with a toilet and sink to cleanse their faces and bodies.Like most things she’d seen here, the room was stone.The light cream-colored counter was a highly-polished surface.It was so glossy she could see not only each of the different-sized particles and sediments in it that made the most fascinating pattern but also her reflection.It seemed distorted, unfamiliar in a way.Tipping her head up to the mirror over the sink, she was horrified.

The reflection staring back at her over the basin would make her deceased mother weep.Her mom had always prided herself in making sure no matter their situation in the underground city, they should do everything to look their best.

“You don’t have to be a Consumer to look great.”Her mother’s words echoed in her head, making her heart ache deeply.Their parents had made plans and created and hung vision boards on the walls of their small two-bedroom family apartment of goals for them after the surface was open and habitable again.They’d drawn imaginative dreams along the limited ceiling that capped them in the solar-powered dwelling space about how their lives would be and the changes in how they lived, what they could do, and where they could go.

Her parents, Preston and Viola, were newlyweds in a place called Iowa before the first earthquake hit.But they provided a history for her and her sister of life outside the underground.Their parents told them of a world they believed would be available.

“You were wrong,” Kai whispered to her parents’ memory, and the image reflected in the mirror.A tiny ember of anger burned on the back side of her heart, something she did not want to acknowledge.Her mom and dad had weaved a fantasy through words and pictures that gave her and Morlie false hopes.When the world opened again, it was nothing like the space they had known.It was worse behind the wall.

Kai blinked and erased the past.There were things there she hadn’t unpacked yet, and she wouldn’t do it now in a strange land.

She focused on her hair, which was more tangled than cute coils, and the clothing that hung off her frame was dirty and worn.It shook her that Aodh could want to kiss or do the other salacious things he hinted at with her looking the way she did.Perhaps the mating lure made him blind to the horrors of her appearance.She had never had a reason in the Dispatch District to purchase homemade face tints, but now, seeing the exhausted, plain, and drawn look on her face, she wished she had something to improve her image.

Shaking her head, she turned away.The rest of the bathroom was just as spectacular as the sink.All the fixtures were jewel-encrusted.More extensive and brighter than the rings in the top pocket of her father’s service jacket she wore, her parents’ wedding rings.Kai had slipped the three rings from her parents’ hands after they drew their last breaths.She’d had to sell her mother’s engagement ring to pay for their room until Kai had gotten a full-time position in the collection depot.However, she’d held onto the rings like she gripped the reins of her sister’s life.How could Aodh and his people have such luxurious amenities?It boggled her mind.If his kind had not had to go underground, hoarding all their most valuable possessions like those in the Consumer Providence, then had they robbed and taken claim of what others had left as they ran for their lives?Some made it to safety, but most did not.

She set those thoughts aside until she got more information on who the dragon people were.

When she spotted the big-ass tub beside a gigantic glass-enclosed shower on the other side of the room—she and five other people could fit in—excitement bubbled up.Of course, thinking of the large man who owned this space, it made sense.But, for her life, she could not imagine Aodh being the type of man to lounge around in a bath.It had been so long since she’d bathed, she was having difficulty imagining herself doing more than standing at the sink and scrubbing away as much filth as possible.She glanced back at the sink and considered it.

Moving closer to the tub, she noticed a shallow basket on the edge with multiple jars filled with liquids of different colors.She picked them up one at a time and smelled them.They were all nice, mild scents.None of them held the same roasted, sweet cinnamon emanating from Aodh’s skin.But the jars had no labels to tell her what was in them.

Reaching out, she grasped the round knob at one end of the wide tub, pausing to stroke over the chunk of diamond in the center, the sharp edges cutting along the pad of her thumb.Gripping it, she turned and almost sighed with relief as she saw the water rush from the faucet and splash into the tub.Unexpected joy filled her veins.

Sticking her hand under the flow, she felt the chilly water.She turned the lever left and right with her other hand, but it didn’t matter which way she went; the temperature didn’t change.

“Can I help?”

Startled, Kai jumped.She braced herself on the tub’s edge to keep from falling in.“Gracious, I didn’t hear you.This place is so damn big.”

To say the woman was pretty didn’t do justice to the extraordinarily gorgeous person who stood before Kai.The beautiful, tall, svelte woman whose long-sleeved dress covered the length of her arms but left most of the skin between large, full breasts displayed, stared at her from her position against the doorjamb and smiled.There was a glint of something that flashed in the woman’s gaze, but it was so subtle Kai couldn’t recognize what she was seeing.One thing Kai was sure of was that the wide smile transformed the woman’s face into a breathtaking sight.

This woman made Kai feel like one of the wet, muddy, smelly rodents that roamed the Dispatch in the dark of night.

“Forgive me.Do you need assistance?”The broad-shouldered, narrow-waisted female’s grey eyes with ribbons of raw pink tourmaline sparkled brighter.

Behind Kai, the water rushed into the bath, but she had no problem hearing the woman in the long, flowing dress clearly over it.“Yes, please.I’m unsure how to turn the dial to get the water warmer, if possible.If it can’t, that’s okay.I’ve taken more than my share of cold baths.”

The tall woman tipped her head to the side, causing her long, bone-straight hair, a complex shade of topaz—browns and golds—to swing as the ends curled around her shoulders.She strolled closer to Kai.“You may want to move back.”

Kai got up to give the woman access to the lever.“Oh, sure— Ah!”

The woman stared at Kai, who leaped back two feet, barely keeping her body in her skin from the shock of the stream of fire that came out of her mouth.Unabashed humor lit the woman’s eyes.

Is she laughing at me?

The fast flame set the water in the half-filled tub to boiling.

“Oops.”A smile flashed across the woman’s red-stained lips, zeroing out the apology.

Sorry, this woman was not.

“I forget how jumpy you humans are to everything when you first arrive among the thunder.”

Glancing from the water to her, Kai didn’t know what to say.She wasn’t sure if she would ever become used to the flame-throwing of these shifters.

Pulling the lever forward so more cold water rushed into the hot pool, the woman said, “Once the tub fills, it should be the perfect temperature.”

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