Page 27 of Steeling Light
For the first time that I can remember, I feel a little awkward around him. Steam rises from the pool. The heat is a deep contrast against the chill in the air. I keep looking at it, not wanting to turn toward Rhion as he stands next to me dressed in one of his typical gold brocade tunics.
Smooth stones that feel good on bare feet cover the ground in the rest of the clearing. Hedges rise high in the air around it, hiding us in a dark cubby meant for private time between lovers.
“Well, this is awkward,” he says, cutting the silence like a knife, and I still don’t turn to him. “No wonder it’s such a popular place for recently bonded couples.”
I chuckle. “I told you it was a bad idea. You refused to accept the warning.”
“In typical me fashion, I didn’t think it all the way through, but we’re here now. Might as well get over ourselves and get in. I want to understand the draw of this place regardless of a little awkwardness.”
There’s the sound of clothes shifting for a few moments, and I can’t help but turn to see him in his undershirt and drawers, walking toward the pool. His underclothes cling to his body in a way that’d make most women blush. His bulge is… just as large as you’d expect from the biggest man you’ve ever seen. As soon as he touches the water, his clothes stick to him, becoming a second skin around his enormous frame, and my eyes don’t drift from the outline of something that would break most women.
“Oh…” he groans when he’s waist deep. “This is worth coming all the way from Draenyth for. It’s… it’s freeing.”
The Moonlit Pools are hot springs just outside the House of Calm. Dozens of tiny pools just like this have been here for as long as Selithar has existed, but there are plenty of places with hot springs. The Lesser House’s powers take away the worries and concerns from those they affect, and all these pools have been imbued with that power. When you put two nearly naked people in the same bathwater together and take away their worries, well, it’s not meant for children.
“Aren’t you getting in?” Rhion pesters. “Or are you just going to stare at me? You have seen a man in his underthings before, haven’t you?”
I huff. “Yes, I’ve been alive for over nine hundred years. I just… haven’t seenyouin them before.”
“Well, if they’re bothering you that much, I can take them off for you…” The smirk on his face makes me thankful for the darkness to hide my blush.
I don’t know why I feel nervous or embarrassed at the thought of getting into the pool with Rhion, but I do. It’s illogical, and I try to push the emotions out of my mind, something I should be very good at. Yet, underneath my confident exterior, I can’t help but be terrified of what walking into the pool will lead to.
“Fine,” I say, and pull my tunic over my head, leaving me in my undershirt, a thin piece of white linen that feels far too thin. I kick off my shoes and pull my traveling pants off. Rhion’s eyes don’t leave me for a moment, burning into me, and they don’t miss a detail of the way I move.
He’s noticing that I’m nervous even though I’m acting confident. I can’t hide how I react to his gaze, and he’s analyzing it. He may act like an insolent Prince who couldn’t care less about what’s happening, but I know how his mind works. He understands me even after all these years.
When I stand back up in only that thin linen, a chilly wind whips down from the surrounding mountains and makes me shiver. “It’s warm in here,” Rhion says with a grin. “And it’s…” He pauses for a moment before saying, “quiet.”
I look at the steam billowing from the pool and sigh again before stepping into the water. As soon as it touches my toes, I begin to feel the effects of the magic. Thoughts of Darian, Cole, and Maeve flee my mind. My talk with my mother today is a distant thought, as though I can’t focus on it, and more than anything, my reservations about Rhion disappear.
He’s the only person in the world who’s only wanted my happiness. Not my powers or loyalty. He doesn’t want me to do anything for him. All he’s ever wanted was to walk and talk with me.
My objections about the way I feel for him melt like snow in spring. He’s my friend. He doesn’t want to do any of the terrible things he’s had to do. He swore an oath never to let anything bad happen to me.
“Oh…” I whisper with only one foot in the water.
“It’s nice, isn’t it?” Rhion’s voice pulls me away from the fleeing thoughts. “It’s like you can relax for the first time.”
I nod and smile at him. “I know there are things I should think about and do, but right now they don’t really matter.”
He’s standing in the middle of the pool, that wonderful smile on his lips, and he steps toward me, his mountain of a body making waves in the pool. He reaches out a hand to support me as I step deeper into the glowing violet water, and I take it. I don’t need his help, but it means something.
My world has been so full of forced strength, just as I told my mother, but Rhion doesn’t expect that. Hewantsto be strong for me. If I’d been attacked by a basilisk with Cole, he’d have given me orders and expected me to fight alongside him, but Rhion had only worried about protecting me even though I was older and more experienced. Even though I probably should have been the one protectinghim.
That particular thought doesn’t flee. Memories of the day Rhion was taken away from me flood my mind, and I realize something.
When I’m standing in front of him, my eyes at chest level with him, I say the words that I’ve never told him or anyone else before. “I’m sorry.”
He frowns and cocks his head as he looks down at me. “Sorry for what?”
“For…” Dragons damn Darian and damn me too. “I’m sorry for helping Darian play that trick on you all those years ago. The one that ruined everything. I let Darian convince me that nothing bad would happen, and I shouldn’t have. I should have been…”
Rhion chuckles, and I pause to look at him. He’s so much bigger than I am. He’s the biggest man I’ve ever known, and standing this close to him makes it so much more evident. He says, “Ainslee, I have never blamed you or Darian for that day. Yes, it changed things, but my father was looking for a reason to pull me away from you three. He hated the fact that I was more worried about spending time with you than about becoming a leader and warrior. I’m just glad that nothing worse happened because of it.”
I stare into those gray eyes that could have lived the last nine hundred years in anger, and I see nothing but sadness. “But we humiliated you. I’m sure you were punished. It was a terrible decision, and I let it happen.”
Rhion shrugs, and the sadness turns to a smile. “How many terrible decisions did we make as children? How many times could things have gone wrong? How many times would we have done even stupider things had Cole not been there to tell us we were being idiots? It would have happened eventually, and while I don’t particularly like your brother, it’s not because of that day. It’s because he’s held a grudge because of whatcould havehappened even though he’s the one who instigated it.”
