Page 42 of A Queen Of Broken Realms
“Pamukkale?” I say, my head swiveling between the passing sign and Ashen.
“Hmm?”
“You brought us to Pamukkale?”
“I did?”
“We’re in Turkey?”
“We are?”
“Oh myGod.” I don’t know whether to be annoyed or excited or nervous or delighted. I land oneverything, all at once. I give a little laugh of disbelief and watch out the window as the village slips by.
Before long, we pull into the driveway of a large hotel with sweeping, curved walls and steaming outdoor pools. A sign for the Doga Thermal Health and Spa passes my window. I want to ask Ashen a thousand questions, but I know I’ll only get more in return, and judging by the self-satisfied look on the demon’s face, he would very much like to continue that game.
We check in at the front desk and head up to the King Suite, a sprawling chamber with an enormous bathroom and its own private sauna. There’s a bottle of wine and a bowl of strawberries waiting on a glass table. I sweep my hand along the sheets of the immaculate bed. Not as great as Ashen’s sex sheets, but still pretty awesome. I drift back into the living room toward a set of doors and open them, stepping out onto the balcony that looks toward the mountains and the brightening sky.
“Vampire. We have to go. Clothes are on the bed.”
Ashen disappears into the bathroom as I turn from the view and head back into the bedroom, staring down at a midnight blue bikini and a gauzy white shirt, flowy linen pants and a knit cardigan. “What the fuck,” I whisper to myself with a little laugh of disbelief. I strip my clothes off and change, and Ashen sweeps up my hand as he passes from the bathroom, leading us toward the door.
“What the hell is going on?”
“Do you always ask this many questions?” he asks as he presses the button for the elevator.
“Do you always answer my questions with questions?”
Ashen says nothing but gives a little smirk, and pulls me into the elevator without another word.
Before long we’re back in the sedan, which I now realize is driven by aShub Lugalsoldier from the Shadow Realm, who speeds us toward the Pamukkale Thermal Pools. It’s not yet the opening time when we pull up to the entrance, but a guard is waiting to let us into the hot springs nonetheless. We take off our shoes and start the climb toward the travertine springs.
We fall into a comfortable silence as I take in the expanse of pools that stretch before us, the milky blue water reflecting the sky that’s beginning to lighten with shades of yellow and orange. Steam shifts in plumes over the still surface of the layered pools. They drop, one to the next, like a staircase to some ancient gods of the mountain. The limestone travertine forms curving borders around each stacked, terrace spring. The layers and layers of pools laid out before us seem to beckon me in. I want to try every one, but no sooner have we stopped in the first to roll our hems up from our ankles than Ashen is pulling us along through the warm water with some objective clearly in mind.
Just as I’m starting to think we’ll never find a pool worthy of Ashen’s discriminating demon tastes, he finally declares we have reached our destination. It’s the widest, longest of the basins we’ve encountered so far. We stop at the edge and I take off my clothes, setting them on a dry patch of stone when I’m done. Ashen places his on mine and I nearly choke on my own spit.
“What?” he asks, confusion thick in his voice as I cough. It’s impossible to look hot in a bikini when you hack up a lung, by the way, but I still make a valiant effort.
“It’s just…I mean…I’ve seen you naked—”
“Obviously—”
“And I’ve seen you with tailored suits, and armor, and then those snakeskin wings, I mean those are really fucking hot. Seriously. I like the wings. Butwhy,” I say, my voice almost pained as I wave my hand in his direction and try not to cough. “Whyis it you look even hotter in swim trunks? Your audacity knows no bounds, Ashen.”
And oh myGod, no sooner do the words leave my mouth than the demon blushes. Impossibly, he’s even sexier than he was just two second ago. I cross my arms beneath my boobs and cock a hip and give him a chastising arch of my brow like this is a problem. Frankly, it is. Those low-slung black swim trunks with their subtle diamond pattern in thin lines of charcoal gray, the expanse of muscle and radiant skin and lines upon lines of black tattoos, they are a problem. Abigproblem. Because I’m about ready to jump him in what will shortly be a public location full of off-season human tourists looking to make the most of this instagrammable location.
To add to said problem, a sly smile spreads across Ashen’s face as he stalks closer. But despite the ravenous look on his face, the demon doesn’t eat me alive. Instead, he pries my hand away from my chest and backs into the pool, pulling me in with him. The water gets as deep as my waist and then we lower ourselves to our necks, drifting to the curling edge of travertine to look out across the hills and the valley and the brightening dawn.
“Have you been here before?” Ashen asks as his warmth wraps around me from behind. I rest my chin on my folded arms at the edge of the white limestone, watching as the sun’s first rays break the horizon.
“No,” I answer, closing my eyes for a moment as he places a kiss to my shoulder. “I was close. I was in Ankara but ended up going East instead. You?”
Ashen’s breath summons a flush of goosebumps across my neck as he nods. “Yes. A couple of decades ago. I came to reap a werewolf who was hiding north, in Kizildere. Once it was done, I walked around a little before I went back.”
“Did you go into the pools?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
