Page 35 of House of Gilded Nightmares

“Is that your way of telling me I’m dirty?” Zyren asks coyly.

“Absolutely filthy,” Riya says with a laugh. “Come this way.”

She leads us along the river’s edge, through room after room. There are easily a dozen different ones, each open to the river on one side, though the furniture is set back quite a ways beneath the mountain. At the back of the complex, Riya leads us into two adjoining rooms. On the side closer to the river, a bathing pool has been set into the stone floor behind a cluster of stone pillars, a small garden surrounding it.

“I wasn’t sure if you needed one room or two,” Riya says, looking between us.

“Two,” Zyren responds in what seems a hasty tone.

He clearly doesn’t want Riya thinking we’re a couple. My chest tightens. It seems there’s a romantic history between them, something it’s clear I can’t compete with. Not that I’m even in a position to be able to compete for Zyren’s affection.

“Well, I’ll leave you two to freshen up and be back to fetch you when dinner is ready,” Riya says. “Help yourself to any of the clothes in the wardrobe.” She points toward the back wall of the grotto-room, then turns and strides off back the way she’d come.

When she’s gone, I turn to face Zyren. “Your friend seems charming.”

Zyren’s gaze falls on mine. “We’ve known each other a very long time. I’d trust her with my life. We’ll be safe here tonight.”

I had hoped for perhaps a bit more detail, but Zyren doesn’t seem inclined to share it. After a moment of awkward silence, I point toward the small pool. “Do you mind if I…?”

“Go ahead. I’ll wait in the next room.”

I watch as he settles himself into a chair in the room next to the guest suite, which seems to be a small dining room with an elegant table along the back wall, and several bright lanterns strung from the ceiling. They’re the same type of lantern that hung in the stable, burning not with flame but with some sort of magic.

The lights in the first bedroom of the suite are equally unique, hung in a spiral pattern along the stone ceiling and emitting a soft lavender hue. Along the back wall is a bed, four enormous posts hung with pale, silky curtains at the corners. The wardrobe sits in the corner, as well as a small table and two chairs situated closer to the river, which meanders by at a much softer volume here than the rushing near the falls. All the furniture appears to be made from white, polished stone, so smooth it looks almost like marble. I run my fingers along the coolness of it before walking to the doorway of the second bedroom.

That one is much the same, though it is open to the elements on two sides. It’s clearly the farthest point of the compound on this side of the river. On the far side of the room, instead of a wall, a large garden hugs the edge of the space, stretching from the walled pool along the river as far as I can see into the darkness. Instead of soil, there are small black rocks. The plants growing there are lush and bright green, bearing flowers of every color imaginable, some that even glow against the night sky.

It’s breathtaking, and I adore the open rooms, the kiss of the night air on my skin. After living my entire life behind palace walls, I wish nothing more than to sleep in the open air, beneath stars, against the earth, for the rest of my days. I want to see more wonders like this, to travel all the strange corners of the world, not just Valaron but Aureon as well. I want to experience everything.

I take off my cloak and toss it on the bed, instantly feeling the rush of icy air on my skin. For a moment, I reconsider the bath, but I do feel rather grimy, and I don’t want to show up to dinner hosted by Zyren’s gorgeous former lover covered in dirt. So, I take off my boots and I suck in a brave breath and I stride out the arched opening of the bedroom toward the river.

Between the two bedrooms, there’s a narrow stretch of wall behind the pool, and along it sits a large chest made of the same pale stone as the other furniture. Opening it, I find a soft bath towel which makes me feel slightly better about the cold bath I’m about to take. Looking to my left along the river, I feel fairly exposed, considering that at any moment, someone could walk out of one of the rooms and see me taking a bath. But I shove down my nerves and strip off the rest of my clothing, then set the towel down on the ledge next to the pool.

A set of stairs cut into the rock spiral down into the pool. As I stand on the top step, steam rises up around me, and I notice rocks set in the wall which glow beneath the water. When I dip my toe in, the water is not cold at all. It’s gloriously hot. I don’t know what witchery is at play here, but I may just love this strange mountain hideaway. I walk carefully down the steps into the water, sliding onto a ledge cut into the back wall, the water coming up to my chin.

For a couple minutes, I simply sit in the hot water, eyes closed, and lose myself in the pleasure of it. The rock garden with the beautiful flowers rises behind me, perfuming the air with sweet scents. When I open my eyes again, I notice a stone pitcher sits on the side of the pool, filled with soap. I pour a generous amount into my hands and wash my hair and skin. It feels amazing to be truly clean after such a long time traversing the mountains.

I stay in the hot pool for so long that Zyren calls out from the next room to make sure I’m okay. Cheeks heating up, I call assurances to him and climb out of the pool hastily. I wrap the towel around me as the wintry air bites my skin. When I walk back through the arched doorway into the bed chamber, Zyren is pacing back and forth in the adjacent room as if agitated.

“Sorry I took so long,” I call.

His eyes catch mine as I walk past the doorway, and he averts them quickly. “Stay over there. I’ll go around the other way,” he calls.

A few moments later, he strides around the outside of the rooms along the riverbank, barefoot and wearing nothing but his riding pants. I am not as quick to avert my eyes. I can’t turn away from the lean length of his body, from the scars that mark his skin, wondering the tale of each.

I busy myself by going to the wardrobe and searching for clean clothing, something warmer than what I had arrived in. After a couple minutes of looking through the dresses hanging within, I find one that’s a deep wine color with a ruff of black fur around the collar. It is thick and velvety, with full-length sleeves and a hem that touches my ankles. It covers me entirely except for the neckline, which scoops down to reveal my collarbone and a hint of skin beyond. It’s substantially warmer than what I wore before, though my wet hair can’t be helped beyond blotting it with the towel.

When I hear Zyren get out of the pool a short time later, water droplets hitting the stone floor, I make sure I’m not facing the open doorways he’ll travel past. The mere thought of it makes my cheeks warm, and a flutter forms in my chest, a flutter that travels down the length of my body in an embarrassing way.

“Are you ready?” he calls from the doorway, making me nearly jump out of my skin.

I turn and face him, trying to hide the surprise from my face. Zyren has donned new clothing also, a set of brown pants and a fur-lined leather jacket over a cream-colored shirt. His eyes land on me in a way that makes the flutters double in intensity.

“I am,” I manage to say, shocked that my voice doesn’t shake.

“I’ll give you a tour of the house while we wait for our hostess,” Zyren says.

It seems rather impertinent to me, which once again confirms how close the two of them must be if he feels he can wander Riya’s house when she’s off overseeing the preparation of dinner. We wander back through the rooms we’d passed through to our guest suite at the end. There’s a library and a music room and a wine cellar. When we reach the place where the bridge crosses the river to connect to the other half of the compound, Zyren leads the way across it. I’m grateful for the stone walls on each side of the arched bridge because the water beneath flows swiftly, and the falls roar in the distance.

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