Ileus lazily circled his fingers around her breasts and belly as she leaned against his broad chest. Hot steaming water rippled against their bodies, lapping all their dirt and leeching their exhaustion.
"I am sorry to have put you in such a situation, Natsya." His hand pressed her belly. "I should have been more careful crossing the bridge."
"What you did wasn't your fault. It was just a miscommunication between Darla and you. You couldn't anticipate Darla's eagerness to cross the bridge."
"That's not an excuse. I shouldn't have said anything till I crossed the bridge. I need to control my impulses better."
Anastasia turned her face over her shoulders to look at him and she kissed his hard jaw. "We can't control everything in our life, humbug!"
"You called me a humbug?" His eyes narrowed.
"Hmm." She kissed him again. "You simply can't control everything in nature."
"The only thing that I can't seem to control is you," he teased. "But I love the way you are. It gives my life new challenges."
She shook her head and chortled. She turned her back around and placed her hands on his thighs.
"Sweetheart?"
"Yes?"
He dipped his face into the crook of her neck and said, "I love when you laugh. It's like the bells in a temple. It never ceases to amaze me that you laugh. And when you were at Vilinski, you— you rarely laughed…"
Anastasia's breath hitched and she remembered all the ill treatments at the hands of Maple and Aed Ruad. That place was filled with corruption that was more foul than the middens of the entire Lore.
"When you used to smile or laugh over there, I would always imagine how you would look with those wings spread and a smile on your face."
She snaked her hands around his neck. "Smiling was like privilege and laughter a luxury. Maple didn't like when I smiled. She hated when I laughed."
"I want to kill her."
"So do I," she murmured and pressed her face in his cheek. "And I want to make it very slow and very painful…" She didn't realize but she wanted to meet Maple and start with her tortures.
He grazed his fangs on her nape and rose to kiss her lips. When he parted, he said, "I will take you to the wizard prison tomorrow, but it's not a very nice place."
"I would like to meet you Mother first," she said and leaned her head back on his chest.
"I am sure Mother must be eager to meet you as well."
She nodded because she too was eager. "I find it odd that she didn't come to meet us when we entered the palace premises. I also find it very odd that there are no servants or guards in the palace. Don't you have threats against the palace?"
Ileus laughed. He looked beyond her towards the opposite end of the wall and said, "Give us lavender bathing oil."
Suddenly, out of thin air, two servants in black uniform that had Draoidh's crest on the chest appeared. They had a tray full of lavender oils and herbs.
Anastasia gasped and covered her breasts with her hands. Her face flushed a crimson red.
None of the servants dared to look at them and kept their heads low. One of them stepped over a stair that surrounded the bathtub and placed the tray on the edge. "Anything else, my lord," she asked. "Perhaps you want me to warm the water again or run fresh water?"
"No that is all," he dismissed them. And the servants disappeared instantly.
"Holy fae!" Anastasia exclaimed. "Were they here all the time?"
He laughed. "No honey, they come only when summoned. It's a little different with the royal guards. They are there at every corner, only invisible."
Anastasia's eyes became wide with astonishment. "Don't tell me that they were watching us while we walked all the way to your bedroom?" She was learning a lot of new things about her new home.
"They were," he said and then applied soap to her hair. "And I am glad that you are studying your new environment." While she was left wondering, after giving a good massage on her scalp and removing all the dirt, he rinsed her hair thoroughly. She moaned under his ministrations and almost swayed embarrassedly when he left her. He poked her shoulder and said, "Now you have to rinse my hair, sweetheart." He gazed inside the bathtub. "And looking at all the grime we are leaving here, you might have to scrub the walls."
"As if!" Her lips curved up and she went to sit behind him on the edge of the tub. She was determined to give him a nice head-bath. While Anastasia had never scrubbed bathtubs, she set to scrubbing Ileus' head with fervor. The strands in his hair squeaked and his scalp burnt at the end of it. Ileus wondered whether she was grooming him or torturing him. And he had massaged her so gently.
"Now you are done!" she declared and he thanked all the wolf spirits. But then she picked up a towel and started to dry his hair… fervently.
"Wife, will you make me bald in one day," he said as she rubbed the towel on his hair. His head was shaking so hard that the words came out, "Vive, vill ou mbaaaaalt ddddayyyy!"
"Why are you clucking your teeth?" she asked innocently.
That night, they slept naked in his giant bed that was big enough for five people to sleep in at one time. The overheard canopy was covered with red and blue blossoms. Ileus turned her to face her back and pulled her closer to him. He wrapped his heavy arm around her and draped a thigh over her legs. "We are home," he whispered softly. As soon as they lied, the red and blue blossoms crept around and covered them both in its pleasant fragrance.
In her sleepy state, through her half-lidded eyes, she looked at the flowers covering them. "This is so beautiful. Is this an enchantment?"
"I don't know," he replied sleepily. "But the same arrangement is also in my parents' room. It used to blossom yellow sometimes, especially when I was there…"
"I think I won't have nightmares now."
His arm curled tighter. "Good memories are going to slay the nightmares, sweetheart. Sleep."
Next day Anastasia woke up leisurely. She missed the warm hands and leg over her. When she turned to look around, she found him sitting in a chair with his legs up on the bed, reading a leather-bound book.
"Good morning, love," he said as his lips curled up.
"Morning," she said, rubbing her eyes and stifling a yawn and sagging with relief.
"Get up sleepyhead," he said.
She looked out the windows and realized that they were arched and tall. It was dawn and the first rays of sun had already lighted the sky. His room looked even more beautiful in the day as compared to hers at Vilinski. She got up and it weighed upon her that she was the princess of Draoidh. It was a new beginning.
"Get dressed fast. We have to meet my parents."
