Using one of the cloths at the bowl’s side, I poured a hefty dose onto it, then set about scrubbing myself until my skin shone pink and my still-silver hair hung in damp curls around my face. Even the dirt beneath my nails was coming loose.
With a frown, I cleaned them too, wondering when the next time would be that I would dip my hands into fresh soil and feel all of the life that the Mother gave us.
When I finally finished bathing, I lay back in the pool and let the water buoy me up until I floated on my back and stared at the twinkling stars above.
My breasts peaked in the cold, and goosebumps rippled over my exposed flesh, but I didn’t care. The heat of the pool beneath my back and the serenity of the water cascading down the mountainside made my muscles un-bunch for the first time since the prince had taken me.
I drifted along the water’s surface, letting the soft currents take me where they chose. Vines from the plants growing around the pool hung in suspended twists of braids and coiled strands near the water’s edge, and when I bobbed toward them, I reached up and fingered the soft petals.
“How are you, my friend?” I murmured before going to the next flower, then the next vine, caressing all of them and bidding them hellos.
I floated like that for I didn’t know how long, but when my eyes began to close in sleepiness, I finally straightened and swam a few laps across the water to wake back up before my interest drifted toward the waterfall.
I kicked closer to it, and my brow puckered when I realized it didn’t run against the mountain’s rocky side as I’d initially thought but instead covered the opening to a cave.
Interest piqued, I toed closer until the rushing water was only inches from my face and then took a deep breath before pushing through it. Only seconds passed before the pounding of the swiftly moving falls disappeared behind me.
Opening my eyes, I gasped when I beheld a dark hidden cave beneath the falls. The ceiling above glimmered with a thousand diamond-like stones that shone like distant stars. I stared upward, taking in the radiance of it. The cave itself wasn’t more than ten feet in diameter, but the smallness of it didn’t distract me.
Finding my footing on the pool’s floor, I stood to my full height. While I wasn’t what anyone would call tall, the cave’s waters were actually quite shallow, allowing me to rise until the water licked my waist.
Reaching above, I tried to touch those beautiful stones, but a stirring in the pool’s water stopped me. It felt as though someone had shifted, and a small wave lapped against my skin.
Swinging around, I gasped when two piercing blue eyes glowed from the darkness.
Goosebumps sprouted across my entire body as the crown prince gazed at me from a hidden seat within the cave. His gaze was hooded, his expression impossible to read, and he didn’t say a word when his focus slid from my face to my breasts and then to my bare stomach.
I quickly submerged, resisting the urge to cover myself as fury glowed in my gut.
“I didn’t realize you were there, my prince.” I stepped quickly backward, putting as much distance between us as I could, until the prickly cave rock met my bare back.
Prince Norivun’s wings shifted, and I figured he’d had to curl them behind him, bending his appendages to accommodate the shallow pool. They were probably dragging on the pool’s floor, and it was sheer luck I hadn’t stepped on one.
“I figured as much. You certainly looked like you were enjoying yourself.”
My breath sucked in when I realized there were openings from the cave on each side of the waterfall. One glance outward told me that from the edge, a fairy would have a perfect view of the entire bathing pools. And the prince was sitting on the edge.
My cheeks reddened, and I wondered if this entire time the prince had been watching me.
“Did you enjoy the show?” I bit out, not caring when anger laced my words, but I hadn’t hidden my naked form at all, and considering the prince was only feet away from where I’d been trying to touch the glowing stones, my breasts had practically been in his face.
The corner of his mouth kicked up. “Quite.”
My breath sucked in at his smug arrogance. I shot a hand out, throwing a wave of water into his face before thinking better of it. “You’re a cad.”
An amused smirk lifted his lips as he wiped water from his eyes. Droplets clung to his long eyelashes. He ran a hand over his silver hair, slicking it back, and if the crown prince of the Solis continent was at all offended that I’d just shoved a wall of water in his face while calling him a name, he hid it well.
“I suppose it was bad manners not to let you know of my presence, so I shall forgive you for your actions.”
I snorted. “It was more than bad manners. It’s what a creep would do.”
His smile wiped clean, and he inched closer to me, coasting along the water’s surface like a feared predator in the Tala Sea. “Are you calling me a creep?”
My heart beat harder when he stopped only a foot away. Water ran off his broad shoulders and down his muscled form as his defined pecs appeared just beneath the surface. He was so big that I knew he had to be kneeling in the shallow pool.
I swallowed the ball in my throat. “I’m saying that only creeps watch naked females when they’re unaware.”
His gaze drifted to my neck again, right where Vorl’s illusion spell hid my bruises.
“And did a creep do that to you? Or was that something you welcomed?” he asked quietly.
My hand flew to my throat. “You can see it?”
His eyes darkened, turning into cobalt chips of ice, as he gave a single nod.
“But how? Vorl’s illusion affinity is so strong.”
“Not stronger than mine.”
My jaw dropped. “So you truly have an illusion affinity too? You weren’t just glamouring my hair?”
“I have several affinities,” he said, still looking at the bruises on my neck. His jaw began to tick.
So it was true. The crown prince of the Winter Court had been blessed with multiple affinities. “What else can you do?”
His eyes shuttered, and his expression turned impatient. “I believe I asked you a question.”
I fingered my throat. The skin was still sore but not as tender as it had been a few days ago. “I wouldn’t call him a creep, my prince.”
One of the prince’s eyebrows rose, yet the tension in his shoulders remained. “So you were a willing participant when it happened?”
“I didn’t say that. I just said I wouldn’t call him a creep.”
The prince frowned as the aura off him rose. “Then what did you mean?”
“I meant that Vorl isn’t a creep. He’s a bully.”
The prince stilled. “So he forced himself on you?”
I glanced away, unable to meet his penetrating stare. “He forced himself on me numerous times.”
In a movement too quick for me to see, the prince’s fingers enclosed my chin, and he jerked my head in his direction. “He raped you?”
I jolted back, breaking the contact as a thousand nerve endings came alive within me from that single touch. “I never said that.”
“Then what did you mean?” he growled, his voice low and deep and rippling with barely leashed power.
I shivered at the absolute menace rolling off him. “I meant that he forced himself on me in other ways but not in that way.”