Chapter 53 #2
Balancing her with one hand and then the other, I remove the knives strapped to me. Unable to take off my clothes without releasing her, I simply open the shower door, turn on the tap, and carry her inside. She shivers against me, so I turn up the heat before sitting down with her on my lap.
Blood pours off her and onto me. Grabbing the bottle of shampoo, I wash her hair. She doesn’t say a word as I shift her head out of the spray or when I massage her scalp. I move my fingers gently over her body, checking to see if there are any wounds she’s too shocked to feel.
Nothing.
Thank gods.
“Close your eyes,” I murmur as I scoop a handful of suds off her. After leaning over to make sure she’s obeyed, I scrub her face, then her neck. Pulling off the straps of her jumpsuit, I let it pool around her waist and peel off her bra.
“Tell me what happened,” I say as I lift her until I can tug the jumpsuit off her legs. Cradled on my lap, she lifts her head to look into my eyes.
“It was an accident.”
“I know. But I need to know who it was so we can protect them together.” Flinging her jumpsuit over the top of the shower, I start to wash her legs.
“Really? You won’t kill her?”
“I promise.”
Shuddering, a huge weight falls off her shoulders as a sigh relaxes her face. “Bubbles did it.”
“Bubbles?” Who the fuck is Bubbles?
“Yeah. She’s the giant yondu living in the room –”
“A giant yondu is in the castle?” Instantly regretting my promise not to kill it, I focus on washing the rest of the blood off her. That explains so fucking much; the heads were absolutely destroyed.
“Yes. It’s living in the secret room.”
I’m going to kill Evangeline for letting her get anywhere close to a giant yondu. Even foxes don’t mess with them, and yondus are smaller than squirrels. The fact that my wife has interacted with one enough to name it is making me feral.
“Close your eyes.” Tilting her head back into the spray so she can’t see my irritation, I rinse the suds from her hair. “You know it can’t stay in the castle,” I say gently.
If the Court finds out an animal is responsible for the deaths of their seconds, they’ll kill it.
And if they don’t, the yondu fucking mating season isn’t that far away.
Then it’ll fuck everyone in the castle to death.
Or worse, if it’s a female, it’ll go into heat and call hundreds of males to her.
And then they all will fuck everyone in Raza to death.
“But she’s so lonely –” Arienna starts.
“If she stays, the Court will kill her.”
“But –”
“Jace is terrified of them.” A bit of an exaggeration but not completely unfounded.
Opening her eyes, Arienna turns to look at me. “I’m sure I can convince him that she’s just –”
“Arienna, it can’t stay here. We’ll release it somewhere nice, just like we did with your wasps, okay?”
Sighing, she leans back against me. “Fine…”
Holding her tight, I ask softly, “Did you have to cut off all the heads yourself?”
Her body tenses, then a shudder rips through her. “Most of them were already… off, and Deirdre helped.”
“She’s here?”
She nods. “She worries about you, you know.”
Doubtful. Most likely, she’s playing some angle, but I don’t tell her that yet. We’ll discuss the manipulations of the nobles later, but right now, her sanity is all that matters.
“And she tried to help me revive one, but –” This shudder turns into a messy giggle. “She had a DNR order, so I had to…” Her laughter chills my spine even under the hot spray.
Fuck. Killing a recently resurrected soul isn’t easy.
“Did you know the head is, like, really attached to the body? Like, really, really attached to it.”
With my fingers on her chin, I turn her face so she can look into my eyes and see the truth. “I’m so fucking sorry I put you in that position,” I murmur.
Tears mix with the spray, her face bunching up with a pain I feel in my bones. “I thought I was going to lose you.”
“Not even death can keep you from me. I’ll go to war with the gods themselves to get back to you.”
“So would I,” she says softly before leaning up for a kiss. I take her lips gently before pulling back. For as much as my cock wants to be inside her, she’s too vulnerable right now. She needs to be held and spoiled, not fucked desperately and raw like my soul is urging me to do.
Wishing I could wash the guilt off her shoulders but knowing I’m unable to, I simply hold her until she’s ready to move.
I step out of the shower with her in my arms. I’m still wearing my soaking wet clothes. Grabbing two towels as I pass the railing, I wrap one over her. She fell asleep a few minutes ago, her head resting against my chest, her heart and body utterly exhausted.
Laying the other towel down on our bed, I set her on top of it. I pat her dry, then kiss her forehead before going back into the bathroom. I leave my wet clothes in a bundle on the floor. With a towel around my waist, I head back to my queen.
As I crawl into bed and pull her into my arms, she turns towards me. Her eyes open half-way, soft and pure and still on the edge of sleep. “I love you.”
I kiss her lips. “I love you too, my queen.”