39. Lorken
Lorken
Beyond the transparent wall, the stars pulsed faintly and without fail against an inky sky, and I found myself grateful for their unchanging presence.
My life might have changed irrevocably, but the universe continued to expand and unfold as it always had.
Even if Athena insisted on leaving, my life as Raas would continue as it was, although I would not be the same Vandar as before.
“We should bathe," I said reluctantly. I would rather have stayed exactly where I was, but time was not on our side.
The lights embedded in the ceiling had begun illuminating by degrees and would soon suffuse the room in the warm amber that signaled first watch.
The glow spread across Athena's bare shoulder, and I felt a fresh stab of reluctance at what it meant.
Soon enough, a raider would arrive bearing the morning meal, and it would not do for him to find us naked and pressed against the window.
Athena swatted playfully at my chest, though there was no real force behind it. "We don't have time for another one of your dips in the bathing pool.” Her mouth curved into a teasing smile. “And we definitely don’t have time for you to rescue me again.”
My chuckle was low and rough. “I will always rescue you, Athena.”
She hummed and ran her fingers through my hair. “Is that a promise?”
“It is,” I said, my voice no longer tinged with laughter.
Even her smiled faded, and she met my eyes solemnly. “I know.”
I kissed her again, this time tenderly and slowly, as if sealing the promise. “This will not be a full bath, and there will be no need for rescue.”
I took her by the hand and led her to the bathing chamber, but not toward the pool.
Instead, I continued walking to the shallow alcove carved into the black rock at the back of the room.
I pressed my palm flat against a panel hidden in the stone, and warm water burst from two wide, flat spouts set a bit above my chest level on both side of the alcove.
She yelped, gripping my forearms as the water splashed her neck instead of her chest. “A little warning next time!”
I pivoted so my body blocked one side, and she was only hit with water from the back. “Apologies. I forgot the water would not hit you as high as it hits me.”
She spluttered and wiped the water from her face, glaring up at me before her severe look morphed into an amused one. “Not everyone is super-sized, you know.”
“Typically, everyone on a Vandar warbird is.”
She grumbled something I couldn’t quite make out over the sound of the waterfall and now the rushing water from the shower, but she soon went quiet as she stood under the cascade.
"Is it scented?" she asked after a moment, her face tipped up and her eyes closed.
"It is."
She inhaled deeply, and something shifted in her expression before she sighed. "It smells like you."
I said nothing to that, but I found the words settling somewhere warm in my chest. I liked the idea of her smelling like me. Pulling her close to me and draping my arms around her, I moved my hands across her back, as if washing her.
She pulled back and wagged a finger at me. “Oh no, you don’t. I know exactly where that leads.” She jerked a thumb at the wall. “Me pressed up against that.”
A growl burbled in my chest. That didn’t sound so bad to me, but she was already backing away and laughing. I shut off the water before I could be tempted and reached for a length of dry linen from the hook beside the alcove, offering it to her before taking one for myself.
After toweling off and wrapping ourselves, Athena sighed, glancing toward the waterfall pounding into the pool. "My dress is still under there somewhere. I suppose I'll be wearing a towel again."
"Not today." I led her from the bathing chamber and crossed to the cabinet inset along the far wall. I opened one door, revealing the neat row of hanging battle kilts within, and beside them, something that did not belong in a Raas’s wardrobe at all.
I grabbed a fresh kilt for myself, then unhooked the pale linen dress hanging just beside it and offered it to her.
Her brows rose. "Where did that come from?"
"The tailor delivered it yesterday, while you were visiting your friends." I did not look away from her as I said it. "I gave him your sizing myself. It was a guess, but I suspect it will fit.”
She stared at the dress, her lips quirking before she pulled it over her head. It hugged her curves with only a small amount of spare fabric. She looked every bit as striking in the simple linen as she did in her frilly green dress. Maybe more so.
I closed the distance between us and pulled her flush against me, growling low against her ear. “You look lovely, although I prefer you in nothing at all."
Her husky laugh was cut short by the chime of the door.
"Breakfast," I said, stepping back and calling toward the door "Vaes!"
But it was not the young raider with our morning meal who entered. It was Dawz, and one glance at his face told me the ease of the last hour was over.
I shoved my feet into boots as I registered his pinched brow. “Report, majak.”
Dawz's gaze flicked once, briefly, to Athena, before returning to me. "We have clocked a Zagrath battleship closing on our position."
Impossible. We should be invisible to the enemy. Our cloaking had never failed. “Are we not cloaked? Is there an issue with the system?”
Dawz's jaw tightened. “It is not our system, Raas. We believe our coordinates have been relayed.”
I shook my head. “No one knows our coordinates.”
“They do if they are relaying them from inside the warbird.”
Tvek.