“You took a break,” I told him. “Cleared your head. Renewed your spirit. Whatever you want to call it. Now you’re ready to get back to work.”
I could see him look at me, so I gazed back at him and offered a smile.
“It was a rather long break,” he said.
“You’re a rather stubborn bastard.”
Oops. Maybe I shouldn’t have?—
Solaris snorted a laugh. And nodded.
Phew!
“I was also thinking,” he said, “that they might be quite excited to learn about your arrival. In addition to the spellworkers, we had seers attempting to divine answers.” He grinned a bit. “One of them foretold of a great bear of a man arriving to strike me down.”
I grimaced at him. “Hopefully, that was the part where I tackled you out of the sky.”
“Perhaps. Though by holding me at sword point and restraining me, one could claim you enacted a coup.”
“No, no, no! I was not taking over the country?—”
“Court.”
“—I was rescuing you from a band of idiots?—”
“Oh, come now.”
“—and keeping you safe on your return trip.”
He smiled so brightly, so genuinely, it took my breath away for a second there. “You’re so full of shit.”
I laughed and nodded because, yeah, I really was sometimes.
“Hold on,”I said some time later. “Am I seeing things? Or is that place up there actually green?”
“It’s a pond fed by an underground spring,” Solaris said with a smile. “I flew over it on the way out and was hoping it would still be here.”
First of all, there was shade. The trees were big and green like trees should be, their branches intermingling and creating a canopy to hide us from the sun’s rays.
Next, it was cooler. So much cooler! As soon as the horses walked into the area, they stopped and heaved sighs. I got the feeling they weren’t going to start walking again until they were damn good and ready.
The boys popped out of the back of the carriage with exclamations of relief and appreciation, all four of them looking sweaty and tired. And despite all of us eyeing the crystal clear water of the limestone-ringed pond, we set about releasing all of the horses first.
“They won’t run off?” I asked as the horses that had pulled the carriage immediately went to get drinks.
Frank snorted. “And leave paradise? I imagine the struggle will come when we try to hitch them up again.”
Their horses were also free to roam and stayed under the trees, drinking and nibbling grasses. It annoyed me that they’d made these animals race across fields for fun when no one should be running in this heat. I didn’t say anything about it nowsince we’d come to a sort of truce, but they definitely wouldn’t be doing any such stupid things going forward.
And when all of them started getting undressed, my annoyances vanished. I’d thought we’d rest. Apparently, they’d thought we’d skinny dip. I didn’t want to be the only one left clothed, so when in Fairyland…
I should’ve kept my eyes to myself, but I couldn’t help noticing that they were all hairless, uncut, and generously endowed. Aside from their facial features and hair colors, their physiques were nearly identical—it was as if they’d come out of the same mold and just been styled a bit differently to tell them apart. Like their clothing choices.
But Solaris… He was not the same. I’d thought he was revealing a complicated vining tattoo as he got undressed, but no. Those tiny feathers on his wings were also winding all over his body like a roadmap. I was only able to see that because he stood right in front of me to step down several large rocks and into the water. Minuscule iridescent feathers. I couldn’t help wondering if they would feel soft.
I refocused and got myself into the water before anyone could see me reacting to this new information. Good looking men all around me, and I was not immune. But I did have a favorite.
I found a ledge of limestone and leaned back with my eyes closed, letting the cool water wipe the heat of the day away.
