Page 194 of Dancing for the Minotaur

Terra had personally inspected every inch of the place before agreeing to let them stay there, however, and she had made Taurex promise—twice—that there were absolutely, positively, under no circumstances any pleasure blooms growing anywhere in the vicinity.

When he pointed out that the guest suites were nowhere near the private bathing gardens where such plants normally grew, Terra had informed him that she didn’t care if the nearest pleasure bloom was on the opposite side of the Mother Ship—she wanted confirmation anyway. Only after Taurex had promised her that her children and mother wouldn’t be anywhere near the sneaky blossoms, did she feel comfortable leaving them alone.

“You know, they only reacted the way they did because of the mating scents we were putting out,” he told her. “They pay no attention whatsoever to children or the elderly because they do not smell sexually active.”

“I don’t care about any of that,” Terra said. “I just don’t want them near my babies—or my mom, for that matter.”

“They won’t be,” he said. “I swear it on my life.”

“Good.” Terra had nodded in satisfaction.

Tomorrow they would all spend the day together. Taurex had promised Cody and Lisa another trip to the Market to find more “space souvenirs.” Lisa was already planning to find additional charms for her mood-bloom bracelet and Cody wanted to look for a more complicated living puzzle.

After that, the big Monstrum intended to take them riding on the wole trains or wole-a-coaster, as Terra called it—an announcement that had caused both children to start cheering. Lucy, of course, asked whether the giant centipede-like creatures had safety restraints and Terra reminded her mother that she had ridden one before and survived.

So tomorrow would belong to the family…but tonight belonged to Terra and Taurex.

The honeymoon domicile had been grown high in the branches of one of the enormous silver-barked trees that formed the inner forest of the Mother Ship, and reaching it required stepping onto a circular living platform nestled against the tree’s trunk. The platform rose silently through the branches when Taurex placed his palm against the bark, carrying them upward past glowing flowers, curtains of trailing vines and tiny winged creatures that flashed like fireflies beneath the artificial night sky.

Terra stood beside her new husband with one hand tucked into his enormous palm, still wearing her wedding dress, and watched the forest fall away beneath them until the pathways below became ribbons of soft golden light.

“This is incredible,” she whispered.

Taurex looked down at her.

“You have not seen the suite yet.”

She smiled up at him.

“I’m sure it’s gorgeous, but I’m not sure how you’re going to top a flying tree elevator.”

“It is not technically flying,” he explained. “The platform is grown from the tree and moves through controlled muscular contraction of the supporting vines.”

Terra laughed.

“You really know how to keep the romance alive.”

His ears twitched.

“I was attempting to explain.”

“I know, baby.”

She squeezed his hand and Taurex’s mouth curved into a smile. Terra loved that she knew his expressions now…loved that she could tell the difference between amusement and embarrassment by the angle of his ears and the slight change in his golden eyes. There had once been so much about him that seemed strange and intimidating, but now even the alien details felt familiar.

The platform finally stopped beside a broad branch thick enough to support a house, except there was no actual house waiting for them. Instead, the tree itself opened. A doorway formed in the silver bark as they approached, curling inward like flower petals to reveal a softly glowing chamber beyond.

Terra stopped and stared, her eyes wide.

“Oh, wow,” she breathed.

The suite seemed to have been grown directly from the heart of the tree. Smooth, pale wood formed curved walls without corners or seams, and the ceiling arched overhead in a canopy of interwoven branches covered in tiny luminous blossoms.

The flowers glowed in shades of pink, gold and soft violet, creating enough light to illuminate the room while leaving everything intimate and shadowed. One entire wall was open to the forest through a huge oval window formed from a transparent living membrane, giving them a breathtaking view across the treetops toward the artificial stars glittering high above.

A narrow stream of water emerged from one wall and ran through a shallow channel in the floor before disappearing beneath the roots again, filling the room with the gentle sound of trickling water. Beside it grew clusters of tiny white flowers that released a faint scent somewhere between jasmine and vanilla whenever Terra walked past.

“They respond to movement,” Taurex explained when she noticed.