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Then the staircase opened into the cavern, and I stopped.

The Baths were enormous.

The ceiling disappeared into darkness above me, veiled by drifting steam, while the cavern walls shone black with moisture. Over centuries, the stone floor had been smoothed and shaped into a series of pools that descended toward the far end of the chamber. Warm water spilled quietly from one into the next, and each pool gave off a thin layer of steam beneath the lamps.

Somewhere beyond the lowest pool, hidden behind the rock, I could hear the sea.

Not the distant hush I sometimes heard from my tower, but the full sound of it striking the cliff outside. Each impact traveled faintly through the cavern, followed by the long withdrawal of water over stone. The sound filled the place without disturbing it.

Tamsin had been right about one thing. The Baths were completely empty.

I undressed beside the highest pool as quickly as I always did, keeping my back toward the staircase and my elbows close to my body even though there was no one there to see me. I folded my sweater, jeans, and T-shirt onto a stone bench, added my bra and underwear to the pile, and set my glasses carefully on top.

Then, before I could start inventing reasons to leave, I stepped into the water.

The first touch of it stopped me.

It was hotter than ordinary bathwater, almost uncomfortably so at first, but after a few seconds the heat began sinking into my muscles. Tension I hadn't even realized I was carrying started to loosen from my shoulders and lower back. I eased myself deeper until the water reached my chin, and a low groan escaped me before I could stop it.

I would have died if anyone had heard.

Thankfully, no one had.

I rested the back of my head against the smooth edge of the pool and closed my eyes.

For a long time, I did nothing except float.

The feeling was strange enough that it took me a while to understand why I liked it so much. The water held my body without asking anything from it. My stomach, my thighs, my hips, all the parts of myself I had spent years trying to hide or make smaller, were simply there beneath the surface. They didn't feel heavy. They didn't need to be pulled in or covered or arranged into something less noticeable.

Without my glasses, I couldn't see myself clearly anyway. My body was only a pale blur beneath the dark water, indistinct and unimportant.

For once, there was nobody around to look at me, and there was nothing I needed to conceal.

I let my arms drift away from my sides and stretched my legs out beneath the surface. The heat made me drowsy, and for several peaceful minutes I managed not to think about anything at all.

Then, because apparently my brain couldn't leave well enough alone, I started thinking about cedar.

Cedar, and dirt beneath someone's fingernails.

Kaelen's jaw moving down my throat against the glass.

The heat of a naked body pressed against mine in the bracken.

The brief touch of his fingertips against the back of my hand, gone almost before I had registered it.

My nipples tightened in the cooler air above the water, and a slow ache gathered low in my belly that had nothing to do with the heat of the pool.

I laughed quietly at myself, embarrassed even though I was alone, then ducked beneath the surface.

When I came back up, my hair streamed down my back and water ran over my face. I wiped it away and sat there smiling to myself.

For the first time in years, I felt comfortable in my own skin.

Maybe even happy in it.

Then I heard voices on the stairs.

They were faint at first, distorted by the stone and steam, but they grew louder as they descended. A moment later, someone laughed.