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Tucked behind a wooden stall between trees, Tenah peeled off her clothes down to nude underthings stitched with elegant silver lace, the least provocative items she’d found after rifling through the armoire in her bedroom.
She breathed a sigh of relief as the soul-cleansing aroma of peppermint lured her to the awaiting pool. Unwrapping the bandage around her stomach, she sank into the waters up to her chin. Instantly, the ache from the wound dissolved, and her sore muscles melted. Swimming easy laps around the pool, she drank in the world around her. Trees danced serenely, and the evening sky stretched on forever, stars glittering so bright, she thought she might be able to touch one if she reached out her hand. Blissed out, she rested her upper body on the grassy edge of the natural pool. It was impossible not to become addicted to the peace that existed here.
Maybe she could enjoy it for a bit once she dealt with her father.
Her mind dragged her back to reality. Was her father still in the city? If he still cared, if there was still a shred of him inside the shell of Chaos, why hadn’t he reached out to her? Would he have knowledge on how to mend the rift?
Tenah hadn’t noticed the attendant pouring tonic into an adjacent pool until the guest towered over her.
“Making the most of your stay?” Renton asked, a brow raised.
Startled, she splashed peppermint water into her eyes. She hissed at the weird sensation of burning and cool tingling, not daring to flail too much because, elementals above, she was in her damn underwear.
He drew his shoulders tighter into his body. “I didn’t mean to make things so heavy earlier. That’s probably the last thing you needed.” After a beat of silence, he added, “I get a bit intense when I’m all in.”
Her chest tightened. “All in?”
Green eyes seared through her. “I am all in, Tenah. But you’re still fighting it.”
She struggled to maintain normal body functions.Breathe. Blink. Swallow.Had it been obvious then? That wedge she’d driven between them? In the end, it would only hurt worse when she turned Corrupt.
Renton gathered the fabric of his shirt between his shoulder blades and tugged it off in a smooth movement. She hadn’t intended to watch, but it had been practically torture replaying the shower scene in her mind and trying to imagine what every inch of him felt like.
Her traitorous eyes did as they pleased, taking in the hard-earned cut of his muscles. Steam clung to him in a tempting sheen. She’d have to ask Vesara to recite Denesè prayers for her later because her thoughts were unrighteous, especially as he stripped off his pants. Dark briefs hugged his thick, corded thighs.
In a spurt of rebellion, Renton leaped off the edge of his pool and crashed into the surface, dousing her in a hot spray of water. When he popped back up, his broad smile was devastating. Stunned, she watched him glide over to the patch of land between their pool and drape his arms there.
“How are you feeling?” he asked softly.
Her nerves were too wrecked at this point to summon up a feisty retort. She mirrored his relaxed posture from her own pool, striving to keep her chill as he stared back at her intently. “I’m okay.”
“You’re a terrible liar.”
She couldn’t deny it. Not with rivulets of water snaking down the hard lines of his broad shoulders and cut arms. Her eyes dipped to the awful gash over his heart.
It was obvious that he’d dedicated his life to training, had met enemies head-on, and learned what not to do through experience. Her father had preached that scars were reminders, not just of mistakes but of an unshakable tenacity to survive. To keep moving. To keepfighting.
“How do I earn your honesty, Tenah?”
A lump formed in her throat at the dangerous way he was drinking her in, as if carefully memorizing every line. Every glaring fault in her design.
Teeth sinking into her bottom lip, she waited for him to discover what she knew existed beneath. But when the gleam of lust remained in his eyes as they rose to meet hers once more, she knew she was in trouble. There was no way she had the fortitude to resist him. That realization dragged her heart into her stomach.
Breaking their locked gazes, she heaved in a breath and ran her palm over the blades of grass. “I’m sore after splitting the sky in two. And I’m absolutely haunted by memories of a version of myself I don’t recognize, and I don’t like. I don’tlikemyself, Renton. And I don’t like this constant dread over what the future holds. Is that what you want to hear?”
She braced for the pity in his gaze.
He simply blinked back at her. “That is exactly what I want to hear, as much as it hurts me to know your truths.”
Chest tightening, she ripped out a few stray blades of grass. “Your turn. What did my father want from you?”
“He offered to remove a shard from my heart.”
Tenah froze. “Why would he want to do that?”
“It houses the soul of a beast the King of Adra wants to unleash upon us.”
Pulse throbbing in her veins, she couldn’t stop her eyes from drifting to the scar on his chest. The slithering magic she’d detected inside of him was something much fouler than she imagined.
