It had been a long time since he’d come home. The air was cool and damp, but the clouds had already parted to let watery sunshine reach the wet earth. They’d just missed the rain. While it had been night where they made their escape, it was nearly midday here.
The wood smoke was almost an invitation to a fire roaring in one of the man-sized hearths that decorated the halls. In the old days, there would be casks of ale and pots of honeyed mead. The food and drink would be free flowing. Artists and musicians often brought in from far and wide would provide the entertainment before Fin left them with pleasant memories and they were sent on their way, purses laden with coin.
The good old days.
Course, now they had internet and access to all types of entertainment at the press of a button. But there wasn’t wi-fi up here.
He’d have to fix that if they settled in for the next few decades while Fiona adjusted. The main doors groaned as Maddox got ahead of him and pushed them open. Heavy steal doors needed a winch for most to open, but they weren’t so similarly burdened. Inside, he gave Maddox a hand in shutting them both.
Memories echoed against the walls, filling the silence with images from other times. How many times had Alfred shoved these great doors open to allow his men to enter? How often had Rogue followed right in his shadow, a silent sentinel? At times, Fin and Maddox had also been there, always welcome. A brotherhood formed out of necessity, unity, and transition. They were the only ones of their kind to survive.
“The baths.” Maddox’s words seemed to hang in the air as he vanished. The disturbed dust marked his passage. Fin followed at a more sedate pace. Like Maddox, he was also eager to see Fiona again. He’d only gotten to hold her for a brief time. Clouding her mind to ease her compliance for their flight had backfired when the shadow demon arrived.
In the future, Fin wouldn’t make that mistake again.
Ascending the stairs, he followed the sound of the water. The old boilers and piping through the walls used a system of cisterns and aqueducts built through the mountain itself to bring fresh water in, heat it, and then fill the pools in the bathing chamber. That, along with fires laid at each end, made it the warmest and steamiest room in the keep.
It had been the height of convenience hundreds of years earlier, and he couldn’t say he would mind a bath himself. Blood had dried on his skin and left him itchy.
Maddox’s aggravated voice tickled at his ears as Fin followed the long hall toward the bathing rooms. The bedrooms were all on the floor above, and while hot baths could be pulled there, the old bathhouse idea had still been popular when Alfred settled the keep.
Stripping off his coat, Fin let himself into the oversized chamber. Five pools placed strategically around the room with varying levels to each pool afforded bathers with a place to wash, a place to soak, and a place to steam by ascending the levels.
Unsurprisingly, Fiona was sprawled in a soaker pool, her arms hooked against the sides as she half-floated. Her eyes were closed and expression blissful. Across from her, Rogue sat, naked and cleaned. His dirty blond hair had been recently washed and hung halfway down his back. He flicked his gaze at Fin as he approached the pool.
Like Rogue, Fiona was also naked, but she didn’t seem remotely aware of them. Flushed with color, her gorgeous red hair clung to her skin, though in places, it had begun to curl away. The tips of her breasts were just barely visible. While Fin looked forward to exploring her with great detail, he focused on the necessities for the moment.
The vicious bite in her shoulder was almost closed, the angry black lines radiating out from it the last bits of venom being decimated by her body.
“Why the fuck did you just take her?” Maddox demanded. Not waiting for Rogue to answer, he continued, “I had a deal with her. She would hear us out, then if she chose to go, I wouldn’t stop her.”
Lifting a flask, Rogue took a long drink, then held it out to Maddox wordlessly. The dragon scowled and accepted it.
“Fin shouldn’t have dragged you into it, we had it covered.” He took a long pull from the flask himself, then passed it back before he stripped off his own clothes and sank down into the lower pool. The water went crimson and streaked as the blood, dust, and soot worked free of his skin. “The point,” he persisted. “You weren’t aware of the rest of the plan, and you just kidnapped her. That completely contravenes my word. Now I have to make up for that lost honor.”
Fin met Rogue’s bemused gaze, and the other just shrugged. Unfortunately for Maddox, neither Fin nor Rogue shared his honor system.
Nor had they made her any promises. Well, Fin had more or less suggested his word in getting her out.
“You fed her?” he checked with Rogue. The blond nodded once, then motioned to his throat. There was a fading wound there, likely inflicted by himself. Breaking his skin was damn hard and many had tried.
Crouching, Fin used careful fingers to tilt her head to look at her throat. No other bite marks marred her skin saved for the one faded scar that would likely always remain. The mark of her maker. Lashes lifting, she stared up at him with ruby colored eyes, though they weren’t as blood-red as they’d been when he found her and Maddox in the hall. The barest hint of green surrounded them.
“Hmm, getting better at that astral projection,” she murmured.
He chuckled. “Rest, Beautiful.” He punched just a bit of compulsion into the command, and she let out a sigh, head tipped back and throat vulnerable as she sank under again. Yeah, that wouldn’t hold.
Maddox growled at him. “Don’t take advantage.”
“Actually, I’m just making sure she’s in one piece and doesn’t try to escape on us before I’ve had a bath. Just because you need to chain women up to get them to stick around, doesn’t mean I have to.”
Rogue snorted, but the weight of Maddox’s cold stare was even more impressive than his growls. Tossing a glance toward him, Fin gave him a little chin dip. Some lines weren’t worth crossing.
Hardly mollified, the dragon went back to his bath, and Fin finally stepped down to shed his own blood-marked and shredded clothing. The fight had been impressive. They’d mustered their defenses, but it was hard to take on a druid and a dragon individually, much less together. Throw in a warrior, and they were really outmatched.
When the king awoke…
Fin paused, eyes closing for a moment as he searched the keep mentally. Alfred hadn’t stirred yet. There was no mistaking his influence once he left his sleep. It was a crackle of energy in the air, a weight that draped everything, his power and his protection. The absence of it was just as keen.
They had so much to show him when he did rouse. The world would fascinate him. At least it had gotten interesting since the last time he was awake, anyway.
The water stung Fin’s skin as he slid into it. The temperature higher than the air around them, Maddox had already moved up to sit in the soaking pool. Fin ducked himself into the water, then scrubbed the last flakes of blood and debris off. Having spent hours tucked under a stone floor, he could use the scrub.
Finished, he ascended and settled into the hotter water. Rogue turned a bland eye on him, then nodded toward Fiona.
Her closed eyes and serene expression were not something Fin wanted to disturb. “It can wait,” he said quietly.
Maddox scowled.
“She’s exhausted. All of our intelligence says she was dumped there within hours of her first waking. I can’t imagine transitioning in there was very easy.”