The Kingdom's Crown (Inheritance of Hunger #3) - Kathryn Moon Page 0,17

room to me, bending and resting his lips against the top of my head, his breath ruffling my hair and warming me. "Not tonight, Bryony. The more confident I feel in knowing how to keep you safe, the sooner we'll both have what we want."

I bit my lip as he left. He was testing my patience, but it gave me a pleasant, bubbling feeling, knowing where it would all lead.

"Would you like to see what I've discovered? I think it may cheer you up a little," Cosmo said, bouncing on the balls of his feet in a shadowy doorway.

"Is it anything like what we discovered our first morning at the Winter Palace?" I asked, thinking of the spyglass that Wendell and Thao had found in the room next to mine.

"It is not," Cosmo said, laughing. "Cresswell will have to keep his eyes out for that sort of thing. But this, I think you'll appreciate."

Wendell tossed my jacket on the bench, and Owen joined my side, an arm thrown over my shoulder as we all moved to follow Cosmo. The hall he traveled down was dark, only the occasional candle illuminating the narrow space. There were doors open farther down on the right into the various rooms and bedrooms that had been allocated for my Chosen, but Cosmo stopped at the first door, gesturing an arm in for me to lead the way.

I paused at the sound of rushing water and then stepped into the dark room. There was a candelabra on a low side table and the view of the sky and sea at night through the large window ahead of me, but what immediately drew my eyes was the long, low pool on my left. It was half as big as my bed, which meant it was still plenty large enough for me and all my Chosen. At the back, near the tall tiled wall, was a cascade of water which seemed to come from nowhere at all and filled the pool.

"This is what southern magicians spend their magic on?" Aric scoffed, stomping forward to glare up at the water.

"Aric, I won't let you ruin this for me," Thao said, already tugging his layers of sweaters off, eyeing the steam rising from the water with a greedy gaze.

My first laugh in hours bubbled up as Wendell and Cosmo hurried to join Thao, while Aric stood puzzling at the water.

"It seems to be almost on a cycle. I suppose they just refresh the magic as it wears down," Aric muttered to himself.

Daniel's hands came to the laces at the back of my dress, pulling them free for me as I grinned and watched Cosmo intentionally kick water to hit Aric's pant leg.

"Are there any other charms?" I asked Aric.

He shook his head and then wobbled a hand in the air. "Well, there were. But to be honest, royal spying charms aren't nearly as interesting as the ones spies come up with. I got rid of all of those as I passed through. It's safe, princess." His lips twitched as he turned and watched Daniel and Owen peel me out of my dress. "I suppose I've seen less useful uses of magic."

I arched an eyebrow, stepping out of my skirt, fully nude, with a half dozen pairs of eyes on me. "You won't refuse to use it out of protest?"

"My morals were never that high, let's be honest," Aric said, flashing me a wolfish grin and then making quick work of his clothes.

Cosmo stood up from the pool, which sank down several feet into the floor, to take my hand and help me into the water. It rose high up my waist, the floor sloping down and then back up again. Wendell was standing under the rushing water, his hips just high enough for me to get a teasing glimpse of dark blond curls and an inch of his length. Cosmo floated with me in his direction, and I gasped as something soft and dense brushed against my foot, before a bright orange tiger surfaced in the water, sharp teeth grinning at us. Thao shook himself, and I giggled as the droplets sprayed against me.

He stood, the tiger vanishing and replaced with my golden and dark prince. "We have waterfalls like this in Mennary. There is one in the palace gardens that we played in as children," Thao said, moving to join Wendell under the stream, it splashing beautifully against them, their profiles outlined by the water. "And Wen and I