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She sighs. “Whatever you wish, you have only to ask. Come, I’ll show you to your rooms and let you settle in.”
We retrace our steps to the wide staircase and follow it up, curving down yet another long hallway. The longer we walk, the more I wonder if they’re tucking me somewhere so far away I can’t find my way out again.
“These rooms are mine,” she says, indicating a door as we near the end of the hall. “You are welcome to visit anytime. And these”—she stops in front of a door carved with vines, and my fingers itch to touch them—“are yours.”
I give in to temptation and trace my fingertip gently over the swooping, swirling pattern before turning the knob and pushing the door in. Before I can stop it, a small gasp escapes my lips. I thought my tower room was big, but I was mistaken. Two of them could easily fit inside this one, and it’s only a sitting room.
A long, deep brocade couch faces away from the door, with two matching chairs sitting opposite. Black curtains frame floor-to-ceiling windows with the view Kaia described, and from this vantage point, I can see the shape of roofs in the distance, smoke curling up from chimneys in thin wisps.
A fire already burns in a stone fireplace big enough for a grown man to stand in, and candles spear out of elaborate silver candelabras on the tables. An ornate chandelier hangs from the ceiling over the seating area. Its candles are unlit, but I can picture them casting colorful prisms against the walls.
Everything is decorated in shades of black, from the polished obsidian floors to the heavy brocade curtains to the tapestries stitched with a pattern of vines and leaves similar to the one on the doors. Despite the lack of color, it feels homier than I would have anticipated.
Kaia crosses the room and opens the double doors beside the fireplace, revealing a bedroom and a bed big enough for three grown people to sleep in without touching. I can’t imagine needing so much space simply to sleep, but I cannot wait to sink into the softness.
I’ve never known such luxury, and though I hope to only be here a few days—less if I can manage it—I might as well enjoy it before I set off on my own again.
The fireplace in this room mirrors the one from the sitting room, hand-carved with ropes of thick vines and flowers I don’t recognize.
“Do you like it?”
“I…It’s very beautiful,” I say, catching myself before admitting I love anything about the Shadow Realm. This is nothing but a nicer prison cell, whatever Kaia wants to believe about it.
“Did you eat any of your breakfast after I left?”
I shake my head. Even if I’d wanted to, Thieran didn’t give me much of an opportunity.
“They’ll send the midday meal soon.”
As if on cue, there’s the faint sound of a tinkling bell, and then the same tray that’s materialized in the tower room three times a day for the last three days appears on the corner of the bed. I stare at it with wide eyes.
“The power that delivers the tray is tied to you,” Kaia says, as if that’s the only explanation I need.
“So if I’m wandering the grounds at mealtimes, a tray will just randomly appear next to me?”
Tongue tucked in her cheek, Kaia bites back a smile. “That would be a fun experiment, I think. Hopefully, you’ll cease your hunger strike and the answer to that question won’t be necessary.”
My eyes drift to the tray on the edge of the bed.
“There’s nothing…in it?”
“You think we’d poison you?”
Her voice is incredulous, maybe a little insulted. But I square my shoulders against it. The gods have always been capable of far worse.
“Drugging someone doesn’t seem like that big a leap from kidnapping.”
Kaia sighs, her mouth pressing into a thin line. “I’d love for you to have dinner with me tonight. Then you can see you have nothing to fear from what we feed you.”
The mere idea of food, coupled with the smells drifting from the tray, has my mouth watering. If I don’t start eating again soon, I likely won’t be able to make it out of the palace, let alone all the way back to Rhagana on foot.
“All right.”
“Wonderful. Dinner is served in the dining room at eight. I’ll see you this evening.”
“Wait,” I call when she turns to go. “Do you know where my things are? The clothes I was wearing when I was brought here?”
Kaia hesitates. She’s not stupid. I’m sure she knows I arrived with weapons. Or she can at least guess. But without a word, she gestures toward the bed, and a fabric-wrapped bundle appears beside the tray.
