It was so glorious after her weeks in the dungeon, she felt like a princess in a palace. This time, when she needed to use the water closet, the wall opened to reveal a very large bathtub, full with warm soapy water.
Mina happily spent the next few hours soaking in the tub, scrubbing her skin raw. She soaked her wrists under the water, and the iron cuffs clanked against the tub. She tried to rub her skin beneath the enchanted bracelets, and it felt soothing.
The whole thing was soothing. Mina even went so far as to drain the water and refill it with bubbles and soap, so she could soak a second time. She dunked her head under the water and held her breath, imagining what it was like to be a siren. It was hard to imagine something other than the cartoon-mermaid version, but she knew better than to imagine that. She tried to picture her mother as a young mergirl with a tail—desperately in love.
What had it been like for her mother to give up her tail to be with her father? No matter how she imagined it, it didn’t seem real. She couldn’t envision her mom as anything other than the normal, overly petrified mother who worked as a house cleaner. That didn’t suggest powerful siren, and yet she had seen Charlie scream. His call was so powerful, it cracked the magic ward around her. How come she hadn’t gotten that gift?
Suddenly, two hands reached into the water, grabbed her shoulders, and pulled her up through the bubbles.
Mina gasped in shock as bubbles ran down her face. She sputtered and splashed in the water when she realized Teague was in the same room as her. Mina quickly checked the bubbles, glad to see the tub was still full of them. They were high enough there was no way he could see anything.
Teague stood there, furious, his shirt and pants soaking wet and covered with bubbles.
“What are you doing in here?” Mina yelled at him. “Get out!”
“Not until I’m sure you’re not drowning yourself in the bathtub!” He flicked the bubbles off of his arms and tried to roll up his wet sleeves. Water dripped from him and puddled all around him on the stone floor. A moment later, his face paled and then turned bright red. He spun his back to her.
“Of course I’m not drowning myself! I was only under for a few seconds.”
“Few seconds! A few seconds. More like a few minutes.”
“That’s impossible,” Mina answered.
“No, it’s not!” he pointed up at the Fae light that bobbed up and down. “You had been under for five minutes. “I’m not sure if a Siren can even stay under that long. The Fae light wouldn’t have alerted me if it didn’t believe you were in danger.”
It was certainly clear she’d upset him. She wanted to get out, but she couldn’t with him in the room. “Can you hand me a towel?”
Teague’s shoulders hunched as he tried to look to the side to find a towel for her, but he realized how undignified it was. In a fit of temper, he blasted through the wall and left her in her warm tub of bubbles alone.
The Fae light bobbed up and down, visibly distressed.
“You’ve been spying on me?” Mina accused it in an annoyed tone, even though she had assumed it was. The light bobbed sadly in affirmation. “Shame on you.”
The light softly dimmed.
Mina couldn’t hold a grudge against her silent light protector, so she quickly added, “It’s fine, just… is there no one else for you to go to for help but him?”
The light dimmed again, and she assumed that meant no.
“What about guards? Are there guards?”
The Fae light brightened in an affirmative.
“So can you go to them?”
The light dimmed. No.
She tried to not show her frustration as she dried off and went back into the room with the large towel around her. The Fae light danced for joy by her bed. Mina was pleased to see clothes—clean clothes. Teague hadn’t provided a red dress this time, like he had during the betrothal process, and she was thankful he remembered.
Chapter 20
Mina was getting used to long days of solitude. She didn’t know day from night anymore, because she just slept whenever she was tired, and the Fae light would dim.
So maybe she hadn’t been in the prison that long, maybe it was just days instead of weeks. She couldn’t really judge it by her meals, because when she ate Fae food it was quite filling.
She started to talk her little Fae light, since it seemed to understand her, or at least blink and flicker in response to her questions. And it seemed to anticipate her mood and needs pretty quickly.