by Cara Wylde
“And the first rule is: no going outside. Ever. If you want to go for a walk, you talk to me, Kay, or Ash. Not even the guards are allowed to take you out. For now, until we figure out what role you’re playing in the Prophecy, we don’t want anyone in town seeing you.”
“It’s all about the Prophecy,” she murmured bitterly. “What about me? I’m a human being, you know.”
“Of course you are.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “We’re treating you well, aren’t we? Much better than you were treated on the Black Laverna or than you’d have been treated if you were to land on Sephara.”
“Gee, thanks! I’m forever grateful.”
“Good. Now, get dressed.”
It was obvious Trev had completely missed her sarcasm.
“Could I have some privacy, maybe?”
He blinked in confusion, then finally understood what she meant.
“Sorry, I forgot that on Earth you’re all so big on privacy and not letting anyone see you naked. As if the body in its natural state were a thing to be ashamed of.”
Pippa cocked her head. She opened her mouth to say something, but she didn’t have to. Trev answered her silent question in just a few words. Compared to Ash, his style was less wordy and more direct. At least, when he wasn’t talking about the Prophecy.
“On Iarna, we celebrate the beauty and wonders of the flesh. Or, we used to. With this bloody cold, getting naked is the last thing on our minds. But in the past, man or woman, we were never ashamed of changing our clothes in each other’s presence, or bathing in the warm rivers and lakes of our land free and bare. The cold season has hardened us, made us forget there is pleasure in having a body of flesh, bones, and skin. But this will soon change, Pippa Steele.”
“It will?”
“Yes. Because you’re here now.”
She stood there awkwardly, the clothes she’d picked clutched to her chest. She didn’t know what to say to him. Since Ash was a no go, Trev was her best chance at getting off this ice block, so she had to play her cards right. What cards, though?
“Right. You need your privacy.”
Trev placed his hands inside the long, large sleeves of his priest’s robe and turned around.
Pippa waited half a minute to see if he had any intention of leaving the room, and when she saw he was just going to stand there, she slipped into the bathroom and changed in there. She’d picked a pair of tight, black pants, and the skinniest blouse she could find. After inspecting the lingerie, she’d decided it was all clean, maybe even new, so it couldn’t hurt to wear a pair of warm, cotton panties and a black, satin bra to go with them. Speaking of lingerie...
“I’ve been meaning to ask,” she came out of the bathroom, brushing her long, red hair. “Whose room is this?”
Trev turned around. His green eyes took her in from head to toe, finally stopping on her face. She’d applied a light shade of brown eye-shadow, mascara, and a cherry red lipstick to make her beautiful features pop. And he was speechless. As much as he wanted to deny his attraction to the gorgeous, curvy creature standing before him, Trev had to admit that she was the most interesting, mysterious, and undeniably charming woman he’d ever seen. She was also forbidden.
“It’s yours. For now.” He straightened his back and headed to the door, knowing she would follow.
“But who stayed here before me?”
“No one.”
“Then... why does it have everything a woman would need?”
Trevkon cleared his throat but didn’t turn to look at her. He walked purposefully down the corridor, leading her to the part of the villa that belonged to him. On his way, he nodded at the guards appointed by Ash and at a couple of maids and servants.
“You know how triads work on Iarna. When three men come together to form one and build a home for their future family, they always start with their mate’s quarters. The room we’ve given you is just part of what our mate will enjoy once she comes into our lives. That’s why it’s equipped with everything she might need. You’re free to use it, of course. We’ll just replace what you use when you leave.”
Why did his words make her feel so empty inside? Maybe, because it sounded like all that Trev wanted was to use her as the Prophecy said, and then send her on her way?
“Whoever she is, she’s a very lucky girl,” she whispered just loud enough for him to hear. “I’m sure she’ll love what you’ve prepared for her.”
Trev stopped in his tracks. “Does this mean you like it?”
“Yes, it’s lovely.” Pippa chuckled. “The best bed I’ve ever slept in.”
He turned to her and gave her a small smile. “You should see the real bed, then.”
“What? If there’s a real bed, then this bed is...”
“Just for her. The real one is for her and her triad.”
Pippa blushed so hard that she now looked like a beetroot dressed in winter clothes. Her red hair was the pièce de résistance.
“That sounds...” She wanted to say it sounded like every girl’s dream but thought better of it. “It sounds... exciting.” Not significantly better...
His smile grew, and Pippa thought: “Well, at least he finds me amusing.”
“What would you like to see first? The main salon, the kitchen, the tower balcony? The greenhouse?”
“Oh, so many choices... The tower balcony!” Because it was a good idea to see the surroundings from up high and figure out where exactly she was being held.
Trev nodded, then motioned for a maid to step closer. In a language Pippa was hearing for the first time, he asked her to bring a coat, which the Iarnian woman did quickly.
“It’s too cold up there.” Trev helped her put on the coat.
“Thanks.”
He guided her up so many flights of stairs that she lost count. When they finally reached the balcony, Pippa couldn’t believe her eyes. To her chagrin, there wasn’t much to see from up there than she’d already seen from the window of her room, but she could distinguish a city in the distance.
“Kriva,” Trev said.
“Why do you guys live so far from the city?”
“We like our peace and quiet. Ash, not so much. But I prefer to work on my projects in isolation, and Kay is the same. Ash can always take his bike and spend his days and nights at the Angry Cerber. He even rents a room there sometimes. In the attic.”
“What’s the Red Cerber?”
“It’s a bar. Not a good place for a woman, though.”
There wasn’t much she could do with this information. So, if she wanted to reach Kriva, she’d have to take some sort of snow mobile, or something. No one could guarantee her she’d be able to drive it. What if she convinced one of the Iarnians working at the villa to help her? She needed to see the kitchen next. She might find a sympathetic ear there.
Pippa removed her heavy coat halfway down the stairs. After so much climbing and descending, she felt like she’d already ran a mini marathon, and she was hot as hell. When they reached the landing of the third floor, she started saying “hi” to all the guards and maids she saw. Some of them nodded, and most of them simply stared at her like she were a ghost.
“They don’t speak English,” Trev explained.
“Oh. But Ash said...”
“Many Iarnians do, but not those who come from less privileged families.”
Well, there went her plan. What next? Trevkon did seem to appreciate her choice of clothes and makeup. Maybe she should try the same strategy she’d tried on Ashtar? No, not exactly the same. They had very different characters. What did Trev care about? His people and their ordeal since the eternal winter had come upon them. That was a good sob story. She had a sob story for him, too, if that was what made him tick.
Pippa looked down at her feet and sighed deeply.
“Can I see the greenhouse, please?”
“You wanted to see the kitchen. It’s just around the corner.”
“I
know, but... You have plants in the greenhouse, right? Flowers, vegetables, fruits? I miss home so much. I thought... seeing something green and full of life might make me feel better.”
Trevkon was lost for a second. He shot her a curious glance, pursed his lips, then turned on his heels and headed down the opposite corridor.
“This way.”
He wasn’t reacting the way she’d expected him to. What should she do now? If she wanted, she could easily read his energy and come up with the right things to say to push the right buttons. No. A promise was a promise. She kept silent, as if lost in deep thought and distant memories of a better place.
“If you miss Earth so much, then why do you still want to go to Uthea?”
Finally! He was asking her questions she could work with!
“Uthea is not very different from Earth. I mean, it’s smaller and poorer, but the weather is similar, even though the terrain is harsher, and the soil is harder to work. When I decided it was time to leave Earth, I tried to choose a place as similar to my home planet as possible.”
“You never said why you left Earth behind. One of the richest, most welcoming planets in the Milky Way! Take it from someone who’s traveled a lot: you must have a very good reason to leave Terra. Your people were blessed. On Sephara, everyone believes the women of Earth are so fertile because the land that feeds them is.”
“That’s... a silly theory,” she chuckled. “I had to leave,” she went back on track. “There was nothing and no one left for me there, anymore. I felt like a fresh start somewhere new was my best option. I still think it is.”
Trev was silent for a long moment, as if he didn’t know what to say to that.
Pippa wasn’t lying, and that was why she knew he would sympathize, eventually. She just had to be patient.
“I’m sorry. It sounds like you’ve lost someone recently.”
“Yes, my mother.”
“And you don’t have any other family left?”
“No. I mean... my father is probably still on Earth somewhere, but I never kept in touch with him. And I don’t have any siblings.”
They reached the greenhouse, and Trev stepped aside so she could go past him. Pippa’s eyes filled with joy at the sight of green bushes, red berries, and vegetables of all colors and sizes. Some looked similar to what she was used to, but there were hundreds of species that were completely new to her. To her surprise, the triad was even growing trees in there. What they called a greenhouse was, basically, an entirely separate ground wing that was as wide as a field, only covered and well-maintained with the right temperature, light, and amount of water.
“Do you like it?”
“More than you think...” Her voice sounded feeble. She hadn’t expected it to have such an impact on her. She’d thought that visiting the greenhouse with him would add a nice touch to her strategy, but now that she was there... She actually missed home. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Trev led her down the main alley. As they walked between two rows of what could be Iarnian beans, they both reveled in the feel of having hard soil under their feet instead of soft, blinding snow. The lush green of the plants was like a balm for sore eyes.
They spend a little over half an hour exploring the greenhouse, and Trev told her about the fruits and vegetables that were native to Iarna, then mentioned some that had been brought from other planets. What they had from Terra was, of course, corn and potatoes. Pippa said how much she missed potato chips, and Trev promised her she’d have a plate waiting for her in her room. To her disappointment, he didn’t ask her anything else about her life on Earth and why she’d left. At some point, he’d wanted to know if her job or career couldn’t have been worth the stay, but she’d shut down then. That was the last thing she wanted to talk about, and she didn’t see how it could help her cause. On the contrary, it would have probably gotten her in even more trouble. Trevkon didn’t need to know that she’d already intuited what his red stone was, nor that she might have had an idea about how to work with it. It wasn’t even the fact that she didn’t want to help him and his planet, but she’d made a promise to herself and to her mother on her deathbed that she’d never touch a crystal, clean an aura, or re-balance a chakra in her life. Also, she still believed that Trev’s Prophecy was too much of a fairytale to be true.
Before she knew it, however, Pippa ended up in his study. It was in the second tower of the villa, which was slightly taller than the first one they’d visited, with the open balcony, and it looked like it had been taken out of a Medieval folk tale. She held her breath as she stepped over the threshold, her eyes trying to take in everything at once. The map of Iarna next to three different maps of the sky, the telescope, the walls covered in brightly colored paintings and arcane symbols, the tall shelves chock-full of books... Trevkon’s study looked exactly like what Pippa understood through the word Heaven.
Trev stepped behind her, closer than she’d expected. She could feel it deep in her gut. He was warming up to her, although she couldn’t tell why.
“What do you think?”
She looked up at him, blue eyes meeting bright green eyes.
“This is the best place in the entire house! Why didn’t you bring me here first?”
* * *
Trev
He couldn’t look away. Her eyes... The more he lost himself in them, the more he felt like she was putting a spell on him. How was it even possible? He’d never been interested in women. Iarnian, Terran, Sepharan... It didn’t matter. He had his work and his devotion to the gods of his people, and he didn’t need anything else in his life. Mara, the Mother Goddess of the fields, and Esus, the solar god who lay his light and warmth upon his consort, were everything to him. His love was meant to keep the Iarnian gods alive through the winter, not be spent foolishly on women. Not even on a mate.
“Is it okay if I look at the sky?”
Trev snapped out of his trance.
“Sure, why not.”
He led her to the telescope and adjusted the lens for her. He figured there was no harm in letting her study the sky for a bit.
“I know next to nothing about astronomy,” she said conversationally. “But I’ve always been fascinated with the stars and the luminaries. On Terra, we believe that the movement of the stars, planets, and the natural satellites influence our destiny.”
“We believe the same here.”
Playfully, she moved to the next interesting thing in his office – the bookshelves. She studied the spines, and when she found something written in English, she pulled the book out and opened it. It was bound in something that resembled soft leather, with gold lettering on the cover. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to be about anything she was familiar with. Filled with graphics, tables, and strange symbols, it looked like a treatise on Iarnian astronomy. She placed it back on the shelf.
Trev could barely resist the pull he felt toward her. He followed her close, but not because he was afraid she might break something or stick her nose into something she wasn’t supposed to see. He knew she wouldn’t understand a thing from his books and notes. Her skin smelled amazing. Her hair was the color of fire but had the texture of clouds covering the sun on a rainy day. Or so he thought. He’d seen rainy days on other planets, and yet he’d always wondered whether they used to be the same on Iarna. He wanted to reach out and run his fingers through those fiery locks and then bury his nose in them, see for himself if her hair felt and smelled the way he imagined. She was so close, yet so far away.
“What is this?”
She’d picked up a wooden grid and was looking at the symbols. He closed the space between them and took the grid in his hand, then sneaked an arm around her waist to guide her toward the opposite wall, which was filled with drawings of stars and planets.
“I use it to predict how they will move in the sky months from now.”
He tried to show her how it worked, but he could hardly focus. He could feel her breat
h on his neck and her luscious curves pressed against his side. And then, the unthinkable happened. She placed a hand on his chest, and his cock hardened as if on cue. She didn’t do more than that, but her soft touch, a touch that he could barely feel through too many layers of fabric, had been enough to make his heart race and his blood rush to his nether regions. He shifted uncomfortably, his erection becoming increasingly angrier and more painful, until he finally gathered up the courage to let go of Pippa’s waist and step aside. Once there was a bit of space between them, he could regain his mental clarity.
“Fascinating,” she whispered. She pretended that she hadn’t noticed his discomfort and closed the space he’d just put between them again, looking up into his eyes. “Show me more.”
Trev cleared his throat and looked away, as if he’d just remembered he had something important to do.
“You should go.”
“What? Why?”
“Work. I have work to do. The Prophecy isn’t going to interpret itself.”
“But I thought you’ve already interpreted it. Besides, we are having so much fun.”
“I must have gotten something wrong... I...” She was right. It had nothing to do with the Prophecy. Or with any kind of other work, for that matter. “You must go now.”
“But...”
“Go. You’re free to explore the house as you please. Just don’t go outside unless Ash or Kay take you. It’s not safe, and you also need snow shades.”
“Ash or Kay? What about you?”
“I don’t have time for walks.”
With that, the conversation was over. Trev turned his back to her, and she could feel his walls rising all around him, blocking her out. She sighed, rolled her eyes, then accepted defeat.
CHAPTER SIX
Pippa
She closed the door behind her, leaving Trev alone in his study. “It didn’t work out with Ash,” she thought, “and now Trev is acting weird, too. What does this leave me with? Kay?” She stopped in the middle of the corridor and looked around her, trying to remember which way she had to go to reach the part of the villa where her room was. There were so many chambers, nooks, and crannies in this house that it was easy to get lost. Now, she knew where Trev’s study was and where she was most likely to find him, but she had no idea about the other two. “Oh, right. Ash rents the attic at the Angry Cerber sometimes,” she remembered. “After last night, I probably won’t see much of him around.” She sighed and decided to look for some stairs. As long as she reached the ground floor, she’d find a way back to her room. Maybe she should stop by the kitchen, though. No one had thought about her breakfast today. Trev had promised her potato chips, but she had a feeling she’d have to ask for them herself, now. That was, if the cook understood what she wanted.