Page 2 of Raven's Dawn

Shit, did I offend him? “I-I just wasn’t sure if there was an outhouse situation or something.”

Naomi dropped her bag on the linen lined, Elvan ore sofa. “He’s fucking with you.”

Sure enough, when I glanced at Connor, he gave a devious smirk. “It’s an alternate dimension. I’m expecting you to have lots of questions.”

Connor and I had met a handful of times, but I didn’t know him well yet. Apparently, his sense of humor was less obvious than my obnoxious sarcasm.

Relieved, I glanced around. “Any idea where it is?”

“Usually on the first floor,” Graham said. With a flame from his finger, he ignited the fire and stood. Walking behind the stairs, he opened the first door. “Bedroom, it looks like.” He glanced inside the second room and nodded. “Here we are.”

I followed him to greet another culture shock.

While all the other floors were wooden, these were Elvan ore. Shiny obsidian rock with a hint of purple in the light of the sun. No sink here either. Only a massive bowl—still Elvan ore—that dipped into the ground, another fireplace in the corner, and two streams of water.

The water entered from a small hole where the floor met the wall. A small dip was molded into the ore, like a river running across the ground. It split at a Y and trailed all the way out of the wall on the right. The exit almost resembled a pipe, but it wasn’t a perfect circle. Also didn’t connect to anything. Quite literally, there were two streams of water that came in from a hole in the wall and left from a hole in the other.

“Is there…” Cheeks flushed, I looked up at Graham. “You know. A toilet?”

He laughed. “You’re looking at it.”

I blinked hard, then turned back to him. “That big bowl thing?”

“That would be the bathtub.” Walking inside, he walked over one stream and gestured to the stream closest to me. “This is the freshwater stream. You can drink it, wash your hands in it, bathe in it.” He squatted, pointing out a piece of metal on the ground that I hadn’t noticed before. When he flicked it, the water streaming toward the wall rerouted into the tub. “See? You want to take a bath, you flick this here, and it’ll fill the bowl, as you called it.”

“Huh.” I glanced up and down the room again. “Fascinating. So you guys don’t have pipes that bring in water?”

“It’s almost like an aqueduct system,” Naomi called behind me.

“Interesting. Isn’t the water cold, though?”

“That’s what this is for.” Graham nodded to the fireplace. “But you know how to conjure fire. You can heat the water by just putting your hand inside.”

Shit, hadn’t thought of that. “Surely I’m not supposed to piss in it. You don’t piss in the water you drink.”

“No, that would be this stream.” Graham pointed to the other stream, the one he had needed to step over. “This is the blackwater stream.”

“I have a good guess as to why you call it blackwater.”

A smile. “Yep.”

“So I just… squat?”

“Usually, aye.”

“Whew, I’m gonna have thighs of steel by the time we leave this place.” Brushing past him, I pecked his cheek. “Maybe I’ll complain less about getting on top.”

He laughed. “I don’t mind you on bottom one bit.”

“Good, because until those muscles are ready, I’ll keep my happy ass on the bottom.” I craned up for one more kiss. “After I’m done in here, want to pick a room before Ezra and Warren?”

“I’ll meet you upstairs.”

There wasn’t much to choose from. The bedrooms were simple. Ramona took the one downstairs––the biggest one––because, in her words, it was only fair. “Your four are in relationships, meaning you’ll be fucking at some point or another. And frankly, I don’t think I should have to hear that. I think I should be on a separate floor.”

Well, fair enough. But that only left four options upstairs.

One had a view of Iliantha’s castle. Which was beautiful, don’t get me wrong. Just not my personal preference, and not Graham’s either. The second had a view of the mountain ridge I had been looking at outside. Also nice, but the third bedroom was the winner.

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