Page 47 of A House of Cloaks & Daggers

The bathroom resembled a snow globe. It was a large, circular chamber with an arched roof carved from jade stone, smoothed into tiles across the floor but left rough and exposed along the walls. A wide marble sink sat beside an oval-shaped, full-body mirror to one side, and I was only a little bit surprised to find a normal, flushing toilet on the other.

In the middle of the room, a marble bath took up most of the space, large enough to be a hot tub. It was deep enough to require the addition of stairs, with benches spanning across every other side. Beyond it, French doors had been pulled back, opening out onto a large balcony covered by crawling wisteria vines. They perfumed the air, nearly overwhelming in strength, as a gentle breeze slipped into the room and swept up the curtains—a matching set with the ones across the bay window in the bedroom.

I went to the doors, pulling them partially closed, and turned around to find that the bath—which had been empty moments ago—was filled nearly to the brim. Wisps of steam curled up from its glassy surface, heating the cool stone room.

What had Lucais said?

The House is enchanted.As if it was a person or a pet. Not house, but House. Not haunted, but enchanted.

My eyes bulged out of my head as it hit me.The Forest had been enchanted, too. Only this time, I wasn’t completely certain I could trust it, so I eyed the ceiling warily before I stripped off my underwear and dipped my toes into the bath water.

It was the perfect temperature.

“Okay, thanks,” I uttered quietly, to no part of the House in particular.

I scanned the room again, looking for eyes or ears, but I suddenly felt very much like the House had given me privacy—and perhaps that I had made it blush a little when I’d undressed without warning. I would have thought the House ought to be used to it if Wren lived there, but I still sent a silent apology out of my mind. And then I finally slipped into the beautifully warm water, soaking my tired muscles and weary bones.

Maybe I had found my way to that place I should not have been in, after all, but at least it was better than the dungeon.

Chapter nineteen

I’m Not a Water Faerie

An hour or twopassed, and I was still in the bath.

I’d made use of the tin of soap and jar of bubble bath that had appeared at my side. I had scrubbed my nails, washed my hair, and shaved my legs. My skin was pruning, but I had half a mind to remain in the water until I drowned from prolonged exposure to it. The enchanted House, to its credit, never let the bath go cold.

“Don’t you think the smell is gone yet?”

Wren’s voice came from the balcony.

I jolted upright, and my arms, which had been resting on the sides of the bathtub, fell into the water with an enormous splash. More water poured over the edges in small rolls as I brought my knees to my chest and checked to make sure the generous supply of bubbles hadn’t started to dissipate over anything important.

“What smell?” I hissed, shooting him a vicious look over my shoulder.

He was standing in the gap I had left between the doors—which I’d intended for the breeze, not burglars—with his arms crossed as he surveyed the overflow of bubbles and water leaking from the sides of the bathtub with visible distaste.

“You,” he answered simply, bringing his sinless gaze up to my face. “You’ve been in here for hours. Figured you must be self-conscious about your stink.”

I could have sworn the water in the bathtub began to boil alongside my internal rage. “You’re the one who made a bargain in order to keep my panties in your pocket,” I snapped, reaching for the bathrobe the House had brought for me earlier. It was sopping wet thanks to Wren’s intrusion, so I let it fall to the floor with a defeated slap and brought my arm back beneath the water to cover myself. “Obviously, I can’t smellthatbad.”

Wren gave me a bewildered look and lifted a hand in the air. In the blink of an eye, he was holding a new bathrobe—this one in black. “Did I say I think you smell bad?” he asked, striding towards me with the robe in hand.

“It was implied.” I gave him a withering glare. “What are you doing here, anyway?”

He held the robe up by the shoulders for me, but he tugged it away as I reached for it. “Ididknock,” he offered, “but you didn’t answer. I thought you might have drowned.”

I highly doubted he would care if I had.

“So, instead of coming in through the door like a normal person, you decided to jump onto the balcony?” I grabbed for the gown again, using the arm not fighting for its life to cover my breasts beneath the water, but he dangled it out of my reach. “Will youstopthat?”

Wren shrugged. “The door was locked.” He brought the gown closer, then stepped back and gave me an exasperatedlook. “Would you just stand up and let me be a gentleman and help you?”

“You’re being a pervert.”

He frowned at that, then chose to ignore it. “You want me to put it down?” he questioned, nodding at the puddles of water on the edge of the bathtub and the floor. “You’ve flooded the bathroom.”

“So, magic it away!” I exclaimed.

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