Page 26 of Dark Prince's Captive

I sit up straighter.That may be my ticket out of here.“Portals to Earth?”

“You’re out of luck,” she says, crushing my hope with a rueful smile.“That requires a much stronger power than mine.I can open and close portals repeatedly but not across worlds.That’s how Aruan found you.The minute he sensed your presence on Zerra, he made me open portals until we discovered the right one.”

“Oh.”I sink back in my seat.“Whocanopen a portal to Earth?”Or is it done via a technology of some kind?

“I’m afraid your questions will have to wait.We’d better get started, or we’ll be late.”

“Late for what?”

Our exchange is interrupted when four women enter the bedroom with decorative boxes in their arms.The hems of their long gauzy dresses sweep their flat sandals.The one in the back of the line carries a shimmery gown that she lays out on the trunk while the others put the boxes on a rectangular slab of shiny black stone next to the part of the wall that shines like a mirror.

“Come.”Gaia takes my hand and pulls me to my feet.“Let’s make you pretty.”

“For what?”I ask again, starting to feel a bit drowsy from all the food.

She guides me toward the boxes from which the women are retrieving decanters of oils, pots of creams, and gemstone-encrusted brushes.“For the banquet.”

I hang back.I’ve just eaten enough food to last a whole winter’s hibernation, and I want to go home, not to a banquet where more food will no doubt be served.

“What banquet?”I ask.

A smile lights up her face.“The one where Aruan will present you to the court before you take your vows.”

“Vows?”I stammer.I’m wide awake now.“What vows?”

Continuing as if it’s the most natural thing in the world, she says, “The vows you say before Aruan consummates the mating, of course.”

Chapter9

Elsie

Despite my numerous protests, I’m massaged with nice-smelling oils and lathered with creams.Gaia shows me a primitive kind of toilet in the corner of the room with the pool, which she calls the cleansing room.The toilet is basically just a hole in a stone seat, but she explains that it magically empties itself once it’s been used.When I ask her how that works, she tells me it’s due to the properties of the stones.

The vague explanation only makes me more curious.Do the stones absorb the waste?Are there some microorganisms living in that hole that feed on the waste and thus dissolve it?When I ask, Gaia doesn’t seem to know.Instead, she shows me how to clean up afterward using a small water fountain that seems to be perpetually running inside another stone seat—a bidet of sorts that they apparently use in lieu of toilet paper.

After the tour, she gives me privacy.Once I’ve taken care of my needs, I wash my hands in a bowl filled with water from a jug.The soap is a gel capsule that dissolves on my palm and smells like heaven.The minute I’ve dried my hands on a cloth from a stack on the shelf, two women enter with brushes and start to scrub everything clean.Then the pampering continues.

With so many women buzzing around me, I’m dressed in a long, flowing gown with my hair and make-up done in no time at all.

Gaia positions me in front of the mirror.

“You look beautiful,” she exclaims in a breathless whisper, clasping her hands together.

The woman staring back at me in the shadowy reflection of the mirror is a far cry from the old me back on Earth.The permanent dark circles around my eyes are gone.My skin has a healthy glow, and my short hair shines with a brilliance that accentuates the natural platinum highlights in my strawberry-blond strands.Even my eyes, which I’ve always considered to be a dull blue-green, sparkle with a new luminosity.

It’s so bizarre.I don’t understand why I look so healthy and why my heart is beating so strongly.Did Vitai heal all my autoimmune issues?But no.Even back in the jungle with the Phaelix, I looked and felt different.

Not sick.

Not weak.

Not dying for once in my life.

Whatisthis place?How do these people have these powers?

And why the fuck did they decide I’m Aruan’s mate?

“What do you think?”Gaia asks, sounding pleased with herself.

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