Page 22 of Fate & Monsters
I couldn’t breathe.
Fleeting echoes of cackling laughter jolted me from the clutches of nightmares. A wave of platinum blue hair cascaded around my face as I bolted upright. The grip on my chest loosened, and I gasped in a much-needed breath. Oxygen flooded my lungs and veins, lifting me from the oppressively heavy dreams draped over my limbs.
Heart pounding and chest seizing, I tore myself from the bed. In my rush, the sheet trapped my leg, and I slammed onto the floor. Foolish, clumsy mortal body. I gritted my teeth, pants breaching my lips as I shoved upright on shaky arms.
Another peal of laughter caught my attention. Flickering light and gentle splashes resonated in the adjacent bathing room. Chasing curiosity and fleeing the residual mire of my nightmare, I followed the sound. Three smaller Inferni imps were cartwheeling and flipping around the tub. One twisted the handles to adjust the water temperature as a fifth imp struggled to reach around their companion and flick their dripping wet hands in the pouring water.
A startled giggle burst out.
Everyone froze. Five sets of glowing yellow eyes darted to me. A collective gasp breathedthrough the room.
Rapid motion whipped from corner to corner as the imps exploded into a frenzy. They chattered and laughed, spinning and trilling. In their fervor, they morphed between formless shadows and tangible shapes. I couldn’t help watching them giggle and chitter, reminded of squirrels and monkeys in behavior even if their appearance differed into something strange and incorporeal.
“Miss is awake!”
“Our lady is here!”
“Time for your bath, my lady!”
An overlapping chorus filled the space, their breath and excitement distorting the wispy steam from the bath. Insensible and strange, a smile split my dour expression, swayed by their contagious energy. Two of them reached up to grab my hands, and a third bounced behind me, pushing at my legs.
“A new day, a new day is here!” The imp guiding me on the right, slightly rotund and taller than the others, took the lead. “We must get the lady bathed. Clean and fresh for the master. So juicy sweet!” Their voices were almost singing, lilting on every word. It was delightful in a way I wasn’t used to.
“Another bath?” Sylphs, as creatures of the air, didn’t need to partake in the ritual. Though I supposed current circumstances would see me conforming to the abnormal.
“Yes, yes, we must wash and tend to our lady!”A second imp squatted on the rim of the tub, thin tail sweeping along the side. It gestured at the water with hands bearing extra knuckles to extend their long, narrow fingers further.
“A lady?” I paused. Two imps bounced around my legs, tugging at the hem of my nightgown. “I am no lady.”
“You are. We is knowing these things,” said the fifth imp, dramatically nodding his head as if he were an expert on such topics. “And as such, we tend to the lady.”
“Our lady! Our lady!” the others continued singing. Such a curiously inspiring distraction. I smiled and caved to their request. I removed the nightgown and crossed the room to the tub. They tittered and hopped, their apparent joy stirring a thrill through me.
One leg over the lip of the tub, my foot dropped into the luxuriously warm water. A stark contrast to the frigid sea of my dreams, and a welcome reprieve from the chill pervading my bones.
Halfway in the water, I froze. There was something sticky dried on my inner thigh. I swiped at it, puzzled over the pale substance smeared into my skin. I couldn’t place its origins, and the floral soap of the bath masked its scent. I must have gotten something on myself at dinner or during the incident last night. I couldn’t be sure. Thinking nothing more of it, I sank into the water.
Perhaps there was some advantage to frequently bathing. My muscles released theirtension, my joints eased, and the heat from the water suffused a soothing tranquility within me.
A sob wrenched from my chest. The tears on my cheeks mingled with the bathwater. How novel, how mortal, to experience grief even in a moment of bliss.
I was losing my mind.
Exhaling shallow and shaky breaths, the shades of my past, my identity, split from my grasp. I wasn’t made for this—all these human feelings. They were new and ungovernable, threatening to pull me down.
“She is glowing.” An imp’s voice broke through the dense misery settled around me. Their fingers stroked through my hair, rinsing out soap and brushing out the knots. Another added their hands, taking strands in their fingers and cooing.
“Glowing. Our lady is bright.”
“She is bright.”
“A shiny lady.”
Swallowing down another pitiful sniffle, I opened my eyes. A few restrained tears escaped, dripping into the glowingwater.
Glowing?
A reflection of light suffused the bath. Shimmering silver light radiated from my limbs, my skin, and my hair. A gasp leapt from my tongue as I jolted. The water rippled, obscuring my image, until something familiar stared back. There, in the water, a sylph watched me from the depths. A weight pressed on my chest and clogged the base of my throat.
