Trinket (Reverse Harem)

A Hot Bath & A Hot Mess

"Was she supposed to ask?" I stepped further into the room, draped in soft twilight purples and ocean greens. "Or was she told the Lord-Raven would presume, because that's what land-dwellers do?"

Of course, there was no one to answer.

Whatever personal affects she'd had with her had been removed. All that was left now was the future and trappings and linens.

"If I can find you," I told the empty air, "I will."

But if I was a memory of another time, like the Pantere had said, the Hippocamp princess wasn't trapped anywhere. And my original captors (or saviors) were long since dead.

A lonely shudder went through my soul. I prodded my memories for the hundredth time, but the farthest I could go was waking up from my wounds as a child. And even those memories weren't very strong or clear. Nothing really became clear in my memories until a few years later, and all those were sort of disjointed, but then again, did kids have really good memories of being kids?

I almost threw open the curtains to let in some sunlight, then remembered how Korr and the others kept the heavy curtains drawn at all times to keep out the prying eyes of ravens. Then again, did I care? Everyone was wary of the ravens and the wolves, but I'd never heard Korr or the others explain why I should be wary of ravens and not of dragons. What were the ravens going to see me do? Brush my hair? Overhear me learning to sound out the alphabet? I certainly wasn't going to have super-sensitive diplomatic conversations.

I picked up a small mirror that had been left on a table and ran my thumb through the layer of dust. "What now?"

My reflection didn't have an answer.

I set the mirror down and headed back into the gallery between the three rooms. I needed to pick somewhere to sleep. There weren't anymore bedrooms on the top floors--those were all unfurnished or storage or some other purpose, so it was these three or nothing. Or the couch in the study on the first floor.

I'd never really been alone. Even when I'd crossed from my old life into this one I'd only been alone a few days. (Or what I'd thought was a few days)

I shivered.

Well, the princess' room was out of the question. What if I found her? She would need a place to sleep. Ormiss had kept her room waiting for her. I didn't just get to move into that. And the other room was just...

"Fuck. Admit it, Theia. You're going to sleep in his room." I grumbled to myself and walked into his bedroom. "He better not get the wrong idea."

But I might get the wrong idea. I already missed them. I picked up a pillow and thumped it against the wall. Dust came off it. I sneezed.

Another thumping. This time below.

Clack clack clack.

Someone at the door already? I hadn't even found my way to the bath yet.

Tynne's mother would have fainted if someone had said she had to answer her own door.

A raven was on the other side, wearing the shifting black garb they all seemed to prefer, his dark hair dancing in the ocean breeze. He cocked his head to the side, then ducked his upper body in a quick, bird-like dip.

"Raven," I said, fully aware I had not yet washed or so much as changed. Korr had said he'd have my things that they'd gifted me from my original stay sent over, but they hadn't arrived yet. Barely been in Haven two hours and already the ravens were knocking on my door.

"Theia," he greeted me in kind.

No Lady Theia? Then I remembered that nobody in Haven knew I was the hippocamp Regent-Consort or whatever they were calling me, or that Korr and the others were my mates. For as long as that would last.