qazyfiction

Chapter 21

Silver glared at the back of her head the whole way up the stairs. Lilith didn’t look behind to check; she didn’t need to. She could feel his anger burning into the back of her head, making her neck prickle uncomfortably. It gave her a little thrill—knowing he was angry—a sense of power and control that had been missing ever she stepped foot outside.

Sam seemed blissfully unaware of the tension in the air. He padded down the hallway a few steps ahead of them, his thick-socked feet barely making a sound against the panelled floor. He seemed to prefer comfortable over fashionable clothes: his loose, low-riding black trousers were made of a soft, thin material, and his top was a plain white.

The hallway itself was bare, but not inelegantly so; there was a smooth finish to the walls which suggested a care for detail that wouldn’t have been out of place amongst one of the better Middle Hall hotels.

Sam stopped halfway down the hall, where there was a set of doors side-by-side. “These are the rooms,” he said, as if they wouldn’t have realized it on their own.

The doors were made of an odd panelled paper, elegant, the likes of which she had only seen once or twice during her summer course at the AYP. She had always thought it odd to use doors so breakable, so incapable of muffling sound, doors which—she realized with a trickle of alarm—had no locks. And she was supposed to shower in there?

Sam placed a hand on the door and slid it open, standing to the side let her and Silver in. Silver strode into the room as if he owned the place, and Lilith followed after him a little more sedately.

As she passed through the doorway she felt a gush of hot air across the back of her neck, which sent shivers down her spine.

Had Sam—? Lilith glanced over her shoulder but Sam was standing still, hands at his sides, smiling calmly. No, she must’ve imagined it.

The room was spare, the floor covered in what looked like bound, dried grass, a material that was so soft underfoot it made Lilith wish she had taken off her shoes.

Sam indicated to the far end of the room, where there was a second doorway. “The bathroom is in there.”

When Silver didn’t move to investigate, Lilith took it upon herself to move across the room and slide the door open. It was small, just barely large enough to house a long tub which doubled as a shower. Here the floor was tiled, the same blue tiles that she’d seen downstairs.

She pushed aside the curtain and examined the shower, a little bewildered by what she saw. There were no knobs; only a showerhead, fixed to the wall, and two odd signs painted just underneath: spirals, in opposite directions. In one corner, there were several plastic soap bottles.

Sam spoke out from the other room. “The runes are touch-activated.  The left one’s for hot, the right one’s for cold.”

Lilith had to stop herself from reaching out to touch the signs. This was magic.  It was one thing to hear about magic, to know it existed, another to see it in action.

She turned around and smiled at Sam, impressed.  He seemed to sense her amazement. “Not all of us can withstand freezing cold water the way you weres can.”

“Huh?  Oh yeah.”  The lack of technology above ground made sudden sense; they didn’t have the electrical comforts so commonplace underground because they had alternatives available to them.

Sam beckoned to Silver. “Shall I show you your room?”

Silver didn’t look at either of them, he just walked straight out of the room without another word. He was clearly angry, but she couldn’t understand why. Sam looked equally bewildered; he winked at her conspiratorially as he began sliding the door closed.

“If you leave your clothes outside the bathroom door, I’ll come and collect them to have them cleaned.”

She thanked him, backing into the bathroom and closing the door.  Lilith waited until she heard the main room door close before she began to undress. She stripped quickly, grimacing in disgust, and folded her clothes into a tight pile, hoping that, folded, they looked less dirty than they actually were.

She picked the bundle up and opened the door cautiously, poking her head out of the bathroom. It was all clear.

Lilith placed her clothes just outside the door, by the wall, then closed the bathroom door firmly. Then she turned around to investigate the signs; runes, Sam had called them.

She pressed on the left one hesitantly, and water began to dribble out of the tap, a weak, sputtering amount. She frowned, tapped it again. Now the water came out stronger, warmer. She tapped on the right rune, and the water cooled. She couldn’t help but switch back and forth between temperatures a couple times, eventually scolding herself for wasting time. She could always ask Sam later how it worked, he probably knew.

Finally, Lilith clambered into the tub, drawing the curtain closed. She sighed with satisfaction as the jet of hot water ran over her face and neck.  She loved hot water—really hot—as it seemed to create a bubble around her, a separate world into which she could escape.  With her eyes closed, the steaminess of the room, the solid weight of the air around her, made her feel like she was safely underground.

The illusion didn’t last long.

A gust of cold air startled her.  Her eyes snapped open.  She turned around, putting her back to the wall.  The curtain obscured her view, but in the mirror on the opposite wall she could see a dark blur.

“Hello?”

Silence.  She must have imagined the cold air, or maybe it had been a momentary lapse in the witch’s spell.  She began to turn around to soap up, when someone spoke.

“I’m terribly sorry about this.”  The voice came from her right, just barely audible over the rushing water.  She stared at the curtain, trying to discern a shape through the patterned material.  She felt vulnerable without her clothes.

“Who are you?”  Lilith turned to the wall on her right and picked up the bottle of shampoo, her movements slow and cautious.

When she looked back around, Sam was smiling at her, poking his head just past the curtain.  She squeaked, surprised, and swung the bottle of shampoo at his face out of reflex.

He pushed the curtain completely aside and snatched her wrist, staring at her intently.  Her body relaxed against her will, her lips parted, her breathing sped up.

He stepped fully into the shower, his chest bare, wearing only his trousers.  “Actually, I’m not sorry about this.  I think you need it as much as I do.”

He turned her around and pulled her against him, so that her back was flush against his chest.  He wrapped one arm around her waist, the other kept hold of her wrist.  His breath was warm against her neck.  He breathed in deeply, and sighed with gusto.

Lilith could feel strong tremors running down her back.  A distant part of her mind wondered what was happening, why she wasn’t fighting him, but she could barely focus on the questions before his presence distracted her. She hadn’t felt like this when she’d first met him. What was different, now?

Concentrate, she thought to herself, the word feeling clunky in her mind.  Concentrate.  Concentrate.  She managed, slowly, to turn her head to the side, to stare at Sam.  The look in his eyes made her freeze.

His pupils had dilated, to the point that no iris was visible.  His eyes were just a solid ring of black, eerily mesmerizing.

She forced the words out slowly.  “You’re not human.”

“Neither are you.”  He brushed his lips against her ear.

She didn’t bother to correct him; simply moving took enough effort as it was.  “What do you want?”

He sounded surprised by the question.  “Why, you, of course.”  He loosened his grip on her waist long enough to spin her around, before pushing her against the wall.  The coldness of the tiles made her gasp.

He leaned in, the water dripping down his face, his lips parted.

Then the door slammed open.