Dragon Soul (Dragon Falls, #3)(51)
“I… you…” I stammered, staring in disbelief.
She gave a dream sigh, and gave a catlike stretch. “The men are so masculine. Very dominating, but passionate. And can they dance!”
“I love a man who can dance,” said Bunefer, who was capping the bottle of nail polish. “It’s so romantic, isn’t it?”
“Okay, first, that’s not the kind of Brazilian that the magazine means,” I said, scooting around the models on the floor in order to sit on the end of Mrs. P’s bed. “And second, I don’t want to tell you what to do with your own body, but I’m not sure you really have a pressing reason to… er… prune down there.”
Bunefer giggled, and slid off the bed, saying, “Bath free? I so need a bubbly soak,” when Ipy emerged from the bathroom with her head wrapped in a towel.
“Ah. Champion. You’re back?” she asked when she saw me.
“Yes.” I glanced at the other ladies. “I wanted to ask Mrs. P a few questions.”
Ipy took possession of the window seat and began to towel dry her hair. “Please yourself. Deal me in to the next round, girls. The latest alimony check is burning a hole in my pocket, and mama needs a new Gucci bracelet.”
“Mrs. P,” I said in a low voice, then tsked and plucked the magazine from her hands. “I want to ask you a couple of questions, and I would appreciate it if you’d tell me the truth.”
“I have done so since we met,” she pointed out, taking back the magazine. “Don’t smear my toenails. I want to look nice when I see my beau.”
I moved my hand away from her foot. “Okay, here goes: do you have a magical ring that can save the world from some bad guy demon lord?”
“I have a shiny, yes. It is my offering to my beau.”
Well, crap. There went my very faint suspicion that Rowan hadn’t been telling me the absolute truth about his interest in Mrs. P. Which just made me feel all the worse for even suspecting such a thing. “And you stole it from this demon lord fellow who is evidently bad news?”
“Bael.” She gave a sniff. “It was not his to begin with, so I don’t see what all the fuss is about.”
“I think the fuss is because this ring is a lifesaver. Literally, if Rowan is to be believed, and I don’t see why I shouldn’t believe him. Mrs. P, I told him I wasn’t going to do this, but I’ve changed my mind—you have to give the ring to him.”
“I do not.” She hummed softly to herself as she eyed an article on how to use erotic novels to spice up your love life.
“Let me restate that: you should give it to Rowan. I know you want to give it to your boyfriend—I’m still a bit confused about all that, but we’ll tackle that one another time—but you have to see that the fate of the world is more important.”
She looked up and pinned me back with a stare that should have scared the dickens out of me. Her eyes were brighter than they had been, the soft lighting of the cabin doing much to diminish the wrinkles that beset her face and neck. “If I do not give the shiny to my beau, we will not be able to be together. Nor will he resume his rightful place in the world. We have been separated too long, gel, far too long. I was cast out of the Underworld by Isis, who was jealous of me, and who swore we should never be together. My shiny will defeat her.”
My mouth had dropped open a smidgen as she spoke. When I realized what I was doing, I closed it, trying to process everything she’d said. “Your boyfriend has a wife?”
She shrugged. “Osiris is the lord of the Underworld, and Isis is his wife, although that has not stopped his eye from wandering. She has ever been jealous of me, but she shall not keep me from my true love. He is mine, now. Or he will be when I take him this shiny.”
“There’s nothing else you can give him?” I asked, torn between demanding she hand over the ring (which I had no right to do), and begging her for it, which I didn’t feel qualified to do since I had a tenuous grasp at best on the whole story, not to mention the fact that I should be thinking of what was in her best interest rather than my own.
“No. This shiny has the power he needs to escape this domain. No other will suffice.”
I stood up and silently opened the door, turning the lock in the knob as I did so. “I want you ladies to lock the bolt at the top after me, all right?”
“Why? No one will be able to get past us to our sister.” Ipy didn’t take her eyes off her cards.
“Right, but I took on the job of protecting Mrs. P, and I mean to keep on doing that.”
Ipy shrugged. “You will be right next door.”
“Not right away. I have to go apologize to Rowan. And that might take a bit of time because… er…”
“Because he has sublime buttocks,” she said, nodding. “If it will make you feel better, we will set the bolt so that you may enjoy yourself with your man without worrying that someone has defeated all six of us.”
“Thank you. Yell if you need me, Mrs. P,” I told her as I left.
She waved a languid hand toward me and inquired if there was going to be a round of Truth or Dare.
I took the precaution of locking the suite door, tucking the key into my cleavage since I wasn’t taking my purse with me. While I made my way up to Rowan’s deck, I glanced out to see the ship had pulled up to a small pier. Beyond it, I could barely make out the flat shapes of a small village. There wasn’t anyone on the pier, so I imagined we must have stopped to fix something in the engine or perhaps take on some supplies.