OUR quarters

Marcus huffed as his arm dropped to his side. He scowled at his brother, but it was like a tiny drop in the pool of rage that Arell's eyes held. Marcus looked as if there was a lot more he wanted to say on the matter but just spat out a bitter, "Congratulations, Brother." Then, he emptied his wine glass and sat down with a loud THUMP.

Tatiana used a cloth napkin to dab at her mouth with her eyes closed and her back stiffened. Ari swore that she saw her eyebrow twitching, too. When she opened her eyes, they held no emotion that Ari could pinpoint.

"This is truly a night for celebration." Tatiana stated in a monotone with her chin in the air. Her voice was gentle, yet confident and sounded higher pitched than Ari's own sultry voice. Tatiana was the epitome of what Ari imagined an Othan princess to be. Tatiana continued, "I have also decided to accept Marcus's proposal."

Everyone's eyebrows raised except for Marcus's, whose eyebrows furrowed.

After about a full minute of uncomfortable silence, Marcus finally cleared his throat. "Uh, whi-which proposal?"

Tatiana threw him a scornful look with fire in her dark magenta eyes. "The MARRIAGE proposal," she answered through her teeth.

Marcus froze with his eyes widened. He lost all of the cool, princely aura. He looked like a possum that was about to keel over and play dead. His voice came out as a whisper. "Were we taking that seriously?"

Tatiana sipped her wine nonchalantly. "You said yourself that you wanted to marry first. What better time is there to respect your mother's suggestion for our marriage than now? You agreed to it back then. Have you changed your mind?"

"I'm… I'm not complaining, don't get me wrong. It's just… sudden," Marcus stuttered. Apparently he wasn't expecting Tatiana to ever give him an answer. Let alone have that answer be a 'yes'.

Atia scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Yeah. SUDDEN is right." The two women gazed at each other intensely, Tatiana with blazing eyes and Atia with icy ones. Ari looked back and forth between them, not knowing what kind of face she was supposed to be making other than confusion.

Suddenly, Arell stood up, his chair almost falling back from the force. "Well, this was another lovely family dinner but I think I'm going to take Arinja to our quarters now. Congratulations to you two and good evening." He bowed his head to King Titus, then held his hand out for Ari.

Ari was quick to take it gratefully. She smiled nervously and gave a swift bow to everyone before Arell gently pulled her away from the battlefield of a dinner table. She was so relieved when they left the dining hall that she didn't realize how vocally she let out her breath.

Arell chuckled. "I did warn you."

Ari felt her cheeks warm at the sound of his deep chuckle. "Yes, you did," she answered. "And yet it was still worse than I had imagined." Ari replayed the entire scene out in her head as Arell led her up one of the two grand staircases that graced the castle's large foyer. There was one thing that bothered her. "Did you say… 'OUR quarters'?"

Arell said nothing, just glanced down at her out of the corner of his eye with a dangerous smile curling at his lips. Ari became acutely aware of her hand wrapped in his just then. She was barely paying attention to her surroundings, apparently, because they unexpectedly stopped in front of a set of large double doors with curled, golden handles.

Arell opened one of the doors and stepped aside with his arm gesturing towards the dimly lit interior. "After you, Your Highness."

Ari anxiously entered a small living area. She faced a lit fireplace that warmed the room and bathed it in a soft orange glow. It was surrounded by a few comfortable chairs and a beautiful chaise lounge that was arranged on an intricate rug. To the right was an intimate dining area. A small table with two chairs sat under a simple gold chandelier. There was a door to the right as well.

"What's in there?" Ari turned around to ask, but was surprised as she found herself inches away from Arell's collarbone. She instinctively took a step back and glanced away, flustered.

"Hmm." Arell's lips were a straight line as he answered, "We'll come back to that. Let's tour the bedroom first."

Bedroom. As in, ONE room. Singular. But she couldn't complain. This was to be expected of a couple about to be married.

Ari gulped and followed him to the left side of the living area through another set of double doors. She was pleasantly surprised when she entered. The room was full of bright colors! The windows were draped with heavy, forest green curtains and had patterns of colorful flowers sewn at the bottom. A huge canopy bed centered the left wall with teal and gold curtains, blankets, and pillows. Gracing the ground in front of the bed was a rug of the same floral pattern that was sewn into the drapes. Warm light emanated from candelabras sitting on small dressers next to either side of the bed. Vivid paintings of flower fields adorned the walls. There were three doors on the right side of the room.

Ari turned to Arell with an eyebrow lifted. "Are these things from Atrana?" she asked, knowing already that they were.

Arell's face softened with a smile. "I thought you'd like it better than the dull Othan furnishings." He looked away and scratched the back of his head, mumbling softly, "It'll be like your haven." He strode over to the other doors and opened them, gesturing to each one as he told her, "My closet, wash room, your closet."

The closets each had a beautifully painted changing screen and large chests for clothes inside of them. All of her luggage had been placed inside of her closet as well. But Ari gasped when she stepped into the wash room. It was huge! The far wall was almost entirely made of glass, basically a sunroom, with French doors leading outside. The same heavy curtains from inside the room were hanging on these windows too, but pulled back to give Ari the full view of the private courtyard. In front of the French doors inside of the washroom was some sort of in-ground pool with sparkling blue water. Steam rose from the water and looked incredibly inviting to a tired Ari. There was a generous vanity area and a private toilet area on either side of the room.

Ari wandered over to the pool and dipped her hand in, letting the water fall as she lifted her hand back up. It was so hot! She gazed out into the courtyard as her hand trailed the soothing water. It was a hill that lay flat with the second story of the castle on the left side before it dipped up into a mountain. The yard formed a sort of grassy bridge between the mountain and the castle. They must have built this castle into the hill and dug it out just enough to have this yard. But it was worth it. On either side of the courtyard, Ari could see the mountains in the distance and the stars and moon looked as if she could walk to the edge of the hill and grab them.

Arell crouched down next to her, watching Ari as she ogled the view. "I received this part of the palace as a reward after I commanded in my first war. The whole castle was built here because of this hot spring." He dipped his hand into the pool as well.

Ari tore her gaze away from the night sky. "That's a fairly good reward. This is amazing!" She stood up and began slipping out of her sandals while removing her jewelry.

Panicked, Arell stood up as well. His eyes were the widest Ari had ever seen them, very different from his usually tense expressions. She could get used to that. "What, exactly, are you doing?!" he asked while shielding his eyes.