Page 7

QETESH

Despite the small size of the hotel, the spa was surprisingly large, and I was looking forward to spending most of my free time here over the weekend.

Maybe I should start going to the one in the Jinx hotel.

Unlike Jacob, I didn't have a good reason not to.

I wasn't really anyone's boss, and I could take my time and relax.

I draped my towel over one of the chairs and set down the bag with a puzzle book and a pencil in it by the side of the bed. I felt a little silly bringing a whole bag just for a couple of things, but I needed to put it in something for when I was in the water.

The hot tub was blissfully empty, which made it the perfect place to head first. I grabbed a scrunchie from my bag and used it to put my hair into a bun. I knew from experience that it was better not to have it in the way during a spa day.

I closed my eyes and sank back into the warm water and let out a sigh. This was the life. There had been many human inventions I'd enjoyed over the years, but the spa was definitely one of the ones at the top of my list. There was something about places like this that truly soothed the soul.

"Mind if I join you?"

I opened my eyes to find Jacob standing by the side of the hot tub in a pair of surprisingly boring black swimming trunks. "Be my guest."

He got into the tub, leaving plenty of space between us, which was appreciated, though not entirely necessary. I never felt as if he was invading my space, probably because he wasn't.

"It looks nice in here," he said.

"It does. And the rooms are nice. The mattresses don't have annoying springs."

He chuckled. "It's a good thing, so many of them break if you have a hotel mattress with springs. It can get expensive to replace them."

"I can't say I've ever thought about that. I imagine they're also the most cleanable kind of mattress. And if that isn't a factor, then I don't want to know. I want to live out my life in blissful ignorance."

Amusement danced over Jacob's face. "If it were my hotel, then I could assure you that I would make sure that everything was up to the highest standards, cleaning included."

"Is that what you want?" I asked. "To have your own hotel?"

"I don't really know," he admitted. "I never really planned my career, it just happened to me.

I started working in the restaurant of a small hotel when I was a teenager, and then when I finished school, I moved up a bit.

Before I knew it, I was a manager for a different small hotel.

And then a bigger one, and then another, and then Jinx. "

"Do you like it though?"

He nodded. "I do. I like working with people most of the time, even if I also like having peace when I'm by myself."

"I see that. I love being at my parties and seeing all of the people interact with one another and have a great time, but I want to go home at the end of it and put on noise-cancelling headphones."

"I can imagine that must be a relief after the intensity of one of your parties."

"It really is," I said. "But I do love them."

"Even if you're not looking for anything yourself?" he asked.

I took a deep breath. "I guess it's not that I'm not looking, I've always been open to finding the right person."

"But that's hard when you've been hiding part of yourself."

"Something like that," I responded. "And now you can safely say that you know me better than most of the people I've ever met."

"I don't think that's true," he said. "There's lots I don't know about you."

I laughed. "I've lived a long life, I can't tell you everything I've ever done."

"True. But you're a dryad. What's your favourite type of tree?" He swished his hand over the bubbles in front of him.

"You're going straight for the hard questions, aren't you?"

"Absolutely."

"Fig trees," I said. "I have a couple of them in my greenhouse. You should come see them some time."

"Inviting me back to your house already?" he joked.

"Mmhmm. But only for the trees."

"Oh, I know," he assured me. "Why are they your favourite?"

"I love figs," I said. "Especially dried ones.

And I just think that the trees are really pretty.

But honestly, it's mostly because one of my oldest memories involves a fig tree.

I wish I could remember who the woman in it is.

Maybe my grandmother? We were picking figs, and I could barely reach the lowest of the branches.

So I did whatever any fearless child would do, and climbed up the tree.

I got all of the best figs, but I also fell off and broke my arm.

" I smiled at the memory, despite the slight echo of pain that came with it.

"I did that while playing hide and seek with Ella. Breaking my arm by falling out of a tree, not picking figs."

"I figured. Though I imagine we were doing our tree climbing a few thousand years apart."

"And several thousand miles," he said.

"True. So, what's your favourite kind of tree?" I asked.

"Willows. I liked to watch how their leaves dragged across the surface of the water when I was younger."

"Like you're doing with your hand?" I asked, nodding down to it.

"Huh, I suppose so. But that's just because I like how the bubbles feel. Try it."

"What?"

He reached out for my hand under the water and held it over some of the bubbles. They popped against the skin of the palm of my hand, tickling in a way that was kind of too fast to actually be ticklish, but was also impossible to ignore.

An involuntary sound burst from me that was suspiciously like a giggle, making him grin widely.

"That was a bit unbecoming of a goddess," I murmured.

He shrugged. "You just seem like any normal person to me."

The statement should insult me, and I knew a few gods who would get angry about someone saying something like that, but it actually made me glow within.

I never asked to be special. I was just me, and it was nice to have someone who could see that.

Even if I hadn't known Jacob for long, it was clear that he was thinking about me more as Qetesh, or maybe even Tesha, and not as a goddess of whatever it was that was most important this week.

I liked it.

"I should get out of the hot tub before I turn into a prune," I said, lifting my fingers and revealing the skin where it had gone a little wrinkly.

He chuckled. "You're at the spa, you're going to turn into a prune."

"Alas, there are some things that even magic can't help with."

"Not unless you were a mermaid."

"Still just a dryad," I said.

"Same. Though I did hope to sprout a tail every time I went to the beach."

"Really?"

"Oh, yes. It was my secret boyhood fantasy. I wanted to be a merman." From the smile on his face, I had to guess that was true.

"What colour was your tail?"

"Blue. There was nothing particularly inventive about my fantasy."

"Does there need to be?" I asked. "It's a fantasy, it can be as basic as you want it to be. I wanted to be a lion shifter."

"See, that's inventive."

"I lived in Egypt. Every other person wanted to be a lion shifter," I pointed out.

"And it stayed with me long afterwards. When humans started putting me on their walls, they would ask me what animal I would want to be associated with.

I thought I was going to get a fun head like a lot of the other Egyptian gods, but instead, they painted me standing on top of a lion. "

He chuckled. "I might have seen those drawings. I hoped you were going to tell me an exciting story about a time you really did stand on a lion."

"I hate to disappoint you, but it never happened. I didn't go around holding a snake in my hand either. I'm actually quite scared of them."

"I have to imagine that's a normal reaction to have if you live in Egypt."

"You get used to them after a while," I assured him. "But now I really should get out. You're not supposed to spend too long in the hot tub."

"I've never understood why that is."

I shrugged and moved over to the stairs. "I always assumed it was something to do with making sure other people got to use it, rather than anything else. But I could be wrong."

"No idea," he responded.

"It shall have to remain a mystery."

"I'm going to go for a swim," Jacob said, gesturing towards the pool.

I smiled at him. "Have fun." I headed over to my chair and made sure that my towel was spread out. It was warm enough in here that I should dry off quickly, but there was no harm in making sure of that.

I let out a contented sigh and relaxed, letting all of my worries slip away. It was going to be a rowdy weekend if some of the past events of Ella's were anything to go by, so I was going to make the most of every moment of peace that I could get.