My key was tugging me in that direction, but confusion held me immobile. I knew all of those golden doors were the living quarters. The offshoots were meant for other needs. Brows still creased, I turned and began strolling down the walkway again, sure this wasn’t accurate.
My left arm jerked back abruptly, my key fisted in that hand.
I grunted quietly. That hadn’t been subtle. It had hurt a wee bit too, my shoulder muscles stretching awkwardly. I glared at the key in my hand as I rubbed my aching limb.
Ezra’s arched, black eyebrow rose. “Guess Elder Farrar didn’t tell you everything.”
“Huh?” I gave in to my key’s direction, strolling to stand next to them again.
Ezra tilted his head to the sweeping entrance. “Royalty have different living quarters to the general populace.”
My lips pinched. Yeah, Antonio had never mentioned that.
Ezra’s lips curved arrogantly, and he took my free hand, pulling me forward. “No worries, sweetheart. You kicked ass today, so there’s nothing too bad about being wrong on one issue.”
I snorted. “Shut it.” He was enjoying this.
He simply continued to smirk, which appeared half forced and half genuine.
Jack and Pearl chuckled quietly, unaware, following us.
We turned a corner down the wide black hallway set alight with golden sparks. Two more twisting corners later, bypassing four other immense openings and six golden doors, we came to four different golden doors. They were positioned on the right side of the wall and directly before a dead end. A single golden spark illuminated the area softly.
Jack stopped at the first door.
Pearl the second.
I halted at the third.
Ezra the last.
Glancing at one another, we each slid our skeleton keys into the locks carefully.
Our doors swung open. Each of us stared inside our own rooms.
Mine was exactly like my room at King Kincaid’s mansion. Including the windows.
“Huh,” I murmured. “It’s just like home.”
Ezra and Pearl nodded and leaned forward for a better examination of theirs.
Jack snorted quietly. “Elder Farrar even got my pile of laundry right.”
Ezra’s eyebrows came together. “What does the ‘the first step’s a doozy’ mean?”
None of us knew the answer, shaking our heads and shrugging.
Honestly, the flooring inside my room appeared normal.
Pearl grinned. “Guess there’s only one way to find out. Shall we do it together?”
“Why not?” Jack murmured absently, still eyeing his floor. “On the count of three.” He ticked the numbers with flicking fingers. “One. Two.” All four of us raised a foot. “Three.”
We stepped forward into our own rooms.
I squeaked as my bare foot passed the entrance and a whirlwind of energy seized my entire body, sucking me inside. My arms windmilled as they tried to stop my forward motion. Instead of free air, I smacked two warm bodies straight against their backs.
A feminine and masculine grunt accompanied the hit.
Startled, I screamed, leaping straight into the air.
No one had been inside my room.
Solid, warm arms caught me as I fell; apparently I had used a bit of my Shifter strength in the jump. Enveloped in a familiar scent, I blinked up into amused green eyes.
Ezra’s red lips quirked, and he drawled, “See a mouse?”
Panting, I ignored his ribbing. “How…” I saw we weren’t in my room at all, where I had most definitely stepped into. “What in the world?”
“Look,” Pearl pointed while rubbing her back with her other hand where I had smacked her, “there’s only one door.” She reached and pulled a key from the lone door where four golden doors should have been. Another key appeared in its place. Pearl repeated this three more times, and held all four of our keys before she shut and locked the door.
Still clinging to Ezra as my heartbeat gradually slowed, I surveyed our surroundings, trying to understand. There was only one door, but all four of us were in the same room. One room. Tilting my head, I rested it against Ezra’s hard chest as my eyes darted. Realization gradually dawning, I murmured, “Antonio gave us one room. For all of us. Spelled on the outside to appear like four separate rooms.”
Jack rubbed his chin. “And one bed.”
Ezra’s body began vibrating against mine as he chuckled softly. “A f**king giant bed.” His laughter deepened. “Unbelievable.”
“Huh,” I mumbled. That was pretty much all I could manage.
The living quarter was extensive; it was a suite more than a bedroom.
We currently stood in a living room of sorts, which included a smorgasbord of furniture from our different factions. A black leather couch, a golden imperial chair, a brown leather love seat, an enormous blue beanbag, and a glass coffee table in the center. Under that furniture was a black, red and black, blue, and gold long-haired rug so the cave’s black floor wouldn’t be harshly cold. Along the left side of the wall were a variety of books aligned on the rows of black wooden bookshelves, and golden sparks were on the wall to the right for lighting.
The room was structurally shaped like an upside down ‘L’, and the sleeping area was at the far end. A bed that was at least the size of two king-size beds was located there, its huge black wooden headboard rising halfway to the tall ceiling. Impressively, said ceiling was spelled identically to the main ceiling of King Cave to reflect the sky outside, the shimmering stars and moon shining down on us.
“I can’t believe he did this,” Pearl whispered, her golden eyes roaming.
“Me either,” I murmured, extracting myself from Ezra. I crept deeper into the room, wanting to see what was behind the wall. Peeking to the right, I cocked my head, seeing four dressers placed against the wall opposite the mammoth bed and next to four gold doors. There was also a full-length mirror with an elaborate trim of gold, and two other gold doors on the far wall; I could see from here one led to a bathroom, so the other probably led to a linen closet.
The four of us stared at the four gold doors. Our names were written above them.
“Closets.” Pearl nodded. “I bet that’s it.”
Stepping forward, I yanked ‘my’ door open. Blinked. Stared at the clothes inside the walk-in closet, a thin golden spell bathing its walls. “You’re right, but it’s all the clothes I had at home.” With a cautious stride past the golden doorframe, though the spell was not malicious, I yanked a t-shirt off its hanger and waggled it outside the doorway. “I just washed this and hung it up last night.” Swiftly glancing at each item, deciding all of my keepsakes and necessities were here, I tossed my shirt aside and strolled out, naturally kicking my door shut.