Elemental Reverse Harem Quartet (part 1: Earth)

Chapter 17

The earthy sleeping chamber or dirty panic room

Malka Selby

Wearing only navy blue cotton socks on my feet, I followed Varu down the stairs, descending below his house once again.

He stopped at a place where I'd felt guilty earlier and guilty now. I wondered if Maria and the man had told Varu they'd seen us snooping. He might be about to challenge me for prying in his bedroom. I wondered if I should own up before he said anything.

Hey, I didn't know that was your bedroom. Beck showed it to me. In my head, it sounded stupid.

Varu watched my face as he opened the door. "What do you see?"

"Just black dirt," I answered slowly.

He switched his weight from one foot to another as though deep in thought. "Um, describe in more detail exactly what's there."

"An empty room. It's dark. The walls, floor, and ceiling are all loose dirt, from what I can tell. It looks like a freshly plowed field, not flattened like a track."

"And how deep is the room?"

"I don't know. It's hard to tell. Two or three beds might fit in lengthwise. I guess that would make it twenty feet deep and perhaps ten or fifteen feet wide. It's hard to tell from out here."

Varu stepped in, holding out his hand, inviting me to join him.

Looking down at my new socks that hadn't been on my feet all that long, I decided to take them off and wash my feet later. I pushed off each sock with the opposite foot, much to Varu's amusement, took his hand, and stepped on to the soft soil.

We walked deeper into the dark space. A breeze whipped about the room, sending my hair over my face. I let go of Varu, swept my hair back into place, and crossed my arms in front of me.

"There are no windows down here," he said.

"Yes. Obviously." I sounded like a teenager as I looked at him blankly. His point was what?

"The wind is due to your mother's magic. Very few witches can do what you just did."

Startled, I looked around, wondering what he was talking about and what it had to do with my mother. "What did I just do?" I looked at my feet to see if I'd sunk into the ground again. "I've followed you on the stairs. Had a threesome with two passionate guys who are also supernatural creatures. What else?"

He laughed. "Stepping this far into my room, or even seeing inside it, is something most witches can't do, and I don't know why you can. I'm not sure if it is your magic or because you are your mother's daughter. When people open that door, they see a small space just a foot or two deep, nothing more than a broom cupboard lined with soil. That's what Maria sees, and that's what Beck told me he saw when I showed him where I sleep."

It hadn't crossed my mind that when I looked at something the person standing next to me would perceive something so very different. But that was what Varu implied about the conversation I'd had about this room with Beck earlier.

"Well, that explains why he won't just stick with you. You know how to push a man away by making him think you sleep in a dirty little cupboard."

Of course, Varu raised an eyebrow and smiled. "You'll notice, Water Boy knew the way to the guest room. I only sleep here. When I opened the door to this room, he saw a shallow cupboard. I allowed him to believe that there was nothing more to my sleeping quarters."

It was mind-boggling to discover Beck and I had looked in earlier and had a conversation about this room, but it turned out we were discussing different things.