The Dragons' Bathhouse: A Reverse Harem Enemies-to-Lovers Soulmate Romance

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She headed for the kitchen, sprinting past a couple of witches and ducking under a huge umbrella ghost, which leapt upwards to make way for her. The ghost snarled, exposing its fangs and unfurling its umbrella to display the massive rods of sharp steel.

Shit!

Eden squealed her apologies, bowing to the offended staff and darting away quickly without looking back. She pranced over a couple of leprechauns, before finally reaching her intended destination.

The kitchen was massive, severely dwarfing her already tiny body. It had hundreds of stations, each serving a different purpose, assembled upon a tiered terrace-like structure. And from the centre of the kitchen, Eden could see everything.

There was a fire stretched along one tier; the embers dancing high into the air before disappearing into glossy silver pipes. Tiny gnome chefs were lined up along the stretched hearth, sauteing sticks of dripping meat. Occasionally, a fire would break out and little kappa river spirits would douse out the flames with jugs of water.

At another level, enormous cast-iron pots sat atop blue flames; thick green and red liquid bubbled from within as pixies danced above the concoction, shaking fairy dust into the mixture. Every few seconds, the liquid would transform into a pot of gold coins before turning back into the boiling sludge.

Witches chanted above a plot of land at another station, tiny gold vines sprouting from the tilled soil and blossoming into plants teemed with flopping prawns. Tiny imps snipped at the seafood, tearing at their shells before carrying the meat into a huge frying pan the size of a small building.

The kitchen was a mess as always, with a confusing concoction of otherworldly sights, scents and smells. The mixture of Spirit and Human Realm ingredients created a cloud of iridescent colours. The smoke travelled down to the lowest level where Eden stood and it sat heavily at her feet like wet mist before dawn.

Eden squinted at the crowd of at least a thousand people as she jogged towards the doorway to the worker's canteen. Her eyes swept through the area, hoping to spot her best friend as she shimmied past servers carrying trays ladened with delicious food.

She'd caught the dumb wood nymph mourning her death not once, but twice, just because Eden had been slightly late to their meeting. For her best friend's species, if someone was late to a forest meeting, it usually meant they had already died and melded with their respective trees. And Eden didn't want her best friend thinking she was dead. Again.

She choked as steam from a pot of beef stew hit her nose. The scent of roasting beef enveloped her, drenching her skin in the thick, heavy smell of meat. Holy Shit. She coughed; her eyes watering from the scent of spicy herbs. That was way too strong. She could barely see a thing in the purple smoke that danced across her murky vision.

"Eden!"

She was pulled out of the suffocating cloud into the arms of a wood nymph with beautiful ebony skin. Her wood bark textured arms acted as an amazing railing for Eden's shaking body. And she clung to her best friend desperately as she inhaled sweet, sweet oxygen.

The wood nymph looked close to tears, her eyes watering as she spoke. "Where were you? I didn't see you at breakfast! I thought you were dead!"

Seri's voice was always a mixture of sounds; her every word paired with the soft wail of the wind, the chirping of swallows and the rustle of leaves. This time, her words included the bubbling sound of a running stream, more evidence of her concern and relief.

"Hey, Seri, I just overslept," Eden greeted, thumping her chest as she coughed. Damn that beef stew! "I didn't die. Relax."

"Oh, I'm so glad you're not dead!" Seri sobbed, wrapping her arms around Eden in a tight embrace. Eden winced as a branch growing out of her best friend's ribs stabbed into her belly and a huge banana leaf protruding from Seri's hair slapped her in the face. Damn it, too much plant life. "I was talking to Hami about scheduling a funeral for you tonight."