The Crown's Entrapment

“Fine then.”

Walking up the shack, Xenia scoffed as she passed Osman, sizing up the small thing with an unimpressed eye. Indeed, it looked more like a toolshed than a shack, but it had just enough space for both her and Darius to squeeze into.

“Just last a day, huh,” she smirked. “Sounds easy enough.”

“Don’t underestimate this, Xen,” Darius reminded alongside her. “Osman made you do this for a reason.”

Looking to her side, Darius was already getting ready to go in right with her. She appreciated the gesture, of course, but it wasn’t like she needed his help for this.

“You know you don’t have to do this with me, right?” she chuckled. “You can just wait out here and we can still talk.”

“She’s right, you know,” Osman chimed in from behind them. “That thing’s small enough that we can still talk even if the princess is inside.”

“See?” Xenia smiled. “I’ll be fine on my own. This is nothing.”

Placing both hands on her hips, Xenia projected a confident pose as she waited for Darius to answer. She wasn’t even lying. She didn’t see how steam could pose a problem for her. Ebodia had its days of sweltering heat, and she didn’t even manage to break a sweat that time.

“Hmm…. I suppose that might be the case, but I still want to come with you.”

Xenia frowned, “You really want us to squeeze right in there, huh.”

To none of her surprise, Darius smirked, “You might strip naked, after all. Perhaps I might be needed to protect your dignity.”

She blushed at his words. Still, she stood her ground as she scoffed, “No, I don’t. I’m sure I won’t need to strip.”

“We’ll see about that, Princess,” Osman teased again. “Now stop stalling. We’re burning daylight over here.”

Xenia rolled her eyes as she casually sauntered towards the door. Almost immediately, she felt some heat radiating off the seams of the shack, and she hadn’t even opened the door yet.

“Nothing special…”

With a small breath, she opened the door.

As soon as the wooden door swung open, scalding hot steam threatened to burn her skin off. Trying to breathe it in was also a challenge, her nostrils and throat burning with each inhale that she did.

Understandably, she coughed.

“Are you okay?”

“I-I’m… fine…” Xenia coughed out, barely managing to make out Darius as he walked in beside her. “T-This is… nothing…”

Feeling his hands pull her in, Xenia let herself get guided as she heard the door close behind her. Truly, they were now inside the shack, locked in with what looked to be a small hot spring right in the middle of it.

“This is… T-This is hot…”

Hearing Darius cough, Xenia would’ve chuckled if she could. She also would’ve gloated had it not been for her own situation of just even trying to breathe against all the humid heat around her.

“Remember! You’re not allowed to come out unless I say so!” Osman shouted from outside the shack. “Have fun!”

She would’ve scoffed, again, if only she could do so.

“H-How are you holding up, Xen?”

Looking up, she could barely see that Darius was currently seated. There were a few benches surrounding the steaming spring, and she could only assume that one could even bathe in it if they could handle the heat.

Which, now that she thought about it, might be the point of the test.

- “I-I’m… fine…” she coughed out, taking a seat of her own as she struggled to breathe. “H-Hot….”

“I know,” Darius grunted, his own breaths coming out labored. “Even I’m having a hard time staying here.”

At that, Xenia frowned, “I-I told…. Y-you to… not come… with me…”

“Yes, but seeing you right now? It’s for the best,” Darius breathed aloud. “Besides… This is kind of relaxing…”

‘What?!’

Her eyes widened as she watched her mate seemingly slouch into his seat. Taking off his clothes, he was practically glistening with sweat and moisture as she acted like all the heat was nothing to him.

“Now that I’m starting to get used to this, it’s not so bad,” Darius chuckled, his hands clasped together as he rested his arms on his knees. “I can see myself using this recreationally.”

“R-Really?!” she coughed aloud.

“It opens up the skin,” he noted. “The smell can be kind of grating if you plan on staying for longer, but sulfur isn’t that deadly.”

‘Sulfur?!’

Xenia almost wanted to balk at what she walked into. She didn’t think that she’d be inhaling chemicals with each breath, and she knew for a fact that Mother and her sister have told her numerous times to avoid the smell of rotten eggs.

And right now, it reeked of that smell like none other.

“B-But isn’t it… deadly for… humans?” she weakly asked.

“Not if you can get used to it,” Darius scoffed, clearly getting into the zone as he sighed. “Sulfur is useful for many things, and it can be used as medicine or catalyst when combined with other compounds by a competent mage.”

‘But I’m no mage,’ Xenia inwardly growled.

Looking down, she finally started to see that she had sorely underestimated this test. Already, she was sweating bullets, but the relief of being cooled off never came. Instead, it only added to the rising temperature as the moisture in the air enhanced the heat coming off the hot spring.

‘And I’m supposed to survive an entire day of this?!’

Xenia panted as she sat on the bench, her ass quickly sticking to the wooden surface as her body exuded fluids like nobody’s business. Her dress was practically soaked, and the added moisture clinging onto her was only making her life even more miserable than it should be.

‘Ugh… Just when I thought I didn’t have to do this…’

Left with no other choice, Xenia finally stripped. Tossing her dress to the wayside, she was still soaked even as her bare skin was exposed to the elements.

“Looking good there, Xen.”

“Q-quiet, you…”

This was bad… Looking at her mate, the way his body glistened promptly made a different kind of heat build-up inside her, and she didn’t like it one bit.

Did she seriously have to endure all types of heat now?!