The bathwater had gone lukewarm by the time Natalia declared the session over. Maki transformed back into her cat form with a lazy shimmer of darkness, padded across the wet tile, and leapt onto the counter to lick her paw like she hadn't just been naked in a bathtub with two people. Natalia wrapped herself in a towel with the regal composure of someone who hadn't spent the last twenty minutes collaborating with a supernatural cat on massage therapy.
I hauled myself out of the tub and grabbed the nearest towel. My muscles felt like warm taffy. Whatever those two had done to my back and shoulders had erased tension I'd been carrying since the Necropolis. The regenerator brace hummed against my ribs with quiet mechanical optimism.
"You're eating before bed," Natalia said. Not a question.
"Yes, dear."
She narrowed her eyes. The Cryo-Lich Ring pulsed once, a warning shot.
"Don't push it."
