Freeing Luka: The Clecanian Series Book 2 by Victoria Aveline (readict books TXT) 📕

Alice grinned and embraced the small woman, accidentally inhaling a mouthful of her curly brown hair. Although still very quiet and shy, since being healed Daisy could always be seen with a smile plastered on her face.

“If I made more noise, I wouldn’t be able to see you do fun things like that, though.” Daisy grinned, gesturing to the water. “I was hanging out at Vanessa’s, and a guard came by.”

“Izzo?” Alice teased, nudging Daisy in the ribs.

Daisy blushed furiously but said, “No, some other guy.” Quietly, she added, “I haven’t seen Izzo since that first day.”

All of the women had noticed Izzo’s infatuation with Daisy, and when Daisy had casually brought up his name in conversation, they’d started to tease her. After recounting everything that had happened since their rescue to Daisy, who’d heard none of it, Daisy’s only question had been in regard to diving for pearls. “So, if they aren’t stung, it’s meant to be?”

She’d promptly quieted after Alice had casually suggested she ask Izzo to retrieve a pearl for her.

“This other guy told me to come get you. I guess there’s a meeting or something going on in a little bit that you’re supposed to go to.”

Alice’s eyes shot to the front door. Finally!

She’d been eagerly awaiting this meeting ever since the Queen had asked her to be a part of it. Each day she’d asked Metli when the meeting would happen, and each day Metli’s annoyance had grown as she’d told her the meeting was postponed until all parties could be in attendance.

Metli hadn’t gone into specifics, but Alice guessed the “party” Metli was referring to was Luka.

Her heart picked up speed, and that empty feeling of excitement and fear washed over her. I’m finally going to see him again.

She glanced down at her casual lounge outfit in distress. “Help me figure out what to wear, okay?” Alice said as she dashed inside to a large wardrobe near her bed.

“Trying to look nice for Luka, are we?” Daisy teased.

Alice poked her head out. “Yeah, maybe you could ask Izzo what style his brother likes,” she countered with raised brows.

Daisy rolled her eyes and slumped on the long, deep maroon couch.

After leaving the doctor’s office, feeling brand new again having received something called the “elixir,” Alice, Rita, Daisy, and Vanessa had been led by Metli to a group of small floating houses. Metli had been confused when the women had decided to all sleep in one house for the first few nights. She’d told them they were safe and no unauthorized person could traverse the lake, but Alice and the others had clung together regardless.

Yesterday, when Alice could take no more of Vanessa’s aversion to cleaning, or of Rita’s morning and evening Tai Chi sessions that seemed to take up half the living room, she’d wandered over to the house that jutted the farthest into the lake and explored her new home.

She’d found the interior of her small floating house was very similar to the one she’d been living in with the other women. Each of the houses reminded Alice of upscale overwater bungalows. Back on Earth, she could never have dreamed of making enough money to stay in one of the trendy structures.

Silver lining number one, awesome house.

The living room, kitchen, and bedroom all occupied the same space, but the furniture could be programmed to sink into a panel on the floor when not in use. If she pressed the right symbols on the control panel near her door, a large, soft bed would rise to a location of her choosing. In the morning, she could lower the bed back into the floor panel and program her long couch and coffee table to occupy the room instead.

Alice had spent a long time arguing with Rita, Daisy, and Vanessa about how the magic furniture worked. In her opinion, all of it was housed in a basement-like space in the water below the house, but Daisy had claimed the furniture was actually being teleported to a giant warehouse somewhere and waited to be recalled.

After their fourth bottle of mott, a strong alcoholic beverage, they’d decided the most logical way to figure it out would be to draw straws. Whoever drew the short straw would sit on a piece of furniture, be lowered into the floor, and see where they ended up. The morning after, they’d all groggily agreed that asking someone would be the much more logical answer.

The constantly changing furniture had bothered Alice, and after arriving in her home yesterday, she’d programmed all of the furniture to occupy the room at the same time.

The house was a little cramped, but nowhere near as crowded as Vanessa’s house had been. After having lived in one house with three other women for the last week, and sleeping on a lumpy cot in a cell for the two weeks before that, sleeping in a bed of her own, in a house of her own, had felt like heaven.

The only other room in the house was a bathroom that contained a cleansing unit, a toilet, and a large glass tub sunken into the floor. The depths of the lake could be seen through the transparent sides of the tub.

It must be very surreal to take a bath in there.

Alice had stared at the tub for a long time when she’d first seen it, musing that, to the creatures living in the lake, the glass tub would look like a large fish tank containing the body of a very odd-looking naked fish.

“Make sure you pick something that shows off your legs,” Daisy said, frowning at a long black dress Alice had tossed to her.

Her legs were her best feature. Not being able to afford a car and riding a bike everywhere had