“Rain? Are you awake?”
Rain cracked open her eyes at the sound of Daric’s deep voice. Her lungs squeezed with joy and relief that he was home safely from his latest trip up and down the slippery Axton Peaks, although she simply mumbled something that sounded like No while her heart settled into a normal beat.
Daric slipped into her room anyway and stretched out beside her on the high bed. He was lying down but hardly still. Her prince was a constant explosion of motion, going everywhere as if his heels were on fire.
And he called her the storm.
“Happy birthday!” Daric turned onto his side, beaming at her.
“I’m sleeping.” Rain refused to open her eyes enough to do more than watch him through her lashes. The day her adoptive parents had chosen as her birthday was a terrible day. It was the first morning of spring, and another long season of nothing. “But welcome home,” she said with a budding smile.
“You’re not sleeping. You’re talking to me.”
She huffed, unable to fault his logic. “We’re not children anymore. You do know that it’s highly inappropriate for you to charge into my bedroom like this? Especially at the crack of dawn.”
“The crack of dawn?” Daric scoffed. “That was at least three minutes ago.”
“You’re impossible.” Sighing, Rain resigned herself to facing the day—this day when everyone still hoped she’d do something amazing and wonderful, even though they’d stopped expecting it a long time ago.
At least Daric was back, which made it all more bearable.
She stretched the sleep from her limbs and opened her eyes, allowing herself to really look at him. Her chest knotted with the usual mix of elation, misery, and longing. His face was weathered from his latest journey, maybe even a little sun-scorched, and his blue eyes stood out with brilliance against his tanned skin. His dark hair had grown, now tumbling over his forehead in a way that made her want to smooth it between her fingers and brush it back. And his smile…
Rain’s pulse sped up again. His smile was the same as always: warm and devastating.
“Did everything go well?” she asked.
Daric nodded. “The last two towns in the dry-belt now have their full supply of ice blocks. I inspected the containers, and they’re all in good shape. It won’t water their fields, but it’ll give the townsfolk what they need to survive the upcoming season.”
Several years ago, Daric had conceived of a plan to provide extra water for the towns around Leathen with the fewest natural depressions to collect rainwater and snowmelt from the winter. Under his direction, villagers had built huge watertight basins to hold blocks of ice that Daric and a team of soldiers regularly cut from the mountain lakes in winter. Each journey meant a difficult climb into the Axton Peaks, a long week of perilous work, and a treacherous descent with heavy sleds stacked with ice. While the weather was still cold enough to transport the frozen water, Daric brought it to the towns that needed it the most. There, it was stored and slowly melted as the weather warmed. With rationing, the ice provided enough water for areas hovering on the brink of disaster to survive the inevitably rainless spring while everyone waited for summer storms to help refill their water towers.
Daric had yet to lose a man on these dangerous but necessary outings, and Rain knew he’d jumped into holes in the ice more than once to pull someone out. People didn’t die on Daric’s watch, despite the winter elements sometimes doing their best to blow his team from the mountaintops. Rain felt as though she held her breath each time he left and only let it out again when he returned.
“Did you just arrive?” she asked.
“Last night,” he answered. “But you’d already gone to bed.”
That explained why he was clean-shaven and looked freshly washed. Polite and civilized were expected of Daric, but Rain enjoyed seeing him come home all bristly and wind-whipped and looking deliciously barbarous in his winter furs. Weapons strapped on. Somehow stronger and wider after each grueling, work-filled expedition. Eyes sparking blue fire from across the room.
She shivered just thinking about it, although with him beside her, she was anything but cold.
Rain sat up and wiggled back against the headboard. Daric did the same and then handed her a small box.
He grinned at her. “I would have offered you a silver necklace to match your hair, a sapphire ring to match your eyes, or a ruby brooch to match your lips, but Leathen has no riches left, so you’ll have to make do with this.” He tapped the lid of the box, his smile widening.
Rain smiled back, laughing a little. “You make me sound like a crown—silver and rubies and sapphires.”
“Sadly, we don’t have a single crown anymore, either. Besides, they were all gold, and you certainly don’t have boring yellow hair.”
The mood in the dawn-lit room abruptly soured as they both thought about who did have blonde hair—Astraea Nighthall.
“You don’t have to marry her,” Rain murmured, turning the unopened gift over in her hands. She watched the box, unable to look at Daric again yet. The near constant ache in her chest ratcheted up with a vengeance. She’d thought her heart hurt before? Lately, it was in constant pain.
“And do what?” Daric asked bitterly, some of the princely veneer slipping from his voice. “Run away?”
Steeling herself, Rain turned back to him. “Talk to your father. He can’t possibly wish her on you.” Astraea Nighthall was all that was spiteful, vicious, and petty.
Daric shook his head. “The contract has been negotiated. We marry. Our first child inherits both kingdoms. Raanaleath.” He snorted. “It sounds like a disease.”
Angry, unhappy Daric felt like a stranger by her side. These past few months, though, this surly prince had become more familiar to her. “At least Leathen won’t be obliterated from the name entirely.” Not like the name of Ash, which they were being forced to abandon.
He tried to smile and failed utterly. “Good point, Raindrop.” Rain watched as he drew a deep breath and forced back his visible dread over the future that was slowly destroying them both. “Now open your present.”
Rain swallowed the lump in her throat. If Daric could focus on today then she could, too. It was better than thinking about the vile Astraea in his bed.
She rubbed the velvet-covered box between her fingers. It was a daring red. She wasn’t surprised Daric had chosen something he knew she’d like, even if the color was better suited to an experienced, married woman.
“I’m not certain today’s a day to celebrate,” Rain said.
He drew back, his countenance darkening again. “You’re not to blame for any of this.”
“Neither are you,” she shot back. “And yet you’ll be punished for a lifetime.”
“If I hadn’t dragged you from the Cauldron, you’d still be Spring. You’d still control the elements, make rain and wind and grow new buds into trees.” He shook his head, his features contorting into something she saw more and more often these days—disgust.
Rain knew it wasn’t directed at her, but it still hurt to see. She feared Daric would never stop blaming himself for what had happened. Not only to her, but the drought, the failing farms, the hungry people, the empty coffers, their dependence on Raana… Everything.
“You did not drag me from the Cauldron,” she corrected.
“But my father…”
Rain put a finger over Daric’s lips to hush him, warmth tingling down her arm at the contact. “King Wilder did what he thought was best, and I don’t blame him, either. Your parents have been kind to me and have treated me as their own for the last fifteen years, despite my being a useless mouth to feed in their home.”
“Useless mouth to feed?” Daric echoed indignantly.
His breath swirled around her finger, and the feel of his warm lips was one of the most intimate things Rain had ever experienced. Though they did almost everything together, they rarely touched except when dancing. But no one really danced anymore. There wasn’t much to celebrate.
Rain dropped her hand. She remembered little of her life before she became flesh. She’d been ancient; she knew that. But she’d taken the form of a child to match the charming, earnest boy who’d called out to her that day. Awareness of her previous existence and abilities had been mostly stripped from her, and Braylian had refused to take her back into the Cauldron.
“What good am I?” she asked, knowing her tone matched Daric’s recent bitterness. “Braylian brought forth a new Spring, and she doesn’t see Leathen any more than I did. People are desperate and starving. I’m of no value to the kingdom. You’re being forced to marry Astraea.” Rain heard the near growl in her voice and didn’t even try to disguise it. Raana’s princess had been malicious as a child and age had only worsened her. On a royal visit many years ago, Astraea had snuck into Rain’s bedroom one night and cut off her hair while she slept. She’d then used Rain’s hair to make a noose to hang Daric’s cat. Astraea still gloated about it. That was who Daric was being forced to marry. That was who he’d have to endure so that Raana would create a canal to divert water directly into Leathen.
Raana’s mightiest reservoir sat mockingly on the border, filled to the brim with precious water. All they needed was a year of digging to direct some of that water into the dry riverbed that wound like a desiccated serpent through Leathen’s once-fertile farmland.
King Wilder had been trying to negotiate a canal with Raana for years, but Illanna Nighthall wouldn’t agree to it, even when orin mines had still been a valuable bargaining chip. She finally had, but her price was Daric. With a marriage, the House of Nighthall gained the heart of the continent, and Daric could finally save his people, if not his kingdom. His entire life revolved around bringing them out of this seemingly endless drought. He would do it, even if it meant tying himself to that witch Astraea.
“You’re of value to me,” Daric said softly.
Rain bit her lip to keep from saying—or perhaps doing—something rash. In moments like this, she wished that Daric would lean in and kiss her. And if he didn’t, that maybe she would find the courage to kiss him.
She let the thought seduce her and then pushed it away, as always. “And you’re of value to everyone.”
A shadow flitted through his eyes, the cloud of responsibility, and she wished she’d said nothing.
“Let’s talk of happier things,” Daric said briskly. “Open your present.”
Rain brushed her fingers over the velvet again, wondering what could be inside. When Daric said Leathen had nothing left, he meant it. Even the castle had been mostly stripped of tapestries, rugs, and furnishings and was in terrible condition, making cold mornings like this difficult to face. In return for the food Leathen so desperately needed, their neighbors, and especially Raana, now had everything the House of Ash could possibly sell or barter.
King Wilder had finally been forced to offer up the last thing he had of value: Daric.
If Rain had truly been a member of the Ash family, she supposed she would have gone first, likely to the House of Lockwood in the south to guarantee their continued friendship and assistance. They were the only ones with a marriageable male royal: a king much older than she who’d been widowed for years and whose heirs were daughters.
Any of the Lockwood princesses would have been better for Daric than Astraea. Regrettably, they were all married and also offered nothing in the way of easily accessible water.
“Your patience far exceeds mine,” Daric said, reaching for the box.
Rain twisted away from him with a smile. “Don’t you dare. I’ll open it. Right now, I’m savoring it.”
“Savoring the box?” His winter-blue eyes glimmered with roguish charm. “That’s older than I am, you know. I found it in a wardrobe. I’m reusing it.”
“It’s lovely.”
“And we’ll both be old and gray before you actually open it,” he grumbled.
Rain took pity on the impatient prince and lifted the lid. Amid more red velvet lay a delicate starflower carved from white marble. Her breath caught. It was Braylian’s mark.
“When I made it, I carved a small loop into the back so that you can slide a hairpin through it. See.” Daric pulled a hairpin from his pocket, picked up the starflower, and slipped the pin through the loop. Clearly, he’d planned ahead.
Rain watched his deft fingers as much as the sparkling gift, too overwhelmed to speak. Early morning sunlight poured through the window—long deprived of curtains now—and glinted off the crystalline stone, making it glitter like snow on a winter morning.
Daric gathered a portion of her hair and attached the gift above her ear. “Like a snowflake on ice,” he said, smiling as he adjusted a few sleep-tumbled locks and smoothed them down.
Rain shivered, not used to anyone else’s hands in her hair, and least of all Daric’s. She pressed her lips together, trapping her tears in her throat.
“Don’t you like it?” Daric asked, a worried crease forming between his brows.
Like it? She loved it. She loved him. It was torture.
“It’s the most beautiful gift I’ve ever had,” Rain finally answered in a voice that thickened with every word. “Thank you.”
Daric seemed pleased with her response, but then his expression turned troubled once more. “Wear it now, while you can, because you’ll have to hide it after we all move to Nighthall.”
“Why?” Rain asked, the thought of their family being uprooted two moons from now to live among vipers making her stomach cramp.
“Because Astraea will take it. She’s always been madly jealous of you.”
“That’s ridiculous.” Rain touched the starflower, wanting to look at it again but not wanting to undo Daric’s careful handiwork. “She’s a princess. Rich, powerful, and if one can ignore her inner ugliness, quite attractive.”
Daric made a face as he hopped off the bed and moved toward the door. “I can’t ignore it. I have names for Astraea but saying them out loud would tarnish your image of my princely manners forever.”
Rain’s lips twitched. “I’m certain my imagination can supply them without your help.”
Daric’s eyes sparked with genuine humor, despite the terrible union he faced for the benefit of his people. “I’m leaving so you can get dressed and come face the frigid breakfast room with me.”
Rain got goose bumps just thinking about it. Even firewood was scarce these days, and they mainly kept it for the evenings, for a small moment of comfort and peace. This winter had been darker and colder than most, and while it was officially spring now, Rain doubted the new season would bring much improvement. Gradual warming, yes, but no rain, of course. Thankfully, snowmelt would at least help fill the natural water basins for the coming weeks.
Daric turned back to her from the doorway. “As for Astraea being jealous, you’re of the House of Ash, and she knows she’ll never have what you have.”
“What’s that?” Rain asked, her heart jerking uncomfortably.
“A family that loves you.” Daric left and shut the door behind him.
Rain didn’t try to stop the wetness flooding her eyes. She would cry rivers if only her tears would make the crops grow again in Leathen.