Nico and her kull caught up to Rasia at a large limestone shelf. Azan parked the windship in the shade of the overhang, next to Rasia’s. Nico peered up high, where Rasia sat atop the shelf, kicking her legs impatiently.
They hadn’t been that far behind.
“We’ll get our gonda,” Nico promised her kull. “Let’s meet with Rasia and break till high noon end.”
“We’re still close to the gonda breeding grounds. If we’re going to break, we should do it atop the rock. It’ll absorb our vibrations and keep the gonda from sensing us. She picked this place for a reason,” Zephyr advised.
Nico nodded. “Don’t bother breaking down the windship. Keep it ready for sail. Gather your supplies and any materials for shade. We’ll take lunch on the rock.”
They had to climb to reach the flat rock shelf. Nico took the lead, taking care to test the holds for those following behind her. Suri followed, then Kelin, then Azan, and then Zephyr at the tail. With their strength, both Azan and Zephyr carried most of the supplies and could reasonably take another person’s weight if someone should slip. Nico reached the top and immediately turned to help Suri up after her.
Suri stared at Nico’s hand. They hadn’t talked much since their argument. It’d been a chilly silence since. It didn’t surprise Nico when Suri pulled herself over the rock shelf.
Nico looked down at a freeze in the line, where Kelin stopped three quarters of the way up. The tent kid looked down at the ground, staring at the distance, huffing out.
“It’s okay,” Azan said from under him. “It’s not any taller than spine street.”
“I’m going to kick you in the face,” Kelin snapped, clutching the rock face. Nico had never paused to consider this might be the highest Kelin had ever been in his entire life. Before Nico could think of a solution, Zephyr reached out and tested the rocks before climbing around Azan.
Zephyr tied one end of his shroud to Kelin’s belt and the other end to his own. “Kelin, if you fall, you’re attached to me, and Azan is right below to catch you. Nico is right there, waiting to pull you up. You’re safe. We’ve got you.”
Kelin jerked his chin. Zephyr pointed to the handholds Nico marked out earlier in her climb. Kelin moved to the one indicated, and hand by hand, he crawled higher and higher. Nico grabbed at him as soon as he was in reach and pulled him over onto the rock shelf. Kelin squeezed at her, sweaty, and Nico reached around him to undo Zephyr’s shroud so it didn’t trip anyone up. Zephyr waited for Azan before climbing up last.
“You did good,” Azan said. He hooked under Kelin’s armpits, pulled Kelin to his feet, and dragged Kelin away from the edge.
Nico placed a hand on Zephyr’s arm when he stopped beside her. “Thank you.”
“It’s nothing.”
They shared a nod. Nico turned to Rasia, standing there, waiting, with the most bored and frustrated expression on her face.
“Wow, you all are so slow.”
Nico’s entire kull stood at her back on one end of the rock shelf, while Rasia stood alone on the other. Nico noted the fresh bandages around Rasia’s thigh and the splint. Rasia’s khopesh were also missing.
“What is this about, and where is Kai?”
“Okay. Don’t crash. Listen. Scavengers captured Kai and—”
Rain drummed atop the rock and drowned out Rasia’s last words. The bright flash of lightning blinded Nico’s vision.
It was always something with Rasia. First, Rasia stole jih to go chase after a dragon. Then she pushed him into the Lake of Yestermorrow. Then she got herself seeded. And now—now, jih was caught helpless in the hands of scavengers! Nico didn’t think it was possible to hate someone as much as she hated Rasia in that moment.
“I said not to crash.”
This time, Nico didn’t rein in her magic. The initial scattering of rain thickened to a downpour.
The rain dripped around Rasia’s growing grin. Rasia reached for her swords and paused a moment when she realized they were absent. Rasia didn’t skip a beat when she spun the replacement scimitar from her hip and dipped into a fighting stance.
Rasia smirked. “Come on, then. Maybe you’ll listen after I beat your ass again.”
No. Not this time. Nico refused to lose. She’d learned her lesson. Nico wouldn’t pull her punches. Not anymore.
Nico stormed forward with glaive in hand. Rasia sprinted to meet her in the middle.
Rasia’s momentum stalled when she slipped on the puddle Nico summoned underfoot. Nico swiped overhand with her glaive and missed by a hair, if Rasia still had any.
The slippery snake rolled out the way.
Despite her anger, Nico took great care to maintain awareness of her breathing and environment. She remembered the windship chase and how Rasia used her emotions against her. That was another lesson Rasia had taught her.
Nico glided on puddles of water, almost dancing around Rasia as Nico’s breath found rhythm, and the magic flooded her veins.
Steel clashed, and the force jolted through Nico’s arms. Nico twisted, wrapped a whip of water around Rasia’s sword, and yanked the weapon right out of Rasia’s hand.
Rasia moved too slowly on her bandaged right leg. Nico swiped toward Rasia’s right and too late did Nico realize Rasia had been laying a trap. Rasia wasn’t as slow as she’d let on. Rasia pulled a dagger out of her belt.
Hot steel cut Nico’s forearm. Her magic flared instinctively. Nico splashed and she reformed two puddles away.
Rasia grinned, smug. “Give it up, Ohan. You’ll never beat me.”
Nico stepped into the rain.
Nico jumped the droplets, bounced from the water in Rasia’s gourd, and took hold of the liquid life that ran through Rasia’s veins.
Nico gripped the rough fibers of Rasia’s dagger-hilt in her—no, Rasia’s—hand. The right leg did hurt, in such agony Nico almost hopped back to her own body. What Nico had thought a trap was a bluff. What Nico thought was Rasia’s inevitable victory was, in fact, Rasia barely standing. Nico tightened Rasia’s hand around the dagger hilt, added another hand, and turned it toward Rasia’s chest.
Rasia stood her ground, mentally fighting Nico, but Nico pushed the magic more and tightened her control on Rasia’s blood by sheer force of will. In the beating rain, Rasia stood frozen.
“GET THE FUCK OUT OF ME!” Rasia screamed.
Rasia dropped under her leg, folding to the pain, and went sprawling back to the ground. The dagger screeched a streak of sparks against the limestone. A sharp pain at the ribs screamed through the magic synapses. Nico jolted back, out, and hit against the rock, wet and reformed.
Rasia lay on the ground, heaving.
Nico stood over her, and even with the drastic difference of their positions, Rasia looked far from defeated. Rasia, secure in the fact that she knew Nico, she’d known Nico since they were children and how Nico cried when Rasia stomped on her favorite doll. Rasia said, “You can’t save Kai by yourself. You need me.”
Nico’s hands dived around Rasia’s throat, then vengefully pushed Rasia down, down, down into the watery depths of Nico’s anger. Nico rampaged with the destructive power of a flash flood. She was endlessly whirling seas and vicious storms. She struck with all the unforgiving destruction of a natural disaster.
Nico-ji, save her.
Nico startled at the sound of Kai’s voice, echoing as desperate as when he had once offered up Rasia cradled in his arms.
What was she doing?
Nico was more than this. Nico was more than her anger, and her jealousies, and her insecurities. She was more than just Nicolai, more than the heir and a title she hadn’t earned yet.
Nico was the rain shower.
She gave life to starved plants and barren earth. Children played in her puddles. Animals quenched their thirst. She was relief to a parched throat. She was the cycle. The condensation. The evaporation. The thunder. The pour. She doused. She cleansed. She sunk. She floated. She drowned. She soaked. She rippled. She was an oasis.
Nico’s hold loosened.
Rasia sucked in a breath, gasping. A fist slammed into Nico’s face, and Nico’s head snapped back at the force of the blow. Nico thunked to the limestone, frozen.
A laugh flew from Rasia’s lips, the sound of madness if Nico had to ever describe the word. Rasia pressed a hand underneath her, wobbled, and tried to stand. Rasia collapsed on her bad leg, and laughed again, and laughed some more, then laughed herself unconscious.
Neither could get back up on her own.