14. Rain

Chapter 14

Rain

Char kept quiet as we returned to the quarters we'd been given, letting me have time to consider what we'd witnessed. When the door closed behind us, though, he turned to me. "Lord Courtwright seems to like you quite a lot."

I couldn't help it, I blinked at him. "Me?" I'd been so distracted by the way Adair had been looking at the young man, at Aubrey, when we'd returned, Char's comment struck me out of the blue.

He'd been looking at Aubrey like he was the answer to all his problems, when I wanted to be the answer to all his problems. Sure, it was ridiculous and small of me, but I wanted to be the man on the other end of that expression.

Char lifted a brow at me. "He told you the truth. Admittedly, it was that he couldn't tell you what was going on, but he's a Gloombringer vassal. If it had been Oberon Gloombringer asking me what was happening, I'd have lied to him."

"Shouldn't lie to a Gloomy," Tempest sang as she wandered in from her bedroom, where she'd been napping. "They might be able to tell, you never know. "

Char shrugged, nonchalant. "It doesn't matter if they know I'm lying, they still don't know what the truth is. There's more respect in telling someone you can't tell them the truth than in lying to them, even if you know they'll be aware of the lie."

Tempest cocked her head to the side, squinting her eyes, then finally nodded. "I guess that makes sense. Still shouldn't lie to empaths."

Char rolled his eyes at her, plopping himself down on the sofa in the middle of the room. "What would you have done? Turned and run away instead of answering at all?"

"Maybe. Sometimes running away is the best answer."

They were both right, of course, but the problem was knowing which tactic was right at which time. Sometimes running away was precisely the wrong answer and would end in the worst result.

Worse yet, there was no way to know which was which beforehand. You could only guess, even if that guess was based on strong knowledge of all the players and their previous actions. Like Mother assuming the Dawnchaser party would arrive bright and early in the morning to inconvenience the house as much as possible. They'd arrived the night before, so she'd been wrong, but their intentions and the results had been the same—they'd wanted to inconvenience the entire household, set everyone on guard, and they'd done so.

For a moment, I envied Frost and his near-complete lack of awareness of people's intentions. Life would be so much easier, in many ways, if I could go through blissfully unaware of the tension that lay beneath the surface of every human interaction .

But then you wouldn't be you , Iri pointed out. And you'd be so much less fun .

Fun. Just what I'd always aspired to be.

My phone rang, but it wasn't Mother's tone, it was Ember's. So instead of disrupting Tempest and Char, who were still chatting quietly about the situation downstairs, I went into the main bedroom and answered.

Ember, my only sister, closest sibling to me in age, looked...awful. Oh, she was as beautiful as ever, her ink-black hair floating around her head in tight little curls, an effect that looked effortless but that I knew took hours of work. Her dark skin, just like Frost's, flawless as always. But there were circles under her eyes and her lips were drawn together in a frown, something rare on my sister's face.

She'd lost her biological parents when we were quite young—her father and Frost's had been the same, a dear friend of Mother's, so without question, Ember had come to live with us when it had happened—and I thought that overall it had made her a more positive person. She'd been forced, early on, to see that the worst could happen and you could survive it. Instead of making her angry or sad or bitter, it had made her unfailingly hopeful. And maybe a little reckless.

That she looked bothered, nervous even? That was alarming. "Rain, thank goodness. I was afraid you'd be busy at the summit."

I rolled my eyes. "The Gloombringer and the Dawnchaser are acting like overlarge children, so I'm making them wait on me a bit."

She lifted her eyebrows at that, pulling her head back and looking at me in surprise. "That's not like you. You bend over backward to give people what they need. "

While she wasn't usually wrong, that was different. Ember—most of my family—had only ever seen me around people I loved. Moonstrikers, who were forthright and hard-working and easy to talk to and easier to help. They were all people I'd do anything for. I shook my head. "Only people who are meeting me halfway. They're acting like kids, so I'm telling them to stop it, or I'll take my toys and go home."

She blinked rapidly, like she was a computer and I'd entered a command that didn't make sense, but finally seemed to shake it off. She glanced behind her, like she was afraid someone might be listening, then back to the phone. "So, Caspian Sunrunner is on his way to you. He left late last night. I don't know how long the trip is, but maybe he'll get there today? If not, tomorrow for sure."

Caspian Sunrunner. The great wolf's son. His only son and therefore unquestionably his heir. Frankly, his status as heir meant that he should be an easier sell than I was to the arrogant jackasses I was dealing with, but I doubted it was going to be that simple.

"Ember?"

She sighed, slumping forward and giving a little nod. "I know. I'm...things aren't right here, Rain. Cas is the best person I've met here so far. His dad is drunk at best, and his aunt"—she glanced behind her again, then turned back to me and shook her head instead of finishing the sentence—"he's the best option. I talked to them about the summit, and mostly they seemed to think it was all a big joke. Some kind of trick by the Gloombringer to try to smooth over something Oberon did years ago, without having to actually apologize for his behavior."

The worst thing was that I couldn't deny Oberon would do just that, given the opportunity. Still, I sighed. "He's an ass, I agree, but Mount Slate is rumbling, Ember. This isn't a trick. We need them."

She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath and nodding. "I believe you. And I'll keep working. I'll...I'll try to find Sunrunner sober and clear-headed, but I'm honestly not sure that ever happens. This place is like the poster child for one of Mom's ‘this is what happens when you lose control of yourself' speeches, Rain. It's ridiculous. They just sit around eating and drinking and doing drugs and fucking. It's like they don't even know there's a world outside, let alone that it might need our help." She leaned in toward the phone, and her face got big enough to cover the whole screen. Her voice went quieter, almost a hoarse whisper. "Someone asked me what a Moonstriker was when I introduced myself."

That was...horrific. It was why Mother had sent Ember there, of course. They were reckless, and Mother wanted Ember to see the results of irresponsible behavior up close. I could have told Mother that at her worst, Ember was still sensible and intelligent, but Mother liked to make her points as vividly as possible, and she was good at it. Too good, sometimes, I thought as I remembered Frost's concern that he could never make her proud.

I sat on the edge of the bed, bowing my head. After a moment of consideration, I righted myself and turned back up to face Ember. "I'll do what I can, of course. Clearly I wasn't going to be the one offended by the Sunrunner heir being the one sent, but I'll see if I can't run some interference on his behalf. If it gets bad, I may have to ask Uncle Cove to come take my place, but I think I can make them accept Caspian, since he's the unquestionable heir to the Sunrunner." I met her eye. "But Ember. If things are so bad there, does he even have authority to make an agreement? "

Her jaw clenched, and she looked away from me, which I supposed was answer enough. A moment later, though, she looked back at the phone, something hardening in her eye. "If there's a deal made, I'll see to it that it happens."

For a moment, all I could do was stare at my usually gentle, loving sister. It hadn't been my imagination, I was sure. She'd just suggested that she'd kill someone to make sure that Caspian's word held up.

That she would kill the great wolf.

How bad was it, that she'd been pushed to that in less than a week?

I thought back to Huxley Dawnchaser's arrogant sneer and Oberon Gloombringer's...gloominess, as Tempest would have said, and I had my answer. I didn't respond to her, just nodded my comprehension. "I'll keep you apprised of what happens."

"Take care of him, will you? He seems like a good kid." She ducked her head, biting her lip, and for a moment I thought maybe she had a weird kind of guy-crush on the Sunrunner heir, but she winced when she looked back up at me. "It's funny, you're usually the one I'm saying that about. But you're...Rain. You're my little brother, but I know you can handle this. Cas is different. He's—hells, I don't know how he survived this place, but he's softer than you. He needs someone to look out for him. Fuck knows his family isn't doing it."

That explained that. Caspian Sunrunner was her new adopted little brother. Ember did that, and well...I couldn't complain. It was why she'd accepted me as little brother so readily, and she was the sister and near-age sibling I'd always wanted before she'd come to live with us. I nodded to her again. "I'll take care of him, Em. I've got this. These blowhards aren't as clever or special as they think they are. I've got it under control."

Her smile in return was positively radiant and made her look like maybe she'd actually slept the night before.

When I hung up the phone, I looked up to find Tempest standing in the doorway. She looked somewhere between sad and knowing, and it was too damn familiar a look. "Do you?"

Tempest knew me better than anyone, including my siblings.

I hung my head, shoulders shaking with uncontrollable laughter, or possibly fear and overwhelm, and clapped a hand to my mouth for a moment before responding. "Not even close, Tempest. Not even close."

A moment later, her arm was around me, squeezing me tight against her. "That was pretty badass, on the phone. You put her right at ease."

"It's what I do."

"It is. Which is why even if you don't feel like it, you've got this. You're a badass. And half the reason you are is because you're not an arrogant asshole like those other lords."

"I'm also not a lord," I pointed out, obstinate. "Mother hasn't named me heir."

She snorted. "Frost would be a terrible leader and he'd be the first person to tell you that, and Ember would run away like Winter did. I love you, and I'd like to make your life easier if I could, but you're it, pal. You're stuck with it, unless you want to run away too, and that's just not who you are."

Unfortunately, she was right. She didn't know how right, but every word of it had been true. I had to step up because if I didn't, no one would. I was far from perfect, but I'd never been one to run away from a challenge.

I just had to figure out how to help Caspian Sunrunner, keep Ember from having to kill a family lord, wrangle Oberon and Huxley into submission, and...probably kiss Adair Courtwright some more. That one felt like it should have been first on the list, but since we were trying to avert a massive crisis that would result in millions of deaths, I supposed sacrifices had to be made.