Chapter Four
Rain was manythings, but reckless wasn’t one of them. The only thing she’d ever done purely on impulse was dance with a boy, half in the Cauldron and half out, half element and half something more solid, so that he could see her and wouldn’t be frightened by what she truly was.
What shehadbeen: a deity with power over clouds and sunshine. She’d been the lightning that lashedthe treetops as well as the kernels that sprouted into all things green and lush. She’d been whole storms, and she’d been each tiny speck of moisture. She’d run wild across the continent, but she’d kept the land in balance. Or so she’d thought—until Daric showed her otherwise.
Perhaps it was a blessing that she recalled only the larger picture of her existence as a season. It allowed her to besatisfied with her life in Leathen.
A life about to end as well.
Glumly, Rain flipped the pages of another musty old tome looking for mentions of the Barrow Witch, mockweed, Alderbank, or the Blood of Braylian.
Daric studied another book beside her, untouched mugs of ale and dinner plates in front of them. The candles had burned low and now flickered in a draft, throwing shadows across hisface as he read. It was a face she knew better than any other sight, and yet there was something unfamiliar about it now, a hardness that told her Daric was a man who would face his responsibilities, no matter the cost.
He shoved the book aside and leaned back in his chair, scrubbing a hand over his eyes. “There’s nothing of interest in here unless you want to know how to make a beeswax and ingerootpoultice.”
“Useful for burns,” Rain murmured.
“We don’t have burns. We’re facing disgusting marriages—which might be worse.”
“Aldo Lockwood is kind. I could do worse.”
Daric scoffed. “You could certainly do better.”
“Well, no one else is offering.” Rain glanced at him but turned away at the intense anger on his face. The blue of their eyes was nothing alike. Rain’s was much darker. Rightnow, Daric watched her through chips of glacial ice.
This wasn’t the man she was used to. He hadn’t seemed half this furious when it washismarriage forced upon the House of Ash.
“He’s a king. He’s willing to take me and our entire household.”
“Who wouldn’t take you?” Daric muttered.
A pinching sensation cinched around Rain’s heart. If only Daric wanted her the way she wanted him. But then…That wouldn’t help either of them at this point.
“Perhaps we’ll find a solution. We have two moons. And if not… Aldo will be kind,” she repeated.
“Aldo will likely die of heart failure the moment he sees you naked.”
“Daric!” He’d never spoken to her like that.
“At least he’d die happy,” he said under his breath.
Rain didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, so she went back to the safety of thebland history book in her lap. She had a decent idea about what went on in the marriage bed because she wasn’t stupid and she asked questions. But she’d never even felt another’s lips against hers, because the only person she’d ever wanted was Daric.
There suddenly seemed to be a great deal wrong with that.
“I’ve never been kissed,” she announced, closing the book with a snap. Maybe she neededa little impulsiveness in her life. What could it hurt? Everything she knew was about to be destroyed again anyway.
Daric scowled at her. “Good. No one deserves you.”
“I’m a twenty-five-year-old virgin about to be married to a man who could be my grandfather.”
“Of course you’re a virgin. You’re unmarried.”
Rain rolled her eyes. “Do you honestly believe that every new bride is a virgin?”
“No. But I believe that you damn well better be.”
“Are you?”
