Page 5

Chapter four

Cloudburst

R ai floated in the waters of the high desert lake where he’d spent the previous night, eagerly watching clouds begin to form in the sky above.

He’d occupied the last several days moving around—riding a storm out to see where it went, then returning to one of the bodies of water that storm had passed to see how he liked it there.

So far this was his favorite, a small, rough-edged lake that was farther from human civilization than most, with just a small town to the east and relatively few hikers and boaters.

The group of fae that lived in the area hadn’t even bothered with an underworld space, though Rai couldn’t be sure whether that was because they had an actual peace with the locals or if they simply were able to avoid them completely in the lake and surrounding wilderness.

In any case, it was better than the kayak-choked resorts he’d found north of the human border and infinitely more pleasant than the rank black waters that had accumulated in the pits of former mines.

He’d been welcomed by the local fae—mostly water and earth but a mix of the other elements, as well—with open arms and not a few sly innuendos, though none had seemed interested in joining him on his next adventure.

They were happy to stay in their calm wilderness, watching the clouds instead of riding them.

He’d told himself that was why he’d chosen to spend his night here alone instead of in company, that it was their dull domesticity and lack of spirit that had made him seek solitude, but the roiling frustration and impatience in his gut told a different story, because he’d ridden a storm every day, and each had gone in a different direction—which was the point, he reminded himself angrily, that he went where the wind and the rain took him—and yet each of those storms had left him disappointed, because none of them had taken him back to see Poppy.

He hadn’t even been able to enjoy the rampaging flash flood that had caught up several vehicles and taken them on a tumbling journey miles along the Rio Sonora, because it had reminded him of Poppy’s vehicle that she hadn’t been driving.

Why wouldn’t she use it to keep her purchases safe? It bothered him.

He was a fool. That much was certain. Because while he had tried to convince himself that he only wanted to torment her some more, he was beginning to think that was yet another lie.

If all he wanted was to revel in her misery, why was he feeling guilty— guilty!

—about the destruction of her supplies? Why was he wondering if she’d managed to feed herself since that day, if she’d gone for another walk based on the guidance of Weather App (whoever that was) and perhaps gotten caught by another storm, one that Rai had missed?

Why was he seething to the point where he’d swear steam was curling from the tips of his wings at the thought that some other storm rider had gotten to drop a torrent on her head?

He’d even convinced one of the local abuelas, a sweet round woman whose wings drooped with age and who had lived in the area so long that she was surrounded by a horde of great-great-grandchildren with great-great-grandchildren of their own, to magic up a map of the Desierto de Sonora so he could determine what direction he needed to go to get back to Poppy’s city.

He’d asked for her wisdom on wind currents and air pressure and all sorts of things he’d never cared about before.

And when she’d winked and asked him if he was trying to meet a pretty senorita, he’d looked away, not able to even answer with a flirty kiss on the hand and his usual no senorita is as pretty as you , the way he’d charmed countless abuelas and avós across Central South America. It was ridiculous.

But he’d stopped caring. He just…wasn’t having fun the way things were going now. And if he wasn’t having fun, what was the point? He could be ridiculous for a day. Perhaps if he paid Poppy another visit, he’d get her out of his head once and for all .

And he had a good feeling about the storm clouds above.

They seemed to be moving off in the right direction, at least, and now that he’d admitted to himself that he did have a destination in mind, he could always put his wings to use once the air was humid enough.

He used them now, leaping free of the lake waters and beating them forcefully until he was caught in the storm’s pull.

There were a few calls from beneath him that might have been farewells, and he generated a little lightning twinkle in response.

They’d been kind enough to him; it wasn’t their fault they were stuck in the mud when he preferred the skies.

The clouds moved swiftly across the landscape, still building strength.

Normally this would be the part where he relaxed, feeding energy into the clouds and absorbing it back into his body, preparing for the adventure when the storm had built to its peak, but this time he kept a close eye on the pattern of washes and roads beneath them, jumping eastward as the storm veered left and finally taking a chance and abandoning his storm entirely to fly to another that seemed more promising.

It was the right choice; Rai’s cloud passed over a range of mountains, and there was the shape of the city he sought in the distance, gilded by the late afternoon sun.

He carefully maneuvered around the thunderheads until he seemed to be aimed toward Poppy’s house, feeding the clouds to keep going the right way.

He was briefly distracted by a wide field dotted with neat rows of airplanes and helicopters—those were always fun to throw lightning at, at least when they were in the air—and an equally large field of parts and pieces of the same, but when he paid attention to his route again, he realized the storm was still passing well to the east of Poppy’s neighborhood.

He gnashed his teeth and bit out a choice curse, as much at himself as at the clouds that clearly were taking pleasure in frustrating him.

Well, the storms could fuck right off and water what they wanted to.

He’d come this far on his ridiculous quest, and he wasn’t giving up now; he abandoned the storm and flew west, circling high in the sky and picking out landmarks—the taller buildings of downtown, the busy interstate, the mountain with a huge A rune made of white stones—until he spotted the correct house.

He threw on a quick glamour to hide from prying eyes as he landed and went to peer in the windows.

There was a woman inside, walking from room to room, and Rai almost shouted Poppy’s name before he realized it wasn’t her.

Too much hair and the wrong color entirely, though there was a similarity to the face and build that told him this was the mother who worried.

He checked all the other windows, ascertaining that she was alone, then tried the smaller building out back.

It didn’t have any lights on inside at all, just darkness, and he growled in irritation.

What was wrong with Poppy, not being here for him to visit?

After all the trouble he’d gone to! He sent a little jolt of lightning sizzling out from his wings; the lights in the larger house dimmed slightly, but he ignored that and took off into the air again, scanning the ground below.

There! She was walking again—away from the house this time, not far from the building where he’d trapped her before.

He grinned and reached back out to the storm he’d abandoned.

His cloud-hopping had left him weaker than usual, but the storm had built enough that it didn’t take much to tease tendrils of it back in his direction, and soon thunder was booming as the clouds built and rushed toward Poppy.

Rai watched gleefully as she started at the noise, turned and scanned the skies, and hurried her steps.

What would her face look like as she tried to escape the rain?

He tried to swoop around to the right angle to see—there was her jaw, and her cheek, and he was almost close enough to see her eyes and her mouth when his view of her was blocked by a black circle that popped up over her like magic, hiding almost all of her from his view.

He blinked, then snarled as he realized what had happened. An umbrella! She had an umbrella! That was cheating! He started to gather energy for a gust of wind to blow the cursed thing inside out, but paused, expectant lightning crackling at his fingertips.

Perhaps he could use this to his advantage.

He rode the storm closer, watching as the first drops of rain pattered and bounced off the infernal black circle, then rode past her, swooping down and alighting just around the corner, where he tweaked his appearance again, bringing more rain upon his own head so that he was pathetically drenched.

And he hurried around the corner to intercept her, arms wrapped around himself, shoulders hunched.

She squawked, “Holy shit!” and stumbled back, one foot stepping off the sidewalk and into the stream that was building in the gutter. Then she blinked her green-brown eyes and focused on him. “Rai?”

He put on his best surprised face—which was a good one. He’d spent part of the morning practicing it, using the lake as a mirror. “Poppy! How strange to meet you here!”

“Oh, god. You’re soaked!” She stepped back on the sidewalk, shaking out her wet foot, and held the umbrella out a little way from her body. “Get under here.”

“Oh, I couldn’t.” Rai essayed a dramatic shiver, though to be honest, it was still quite warm. He tried to look miserable, despite how pleasant everything was .

She gave him a sardonic look. “You know, you can only get one manly man award a year. I don’t make the rules.

Seriously, get under here.” She stepped forward until the umbrella was shielding them both, if inadequately.

He still had rain landing on his back, and he could tell she was also getting damp—probably damper than he was, actually, as she was giving him the lion’s share of the umbrella’s coverage.

He tried to move in closer, freezing when she gasped in dismay.

Humans were so skittish! He’d have to be careful not to frighten her away.

Even so, he was close enough for her warmth to caress his skin, and for a moment he just stared at her, tongue-tied.

Her hair was mostly dry this time, thanks to the umbrella, and it looked soft, wisping in short locks around her forehead and the nape of her neck.

She wore a close-fitting green shirt, a dark rainforest shade that made her skin look warmer and her eyes brighter—more sage than brown today—and as he was trying to puzzle out that shift in color he realized she was staring back at him, her lips just a tiny bit parted, her breath coming a little fast from exertion.

Finally, she swallowed and glanced away. “Of all the umbrellas in all the towns in all the world, you walk into mine.”

He grinned. “It is quite a coincidence.”

“Let me guess,” she said with a smirk. “You trusted your app again, too.”

“Yes, the traitor.” He shook his head, trying to look betrayed. He’d have to find out who Weather App was, perhaps send them some reward for their convenient incompetence.

“This time it said five percent. Five! And I looked for clouds, too.” She sighed, gazing around at the rain.

He’d done a good job calling it forth—while there wasn’t any hail this time, it was coming down gloriously, strong enough that she was instinctively crowding in closer to him.

The sun was bright and low off in the cloudless west, turning the raindrops to shining jewels. “But it’s payday, and we need dinner.”

“And toilet paper?”

“Don’t remind me.” She shuddered dramatically. “You don’t happen to carry any samples around with you? I’d be happy to do a consumer test in exchange for freebies.”

He held out his empty hands. “I carry nothing.” He didn’t need to carry things; one of the earliest tricks he’d learned, before he’d even sprouted his wings, had been conjuring a space in faerie to contain his possessions so that he could access them from anywhere.

Though now that she mentioned it, he could acquire some toilet paper and add it to his stash of gold coins and interesting bits and bobs.

Then the next time she asked for some, he could simply …

Ah, but there was not going to be a next time. He was here to cleanse himself of her. He shook his head and turned his attention back to Poppy so he could get on with that.

She was looking behind her, face troubled, and then she turned back to him. “So, um, I’m in a bit of a hurry. Where are you headed?”

“Here, of course,” Rai said without thinking, then caught himself. “I am just walking for…for pleasure.” That was true enough.

“Oh.” Poppy stared at him blankly for a long moment, mouth open, then shook herself and turned sharply away to look at the vigorous rain. “I…hate to abandon you to this but I really do need to get moving.”

“Perhaps I could accompany you?” He tried not to look too eager, but something in him was quivering awaiting her response. “We could converse further as we walk.”

“I… I mean, sure, if you want to.”

Rai peered more closely at her. “Why does your face do that?”

Her free hand covered her cheek; her eyes went wide. “Do what?”

“Become pink like the sunset.” He looked to the west, where the sun was approaching the horizon but had not yet tinted the clouds. “It is not a reflection.” He lifted his hand, thumb brushing at her rosy cheek, but she flinched away.

“It’s nothing.” Poppy’s hand clutched the umbrella handle more tightly. “Let’s go.”

She started to walk without further preamble; Rai fell in beside her, encouraging the rain to follow them along, and grinned when lightning flashed and thunder boomed close, making Poppy instinctively move even closer to him.

It was endearing, the way she was trying to protect him from his own storm.

Though she was clearly also frightened of him, the way she was quivering and avoiding his touch.

No matter. He could work with fear.