Page 1

Chapter 1

Caspian Sunrunner

“He’s beautiful, isn’t he?” he whispered, giving me a knowing look as he sidled up, quietly as a cat in the dark.

I jumped at the sudden awareness of Kit Moonstriker standing next to me, but I didn’t have to ask who he was talking about. I had working eyes. I used them most of the time. I’d been using them for the last day to watch the fourth member of our little party as often as not.

Frost Moonstriker.

The most beautiful fucking creature I’d ever seen in my life. Six-and-a-half feet of smooth brown skin, with the same gray eyes and stark white hair as Kit, but . . . not the same at all, either. Because those laughing eyes of Kit’s did nothing to hide the viper within that could strike at any moment. And Frost? He wasn’t nearly so amused most of the time. No, he was serious almost to a fault, and Mella kept telling me to be gentle with him.

Be gentle. With a guy who could probably pick me up and toss me across the room.

Why was that hot?

I swallowed and turned back to the trunk of my car. I hadn’t brought much with me on the trip to Dawnchaser lands and neither had Ember, but Kit was insisting on bringing so many supplies back with us that I worried he was planning for a war. Food and weapons and a literal bag with cash in it, and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to ask why he thought we were going to need all this stuff, let alone packed into the heavy-duty all-weather backpacks he was insisting upon bringing. I sure wasn’t going to say no.

Kit was the most terrifying son of a bitch I’d ever met in my life. He was one of those guys who seemed to have a permanent inside joke about everything that happened, his gray eyes flashing with humor at even the most inappropriate moments. I wasn’t entirely sure how he’d gone from being the personal assassin of the Dawnchaser to the loving brother of the people I was traveling with, but somehow, the change didn’t make him any less fucking scary.

Mella was silent, a rare thing for her, so I had no idea how to respond to Kit Emrys. Kit Moonstriker? It didn’t matter. He fucking terrified me by his mere existence, regardless of his name. How was I supposed to talk to him, when Mella had abandoned me to it?

Not abandoned , she sighed, voice low and sweet like honey, even though she was clearly annoyed. There’s just no right way to handle him. He’s . . . prickly. And he already thinks you have ill intentions .

Ill intentions? What kind of ill intentions?

She was quiet again for a moment before answering, this time hesitant. Maybe ill intentions is the wrong term. He thinks . . . he thinks you want to sleep with his brother, which is obviously true. But also, he thinks that no matter what your intentions actually are, all Sunrunners are screw-ups who can’t help but ruin everything they touch .

Ouch.

And yet . . . he wasn’t wrong at all. I had a handful of cousins who were perhaps better adjusted than my father or Aunt Rachel or me, but honestly, we were all pretty bad. We sure as hell weren’t solid, sensible folk like the whole Moonstriker family.

Like Frost.

“He’s also completely innocent,” Kit went on when I stayed silent. “There’s a decent chance he’s still a virgin.”

I snorted at that and shot him a dubious look. “He’s in his late twenties and hot like fucking burning. That’s not possible.”

Kit’s expression didn’t change. He really believed?—

He’s probably right , Mella agreed in my head.

What the actual fuck.

Instead of arguing with both of them, I threw up my hands. “Look, I’m not trying to cause any trouble. He’s gorgeous. Am I supposed to pretend he’s not?”

Kit smiled sweetly, and it chilled me to the bone. “Not at all. All I’m saying, little Sunrunner, is that if you hurt my baby brother, I won’t just kill you. I’ll destroy every single thing you’ve ever loved and make you watch while I do it.”

“Did you say that to Adair Courtwright?” I asked, trying to make light of the situation and failing horribly.

He snorted at that, turning back to his mass of bags. “Of course not. Courtwright would die for Rain, and I’d bet money he’s never been drunk in his life. The day you can claim those things, I’ll leave you be.”

And hells, but that was fair. I barely even knew Frost, so I sure as fuck wasn’t ready to go leaping toward marriage the way Adair and Rain had done. On top of that, well . . . the first time I remembered being drunk, I was seven years old, and my mother had been the one refilling my wine glass at the dinner table.

I was, in the end, a Sunrunner.

I’d been born and raised a Sunrunner and learned from my parents that escape was the only answer to all life’s little problems. Okay, and big problems as well.

Nothing could ever change that.

It was just that most Sunrunners escaped via getting high or low or taking whatever substances they could fuck themselves up with, and me? I ran. I got in my car and drove away. Even when Mom had died, when I was eleven, I’d gone and sat in the driver’s seat of the very car we were packing at that moment.

I’d stayed in the car for almost a week, sleeping and eating there, only leaving to go to the bathroom. Maybe I hadn’t been able to drive yet, but even then I’d longed to get away from everything. From my glassy-eyed father who had mentally checked out the moment Mom died, to the household staff who did their best to take care of me, but still stared at me with pity, to Aunt Rachel who had always hated me. I was just like my gold-digging mother, she’d said when I was a child. I wanted to bleed the family dry because I was a selfish bastard.

It was true, in a way. My parents had never married, so I was a bastard. Mother had always technically been Lord Sunrunner’s mistress. Because my father had never married anyone at all. As far as I knew, he’d never even considered marriage. But he’d acknowledged me as his son and heir, and to most people, that was all that had mattered.

Aunt Rachel was not most people.

I sighed and shook my head. “Look, I’m not trying to hurt anyone. That’s the last thing I want. My father is missing, and frankly, I don’t think he’s mentally capable of taking care of himself. I asked for help. You, personally, agreed to give it. I’m seriously not trying to take advantage of anyone here.”

He twisted the last bag into position, then turned toward me as he closed the trunk. “Yes, yes, you’re very sweet and earnest and forthright. Practically fucking catnip for a good person like Frost. I just need you to know, Sunrunner. I’m watching you. Don’t hurt my brother. Unlike him, I’m not a good person. I will end the Sunrunner line entirely and not lose a single night’s sleep over it.”

“Oh, is the trunk full?” Frost asked, coming up next to us with one last bag. He frowned and looked down at it, sighing. “I guess I could?—”

“There’s an empty seat in the back,” Kit pointed out. “We’ll strap it in back there between you and Ember.”

Between you and Ember .

Meaning that Kit intended to sit in the front passenger seat.

I did not sigh. It was fine. I’d lived through worse than a man who was literally threatening my life sitting in the passenger seat of my car. Besides, he’d only said he’d hurt me if I hurt Frost, and I didn’t intend to do that at all. I didn’t actually intend anything to do with Frost. I just liked to look at him, because he was pretty.

And listen to him, because he had a deep, rumbly voice that sometimes gave me chills in the good way.

And talk to him, because he was so fucking excited about the most innocuous things, like this random flower we’d found growing next to the car in the driveway. He’d talked about it for ten minutes, from its scientific name to why it was interesting—apparently it didn’t usually grow this far inland—and then finally plucked it and handed it to me, explaining that it would only live a day or two on the vine, so I might as well have it.

It wasn’t like I was still wearing it behind my ear or anything.

Well, except that I was.

Or like Kit kept glaring at it, lips twisted in irritation. Or maybe less irritation and more mistrust. Couldn’t blame him there. I definitely wanted to fuck his brother. Who could blame me?