Page 32

Chapter 32

Frost

It took time to start to sort things out.

Rachel, it turned out, had gotten paranoid, or possibly she had decided ahead of time that she was going to win the fight with Caspian, because she’d started dismissing the entire palace staff and begun the process of bringing on a completely new staff hand-chosen by herself. I wondered why she hadn’t done it before, but I supposed Caspian’s father might have actually noticed that and done something about it.

We put a stop to that and ended up arresting most of the people she’d planned to bring on, thanks to the investigation into her business. Then we looked into the previous palace records and rehired the people we could. Well, most of them. The palace didn’t really need a full staff, since Mother had gone home the day after the fight, and I doubted that Ember or Kit intended to stay forever either, as nice as that would be. That just left one person living in the place full time.

Well, two.

Caspian had invited me to stay for a while, after all.

When we’d settled into the palace that first night, Kit had dropped my bags off in Caspian’s room, and no one had ever questioned it. I was sleeping in Caspian’s bed, next to him, every night. It was comfortable, and oddly enough, it felt as though we’d been doing it forever.

Part of me wanted to ask for more information, but that was weird, wasn’t it? It was “a Frost thing,” as Ember would have put it. It was normal in my own mind, to seek out more information when something wasn’t as clearly outlined as I’d like, but for other people, it was much more normal to be invited to stay for an undefined amount of time and not worry about what that meant.

Fortunately for all of us, I was distracted, because this ongoing disaster in Sunrunner lands? It was the kind of situation I was absolutely perfect for.

Rehiring the staff and setting them to the tasks that needed to be done. Making lists of those tasks. Scheduling interviews for the police to talk to staff and bystanders and members of my own family about what had happened. Helping the palace staff coordinate with the police for searches, in their ongoing investigations. Because of course, Rachel’s death wasn’t simply the end of her organization. The police needed to investigate all she’d done, her records and her rooms, as well as the people who had worked for her, so that they could put an end to every thread of the crime empire she had built in her lifetime.

The money was . . . well, Caspian was truly going to be the richest man in the world. Rachel had died intestate, as most of her ilk did, too convinced of their own importance to ever think they might die. That, or simply not caring what happened to the world once they weren’t in it.

While she wouldn’t have wanted Caspian to have a single penny, he was her closest relative, so he would get everything. And being Caspian, he intended to follow through on his word and use all of it to rebuild Sunrunner lands. To make his people safe and happy.

He had already started to rebalance the government, since he already had control of that. Odd, really, that taking over the government of Sunrunner lands was a smoother and easier transition than the inheritance of his aunt’s and father’s estates.

And Caspian himself?

Oh, he shone as the Sunrunner.

He was honest with his people about everything.

He’d held a press conference with Mother at his side, and together, they had informed the world about his father’s drug overdose and aunt’s death in a duel when she challenged him.

We never did manage to find Dane Sunrunner’s body, and I presumed Rachel had treated it with all the dignity we’d afforded her own, incinerating it and dumping the ashes. She might have even used the same incinerator, right there in the palace gardens.

Caspian even told the people about the destruction of Nausa, but reassured them that she lived on in two offspring, both of which had bonded with him, and assured them that there was no reason to fear for the future of the family or the people. In that particular case, it helped that Ember had managed to take some video of the fight between Caspian and Rachel, and no one in Sunrunner lands was disappointed to say that the new Sunrunner was not The Great Wolf, but The Great Dragon.

Who wouldn’t want to say they were ruled by The Great Dragon?

I certainly enjoyed it.

Ember had settled back into the palace for now, content to spend the rest of the year with us on Mother’s directive from the spring: spend a year at Sunrunner Palace and learn what she could. Mother had admitted that with Rain beginning his takeover as the Moonstriker, there was little point, but Ember, to Mother’s shock and pleasure, said that she had agreed to do this thing, and she intended to see it through.

I suspected that mostly, Ember didn’t want to go home just yet.

Me? I’d told Mother that I would someday return to Dawnchaser lands; not on her directive, but because I wanted to visit again. That for now, the only place I intended to be was at Caspian’s side.

Kit, meanwhile, had first arranged to have the pieces of Nausa put into a necklace for Caspian. Now, nearly a week later, when I finally had a moment to breathe and check in with him, I found him once again packing his weatherproof bags. My first concern was that he was planning to leave us already, but it turned out that wasn’t it at all.

“We have to be ready for the meeting at Mount Slate,” he explained simply, shoving granola bars into one of the bags spread across his bed while I stood in the nearby doorway. “Whether Nausa in two pieces is good enough or not, we have to go. We have to try. The whole fucking world is at stake.”

“And we have a plan,” I agreed. “The meeting is set for two weeks from now at the chalet on Mount Slate that the families built together for this exact reason. But Kit . . . why do you think we’re going to need a bag of granola bars?” I finally pulled out the point that had been running through my mind since the day we’d packed to go to Sunrunner lands. “You don’t even like granola bars.”

His face twisted in an annoyed scowl and he shoved a little harder, then zipped the bag shut and tossed it aside. “ He does,” he answered petulantly, and did not explain who the heck “he” was. Instead, he pulled another bag to the edge of the bed and started filling it with water bottles. Water bottles into a waterproof bag.

Or weatherproof. I wondered what the difference was, and before I really thought about it, I was pulling out my phone to check.

But no. I didn’t need to do that. I forced myself to put my phone back into my pocket. I needed to figure out what was going on with my brother, because something was wrong, and I wasn’t understanding it.

So I sat down on the bed next to where he was furiously shoving bottles into the bag and looked up to meet his eye. “Kit?”

He sighed and stopped moving for a moment but refused to look at me properly. “Always the smart one, huh?”

I shrugged. I didn’t think my concern had anything to do with intelligence. I was just the only one who knew my brother well enough to know something was going on with him, and perhaps the only person who had enough of a connection with him to get him to talk about it.

“Nikka knows. She says I need it. She . . . she knows things. Before they happen. I don’t know if it’s some aquamarine bullshit or if it’s just putting all the facts in a straight line and logically figuring out what comes next, but she’s smart. Like, you levels of smart. And I learned really young that when someone that smart tells you what’s up, you fucking listen.”

Nikka.

His stone.

Aquamarine bullshit.

Aquamarines, the stone of time, like Vex. Not a diamond at all.

I sat there for a moment, considering, looking at the bags spread across his bed. “And Nikka thinks you’re going to need all this?”

He nodded sullenly, poking at the bag with water bottles and still not looking me in the eye.

I shrugged and stood up. “What else do you need?”

Just like that, he practically fell into me. Oh, he didn’t turn toward me or wrap his arms around me, but his whole body just kind of leaned into mine, and he muttered, “Thanks.”

I reached up to grab his arm and give him a quick squeeze, then let go. “Always.”

Three hours and half a dozen bags later, Kit was happy with everything he’d packed and shoved into his own new car, a sleek red thing that fit his personality much better than the giant white SUV Ember had bought. It was ready to go, parked in one of the palace spaces, and we were headed back up the main stairs into the palace itself.

Mrs. Mira was standing in the entry, watching us with some concern. “Everything all right?”

“Yes ma’am, we’re just packing Kit’s things for the meeting of the families at Mount Slate. He likes to be well-prepared.”

She looked at where we’d filled every available inch of Kit’s car with bags somewhat dubiously but nodded. “Well, dinner is ready whenever everyone else is. I know the schedule has been off because of—” She waved her hand in the air as though to indicate everything that had happened in the last week, but didn’t elaborate.

“That’s wonderful, thank you. Kit will go wash up and bring Ember down, and I’ll make sure Caspian is free. Even if he’s busy, he needs to eat.” That was a lesson I’d learned young, and from Kit. I supposed somehow, despite all of our differences—or maybe because of them—we’d taught each other a lot. “Give us twenty minutes or so?”

She smiled that sweet motherly smile of hers and nodded. “Of course, Mr. Moonstriker.”

I curled my nose at that. “I keep telling you, you can call me Frost. No one calls . . . well, no one calls anyone Mr. Moonstriker. It’s not a thing.”

She laughed at that, shaking her head. “Very well. Then you’ll call me Carmen. And maybe . . . maybe someday it’ll be Mr. Sunrunner, anyway.”

With that parting shot, she headed back toward the kitchens.

Kit, the asshole, laughed as he, too, broke away and headed for his room, leaving me standing there thinking about that.

Mr. Sunrunner.

Me? It would make sense that if we were old-fashioned and someone changed their name, it would be me. I was never going to be the Moonstriker, so I didn’t need the name.

Caspian already was the Sunrunner. My Great Dragon.

I smiled at just the thought of Caspian and his dragon, even with most of my brain still whirling around the notion of being Frost Sunrunner.

It was . . . a strange name, wasn’t it? Frost and the sun weren’t things people thought of together, but I was living in a desert. Maybe it was just going to be strange no matter what.

I wandered into the office where Caspian was working, sitting at his laptop but not actively meeting with anyone at the moment. As soon as I walked in, he flipped the lid of his laptop shut and turned to smile at me, his bright, beautiful movie-star smile. “Hey. You’re the best thing I’ve seen in”—he glanced at the clock—“six-and-a-half hours.”

Because I’d left him to his work just before eleven, and it had been six-and-a-half hours. I couldn’t help the way my cheeks went hot, and I ducked my head. Still. Every time he said something sweet like that.

But it had been almost a week since Rachel’s death, and we still hadn’t really discussed the future. What we were to each other and how long I would be staying. Was it just?—

“Something wrong?”

I swallowed hard and looked back up to meet his gaze, only to find that he’d pushed out of his chair and was walking toward me.

“Frost?”

I started to pull my lip between my teeth, but shook my head, pushing the urge away. The only way to resolve issues was to discuss them. Avoiding them did not help. “How long do you want me to stay?”

He cocked his head, obviously confused. “Here? Now? I mean, is it dinner time?”

“I mean here . . . not just right now, but?—”

“Frost,” his voice had gone soft and breathy, and he leaned into my arms, looking up at me through lowered eyelashes. Fuck, he was so beautiful. “You mean all together, don’t you? Like, you’re asking if I only want you to stay for a month.”

“Well, we didn’t discuss precisely how long?—”

“Forever. I want you to stay forever. For as long as you’re willing to stay, I want you here. In my room. By my side. At every meal and in my bed every night. This is the happiest I’ve been in my life, Frost. I’d invite Ember and Kit to stay forever too, if I thought they’d accept. I might invite them anyway, just to see if I can get them to stay, but you . . .” He bit his own lip and gave the adorable self-effacing smile that had captured the hearts of every Sunrunner subject at his first press conference. “Well that’s just nonnegotiable. You’re the one thing I don’t want to do without. If—if that’s okay.”

I pulled him tight against me and pressed my lips to his, then reached up to cup his cheek with one hand. “The word you’re looking for is perfect. It’s perfect. Forever it is.”