Chapter 22
Sia
The storm did not drift in slowly over the mountains the way rain sometimes did.
Instead, it gathered itself and thickened the sky into a roiling ceiling of clouds much quicker than usual and turned the bright, sunny afternoon into a darkness that mimicked evening.
A stiff wind blew in and sent the trees in the distance bending and swaying with leaves flying every which way.
Sia had been seated on a bench in the middle of the gardens while Luna carefully braided her hair. Celeste and Stella played a game on a blanket nearby when the first violent crack of thunder split the air so abruptly that every head jerked upward at once.
“Inside,” she called, already rising before the word had fully left her mouth. Her instincts outran conscious thought as wind tore across the beds of flowers and the rain began to fall in heavy, slanted sheets that soaked them within seconds.
Shrieks and laughter mingled as the girls scrambled toward the castle with their skirts clutched in their fists. They looked like drowned little rats when they finally reached the foyer inside the patio doors.
Sia pointed toward their room. “Go dry off and get some new clothes on. I don’t want you catching colds.”
Stella’s teeth already chattered. “That was c..c..cold rain.”
She grabbed a blanket that hung on the back of a settee and wrapped the little girl in it. “Hurry. Go get changed. I have to make sure I closed the window in my studio.” She was pretty sure that she had, but the wind would cause a disaster if she hadn’t.
The girls headed off to get dry as Sia took the stairs two at a time in a race to the top. She breathed easier when all of her supplies and paintings were still in their places. She doublechecked all of the latches on the windows just to be sure before she was satisfied.
She stopped by her room to change before she went to check on the girls. Her blouse hung on her like she’d been in a wet T-shirt contest, and she scolded herself when she had the wicked thought that Lucas might like it. He could peel the wet cloth off her and…
She grinned at herself in the mirror. Intimacy had turned her into a naughty minx. She towel dried her hair and tossed her wet things on the floor in the bathroom. She slipped into a pair of sweatpants and a hoodie before she put thick slipper socks on her feet.
She caught a glimpse of herself as she headed for the door. A giggle escaped. “Yep. I’m definitely queen-ing now. My parents would have a stroke if they saw me.” She knew they honestly believed that every moment of royal life was picture perfect.
Another clap of thunder rolled through the corridors as she headed toward the girls’ rooms. She glanced out the window at the end of the hall as rain beat against the glass. Sia’s gaze caught a light in the distance and realized it came from one of the barns beyond the lower yard.
Storms like this unsettled the animals. Which meant…
“Oh no. Spirit.”
She didn’t even remember when she decided to move.
She was already running through the castle to head toward the barn.
She had no idea where Lucas was, but the thought of Spirit out in the storm all alone spurred her on.
She paused long enough to slip her thick socks into a pair of rubber boots that sat near the staff entrance.
By the time she reached the barn, rain had plastered her hair against her cheeks and turned the ground slick beneath her boots. The wide wooden doors swung wildly in the wind and banged against their frames with a hollow, panicked rhythm that felt far too much like a warning.
Lightning flashed and illuminated the barn. A few seconds later, another huge clap of thunder sounded.
There were no signs of any of the farm hands when she entered. The barn floor had straw strewn in frantic chaos throughout. She ran to the little goat’s stall where the reinforced latch Lucas himself had installed hung splintered and useless against the stall door.
Empty.
“Spirit?” Sia called even though the word was nearly swallowed by rain that hammered against the roof.
There was no answering bleat or clatter of hooves, only the storm.
Then she heard a shout followed by footsteps that pounded through the rain behind her, urgent and unmistakable. Lucas crossed the barn in a single stride and took in the broken latch and the open doors, and she watched the exact moment comprehension hardened his expression.
“How long has the little brat been out?” he asked, his voice steady in a way that told her it was anything but.
“I don’t know,” she admitted, hating the sound of it. “I just got here.”
He shone a flashlight around the inside of Spirit’s stall and Sia noticed the bag of ribbons and hair clips sitting next to a feed bucket that was still full.
Terror clawed at her at the implication. She still had a ribbon of the same color in her hair.
“Lucas! Luna was here.”
Even in the dim light, she saw the horror bloom in his eyes as they both had the same thought. “She’s out looking for Spirit.”
“Or maybe she took him back to the castle.”
He shook his head. “One of us would have passed her.”
They ran to the barn door. Lightning forked across the far edge of the pasture and lit up the world in stark white for a heartbeat. In that brief flare, Sia thought she saw something darting beyond the lower fence.
Then darkness swallowed it again.
Sia turned so quickly her shoulder struck a beam. “I’m going to check the lower pastures.”
“We. We will check.” Lucas took a stride forward, but a guard burst into the barn, soaked to the bone. “Your Majesty. The east wall gate has come loose and collapsed. The whole area is flooding.”
For a fraction of a second, Sia saw the war inside him. The crown demanded him in one direction while his heart pulled him in another. Two more guards ran in.
Lightning flashed again and she blinked. His eyes looked golden.
“Gather the guards.” Lucas ordered, his voice low and edged with something beyond urgent.
“My daughter is missing in this storm. She is our main priority. Post guards all along the perimeter of the grounds, especially the river path and the falls. Have someone search the castle to make sure she didn’t go back inside.
If you see any movement, alert me immediately. ”
The guards scattered without hesitation.
She grabbed Lucas’s arm and pointed. “I’m pretty sure Luna went toward the lower pastures.”
His gaze snapped to hers and she saw the gold again. Was it a trick of the lightning?
“I know,” he said. “But we need to make sure we do this right. We’re only going to get one chance. We need to start at the house just in case before we go chasing shadows in this storm.”
She started to say they needed to separate, but he cut her off. “We stay together. We can’t have everyone scattered everywhere, and you don’t know the area well enough.”
And she believed him. He knew the terrain well enough to know every hollow and dip where a small goat and a stubborn girl might seek shelter.
Celeste and Stella sat at the table in the main hall, their earlier laughter gone and replaced with wide-eyed fear that trembled at every crack of thunder.
Sia forced her breath to steady as she crossed to them and knelt in front of Celeste. Stella threw herself into Lucas’s arms. Celeste wrapped her arms around Sia’s neck and ignored the rain that soaked her from the wet hoodie.
“Luna was going to bring Spirit inside so she wasn’t scared. I told her not to go, but she waited until I was in the bathroom and snuck out.”
Luna had planned to use the feed bucket to lure the goat to the goat.
“It’s not your fault.” Sia hugged her back. “Storms make goats dramatic,” she said gently and tried to inject warmth she didn’t feel. “Spirit probably decided she’s braver than the weather and is feeling very proud of herself somewhere dry.”
“What about Luna?” Celeste cried.
Sia’s chest tightened painfully.
“Luna knows these grounds well enough,” she said, willing certainty into her tone. “She just went to find the stubborn goat. I’m sure she’s not far. We’re going to find her now.”
Another thunderclap rattled the windows behind them.
They gave the girls firm instructions that no one was to leave the room until they returned with Luna. Sia gave one last hug and stepped back into the storm just as Lucas finished dispatching the last search party.
Rain ran in rivulets down his face and his dark hair clung to his brow, but the gold in his eyes shone bright. Something shimmered beneath the surface of his skin like banked fire.
“Let’s go,” she said with a raised voice over the wind.
“Sia....” He turned back to her.
And for one unguarded moment, she did not see the king or the commander. She saw Lucas, the father.
“I should have secured the latch better,” he said, low enough that the wind nearly stole it.
Sia closed the space between them, rain cooling her overheated skin. “This is not your fault. She’s Spirit. She could escape a locked treasury if she put her mind to it.”
“I need to go alone. I can move faster on my own.”
She wanted to argue, but something in his eyes made her stop. “You bring them home,” she said quietly. “I’ll hold everything here together.”
“You always do,” he murmured.
Then he was gone. He moved into the storm with speed that was not quite human but not quite anything easily named.
Sia stood in the courtyard as rain lashed her face and thunder rolled across the sky. She forced herself to remain still when every instinct screamed to follow.
She went back inside and gathered the girls after she dried herself off and they cuddled on the sofa while she wove a story about a goat who believed herself a dragon and challenged thunder as if it were a rival beast.
Time seemed to stretch forever but when she checked her watch, it had only been a short time. Then she finally heard a faint sound.
Bleating.
Distant, but unmistakable. She froze mid-sentence as a shout followed. Sia ran for the doors and rain blurred her vision as shapes emerged through the downpour. Lucas appeared with Luna in his arms.
Soaked to the bone, streaked with mud, but grinning weakly through chattering teeth.
Behind them, a guard carried an indignant, mud-covered Spirit who bleated loudly in protest at being restrained. Relief struck Sia so violently her knees nearly gave out.
She reached Luna first, pulling her into a fierce embrace. “Do not ever do that again,” she whispered against wet hair.
“Spirit had run away when I went to bring her in. I just knew she was scared. I found her near an old fence post,” Luna said, breathless and shivering. “She was stuck. But then when I got her free, I went the wrong way cause I couldn’t see.”
Spirit bleated, as if offended by the implication. Lucas stood dripping all over the floor, the gold in his eyes finally beginning to dim.
Spirit wriggled free the moment her hooves touched tile and immediately pressed herself against Lucas’s leg as though nothing in the world could possibly separate them again.
He exhaled, long and controlled. “After a bath, this little one sleeps in the girls’ room. I’m not going through that again, nor do I have enough locks to keep her contained.”
Sia let out a shaky laugh that felt half like a sob. The girls erupted into cheers at the thought of a goat sleeping with them.
Sia wrapped her arms around Lucas’s neck and he pulled her close. They understood without words that some storms did not come to break you at all.
They came to reveal exactly what you would fight to keep.