Page 64 of Dragon King’s Duty Bride

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.”