Kestrel smiled at her. It was the kind of smile you give a person when you don’t want to push them over the edge.

Kai swung down from his horse and approached slowly. “Are you crying over a flower?” he asked, bewildered.

Seraiah wiped at her cheeks again, embarrassed. When Kai reached her, she offered the flower to him.

He studied it as if he was waiting for it to do something. “This is a regular flower,” he said after a moment, dropping it back to the ground.

Seraiah watched it fall, floating gently down to come to rest in front of her. She picked it up again.

“It’s not just any flower,” she said, twirling it in her fingers. “This is Sterling’s favorite flower. When she was younger, she would spend hours in the field behind our house, laying amongst them. They would cover every surface of our home when they were blooming. She even named our mule after them. Every time it stopped snowing and warmed up, she would always become hopeful that this was the time winter would end, and she could see the flowers again. So, to answer your question, no, I’m not crying over a flower. I’m crying because Sterling isn’t here with me to see this.”

When she looked at Kai again, she swore his eyes held a sheen of unshed tears, but he turned away quickly.

“We need to keep moving,” he said. “There’s a stream up ahead where we can camp for the night.”

Seraiah tucked the flower behind her ear and stood to follow him. He helped her mount Kestrel’s horse before returning to his own. Now that they were out of the forest, the horses were no longer restricted to a walk.

“Hold on,” Kestrel warned her, before a second later pressing her heels into the horse’s sides.

Seraiah yelped and grabbed onto Kestrel for dear life as the horse took off at full speed. Just when she thought she’d gotten used to riding a horse and might enjoy it—this happened.

Kestrel let out a whoop. “Isn’t this fun?” she shouted back to Seraiah.

“Sure. Fun,” she answered. She didn’t think Kestrel heard her, as the wind whipped her words away. She risked a glance down at the ground and immediately wished she hadn’t. Squeezing her eyes shut, she whispered to herself, “Please don’t fall off. Please don’t fall off. Please don’t fall off.”

Eventually, the horses began to tire and slow, before coming to a stop.

“We’ve arrived at our campsite,” Kestrel announced, tugging on Seraiah’s arms. “You can let go now.”

Seraiah dropped her hold and looked around to find another beautiful view. They were on the banks of a creek. Its waters were crystal clear as it bubbled happily over rocks worn smooth by years of rushing waters. It was much larger than she had anticipated. When Kai had said they would be camping near a stream, she had expected something that was barely a trickle of water.

This looked deep enough to bathe in.

Scrambling down off the horse, Seraiah made a beeline for the water. She knelt on the muddy bank and dipped her fingers in. To her disappointment, it was ice cold.

So much for that bath she had been dreaming about. The air here was warm, so she’d assumed the water would be, too. Her fingers were numb when she pulled them out.

Then again, perhaps it would be worth freezing to get the smell of blood and beast off. Even with a change of clothes, she could still smell its reek clinging to her skin. A dip in the water might help, even if she didn’t have soap.

She was about to stand and inquire if the others had any soap when a wave of icy water splashed her. Sputtering, she used her sleeves to dry her face. When she looked up again, she found Kai standing on the bank next to her, looking rather amused.

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“Did you splash me?” she demanded. Her cheeks were numb where the water had hit.

He smirked. “Now how would I do that? You would have seen me.”

He had a point. She’d been distracted by the thought of a bath, but not that distracted.

“Then how would you explain it?”

“Perhaps the creek thought to help you with the smell.”

Seraiah scowled. Then she caught sight of Kestrel creeping up behind Kai. Kestrel held a finger to her lips before shoving Kai hard.

For a moment he teetered, his arms windmilling.

Seraiah thought he would regain his balance, but another small shove from Kestrel pushed him into the freezing water, where he landed with a splash. Seraiah barely scrambled back in time to avoid being soaked herself as he floundered.

“Thought he deserved a little payback for splashing you,” Kestrel said, grinning down at the soaked Prince. “He has an affinity for water magic, you know.”

They watched as Kai pulled himself out of the water to stand, dripping on the bank.

After a moment, droplets began forming in the air around him, looking like little crystals before falling back into the creek. In a matter of seconds, Seraiah couldn’t tell he’d fallen in.

“Show off,” Kestrel muttered. “Come on,” she said to Seraiah, “let’s set up camp and see if we can find you some soap.”

----------------------------------------

Kai tended to the horses while Seraiah and Kestrel went to wash in the creek. Thanks to Kestrel, he knew firsthand how cold the water was and did not envy them. Kestrel might be able to heat the water to a pleasant temperature if she had full use of her magic, but he doubted she would have much success today.

He hadn’t meant to splash Seraiah earlier. He’d only been testing his magic. As he’d feared, his control had gotten worse since the last time he’d tried. Drying himself should have been done without a second thought, but it had taken all of his concentration. If Kestrel had noticed his struggle, she didn’t say anything.

Once the horses were brushed and happily munching on grass, Kai set out to find fallen branches for a fire. Out here on the rolling hills, the trees were few and far between. By the time he collected enough for a small cook fire, Seraiah and Kestrel had returned to the creek.

“Good, you’re back. You can light the fire for me,” he said, dropping the bundle of sticks at Kestrel’s feet.

It would be a simple enough task for her.

“I can do it,” Seraiah said. “If you have flint and steel, it will be faster, but I can do it without.”

“I’ve got it. Don’t worry.” Kestrel kicked at the sticks. “This is going to burn up fast, though. Was this all you could find?” she asked him.

“You’re welcome to go look for yourself.”

Kestrel made a face, but went to dig in her pack. As he’d suspected, her magic must not be doing any better than his. She should have been able to light the branches with a snap of her fingers.

Beside him, Seraiah shivered. Her hair hung in long wet ropes down her back.

“I could dry your hair for you if you’d like,” he offered.

She blinked up at him. Her lips were tinged blue. “C-could you? The water was colder than I thought. I should have waited until we got to the city.”

He instructed her to turn and held his hands over her hair, not quite touching. Slowly, droplets of moisture coalesced in the air, and Seraiah’s hair went from a deep black to a mahogany brown.

He let the water rain into the grass at his feet.

“There,” he said. This time his control had been better, but it still hadn’t been as easy as it should have been.

She turned back to face him, gently touching the loose strands. “Magic,” she murmured. “Thank you.”

“You never offered to dry my hair,” Kestrel said.

While he’d been distracted with Seraiah, she’d gotten a small flame going.

“You have your own magic, but I’ll do it if you really want me to.”

He didn’t like the knowing look she was giving him. He’d only helped Seraiah so she didn’t catch cold and die. They needed her to find Sterling. That was all.

As the sun went down, they settled in around the fire to eat their evening meal. Seraiah and Kestrel talked softly, discussing something about her vision practice while he made plans for their search once they reached Baromund.

“Tell me about your family,” Seraiah said.

At first he thought she was talking to Kestrel, but when he looked up, he found her gaze on him.

“I told you already,” he said.

“You told me about your mother, the Queen, and I already know Sterling, but what of the others? Your father? Other siblings?”

“There are no others. I have no siblings other than Sterling, and I never knew my father. I assume Sterling and I share the same father, but I don’t know for sure. My mother never spoke of him. I don’t know if he is alive or not.”

Seraiah’s brow knit. “But wouldn’t your father be king?”

“Rulers don’t tend to marry. Some may keep a consort, but not always.”

“He’s essentially an orphan like me,” Kestrel chimed in, “until we learned Sterling was alive.”

“I see,” Seraiah said. “That sounds . . . lonely.”

“What about your family?” Kai asked, turning the question back on her.

“I suppose I am like you.” He watched the light of the flames dance over her face. “I have my father, but I never knew my mother—my birth mother, that is. Then Jensira and Sterling came into our life only to leave again.”

“And now you have us,” Kestrel said. She held up her water skin like she was making a toast. “To finding family.”

“To finding family,” Kai echoed.

Seraiah, he noticed, remained silent.