“I’m going to be the Queen of the House of Whispers,” Lyana told to her friend as a cold breeze brushed against her cheek, carrying an undeniable hum of joy. Was it Aethios, the god of the sky, quietly giving his approval? Or was it her new god, Taetanos, master of fate, murmuring that his plans were falling into place?
Cassi shook her head, as though aware that resistance would be futile when Lyana was in a mood like this. “How are you going to pick him, if he’s not even there to participate in the tests?”
“He will be,” Lyana said innocently, finally stepping out of Cassi’s embrace. “Because we’re coming back tomorrow afternoon so I can finish healing him.”
“We’re what?” Cassi cried.
But Lyana had already launched into the sky, leaving her friend in a cloud of snow. Cassi raced after her, catching up easily, but Lyana refused to stop. Instead, she flew in carefree circles, dipping and diving as they made their way home to the crystal spires of Sphaira, her mood a joyful bubble no prickly glance from her friend could burst.
The main doors of the palace were still open when they got back, though the traffic had died down. Lyana was sure one of the guards had recognized her, even as she dropped her hood low, almost to her nose. Perhaps they knew it was their princess sneaking into and out of the palace at all times of day and just kept quiet, a silent pact to give her some freedom while they could. Some of them were her friends, and the others had spent their lives watching her grow up. They were acquainted with the spirit that lived inside of her—the spirit with wild wings that time would slowly clip away, the spirit they could help keep alive a little while longer.
Lyana followed Cassi to her room, pausing just outside the door.
“Tell Luka I send my good night,” she said, even as Cassi widened her eyes in silent protest. They didn’t speak much about what went on between her friend and her brother, but it was there. And it would end tonight, that much Lyana knew. Come tomorrow evening, he would be on his way to finding his mate, just like her. And after their vows to the gods, there was nothing more important than the vows they would make to their mates, to honor and protect and love. To be faithful. “Tell him he doesn’t have to worry about me and I’m not afraid of what tomorrow will bring, not anymore.”
Something sad flickered in Cassi's eyes, but Lyana let it go. One thing she’d learned about her friend was that if she wanted to talk, she would. And if she didn’t, no amount of pressure would make her.
“I will,” Cassi whispered, then opened her door and slipped inside.
Lyana waited a moment before retreating to her rooms. When she laid her head on the pillow, her body was too abuzz with energy for rest. Her gaze drifted to the crystal walls on the far side of her room and the slightly fuzzy view of the night. She stared at the stars until they became so bright, so all-encompassing, that she could see nothing else. Eventually, she drifted off to sleep, mind empty of everything but the clear and open sky.
12
Cassi
Cassi stood from the bed and looked down at Luka, at his large ashy feathers, at her own body curled underneath his protective princely wing.
Dreamwalking was an odd magic.
She felt solid, but right now she was little more than spirit and air, a soft wind, a light caress, invisible to the naked eye. Her body was asleep, right there on the bed, with her speckled wings snug against her back as she lay on her side, face pressed against Luka’s chest, using his heat to keep warm. But her spirit was here, wide awake and ready for the trip ahead, one she had made many times before. The only visible sign of her magic was the glow emanating from her heart, a silvery sheen that was currently hidden beneath the cotton fibers of her shirt.
Even if she weren’t wearing anything, she wouldn’t have worried about Luka noticing the glittery aura. He had no magic, which meant he couldn’t see it either. If Lyana had been there instead of her brother, Cassi would have made sure to wear a second layer, one with long sleeves that covered her from wrist to throat—just in case.
As it was, she turned toward the crystal wall, unconcerned. In the daylight, the stones kept her in, but in these midnight hours, nothing could contain her. One flap of her spirit wings, and she jumped through the solid stone and into the dark sky.
Sometimes her soul had wings. Sometimes she flew without them.
Tonight, her imaginary owl feathers sliced through the cool air as she raced for the edge, moving faster than her body could, fueled by the power of her mind. When she reached the open channel between the inner and outer rings of the isle of the House of Peace, Cassi dove. Straight down. Not a bit of fear or hesitation as her spirit dropped, plummeting thousands of feet.
The Sea of Mist came upon her fast.
Within minutes, she was surrounded by a hazy fog, unable to see anything but clouds, unable to smell anything but the salty ocean churning below. The waves grew louder. Only when she felt the water in the air, heavy and dense, did she slow down.
At night, it was impossible to see anything in the darkness. She’d come a few times during an afternoon slumber, just to see what it was like in the day. But the sun couldn’t penetrate the world beneath the mist. Everything was painted in shades of gray, dull and muted. The ocean had been dark and dangerous, a hidden world she had no interest in exploring. The air had been thick and uncomfortable to fly through, even as nothing more than a spirit.
The extreme differences in the landscape made it easier for Cassi to separate what happened here, in the world below, and up where her body resided. As though one life was real and one pretend. As though maybe this truly was all just in her dreams.
In the world above, she was Cassi Sky, orphan girl, best friend of a princess, loyal, steadfast and protective, an outsider who had somehow been accepted into the highest fold. Her owl wings had never fit, but in a way, that was what had drawn Lyana to her. She had no magic. No secrets. No family. And no real purpose other than living a normal life, a good life, whatever that might be.
In the world below, Cassi was another person entirely. One she wasn’t sure she liked. One she had no choice but to be.
Cassi pushed the thought from her mind as she always did, and instead thought of him, stretching out with her magic, letting it guide her to her king. Sometimes he was visiting one of the many floating cities of the world below. Sometimes he was on the few strips of land that had been left behind when the isles were lifted into the sky.
Tonight, he was on a ship in the middle of the sea. The window of the captain’s quarters was open as though he’d known she would come, and he’d left it that way just in case. She could have drifted through the wooden planks, but he knew her spirit preferred the open air, as any bird’s would. Yet when she visited him, her wings always disappeared. He’d never seen them, not even in a dream. Because in the world below, she always pretended she was just as human as he, as all of them.
Cassi hovered over his bed, pausing for a moment. People were at their most vulnerable in their sleep. Sometimes when she talked to him now, she forgot how young he was—only a few years older than she. But with his eyes closed and his face peaceful, free of the weight of leadership, Cassi remembered. Remembered too much. She pressed her phantom palm to his face, taking the barest moment to brush her fingers over his defined cheekbone, to shift them through the sandy hair that must feel so soft, if only she could touch it in reality…
Malek.
His name came unbidden to her mind, a forbidden whisper cutting through her thoughts, bringing long-buried memories to the surface. He’d been her best friend once upon a time. Long ago, back when her wings had been fresh, Lyana a stranger, and the House of Peace a foreign world, the boy king of the world below had been her lifeline.
They’d both been torn from their families as children. Handed over to the cause because of their uniquely opportune powers. Alone. Afraid. Unsure. Cassi used her dreamwalking as often as she could to visit him in the world below, and together they’d escape. To grassy plains and s
nowy hills. To make-believe lands where they painted the sky purple and the grass pink, where the moon was made of sugary confections and they plucked candy stars from the sky. Oh, how they’d laugh, for hours upon hours, their imagination knowing no bounds as he commanded she create more and more ridiculous things in the nighttime worlds they spun together. And there had been quiet moments too, when she told him of her mother, when he confessed to fears he was too afraid to acknowledge in the daylight, and they shared visions of the future they were fighting to one day see.
A future free of the war the avians knew nothing about.
The war that had claimed their whole devotions.
The war that had once connected them, but slowly ripped them apart over time. Age and duty had stolen his sense of play, his sense of fun. He didn’t dream anymore, not really. They met, they spoke, but not as Cassi and Malek. As Kasiandra and her king. A spy and her sovereign. Nothing more. Nothing less. No matter how much she hoped things could be different.
Cassi shook her head, burying the memories, burying his name, burying the boy and remembering the king.
With her thoughts clear, she dove into his dream.
Colors crashed and collided, explosions of rainbow dust as if every paint in the world had been thrown into a frozen sky, solidifying into powders that got caught in a mighty wind. Every sound she could imagine bellowed into her ears, and yet it felt almost as though there were an eerie silence—as though so many things had turned to nothing in the confusion, or into a vortex that had spun too fast and too far. The dreams always felt that way until Cassi reached with her magic, taking hold of the dreamer’s mind, folding and warping the scene into one of her own making. With her king, it was always the same. A meeting room with a large wooden table and heavy wooden chairs. Walls of dark gray stone and a ceiling to match. The floor covered in thick woven rugs. A handful of windows allowing in the humid, misty air, with nothing outside of them but endless stretches of gray. And a chandelier made of iron and flaming candles, resembling the trap this room had become, the one she couldn’t escape.
He appeared as he always did, standing alert at the window, hands folded behind his back, eyes on the horizon, always on the lookout for something dangerous, something deadly. As his mind registered where he’d been pulled, what room he was in, his body spun. There was no surprise in his gaze when it found hers. She hadn’t seen his dark blue eyes sparkle with unspoken wonder in a very long time. Now they were always stormy and tumultuous, just like the ocean upon which his people lived.
“Kasiandra, you came,” he said, his voice smooth and unwavering, confident in his authority. The sound brought a shiver to her skin. Kasiandra’d’Rokaro was her name in the world below. Her true name. The one her mother gave her. Though it sounded false, like a lie, every time she heard it.
“My liege,” she murmured. “I have news.”
“The trials have barely begun,” he said, words pronounced like a question.
“They haven’t yet begun. That’s part of my news.”
His dark-blond brows furrowed, but he kept his lips shut, nodding once.
Cassi continued, “A dragon reached the House of Peace.”
His eyes widened a fraction, the only ounce of surprise he let show, and they remained that way, slightly surprised and slightly concerned as she reviewed the events of the past day. The fight with the dragon. Lyana and the raven. The delay of the trials. And lastly, the most important update of all: “Lyana said she’s going to choose the raven prince as her mate. There was something else, something she wouldn’t tell me though I could see the barest glimmer of a secret burning in the corners of her eyes, something about him, about what happened between them. I’m sure I’ll figure it out eventually, but I wanted to come as soon as I heard, so you could prepare. At the end of the week, she’ll be journeying to the House of Whispers. And that’s where she’ll be on the eve of her eighteenth birthday.”
“You’re sure?” he asked, dark ribbons of concern weaving through the words.
Cassi nodded, hating to bring an even greater burden. “I’m sure.”
“I thought her father wanted her mated with the prince from the House of Flight.”
“He did,” Cassi agreed. “That’s what I heard him tell his mate and his advisors, but I know Lyana. When she wants something, she gets it. And I’ve never seen her want anything more. The look in her eyes—it was the same one she gets when we go to the edge, when she looks out at the world. So much unspoken desire to see it all, to go everywhere, to explore.”
For a moment his gaze became light and wistful, as though he understood the hopes of a princess he had never seen but knew intimately, as though he sympathized with them. The moment passed.
Cassi trudged on, ignoring the stinging in her chest, the needling prick of an emotion she didn’t want to face. “Trust me. The raven prince will be her mate before the week is through.”
“This changes things,” he said under his breath, then remained quiet for a few seconds. When he looked back at her, endless calculations were spinning in his dark pupils. “You did good work. Excellent work. Come back when the trials are over to confirm, and I’ll update you on the new plans. In the meantime, see if you can determine what this raven prince is hiding.”
“Yes, my liege.”
Cassi knew when she was being dismissed, and she released her hold on his mind, letting his dreams dissolve into chaos once more. By the time she’d pulled out of his spirit entirely, her king was awake, eyes blinking open as he lifted his hands to wipe away the sleep.
He stood and walked to the desk in the corner of the room, then shuffled a few papers before he paused, looking right at her. The hint of a smile fluttered over his lips as the slightest bit of warmth flooded his cool eyes.
“You can’t spy on me, Kasiandra,” he whispered, voice rich and full, the sort of sound only a true body and not a spirit could make—the sound she’d been waiting to hear. “Good night.”
Cassi smiled, content.
She left her king with his worries, only taking one look back at the lonely ship surrounded by fog, something that might have almost been a dream, as she returned to her body and her life in the floating world above.
13
Cassi
When she woke the next morning, Luka was already alert, as though he’d been lying there just waiting for her to stir. She didn’t need to look at his face to see the lines that would be carved into his umber skin, the shadows that would lurk in his warm eyes. Cassi knew they would be there just from the sound of his breathing—not the slow and smooth, carefree sounds of sleep, but the fast, broken, deep sighs that came with finally facing a moment that had been avoided for far too long.
Cassi blinked, opening her eyes and finding his immediately. He was still on his stomach with one smoky wing outstretched, draping over her back like a warm blanket, trapping all their body heat, keeping out the bright morning sun. She had rolled onto her side in the night, wings tucked back so she could sleep facing him.
There was nowhere to run or hide.
No more time to stall.
“You don’t have to say anything, Luka,” she murmured.
“Cassi…” He said her name as though it caused him pain, letting it trail off, unsure where else to go with his words.
“It’s all right,” she soothed, forcing a small smile to cross her lips. “I’m fine, really. We both knew this day would come. And now it’s here.”
She shrugged.
Luka’s expression softened. That was one of the things she always appreciated about him—how caring and considerate he was. He thought she was trying to be strong, for him. He thought she was putting on a brave face. And maybe in a way she was. Or maybe she knew that she’d been using him just as much as he’d been using her, if not more.
“If I weren’t who I am—” He broke off, his voice strained.
Cassi nodded. “I know.”
“If there were any way—”
“I kno
w.”
“I think I might lo—”
Cassi reached out, covering his lips with her palm, trapping the word inside. “Don’t.”
He swallowed, appearing hurt. But she couldn’t let him say it, even if it made him feel better. It was the sort of thing he could never unsay, the sort of moment she didn’t want to steal from him, didn’t want to take away, especially when she knew she would never say it back.
Cassi did love him in a way—loved his heart and his strength, his bond with his sister, his concern for his people, his honor and his loyalty, and just who he was. But deep down, that wasn’t what had drawn her to him.
No.
That attraction, that spark, was only there because he reminded her of someone else. A person who lived a world away. A man she saw only in her dreams. They were both leaders. They were both boys she’d grown up with, boys she watched time tame, boys of mischief and fun who had become men of duty and action. But Luka was the only one she could touch with her real hands.
It wasn’t a good enough reason to steal his first I love you from the woman who would become his mate and his queen, the mother of his children, his future. Cassi wanted to remain a passing memory, one that brought a nostalgic smile and not a regretful fold to his lips.
Which was why she kept her hand to his mouth and said, “You should go before your sister gets here.”
With a heavy sigh, he drew his wings in and sat up, understanding the unspoken meaning in her words. Then he paused, glancing at her over his shoulder. “Why exactly is she coming here so early in the morning?”
Cassi arched a brow. “Do you really want to know?”
His tension eased as he shook in quiet laughter. “No, I guess I don’t.” His features sobered. “It’s strange to think that in a few days, she’ll be someone else’s problem and I won’t have to spend so much of my life worrying about her.”
The Raven and the Dove Page 8