The Hunter and the Mage (The Raven and the Dove #2) - Kaitlyn Davis Page 0,104

it stayed behind. There was no way to get out of the castle unseen, so she took the path of least resistance and jumped off the balcony, hoping any onlookers would assume she was doing the same thing she and Xander had done every other day they'd been there—venturing out for research.

She swooped across the city, gliding over rooftops and rock formations, watching lantern light flicker over stone. Only when she reached the farthest column from the castle at the far edge of the city did she stop, coming to a smooth landing on the steps carved into its side. Circling until the castle was out of view, she counted to fifty, but no one came. If a guard had been watching, they'd assume she found a door and stepped through. Instead, she put her hands to the rail and gracefully vaulted over it, arching her wings high in a death dive. Air sifted soundlessly through her feathers as she plummeted. The ground came up swiftly. With one strong pump, her body slowed and her feet dropped quietly to the stone. She remained crouched on the ground for a few moments, listening for voices or soft steps or the subtle whistle of wings in flight, but she heard nothing. Quickly she donned the robe and stood, pulling the hood low over her head as she made for the entrance to the tunnels a few yards away.

Mere steps into the labyrinth, she was swallowed by darkness. The archivists carried lanterns when they traversed these halls, following coded signs through the maze, but the risk of being seen was too great. Cassi would have to rely on memory alone. Every night in her dreams she'd studied the path. At the first fork, stay left. At the second, go right. At the next, stay straight. On and on, like a phantom in the shadows, only this body was real and the stakes were too.

At the first hint of a voice, she froze. With her owl eyes, it was easy to spot the dullest halo of lantern light coming closer. Pressing against the wall, she watched immobile as an archivist approached from the other end of the hall, nothing but one fork and one choice between them. Her fingers found a dagger, just in case. She held her breath as the woman paused and held the light to the sign, reading which way to go. The leather hilt grew warm against her palm.

Come on. Come on.

The archivist went left.

Cassi released her breath and remained still until the glow of the woman's lantern disappeared. After that, she moved quickly, her soft-soled shoes brushing against the stone, the swishing like the beat of flying wings. She ran into three more people after that, getting lucky the first two times with conveniently placed breaks in the tunnels. The third time, however, a man approached from behind, leaving her no other choice but to race ahead and pray he was too buried in his thoughts to notice the subtle changes left in her wake—the specks of dust stirred by her wings, the shift in the air, the scent of sweat, all drowned out, she hoped, by the loud clanging of his keys and the rustling of his robes. At the next fork, she hid in the shadows, waiting to see which way he would go. Leaving a body would only incur questions, something she hoped to avoid. When he went right, she continued down her path, until finally, it ended at a door.

Now for the fun part.

The doors this deep into the archivists' realm had not one but two locks, which needed to be opened at the same time with two different sets of keys. Perhaps unsurprisingly, incorporeal items were much easier to steal than the more banal kind. In the night, she stole secrets aplenty, but in her body, just taking the robe now draped over her shoulders had proved difficult. Securing one archivist's key, let alone two, would have been impossible. Instead, she crouched down and pulled two picks from her pocket. One in each hand, she jiggled, jabbed, and twisted, then jiggled some more, until—click!

Cassi eased the door opened and slipped inside. In total darkness such as this, even owls were blind. She didn't need a lot of light to see, but she did need some. It took a few moments of fumbling around with her palms pressed to the wall, but eventually, she found the lantern. Wasting no time, she rushed to the shelves