The Hunter and the Mage (The Raven and the Dove #2) - Kaitlyn Davis Page 0,127

her sleeping body, one arm resting on the pillow by her head while the other brushed a stray lock of hair behind her ear. Even in her spirit form, she could feel the heat of his skin, the gentle tickle of his touch, the way he stirred something deep inside of her.

Was he going to kiss her?

Was she going to let him?

The dark shadows of the balcony were a precipice she didn’t want to cross. The moment she returned to her body, it would all be over, whatever dream she was living. Like Malek had said, her time had run out. There was nowhere left to hide, nowhere left to run. For the good of the world, she had to kill him.

On the bed, her body flinched at the thought.

Above her, Xander paused.

"Cassi," he repeated, and from so close, she recognized the hollow despair in his tone. A sigh shuddered through him, his back bending toward her as his head dropped. With his hand still on her cheek, he finally whispered, "Who are you?"

Motion in the corner of the room caught her eye. Helen and five guards emerged from the darkness, blades gleaming as they stepped into the light. Cassi snapped back into her body. Before Xander could move, she grabbed his hand.

As their eyes met, time seemed to stop.

She’d never thought this was how it would end, with Xander poised above her on the cushions, his body a welcome weight, his skin upon her skin, their mouths so impossibly near touching. The plan had been to do it while he slept so he could slip from one dream into another, no pain and no awareness, no understanding of her treachery. But now questions haunted the violet shadows of his eyes. Cassi didn't want to know what lingered in hers.

Scuffling feet approached and she acted, more out of instinct than any desire to be free. Wrenching his fingers away, she rolled off the bed without letting go and pulled him to the ground with her. A mess of feathers and limbs, they struggled on the rug. Despite his size, however, Xander was no fighter, a fact they both well knew. In moments, she stood behind him with her knee against his spine and her arm across his chest. Cassi snatched the dagger still strapped to her leg and held it to his throat.

"Stop where you are, Helen," she ordered, not recognizing her own threatening tone. "Stop where you are or I'll kill him."

The older woman paused and tightened her grip on her sword, not looking at Cassi but at Xander as she replied, "Do it."

The hairs at the back of Cassi's neck rose.

A tingle slipped down her spine.

The blade in her hand shifted as Xander swallowed. He turned his face upward, something defiant about the motion. Against her better judgment, Cassi looked away from the guards and down at the prince at her mercy. She expected to find hate in his eyes, to read anger and loathing in their lavender hue. She expected his stare to confirm the one thing she already knew to be absolutely true—that she was unworthy of trust or of love. Instead, as she met his gaze, she saw the last thing she ever expected.

She saw compassion.

Xander was sorry for her, for whatever had brought her to this point, for the life she must have led, for the lies he didn’t understand. And he was sorry for something else too.

Cassi shifted her focus down the straight line of his nose, past the soft curves of his lips, over the strong edge of his jaw, pausing for a moment on the spot where her dagger dug menacingly into the thin skin of his neck, then farther still, until she saw what Helen had. Though she held his arms securely against his chest, she'd failed to notice the way his elbow bent toward his biceps and the silvery edge of the arm guard poised to strike—the very one she'd designed to save his life, now a twist of his wrist from ending hers.

Or maybe she'd noticed, and she hadn't cared.

They breathed against each other, neither moving a muscle, the rest of the world still and waiting. It felt like one of her lessons, one of her puzzles. Tell me how you'd escape my hold, she might have said. Tell me how you'd get away.

Except this wasn't a game.

They weren't playing pretend anymore, if they ever had been at all. Cassi looked into Xander's tender eyes again, willing him