The Hunter and the Mage (The Raven and the Dove #2) - Kaitlyn Davis Page 0,13

was calm. She was calculating. She didn't let her emotions rule her. She was a soldier in a fight to save the world, and she had one more order to carry out.

Cassi slid her hand down her side, not stopping until her fingers traced the hilt of the dagger strapped to her waist. Was it such a leap to go from spy to assassin?

One quick blow, and she'd be done.

One strike, and she'd be on her way home.

One slice, and—

"There you are!"

Cassi snapped her hand away from the dagger and jolted upright, turning toward the voice she recognized—another voice she was trying to smother. But this one was gentle and earnest, kind and fierce, dangerous as it whispered, It's all right. I'm here. You're safe in my home. Let it go.

She'd been unable to get the words out of her mind all night, or the feel of his arms wrapped around her, so caring and so comforting. His touch had fooled her into believing for a moment that she mattered, that she was more than a weapon, that she was a girl who had the luxury of being vulnerable.

"Prince Xander," Cassi murmured, meeting his lavender eyes and steeling herself against the warmth radiating within them.

"Just Xander, please," he said, stepping closer. "I should've guessed you'd be in the practice yards, but I thought you'd been injured yesterday. Wasn't there blood on your jacket?"

"There was," she answered smoothly. He was too attentive for his own good. It would be so much easier if he were a fool—someone neither she nor her king needed to worry about. "From a raven I helped pull from the rubble. I was lucky to get away from the dragon unscathed."

"Lucky…" He dropped his gaze to the dagger at her waist, then the sword by her feet, then the practice bag nearly in tatters. "Some might say skilled. You saved my life."

Don’t remind me.

What had she been thinking? The dragon could have ended him with one blast of flame and she'd be by Lyana's side right now. She'd be home. But something about the fearless way he'd charged the beast, no care for his own life and no sense, had made her want to save him. Maybe she'd envied his defiance. Maybe she'd wanted to act on a little defiance of her own. Cassi would be the one to decide whether he lived or died—not Malek, not a dragon, she.

"It was nothing," she said.

"Not to me."

"Anyone in my place would've done the same."

"But they didn't."

Did he have to be so damned nice? She flared her nostrils, but it only brought a soft smile to his lips.

"You don’t need to be so tough all the time."

"And you don't need to be so noble."

"Is that what you think I am?" Xander asked, a shadow hovering in the hollows of his face. Interesting. Cassi stored the information away. "I'm afraid I'll have to shatter that illusion. I came here to question you for information. I'd intended to go about it with a bit more subtlety, but now I think honesty might take me farther."

He was right—the truth was a rare gift, one that so often eluded her. She had spent so much of her life surrounded by lies, she feared she might drown in them. But not today. There was still a bit of air left in her lungs and a little more deceit left on her tongue. "Information? I'm not sure what information you think I have, but I fear you'll be disappointed."

"I need to know about Lyana." He swallowed the lump in his throat. "About Lyana…and Rafe."

Lyana and Rafe—the last two people she wanted to discuss in the world. At least he was coming to her as the jilted lover and not the suspicious prince. This was a problem she knew how to handle.

With a casual shrug, Cassi murmured, "What about Lyana and Rafe?"

"I need to know how they met," Xander said, a gruff edge to his tone. "I need to know how they—how they fell in love."

"Why don't you start by telling me what you know?"

"I know the dragon attack in the House of Peace had something to do with it, and then the trials. I don't know how long they carried on here behind my back, but I need to. And I know…" He trailed off, pausing to glance from one side to the other as he leaned in close. "I know about Lyana."

Cassi couldn't help herself—she shifted forward, copying his movements as she glanced side