The Hunter and the Mage (The Raven and the Dove #2) - Kaitlyn Davis Page 0,138

From her consequences. She would hide no more.

Maybe she couldn't stop Malek.

Maybe she couldn't save Rafe.

But she knew someone who could, and it was well past time to face her.

43

Lyana

Thick stone walls lit by staggered torches seemed to extend into infinity. As Lyana ran, the slapping of her feet echoed down the hall. The space was too cramped for flight. Her feathers scraped against the roughly cut blocks while she searched for the end, but there was nothing. No door. No window. No exit in sight. Just a straight passage that grew smaller with each step, the ceiling and the floor compressing in as she ran, and ran, and ran, going nowhere, until—

She fell.

The ground gave out beneath her, turning to liquid. She sank into shadowy depths as bright colors flashed. It felt like swimming, or maybe flying, the longer she hung in that void, spinning head over heels—or was the room spinning? Everything swirled. She was caught in the vortex, swept away. Then just as suddenly, the world sharpened into perfect clarity.

She was flying.

Crisp air stung her cheeks even as her muscles burned. She pumped her wings to cut across the sky, buoyed by the wind. The land below passed in a blur of dark jagged rock and a surface of frozen, crystalline snow refracting the sun into a glittering rainbow. Above, the world was painted a stark blue, broken only by fluffy clouds. Lyana laughed, snapping in her wings and plummeting to the ground, only to catch herself, then soar back into the sky. How long had it been since her world had been anything but gray? The silvery mist of midday that was almost too bright to look upon and thick enough to shroud the sun. The deep charcoal of midnight, so dark and foreboding, as though hiding a den of monsters. Her eyes almost hurt from seeing so much saturated sapphire, but it was a welcome ache, like coming to the surface for that first desperate breath.

Gray? She shook her head. Why has my world been gray?

"Lyana!"

"Come on, Cassi!" she shouted back to her friend. Up ahead, she spotted a crack in the landscape where the ground had simply fallen away. The sky bridge stretched across the opening, the clear stones glimmering in the sun. "We're almost there!"

"Lyana, wait!"

"I'll race you to the cave!"

Was that what they were already doing? She couldn't remember. Why had they left the crystal palace? What were they searching for?

Oh well. No matter.

She pumped her wings, a grin widening her cheeks as a wild thrill zipped up her throat. When she reached the canyon, she dove headfirst, cutting between two walls of sharp, uneven rock, her eyes on the gray fog blanketing the world below. The Sea of Mist. As usual, awe swelled inside her chest, along with the familiar ache of yearning. But there was something else too, something she couldn't quite place.

A memory tugged at the back of her thoughts.

Lyana landed just inside the shadows of their cave, her brows furrowed as she stared into the dark depths beyond. When she closed her eyes, the image flashed, of a man with brilliant blue eyes, and windswept black hair, and silky obsidian wings. Firelight flickered over fair skin as she pressed her dark hands to his back, his muscles writhing beneath her touch as though fighting a shiver. But there was something else there too, a subtle silver sheen rising up to meet the golden shimmer of her magic, two powers joining as one.

Rafe.

The name made her gasp. Recoiling from the darkness, she turned back to the light as Cassi swept into the cave. Behind her friend, the sky bridge loomed. It flashed red with blood, and a dragon sat propped on the stones, a beast made of onyx scales and fire, red eyes staring straight at her. But no, not at her. At the broken and bloodied raven clutched within its claws.

Rafe.

And the dragon.

And the trials.

And the House of Whispers.

And the mating ceremony.

And Malek.

The past few months came rushing back as she glanced at Cassi in mounting horror. Even her friend looked different now. Not sarcastic and spunky, her hip perpetually cocked to the side as she mocked Lyana's newest plan for adventure—but broken somehow, her eyes like a sword that had struck one shield too many, now shattered into pieces on the battlefield.

"I know you're confused," Cassi said, her voice warm and loving, yet teeming with fear. "It's always confusing the first time for someone with magic, someone