The Hunter and the Mage (The Raven and the Dove #2) - Kaitlyn Davis Page 0,24

of saving the world. Oh, he had a plan for Rafe, she was certain. But it wouldn't be the pretty picture her mother painted.

"Don't lose your hope, Kasiandra." The captain brushed her caramel feathers against Cassi's arm. "Don't lose your ability to believe in people."

She looked at her hands, for a moment seeing Rafe's blood still upon them, sticky maroon spotted with ebony fuzz. One blink and the image was gone, but it was always there, lurking in the far corners of her mind. How can I believe in people, Mother, when I don't even believe in myself?

The captain studied her, though Cassi refused to meet her gaze. After a few moments, she finally said, "I don't usually hear you call the king by name."

Cassi folded her fingers into fists, heart racing with the memory of her king. His golden hair, streaked with highlights from the sun. The soft brown freckles scattered across his nose. His dark blue eyes, so bottomless she couldn’t find a soul within them. And the grip of his magic, holding her down, stealing her sky, breaking her heart even after he'd disappeared. Seeing him in real life had made clear something her dreams had naively brushed over—Malek was not the boy she remembered. He was a man and a king, and he cared little for the Kasiandra he'd once known.

"Things change."

"Hmm." Her mother paused. The heavy silence pierced like a blade. "Is that why you haven't gone to see him?"

Cassi sucked in a breath. "How do you know that?"

"He sent another man into my dreams to ask if I'd heard from you. When I told him no, the man gave me a message from the king. He's looking for you. He wants to talk to you. And eventually he will, one way or another."

She snorted at the unveiled threat in the words. "He knows where to find me if he wants to talk, but I don't see him venturing up to my world anytime soon. So I guess he'll just have to wait."

"Kasiandra." Her mother sighed. "It's not wise to go against his wishes."

"What about my wishes?" Cassi snapped, her anger ripe and raring. Did anyone care what she thought? She didn’t want to be a killer. She didn't want to be a monster. She didn’t want to keep leading a double life. She wanted to go home. She wanted to be with her best friend. She wanted to be a normal girl, whatever that meant.

"Do you hold the fate of the world on your shoulders?"

She mumbled a gruff, "No."

"Then for now, I don't think your wishes matter."

Cassi opened her mouth to argue, but her mother held up a hand to stop her.

"Think of it this way, Kasiandra. What if Aethios himself came to you one day and told you a great battle was coming, and few would survive? Then he offered you a choice. If you sacrifice one man or woman now—a knife to the throat, quick and done, delivered to his feet—he would save one hundred later. Would you do it? Could you?"

"I—" She squirmed, made uncomfortable by the choice of analogy. Was Xander the sacrifice? Were innocent people the victims? Did her mother have information she didn't? "I don't know."

"The king knows, because he has to know. He makes this choice every day. Countless people need him, but there is only so much time and energy he can give. So, if sacrificing one will save a hundred, he'll do it, over and over again, to keep as many people safe as possible. You and I, Kasiandra, and others like us? We're the one. Our lives are forfeit to a greater cause. Is the sacrifice fair? No, of course not. But is it worth it? That's something you must decide on your own." She sighed, wrapping a lock of Cassi's bronze hair around her finger and tugging gently. "In the meantime, go see him. Hear what he has to say."

Cassi stared into the blizzard, watching it strengthen as her mother's hand dropped away. She didn't want to see Malek, but if she were being honest, it was about more than that.

She didn’t want to see Lyana.

No, she didn’t want to see Malek and Lyana, the king and queen of prophecy, united in ways Cassi could never dream to be, not even with her magic. She'd lost more than just a foolish crush. She'd lost her best friend. For, surely, Lyana would never speak to her again if she learned what Cassi had done