The Hunter and the Mage (The Raven and the Dove #2) - Kaitlyn Davis Page 0,28

and placed the stack more sturdily on the floor.

"I can't take all these."

"Why not?"

"For starters, I might topple out of the sky the second I leave the window."

He nodded to one side with his chin. "Then use the door."

"Can I give you something in return?"

"There's nothing I need."

Cassi rolled her eyes, a playful yet frustrated move. "Why are you so honorable?"

"You say it as though it's a bad thing."

Under her breath, she half growled, "Maybe it is."

Xander pushed his brows together even as a grin tugged at his lips. She was mystifying. An expert fighter who happened to enjoy reading. An owl who'd grown up surrounded by doves. A woman who always wore a brave face, yet when he thought of her, he remembered that moment in the square, seconds after the dragon attack, when he'd held her in his arms and she'd let him.

Cassi was a puzzle—one he was determined to solve.

"Perhaps you can do one thing for me," Xander finally said, his mind still on his mating day, on the fight with that man and the battle with the dragon. In both instances, he'd been a liability, someone who was in the way while others fought to tame the beast. He didn’t want to be that person anymore. He wanted to be someone who could face down a dragon with more than futile hope and an empty scream on his lips. "You could train me."

"Train you?" She frowned. "What about Helen? What about the hundreds of guards in a little place called the barracks about two hundred feet to our left?"

"I've been training with them since I was a boy, and not a single one ever thought to tell me the most important rule of battle."

"Which is?"

"That my sword could be my friend."

She snorted, though the ghost of a smile graced her lips. "I said that was the first rule of battle, not the most important."

"So, teach me the rest too."

"I don't think I'd make a very good teacher."

"That's all right." He shrugged, nothing if not persistent. A fallback of being royal—he was unused to hearing the word no. "I'll make up for it by being an excellent student."

"Books for lessons?"

Xander nodded.

Cassi studied him, her gaze boring into his as though searching for some reason to keep fighting. When he didn't give one, she sighed and glanced to the books by their feet. By the time she looked back at him, her mind was made. "Prince Xander, you have yourself a deal."

"Excellent."

They shook hands. It didn't go beyond his notice that she showed no hesitation in extending her left arm, not her right one, something it had taken most of his advisors some getting used to when he'd come of age. It told him she was smart, which he already knew, but also observant and quick, all traits he imagined to be perfect qualities in his new instructor. If she wanted to one day, she'd make a fine royal guard.

He was about to say so when the window shattered.

Fractured glass pelleted his side like a hundred little needles, the sound of falling shards like that of rain, truncated by the deep thud of something heavy landing on the rug. Xander twisted away instinctively and lifted his arms to cover his face. By the time he righted himself, Cassi was already beside the window with her dagger at the ready, her predator's eyes scanning the darkness. He rushed to her side.

"Do you see anything?"

"No."

Xander studied the shadows, but it was futile. If an owl couldn't see anything, a raven had no chance, especially at night. Instead, he left her by the window and searched for the source of the break. Hardly a second passed before he noticed a rock sitting within the pile of broken glass, a bit of black lettering only half-visible. He carefully lifted it from the floor, spinning it until he could read the message.

Kill him.

"What does it say?"

The clog in Xander's throat made it impossible to speak, jovial mood as thoroughly ruined as the window, so he simply lifted the rock overhead. Cassi snatched it from his grasp and muttered a curse. He barely heard.

Kill him.

That's what the message said, but he knew what it meant.

Kill Rafe.

His people had been angry ever since they'd made the announcement that his brother had stolen the princess. They'd taken to the streets, shouting for revenge, screaming for justice. But that wasn't enough. Now they wanted blood.

I did this.

Xander winced, closing his eyes against the truth. No matter what