The Hunter and the Mage (The Raven and the Dove #2) - Kaitlyn Davis Page 0,71

I live up to your expectations?"

"You're skimpier than I thought you'd be."

Lyana frowned. She knew she wasn't the tallest person, or the most overtly muscular, but the girl before her didn't exactly have a leg to stand on. "You're one to talk."

"I'm not a queen of prophecy. Can I?" The girl's hand darted out, brushing over her wing and tugging sharply on one of her feathers.

"Ow! Those are attached to me, you know."

"Now I do." She shrugged. "You want to know what I really thought when I first walked into this room?"

Lyana crossed her arms, tone biting. "What?"

"I thought you seemed lonely," the girl said, eyes gaining a probing sheen as they studied her expression. Lyana swallowed—that wasn't what she thought she'd say. "Is there someone you were looking for up there in the sky?"

"I…"

"Someone you miss?"

Rafe's face filled her thoughts—the sharp edge of his jaw, the slight wave to his onyx hair, the intensity of his gaze. His lips had been pursed with frustration more often than not, but in her imagination he smiled, full of all the happiness his real life had failed to provide, all the joy she wished she could have given him.

"Someone you maybe loved?"

The image shattered. "No."

"No?"

Lyana spun to escape the girl's scrutiny, turning her attention back to the city, though all she saw was Xander's face the morning of their mating ceremony, the hard look in his eyes, a reflection of her own betrayal. "Please leave."

"I didn't mean to upset you. I won't tell the king, if that's what you're worried about. We're all allowed our secrets. You just seemed like you could use a friend."

Was that what she was missing?

A friend?

Between Malek, Xander, and Rafe, she clearly had more men in her life than she would ever need. But what about a friend? Maybe that was why she felt so lost in the clouds. Cassi wasn't there to ground her.

"Tell me his name," the girl said, almost cajoling.

Lyana opened her mouth. Rafe. But she couldn't say it. The word clogged in her throat—too painful to voice, as though if she spoke it, all the yearning she was trying to erase would be real. Instead, she took the coward's way out, or maybe just the loyal one. "I had a mate in the world above. His name was Xander."

"Xander?"

"Lysander Taetanus, the Crown Prince of the House of Whispers."

"Hmm," the girl muttered. "A prince?"

"Yes," Lyana whispered, voice failing her. "I miss him very much."

And she did. She really did. She missed Xander's kindness and the warm smiles he offered so freely. She missed his hope and the way he always seemed to believe everything would work out in the end. Mostly, she missed his acceptance. There had been an honesty between them, an understanding. Maybe he hadn't known about her magic until the very end, but even before that, he'd known her—all the ways they fit together, and the many ways they didn't. Despite it all, he'd been ready to accept her as his queen.

Yet, she missed Rafe more.

Therein lay the problem.

"I—"

Lyana broke off as she turned to find nothing but an empty room behind her. The girl was gone, just as mysteriously as she'd come. It hurt more than she thought it would to have this brief moment of friendship stripped away, a reminder of how much she craved it.

Cassi, she thought, staring back out at the thick fog as she wiped her tears away. Where are you? Why haven't you come? Why haven't you found me?

That was the truth of it, at last.

She didn't just feel alone—she felt abandoned.

Lyana had spent her life preparing to leave her home in the House of Peace, to say farewell to her brother, to walk away from her family. She'd spent weeks trying to say goodbye to Rafe, and then finally one morning she'd done just that. She'd even shared a parting moment with Xander in the sacred nest as her magic swirled around them, a mutual understanding.

But leaving Cassi had been sudden.

One moment she had been in the House of Whispers, and the next alone in the middle of the sea, surrounded by strangers. There had been no time to prepare for life without her best friend, no time to fortify herself for the absence. If she were being honest, a small part of her didn’t think she'd have to. If the roles had been reversed, nothing would have kept Lyana from ripping apart the skies in search of her friend.

What was Cassi doing in