The Hunter and the Mage (The Raven and the Dove #2) - Kaitlyn Davis Page 0,76

bed and his lips were slightly parted, his expression serene beneath the dark hair spilling over his forehead.

In her many years of watching people at their most vulnerable, she'd learned that the way a person slept said a lot about the way a person lived. Malek always kept his legs straight and his arms rigid by his sides, his body controlled and composed, as though even in sleep he couldn’t afford to be vulnerable. In the few times she'd visited Rafe, he'd been on his side with the sheets wrapped around his legs and his face hidden beneath his wings, his body as trapped and tortured as his heart. Lyana, on the other hand, usually curled on her side with her wings arched as though in flight and her arms outstretched, always reaching for something more. Even if she'd never met Xander, watching him now she'd know everything there was to know about this prince. He was laid bare, honest and inviting, at peace in the way only decent people could be, hiding the only part of himself that left him unsure. Sometimes, she wondered what her sleeping position said about her, but the revelation was just another thing she was too afraid to face.

Cassi drifted closer to the bed.

Distantly, she knew she should probably be using this time to study the god stone, to see if there were any noticeable changes, any cause for the earthquake that had shaken the isle earlier that day. These were just the sorts of things Malek would want to know, the sorts of things he would want her to track. Maybe that was the very reason she didn't. Besides, he had a raven spy who could do it for him.

No, tonight she had other plans.

Tomorrow, she'd be in the House of Wisdom and all her time would be dedicated to studying the secret libraries of the owls. Those nights would belong to Malek and his war, to his orders and his needs, to the world and the lives he so longed to save.

Tonight was for her.

Wrapped in the safety of her magic, she felt like doing something she never did, something her dual life never allowed, something reckless and wild.

For once, she felt like letting go.

Cassi pressed a phantom palm to Xander's forehead and slipped inside his dreams. Like the mind of anyone without magic, his was easy to guide. Still, she took her time wrestling his thoughts into submission and painting a picture of her own making, letting his spirit surround her, letting his sheer goodness push all the doubts and fears away. She'd been inside his mind once before, on the eve of his mating ceremony, when she'd come to whisper dark thoughts into his dreams, turning them to nightmares. He'd woken with a gasp and rushed to Rafe's room, only to discover the tricks his mind had played weren't tricks at all. Well, at least not tricks of his own making. This time, though, she wanted to bring joy instead of dread.

When the dream solidified, Cassi opened her eyes to find they were sitting side by side on a sandy shore with the surf tickling their toes and the sun shining overhead. Waves crashed. Birds cawed. The place was unlike any she'd ever visited, pulled straight from her books and her imagination, the perfect spot in which to pretend.

"Where are we?" Xander asked, his mind trying to come up with some story to justify her sudden entrance into his dreams, to explain it away. Their clothes were wet, their wings too. A rush of water flooded the ground beneath them, surging over their ankles, warm and not unpleasant. He dug his fingers into the sand, lifted his arm, and watched the wet particles drip slowly back into the sea.

She met his eyes above his wrist. "Where do you want us to be?"

"It looks like the island where Tassos washed up after Nyara saved his life. At least, this is what I always imagined it to be."

"Well, this is your mind."

"True." He grinned, and that was all it took for her to convince him this was nothing but a dream. "I wonder why I brought us here."

He didn't. Neither had she, really. The story of Tassos and Nyara was the furthest thing from her thoughts. She'd just wanted to be somewhere that wasn't the avian realm or the foggy seas beneath the mist, somewhere neutral. Still, the mind had a funny way of spotting symbols in the dark. "Why do you