The Raven and the Dove (The Raven and the Dove #1) - Kaitlyn Davis Page 0,101

third time that week. Xander leaned over a table, mind deep in the scrolls he’d unrolled, while she stood off to the side, staring out the window at the town below—a town that called out to her, whispering her name, urging she open the window, spread her wings, escape the castle, and join them in the streets below.

Or maybe not more, she corrected, idly rubbing the glass pane with her fingers. Just different. A girl who will stand beside him, not across from him. A girl who is content with being safe and secure, not always dreaming of adventure. A girl who… Her gaze drifted down, down, down to the raven all alone at the far side of the practice field, visible even from this distance. A girl who isn’t staring at his brother, remembering the way his magic sizzled beneath his skin, the way he watched her through firelight.

Lyana jerked away from the glass as if it stung her and spun, squaring her shoulders and facing her mate, determined to find a common ground.

“What are you reading?” she asked casually, stepping to his desk and pressing her palms against the worn wood to keep grounded.

“Huh?” He glanced up, surprised. “Oh, um, nothing really. It’s, well… I’m not actually reading per se, just reviewing some old maps of the isles.”

“Maps?” Lyana leaned over to peek.

Xander tilted his head as if perplexed but turned the spine of his book so she could see. Lyana touched the smooth parchment, following the contours of the mountains, the lines marking where land gave way to sky. But all she could think was, Why? Why sit in a tower and stare at old maps, when everything on that page was waiting just outside the window?

“Hmm.” Her murmur was half a sigh, half feigned interest.

Xander latched on to the latter. A rush of color flooded his cheeks and he leaned closer, their shoulders and wings brushing as he put his finger next to hers on the page. “You see this, here?” he asked in the animated voice of a scholar. “You see the edge, there, on the other side of the isle? Not where the castle is, but on the more uninhabited part. You see how it juts out? Now…”

He pushed the book a few inches away, grunting as he reached with his left hand to grab another heavy volume. Lyana moved to help, but he drew his breath in sharply, so she stopped, gaze darting to his right arm and the rounded end covered in black silk to match his coat. She dropped her hand gently back to the tabletop. As though nothing had happened, Xander hastily opened the cover and began sifting through the pages, searching for something, and there! He stopped with the book open on another map.

“Now,” he said, breathing out before drawing her attention to the illustration. “Look here, that same spot as the previous map, except the edge of the isle is now concave. The two edges don’t line up at all.”

Lyana knitted her brows and looked up at him. “A mistake, surely?”

“I thought so too at first,” he agreed, but pursed his lips, eyes sharp and focused. “Though that’s not the only difference. The others are just subtler. I’ve compared maybe a dozen maps from different cartographers across all different ages, and no two perfectly match.”

“What do you think it means?” she asked, genuinely confused about what he was suggesting.

Xander lifted his brows as a jovial smile widened his lips. “That’s what I’m trying to figure out. But either our island has been getting smaller and smaller, slowly enough for no one to realize it, or we are in dire need of new mapmakers.”

Lyana leaned back. “Are you teasing me?”

“No.” An almost comical, horrified look passed over his face, sincere enough to make her trust his response. “No, not at all. I’m being serious. I noticed it before the courtship trials. I even put in a request with the House of Wisdom for access to their records, which should be far more accurate in size and scope than mine.”

“The House of Wisdom?” Lyana’s chest filled with a familiar sort of anticipation. “But they don’t lend their archives.”

“No, no, I’d have to make a trip, which shouldn’t be a problem now that the courtship trials are over,” he told her offhandedly, attention returning to his books.

Her reaction, however, was anything but casual. Lyana gasped and seized his forearm as her eyes popped, mind spinning with every sliver of information she’d