The Raven and the Dove (The Raven and the Dove #1) - Kaitlyn Davis Page 0,116

but that was still four people who would wake up this morning miraculously healed, thanking their god, alive when they otherwise might not have been. And Lyana had made it happen.

Well, she and Rafe.

They’d made it happen together.

“What’s got you grinning like a buffoon this morning?” Cassi asked as she slipped through the door between their rooms and collapsed on Lyana’s bed, looking a little bleary-eyed and exhausted herself.

“Nothing,” Lyana murmured, sighing. Try as she might to arrange her face into a more appropriate expression, her lips remained resolutely wide.

Cassi stared. “Nothing.”

“It’s a beautiful day,” Lyana gushed, attributing her enthusiasm into something that might make a little more sense.

Leaving Cassi in bed, Lyana jumped to her feet and threw the curtains open as if her body had too much energy and could do nothing but explode with motion. The sun was high, higher than when she usually woke up, though she normally went to bed much earlier. And the sky was a clear, bright blue, reminding her of something else, someone else. She had the sense that she was exactly where she was supposed to be—a wonderfully foreign yet comforting feeling.

“Did they slip you some sort of herb for the pain? I’ve heard rumors that medicine isn’t the only thing they brew in the House of Paradise…” Cassi frowned, watching her in confusion.

Lyana pranced back to the bed, hopping from foot to foot. “Nope, nothing. My leg feels fine.”

Cassi watched her warily, nonetheless. “You’re a little too happy, even for you.”

“Honestly, Cassi,” Lyana said, hands on hips. “Can’t you just wipe the frown from your face and join me in this marvelous, wondrous, beautiful morning?”

Cassi watched her for another moment, then rolled off the bed to take a step toward the tray in the corner of the room, which Lyana hadn’t even noticed. She lifted the lid of the kettle, sniffing it. “What did they put in this?”

Lyana was prepared to argue with her friend some more, but her door crashed open, banging against the wall with a thunderous boom.

“Lyana!”

It was Xander.

An out-of-breath, smiling, excited Xander, as full of awe as she was. He paused, and his body jerked as though he suddenly remembered where he was. His eyes popping, he offered her a low bow before rising slowly. The sight made her feel even lighter.

“I mean, Princess, pardon my intrusion, I just— Have you— I thought you’d want to hear the news.”

“What news?” Cassi asked, a wary edge still on her voice.

Xander spun in her direction, surprised by her presence. Then he shrugged, switching his attention between them. “It’s all everyone has been talking about all morning. Four of the injured children we visited yesterday, a boy and three girls, they’re all— Well, somehow, they’re healed!”

Lyana didn’t need to meet Cassi’s glare to feel every suspicious, accusing prick in it. The left side of her body tingled with heat. She kept her eyes locked on Xander, feeding off his energy instead of her friend’s because at the moment, his emotions matched hers. “Really? Xander, how? It’s a miracle.”

“No one knows,” he explained with a shake of his head as words eluded him. “The people are saying it was a gift from the gods to thank us for our devotion. Someone claimed to have seen a cloaked figure pass beneath one of the spirit gates last night—they’re saying it was Taetanos himself.”

Lyana bit her lips to keep from squealing.

“Thank the gods,” Cassi drawled.

Lyana ached to throw a pillow at her face, but she restrained herself…barely.

“Thank the gods, indeed,” Xander said, not noticing the sarcastic undertone of Cassi’s statement. He was pure of heart, and Cassi, well, wasn’t. But that was one of the reasons Lyana loved her. “I’d like to think that maybe…” Xander mumbled with glowing eyes, reaching out to hold her fingers. “Thank you for coming with me to say the blessings yesterday. I think, maybe, it did something. Maybe, somehow, we helped.”

“We did,” Lyana said, squeezing back.

The words were true. If Xander hadn’t taken her out into the city yesterday, she would have never even conceived the idea in the first place. Would have never known where to go or which steps to make. This was all because of him, because he’d taken the time to include her, and she was grateful. But not so grateful that she was ready to tell him the truth.

She released his hand.

He took a hasty step back and cleared his throat.

“Well, anyway, you missed breakfast, so I wanted to come and