The Raven and the Dove (The Raven and the Dove #1) - Kaitlyn Davis Page 0,138
accept. Because she wanted to go. Oh, she wanted to go. She’d never wanted anything more. Lyana had been waiting for this moment her entire life, all those days spent staring at the horizon, flying to the end of her isle, sure beyond a doubt that her destiny was somewhere else, something else. The promise in his words spoke to her soul. To embrace her magic. To leave this life and all its ties. To be free.
But she couldn’t abandon Xander.
Not like this. Not dying a slow death in the place where they were supposed to make their vows, supposed to promise each other trust and loyalty and faith before the gods.
“Let me save him, and I’ll come with you,” Lyana begged, her eyes on the shuddering rise and fall of Xander's chest. If the cost of freedom was his life, she would spend the rest of hers in a cage.
“No.”
He offered no reason, no explanation, as though his word was law, as though he was used to being obeyed.
Well, so am I.
“Then I’m not coming. And there’s no magic in the world that will make me.”
“You are coming.” The man squared his shoulders as he faced her. “Of your own free will or mine. That’s the only choice you have left.”
The magic in the air intensified. Lyana watched it blaze, trying to understand. The man on the left had made a voracious wind strike her. If she stepped out from behind the tree, he would simply blow her over like he did before. The woman to the right had stopped a knife in midair. If Lyana lunged for one of the discarded blades on the floor, she would simply fling it out of reach. Lyana was a healer, a simple, pure power she would never trade for anything in the world, but it was a useless power in a situation like this.
Or was it?
The golden aura around her thickened. The man in the middle watched her intensely, his magic curling around her arms and legs like bindings. He tugged on the power and she felt something push against her back, almost as though he were there, behind her, giving her a little shove. Her will to fight was strong, yet her body obeyed the silent command—to go, to follow, to surrender. Her feet skidded over dirt and stone. She walked forward even as she struggled.
Lyana stared at the man’s magic, unblinking, unyielding.
It was hers and yet different.
The longer she examined the shimmering tendrils, the more she saw not the rays of the sun, but the rainbow that came after the storm—wisps and specks of every color imaginable, twisting and circling together. A memory floated to the surface, of those same colors shooting from the god stone, wrapping her in its loving arms, and filling her spirit with a power that hadn’t been there before, a power that was there now, aching, yearning to be used.
The potent magic stirred within her soul, vast and churning, a deep sea that had once been nothing more than a puddle of fallen rain.
Lyana closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
When she opened them, the world was changed, awash in bright, pulsating colors, a whole glowing spectrum that nearly burned her eyes. She gasped, arching her neck to gaze in wonder, even as her body continued to shift relentlessly forward. The trees were no longer just leaves and bark, but bright green strands that oozed with life. And the ravens hiding in the shadows suddenly glowed with a golden light edged in darkness that followed them as they flew. The sky overhead glittered with yellow and white sparks that crashed and whirled together. The god stone was a deep and endless black, yet shone with a thousand beautiful hues like the surface of an opal. And the three people before her were magic come to life, skin radiant with the power hiding beneath. In the center of each of their chests was a golden starburst, humming with a force she recognized.
Lyana lifted her palm and reached with her magic. These colors that minutes before had been invisible were now tangible. Her magic skimmed the edges of the glowing auras, a gentle graze, a testing, tenuous touch.
The strangers froze.
She flicked her gaze to the man in the center. His eyes were wide, yet hungry. The pressure on her back strengthened, urging her to move faster, to follow. Lyana flared her power and thought, No.
She stopped cold, digging her heels into the ground.