revealing what he wanted. She knew what he was asking.
Oh, she knew.
He frowned. “No?”
“I’m going home.” She shook her head in thick denial. “I’m going home. Lyana will need me. She won’t understand. I’m supposed to be there with her. To help her. I need to be there. I need to go home.”
“Kasiandra.” His voice could be so alluring when he wanted it to be, just like his magic. She wasn’t sure whether she wanted to step forward or whether it was he who demanded it—but she did, closing the distance between them. He put a hand to her cheek. Magic smoldered beneath his skin, sinking into hers and healing her wounds. “He saw too much.”
So had she.
She’d done too much—the blood proof was still on her skin.
She couldn’t give any more.
“I’m done,” she said, forceful this time, finally finding her voice.
The king raised his brows. “You’re done when I say you’re done.”
“I’m not a killer,” she snapped and stepped away from his touch, away from his magic, where she could breathe. “I’m not your assassin. I won’t be.”
“You’re not an assassin, Kasiandra,” he said evenly as golden flecks sputtered to life around his hands. A fist closed around her heart, one she couldn’t see, but the viselike grip was more real than any touch she’d ever shared with him before. Her king stepped closer, so close he towered over her, his power pulsing through the air, making her feel small. “You are a weapon. My weapon. To be wielded any way I choose.”
“I won’t—”
He cut her off, “You will, because the cause we fight for is greater than you or me or any one person. Our lives don’t matter. Our souls don’t matter. We’re the casualties of a war we have no choice but to win. You will do this last thing, and then finally, you’ll come home.” He paused—another silent challenge for her to refuse him. When nothing came, his posture eased. “You should wash in one of the rivers before you return to the castle. You look a fright.”
Without another word, he left, disappearing in the depths of the metal boat.
But a piece of him remained.
His magic wrapped around her legs, binding them together, gluing the bottoms of her feet to the ground, creating roots so deep she had no hope to pull them free. Cassi beat her wings, pushed and flapped and fought with all her might, but there was nothing she could do.
Her king had stolen her sky.
No. Not my king. Malek. She shook her head, realization like the blow of the sharpest blade. King. Malek. They were one and the same. The boy she loved, the boy of magic and wonder, he was gone. Dead. Reborn into a man she didn’t recognize. And she could no longer fool herself into believing anything else.
Malek has stolen my sky.
Something within her unraveled. A bitter, angry laugh seeped from her lips as the metal boat glowed with the olive spark of earth magic. A gust of yellow wind whipped through the forest, diving beneath the vessel and lifting it from the ground.
I won’t, she thought, watching the magic gather. I won’t and from so far away there’s no way you can make me. I won’t. I won’t.
“I won’t!” she screamed, refusal cutting its way out of her throat like the edge of a blade. “I won’t, Malek! I won’t!”
Again and again.
Each time more broken than the last.
Until his name held no more power.
Until the magic binding her to the dirt disappeared.
Until the ship blinked out of sight.
Cassi leapt into the sky, her wings defiant. And that was when she saw the orange glow at the edge of the horizon, growing larger—a dragon, lured to the world above by the irresistible scent of Lyana’s magic.
66
The Captain
The day was eerily silent, nothing but the slapping of waves on wood, the creaking groan of a ship long past its prime, the gentle flapping of loose canvas in the breeze. The crew sat alert but scattered across the main deck, attention on a thick fog so bright it burned the eyes. They were waiting, an ominous pastime for a group that had run to the seas to escape its enemies, some real, some imagined.
Then she felt him.
The mist was nearly opaque, but her magic stretched wide, flying with the breeze. His body was like a dagger cutting through the wind, heavy and piercing.
“He’s here! Starboard side, raise the anchor, loosen the sails!”
They jumped into action immediately.
She closed her eyes, confident her