the memories, burying his name, burying the boy and remembering the king.
With her thoughts clear, she dove into his dream.
Colors crashed and collided, explosions of rainbow dust as if every paint in the world had been thrown into a frozen sky, solidifying into powders that got caught in a mighty wind. Every sound she could imagine bellowed into her ears, and yet it felt almost as though there were an eerie silence—as though so many things had turned to nothing in the confusion, or into a vortex that had spun too fast and too far. The dreams always felt that way until Cassi reached with her magic, taking hold of the dreamer’s mind, folding and warping the scene into one of her own making. With her king, it was always the same. A meeting room with a large wooden table and heavy wooden chairs. Walls of dark gray stone and a ceiling to match. The floor covered in thick woven rugs. A handful of windows allowing in the humid, misty air, with nothing outside of them but endless stretches of gray. And a chandelier made of iron and flaming candles, resembling the trap this room had become, the one she couldn’t escape.
He appeared as he always did, standing alert at the window, hands folded behind his back, eyes on the horizon, always on the lookout for something dangerous, something deadly. As his mind registered where he’d been pulled, what room he was in, his body spun. There was no surprise in his gaze when it found hers. She hadn’t seen his dark blue eyes sparkle with unspoken wonder in a very long time. Now they were always stormy and tumultuous, just like the ocean upon which his people lived.
“Kasiandra, you came,” he said, his voice smooth and unwavering, confident in his authority. The sound brought a shiver to her skin. Kasiandra’d’Rokaro was her name in the world below. Her true name. The one her mother gave her. Though it sounded false, like a lie, every time she heard it.
“My liege,” she murmured. “I have news.”
“The trials have barely begun,” he said, words pronounced like a question.
“They haven’t yet begun. That’s part of my news.”
His dark-blond brows furrowed, but he kept his lips shut, nodding once.
Cassi continued, “A dragon reached the House of Peace.”
His eyes widened a fraction, the only ounce of surprise he let show, and they remained that way, slightly surprised and slightly concerned as she reviewed the events of the past day. The fight with the dragon. Lyana and the raven. The delay of the trials. And lastly, the most important update of all: “Lyana said she’s going to choose the raven prince as her mate. There was something else, something she wouldn’t tell me though I could see the barest glimmer of a secret burning in the corners of her eyes, something about him, about what happened between them. I’m sure I’ll figure it out eventually, but I wanted to come as soon as I heard, so you could prepare. At the end of the week, she’ll be journeying to the House of Whispers. And that’s where she’ll be on the eve of her eighteenth birthday.”
“You’re sure?” he asked, dark ribbons of concern weaving through the words.
Cassi nodded, hating to bring an even greater burden. “I’m sure.”
“I thought her father wanted her mated with the prince from the House of Flight.”
“He did,” Cassi agreed. “That’s what I heard him tell his mate and his advisors, but I know Lyana. When she wants something, she gets it. And I’ve never seen her want anything more. The look in her eyes—it was the same one she gets when we go to the edge, when she looks out at the world. So much unspoken desire to see it all, to go everywhere, to explore.”
For a moment his gaze became light and wistful, as though he understood the hopes of a princess he had never seen but knew intimately, as though he sympathized with them. The moment passed.
Cassi trudged on, ignoring the stinging in her chest, the needling prick of an emotion she didn’t want to face. “Trust me. The raven prince will be her mate before the week is through.”
“This changes things,” he said under his breath, then remained quiet for a few seconds. When he looked back at her, endless calculations were spinning in his dark pupils. “You did good work. Excellent work. Come back when the trials are over to confirm, and I’ll update you on the new