slowly. “Crystal.”
“Good.”
The queen snatched her hand away, curling her lip as though touching him had left a distasteful smell in the air, and smoothed the folds of her dress before leaving. Rafe clenched his fists until his whole body began to shake. Only when the clicking of her heels faded did he release his tension to fall back against the nearest wall, painfully crushing his wings.
The queen was right.
This was Rafe’s fault.
Rafe’s mess.
And he had to fix it.
Xander thought the princess was upset because he was somehow less than she’d expected, but he was wrong. This had nothing to do with his hand. Nothing to do with him. Nothing even to do with Rafe. Ana—
Lyana, he corrected. Not Ana. Never Ana again.
Princess Lyana Aethionus.
His brother’s mate.
His brother’s queen.
What was it she’d said to him on the dance floor?
Call me crazy, she’d murmured as he twirled her inside the curtain of his wings, but I thought maybe you’d be excited, like I was, when you discovered there’d be a princess at the trials who already knew your deepest secret, a person from whom you didn’t have to hide.
That was all she had wanted, all that had propelled her actions. Not a desire for Rafe, but a desire for what she thought he offered—freedom. Maybe he could show her that Xander offered the same thing. That Xander would accept her for who she was. That Xander was a better man than he could ever hope to be, a better man for her. Maybe then she’d forget about a few stolen moments in the dark. She’d forget about him.
The very idea stole the breath from his lungs.
But Rafe would do it.
He had to.
30
Lyana
With Cassi’s help, Lyana successfully avoided the ravens for the rest of the evening, hiding in her room, getting her meal delivered, spending the night staring at the crystal palace that had never seemed so far away, and waking bleary-eyed and run down the next morning.
“You can’t greet your parents looking like that,” Cassi said after taking one glance at Lyana. “They’ll know something’s up.”
Though she couldn’t see herself, Lyana had no doubt her eyes were red and puffy, and that the normal cheer was gone from her face. She sighed. “I know.”
“Well, come here. Let me see what I can do,” Cassi grumbled, slipping on her glasses for the attention to detail required by the task. Lyana spun, granting her friend full rein. Immediately, nimble fingers began shifting through her head, folding and twisting her many braids into a perfectly royal crown of hair.
“This can’t all be about a man,” her friend said as she worked. “That’s not the Ana I know.”
“It’s not. It’s—” The words caught in Lyana's throat.
It’s not about a man, she told herself. It’s not.
But maybe it was…a little.
Watching him turn and face that dragon had been the bravest thing she’d ever seen. And their two magics dancing beneath his skin had felt deeper than any kiss she’d ever experienced. And when she’d dropped the edge of her knife from his neck, she’d given him more than her trust in his promise to keep her secret. She’d given him a piece of her heart as well.
A piece he’d crushed.
Now the two of them would be bound by a secret no one could ever know, not even her mate. Which meant this man, whose name she still didn’t know, would have his claws in her forever.
“It’s not about a man,” Lyana repeated, more gruffly this time. Cassi yanked a little too hard on her hair, a silent protest that elicited a hiss of pain, but nothing else. “It’s about my life.”
Cassi sighed theatrically. “It’s so tough being a princess.”
Lyana planted an elbow in her friend’s ribs. “I thought I was going to have a mate who knew my deepest secret, who knew and didn’t care. And now all of that is gone. Can I not wallow in self-pity for a little while?”
“Nope,” Cassi chirped, nudging Lyana to turn around.
Lyana met Cassi's raised eyebrows with a matching set. Cassi pinched her cheeks to bring some color back to her dark skin, then reached across the bed and dipped the corner of the sheet in a jug of water before pressing it to Lyana’s eyelids to reduce their swelling.
“Everyone has secrets, Ana," she continued. "Everyone. The prince had a secret. The ravens had a secret. Your magic doesn’t define you. So what if that imposter knows about it, as long as he keeps quiet? Maybe the prince will never