The Raven and the Dove (The Raven and the Dove #1) - Kaitlyn Davis Page 0,86

nodded, mouth too dry for words, because she knew what was coming. It had been all she could think about during the long flight to the House of Whispers, with nothing to distract her but clear blue and dull gray, and a mind too imaginative for its own good.

The creases at the corners of her king’s eyes deepened for a moment as he took note of her solemn mood, but as always, he moved past it and on to business. “I’ve decided on a course of action for the invinci.”

She nodded again.

This time, her throat constricted. As her king continued to outline his plan, a flame in her chest stretched out to her fingers and down to her toes, making her numb and incandescent all at once. Protests stirred in her stomach, but none reached her lips. The longer they festered, the more nauseous she became. Sick and ill. Disgusted and ashamed. As though each order he gave chipped away at her, bit by bit, until she was worried that by the end of it, there would be nothing left—of Cassi, of Kasiandra, of either.

But she could do this one final thing.

Especially when it might help save them all.

“We’re depending on you, Kasiandra,” he concluded softly, placing his hand, heavy yet reassuring, on her shoulder—as though maybe, just maybe, he understood the weight of what he was asking. Her rubbed his thumb over the edge of her collarbone before dropping his arm. Her body leaned forward, chasing his touch.

Malek…

The word danced across her mind before she could stop it, control it, remember who he was. My king. My king. My king. Thinking of him as anything else was too painful.

Cassi straightened her back. “I won’t let you down, my liege.”

The dream dissolved.

Though normally she liked to linger in his rooms, her spirit couldn’t wait to fly away—from his words, from his commands, from his all-too-knowing gaze. Cassi raced back into the fog, losing herself in the impenetrable mist, not pausing until the lights of the floating city had disappeared behind her and all she could hear was the thunder of the ocean instead of the thunder of her dreaming-heart, pounding and pounding with all the words she didn’t have the strength to say. No. No. No. She pushed the king from her thoughts and focused on the one good thing he’d requested she do—make a quick stop to see her mother.

Cassi was three when her magic made itself known. In a world of endless ocean and fog, resources were scarce and magic scarcer still. Everyone who had the gift was handed over to the crown to provide whatever service needed, and in Cassi’s case, with her very rare, very specialized magic, that service had been subterfuge. Within a month of discovering her dreamwalking, she’d been ripped from her mother’s arms, smuggled to the floating isle above, and deposited in a frozen tundra to be discovered by a troop of doves on their daily patrol. She hadn’t seen her mother since, not in flesh and blood, the way that truly counted. But she’d never forgotten the scent of her mother’s soul—salty air mixed with sugary-sweet magic and the slightest smoky burn of time spent chasing dragons.

Cassi used that to find her through the mist.

The ship wasn’t far, and she came upon it fast, slipping through the wooden boards, floating into the captain’s room, where a woman slept. Her tawny skin was etched with wrinkles and her brown hair streaked with gray, though the colorful fabric twisted around her curls made it difficult to tell.

Captain Audezia’d’Rokaro.

Her mother.

She slept curled on her side in trousers and a loose shirt. A pair of worn leather boots stood by the bed. A black overcoat, roughly sewn yet warm and sturdy, hung from a post. But Cassi’s eyes went straight to the singular deep-brown wing with spots of white folded against her mother’s back. In the darkness of the cabin, it looked dull and muddy, but in the light of the sun, it was a dazzling copper. Once upon a time, in a different life, her mother had belonged to the House of Prey. But she’d been tossed over the edge when they discovered her magic, becoming one of the lucky few to survive the long fall to the world below.

Cassi pressed her palm to her mother’s brow and dove into her dream, fighting the torrent as she warped the image to one of her own making. An endless grassy field. A cloudless blue sky. A