The Raven and the Dove (The Raven and the Dove #1) - Kaitlyn Davis Page 0,96
wasn’t in his head. His princess had taken off and her ivory wings pumped as she raced around the room, darting and dropping and twisting as her attention jumped from one spot to another. At first, he didn’t believe his eyes.
Then, with a sinking feeling, he did.
Because her arms weren’t full of books, and her focus wasn’t on the shelves but on the windows. The longer he watched, the more she began to remind him of the firebugs he and his brother used to catch as children—how they zipped and zoomed in the little glass jars, glowing like magic in the dark. Once he and Rafe had fallen asleep before they remembered to release them, and when they woke, the bugs were nothing more than motionless black pellets at the bottom of the glass. He had turned the jar over, trying to release them back into the air, but they’d simply fallen to the ground and disappeared between the blades of grass. It was only then that he realized all the buzzing in circles hadn’t been a show for his benefit, but a desperate attempt by the bugs to get out of the jar. He never caught them again after that.
“The view is spectacular,” Lyana marveled, nose against the glass as though if she pressed hard enough, she could be outside, too.
Xander cast another longing glance at the fireplace before straightening his shoulders and walking across the room to open one of the windows. The wind whistled as it rushed through the crack, ruffling the pages all around him. Lyana was by his side in a second. Xander gestured toward the landscape, pretending this was what he’d wanted to show her, trying to infuse his words with an enthusiasm he could no longer feel.
“From here, you can see the entire city of Pylaeon,” he told her. Lyana was enraptured, unaware of the lack of luster in his tone. “Taetanos’s Gate is that spot of white all the way over there between the mountains, and you can see the sun glinting off the river as it cuts through the center of the valley and into the city. The wooden homes along the outer edges are for the more modest ravens, while the stone ones closer to the castle and city center are home to some of the people you’ve been meeting. I don’t know if you can see, but over by the river, most of the buildings are on stilts or columns because during spring, the snow melts and the river spills over its embankments, flooding the streets. And do you notice the black archways spotting the city? There’s one to the left over there, and another over there, and there and there. Well, we call them spirit gates. They lead lost souls through the maze of our city and toward the river so they can follow the water to the entrance of Taetanos’s world. At least, that’s what we’re told as children. And that over there is the main town square, though it’s more of a rectangle really, since the river cuts between the two halves. The bridge connecting each side is the widest and flattest one in the city. And the fountains on either side siphon water from the river to make them shoot into the air like that. Every month there’s a market that gets set up and everyone in the town goes just to gossip, even if they have nothing to sell and no money to buy things. This time of year, children sometimes swim in the shallows of the fountains. But in the winter, the water often freezes over, and they hold hands while they slip and slide across the ice. I used to watch them all the time as a child, wishing I could go out and join them, but I never did, because, well, you of all people must understand why. Anyway…”
He trailed off, unsure what else to say. But he didn’t have to speak. Even without his words, her eyes widened, focusing on the smallest details as though trying to memorize everything she saw, as though trying to drink it all in.
After a few moments, she blinked, only then realizing he’d stopped talking, and turned to him with a curious groove on her brow. “You really love them, don’t you?”
“Huh?” Xander asked. “Who?”
“Your people,” she said, as though it were obvious.
“I’m sure no more than you loved yours,” Xander offered, feeling a little uncomfortable. Surely his actions hadn’t warranted such scrutiny.