Cassi broke off as her voice cracked. She turned her face to the side, staring into the dark corners of the cave with so much intensity Lyana wondered what memory she saw within the shadows.
"When I got to the ship you were already inside," she said, voice hollow. "Malek told me Xander had seen too much, and ordered me to stay behind to kill him. I didn’t want to, but he used his magic to hold me down until you were out of sight. I should've followed. I should've ignored him and raced after you. I should've done so many things, but I was afraid. Of facing you. Of facing the things I've done. I'm still terrified. But I realized something. If I stay frozen in my fear, it will never go away. The only thing I can do is face it head-on. You might never forgive me, and that's fine. I wouldn't blame you. But at least I'll know I tried. At least I'll know that for once in my life I did something I knew in my heart was right."
Cassi took a deep, shaky breath, finding Lyana's eyes. For her part, Lyana didn’t look away as she let the words sink in, all the memories of her youth tumbling into versions she didn’t recognize, with new questions she'd never in her life thought would be there. Cassi was a spy for Malek? Was that why she'd befriended her? Was that why she'd put up with her? Was their entire friendship a lie?
Then a less selfish thought took over.
What happened to Xander?
"Cassi, did you—" The panic in her voice cut the sentence short, stealing her voice so she couldn't even complete it. But her friend understood.
"No. He's fine, Ana. Furious with me, but alive."
"You told him?"
"He caught me."
"Caught you what?"
Cassi's lips thinned, but she didn't answer. She didn’t have to.
Lyana gasped, her hand coming to her lips to cover the sound. She'd seen Cassi protective before. She knew she was a fierce warrior. But she'd never seen a lethal intent in her eyes like the sharp glint that now shone there. "You didn’t…"
"I tried. And that's not the worst thing I've done, which is why I'm here. There's something I haven't told you, Ana, something I don’t think you'll be able to forgive."
Her heart lurched painfully. "What?"
"Rafe. I—" Cassi's mouth hung open, her chin wobbling as though fighting to say the words, to give them life. A pressure squeezed Lyana's lungs until she felt she couldn't breathe. Her throat burned for lack of air. Her head felt light. "The morning of your mating ceremony, I found him in his mother's rooms at the base of the castle. We fought. And I—I cut off his wings at Malek's bidding, then dropped him over the edge into the Sea of Mist where a ship was waiting to collect him."
Lyana swayed on her feet, her fingers clutching her chest as though to loosen the invisible binds holding her trapped. That day in Da'Kin, she'd been so sure she'd felt him in the crowd, so positive his soul had been one of the many calling out for her, but she'd been looking for a man with wings, for a raven. She hadn’t seen. She hadn't known.
What if he'd needed her?
What if he'd been there pleading and she hadn't listened?
Oh, gods, Rafe. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.
What had he been going through? Her wings had been clipped and that had been hard enough, but to lose them entirely? To lose the sky and his home and everything all at once?
And Cassi had done it.
Cassi!
Cassi and—
"Wait," Lyana spat, finally finding her voice, a fury erupting in her gut like a wave of dragon flames. "You said Malek. You said at Malek's bidding."
"Yes," Cassi answered, her voice no more than a whisper.
"He ordered you to do that to Rafe? He knows he's in the mist? He knows— He knows—"
"He knows everything."
Lyana shut down her emotions, locking them away before they had a chance to overwhelm her. Focus sharpened her mind. When she spoke, her voice was deadly serious. "Where's Rafe now?"
"That's why I came," Cassi said, bracing herself. There was a graveness to her voice, as though the worst had passed and now it was time to get to business. "I saw him earlier this evening, trapped in a warehouse on the outskirts of the city. Malek was there with some of his mages. I don’t know what he's planning, but it has something to do with the dragon his hunters caught. And I'm worried—I'm worried for Rafe. I don't know what the king has told you while he's been teaching you. I don’t know what you know about him or what you think. The two of you share something no one else will understand. But I know Malek in a way you never will, and I know that he's capable of anything, and I mean anything, that he sets his mind to. No matter how ruthless, no matter how cruel, if he deems it necessary, he'll see it done whatever the cost."
So be it. His voice slithered across Lyana's thoughts like a snake through the woods, creeping in and out of the shadows, winding through Cassi's words. When she’d said his plan would lead to war, that countless people would die, that her world would be destroyed, his answer had been, So be it.
"I have to go. How do I get out of here, Cassi? I have to go."
"Just tell yourself to wake up, and you will. Malek always could. I'll come back, if you want me to, if you want more answers, if you want anything at all. Just say the word and I'll come back as soon as I can."
Lyana didn't speak.
The words were stuck on her tongue.
Cassi had lied to her for their entire lives. Cassi had been spying for Malek the whole time. Cassi had tried to kill Xander. Cassi had maimed Rafe.
The friend Lyana thought she knew vanished before her eyes. The wavy brown curls and speckled owl wings were the same, but when she looked into Cassi's eyes, she saw nothing of the girl she loved. All she saw was a stranger.
Cassi's voice was weak, almost pleading, as she repeated one final time, "I'll come back."
Lyana couldn't find the will to answer.
Instead, she held her friend's stare and thought, Wake up.
The last thing she saw before the dream dissolved was a single tear leaking from the corner of Cassi's eye. Then she woke to the dimly lit halls at the base of Malek's castle. Lyana eased herself to her feet and brought her magic to the surface. Elias's spirit hovered peacefully on the other side of the door, but that wasn't all she felt.
Stunning, overwhelming power drew a gasp from her lips, the force of it strong enough to blow her over. And deep within that power, like a familiar song carrying on the breeze, was a soul she recognized, crying out for help.
44
Rafe
The world was on fire. Every inch of his body burned. Rafe couldn't see. He didn’t know which way was up or down. He couldn't feel his limbs, but he could feel the flames. The blaze smothered him. The heat melted his every thought away. There was nothing he could focus on except the pain, which was more excruciating than any he'd felt before, as though his spirit had been tied to a spit and hung within an inferno. The fire wove through every fiber of his soul, like threads spun of flame being sewn to his skin.
Rafe waited for blissful oblivion, but it never came.