Staring up at the stars glittering in the night sky, she let her heart slow down and found balance. The stars seemed different somehow. Brighter. Just different. As though they’d shifted while she dwelt in the shadows of the cave and now were arranged in a more significant way, aligned in a pattern that had to mean something.
Cassi landed in front of Lyana, blurting, “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine.” She kept her gaze on the sky.
“What happened? Did he… Are you…” Cassi shook her head as her feathers bristled. “Just tell me what happened.”
Lyana dropped her chin, noticing that her friend’s gray eyes seemed molten with concern and fear. Yet her own face was entirely different. A slow grin pulled at her cheeks as a wave of emotions bubbled beneath her skin—confusing and overwhelming but undeniably good. Her blood had turned to hummingbird nectar, making her light-headed and giddy with the fizz.
“He’s the crown prince,” Lyana murmured.
Cassi frowned. “What?”
“He’s the crown prince,” Lyana repeated, her voice between a whisper and a shriek. “I saw the royal seal hanging from a chain around his neck. I asked him, and he didn’t deny it.”
Actually, she’d teased him. She’d pushed and prodded, testing his limits, trying to see how far charm could take her.
He’d been gruff, and a bit of a grump, which was understandable, of course, given the circumstances. But there had been a moment, right at the end, when he’d bit, and she’d bit right back. Something had flashed in his eyes, making them seem bottomless and tumultuous, just the way she always imagined the ocean beneath the Sea of Mist might be. Then he’d been sorry, and so kind. Honest and compassionate, vulnerable in a way she was too afraid to be.
And she’d fled.
Lyana sighed—an airy, breathy sound.
Cassi did too, but her sigh was frustrated and annoyed, laced with stress. “He’s the crown prince? Are you serious?”
“Why are you always asking me that?”
“Why are you always saying things I can’t believe are possibly true?”
“Don’t you see how amazing this is?” Lyana asked, her head still in the stars.
Cassi gripped her shoulders, pulling her back down. “Don’t you see how complicated this makes things? He’s the Crown Prince of the House of Whispers. That changes everything. We’ll need to let him go before the trials. We’ll need to release him. And what if he recognizes you? What if he reveals your secret? What if—”
“He won’t.”
“Won’t what?”
Lyana held Cassi's gaze, taking her hands and squeezing them. “He won’t reveal my secret.”
Cassi’s wings drooped as strength abandoned her, her head falling slightly to the side as a warm yet pitying look took over her face. “How do you know that? You can’t. You’re too trusting, Ana. Too sheltered by your station in life to understand how awful people can be.”
Lyana held back her retort. She knew he wouldn’t reveal her secret, because he had a secret of his own—one he would want kept at all costs as well. But that secret belonged to him. It wasn’t hers to share, not even with her best friend.
“Maybe I’m naïve,” she said instead, with a shrug. “Or maybe I’m too optimistic, but he promised, Cassi. He promised me, and I believe him.”
Her friend remained unconvinced.
But Lyana’s next words were sure to change her mind. “Besides, he wouldn’t sentence his own mate to death.”
“His own…” Cassi's eyes darted back and forth as she considered the meaning of that sentence. Then they widened almost comically. “Ana! You’re going to pick a raven?” Her disbelief was acute. “You know what everyone whispers. That they’re cursed. That the gods are turning their backs on them. They’re notoriously secretive. Notoriously wary of outsiders. You haven’t even met the princes of the other houses, haven’t even seen them.”
Lyana shrugged. “I don’t care. I don’t need to. He’s going to be my mate, whether he wants to or not.”
Cassi rolled her eyes, but Lyana was serious. The moment she had seen the silver glow of his unblemished skin, the second she had spotted the ring dangling from his neck, the instant she had met those impossibly deep eyes, she had known exactly what she was going to do. Because he already knew her grave secret, which meant she would have nothing to hide. She could be herself. And that was all she’d ever wanted in a mate—someone who saw the real girl beneath the princess and accepted her.
All the fear that had been coiling in her gut the past few weeks was gone. All the uncertainty. All the nerves. They’d vanished.
Instead, there was just stubborn anticipation, and a newfound eagerness to let the courtship trials begin.
“I’m going to be the Queen of the House of Whispers,” Lyana told to her friend as a cold breeze brushed against her cheek, carrying an undeniable hum of joy. Was it Aethios, the god of the sky, quietly giving his approval? Or was it her new god, Taetanos, master of fate, murmuring that his plans were falling into place?
Cassi shook her head, as though aware that resistance would be futile when Lyana was in a mood like this. “How are you going to pick him, if he’s not even there to participate in the tests?”
“He will be,” Lyana said innocently, finally stepping out of Cassi’s embrace. “Because we’re coming back tomorrow afternoon so I can finish healing him.”
“We’re what?” Cassi cried.
But Lyana had already launched into the sky, leaving her friend in a cloud of snow. Cassi raced after her, catching up easily, but Lyana refused to stop. Instead, she flew in carefree circles, dipping and diving as they made their way home to the crystal spires of Sphaira, her mood a joyful bubble no prickly glance from her friend could burst.
The main doors of the palace were still open when they got back, though the traffic had died down. Lyana was sure one of the guards had recognized her, even as she dropped her hood low, almost to her nose. Perhaps they knew it was their princess sneaking into and out of the palace at all times of day and just kept quiet, a silent pact to give her some freedom while they could. Some of them were her friends, and the others had spent their lives watching her grow up. They were acquainted with the spirit that lived inside of her—the spirit with wild wings that time would slowly clip away, the spirit they could help keep alive a little while longer.
Lyana followed Cassi to her room, pausing just outside the door.
“Tell Luka I send my good night,” she said, even as Cassi widened her eyes in silent protest. They didn’t speak much about what went on between her friend and her brother, but it was there. And it would end tonight, that much Lyana knew. Come tomorrow evening, he would be on his way to finding his mate, just like her. And after their vows to the gods, there was nothing more important than the vows they would make to their mates, to honor and protect and love. To be faithful. “Tell him he doesn’t have to worry about me and I’m not afraid of what tomorrow will bring, not anymore.”
Something sad flickered in Cassi's eyes, but Lyana let it go. One thing she’d learned about her friend was that if she wanted to talk, she would. And if she didn’t, no amount of pressure would make her.