And, well, Damien, who needed to have that smug smirk cleanly wiped off his face.
Rafe spun the blades in his hands, loosening his wrists. Damien stretched his smaller wings, violet feathers glittering in the sun, far more lethal than they looked since they made him fast. Impossibly fast. Little more than a blur as the bell chimed, signaling the fight to begin.
Rafe dropped to his knees immediately—downward being the last direction most people would suspect a bird to go—and rolled, anticipating his opponent’s charge. A whiff of air hit his cheek, the narrow miss of a blade’s edge, as the hummingbird prince attempted to strike. Rafe shoved his weapon up, metal ringing as the sword found a shield. A string of vibrations coursed through his arm, but Rafe ignored the sting and launched into the air. Damien followed.
The gods, he’s fast! Rafe silently cursed as he searched for the prince, blinking as a flash of purple caught the corner of his eye and spinning toward the blur. He held his swords in an X, stopping the prince’s blade a moment before it struck true. This time, his entire body reverberated with the blow. The hummingbird wasn’t playing. If Rafe hadn’t realized it from the strength of his hit, he knew it from the seething light in Damien’s eyes as the prince hovered for a beat before yanking his sword free.
This wasn’t a game or a test.
It was a battle, through and through.
Rafe snapped his wings closed and dropped ten feet, escaping the swing of a shield, an attack the prince wouldn’t neglect to attempt, obvious as it was. Before Rafe had time to balance his weight, the prince was there, dangerously swift, swinging his blade. Rafe kicked the center of the hummingbird’s chest, using the momentum to soar out of the arc of his weapon.
Think.
Think.
Damien was fast, but Rafe could be faster. He could be better.
Then he heard it. A gentle buzzing sound filtered into his ear, growing louder, into a—
A hum.
A hum!
Rafe widened his eyes as the realization hit, twisting toward the sound just in time to lift his dual swords, catching the prince’s blow with one arm and lashing out with the other, this time forcing his foe to retreat.
A hum.
Of course, a hum.
Rafe didn’t need to be faster—he just needed to listen. Damien’s speed was the very thing that gave him away. As with all hummingbirds, his wings flapped so fast they produced a light frequency, a gentle thrumming that was music to Rafe’s ears.
He landed on his feet and closed his eyes. The room grew quiet as he pushed the noise of the crowd away, searching for that singular sound.
There.
Spinning on his heels, Rafe lashed out before Damien had a chance to attempt an attack. The prince retreated, rapidly shifting directions as Rafe charged, swinging his twin blades in sweeping arcs, high then low, left then right, kneeling and using his wing to knock the prince off balance before making for his thigh to draw first blood.
The hummingbird jumped, narrowly escaping.
Rafe remained on the ground, daring the prince to come back and face him.
The game took place three more times before the bell chimed once, the ding lingering as it stretched across the arena, signaling their time was almost up, signaling their fight would end in a tie.
But that couldn’t happen—Rafe couldn’t let it.
He needed to win. Xander needed to win. The ravens needed to win. So, he did the last thing he wanted to do, a cheap trick in such a setting, and took a deep breath before releasing his piercing shriek.
The hummingbird became visible immediately. His wingbeats slowed and his form turned solid. He blinked, confused for a second.
A second was all Rafe needed.
Before Damien’s vision had time to clear, Rafe was there, sword pressed against the prince’s throat, victorious. And while he wished he could say the urge to glance at Ana never crossed his mind, that was a lie—although he did stop himself from acting on the impulse, instead gluing his eyes to the ground as he waited for his next opponent to step forward.
Rafe fought four more times, won three and tied with the dove prince, refusing to use his raven cry again. Because he didn’t need to. Everyone else had lost at least once except for him, and even with a tie, the committee declared him the winner. He had closed out the first day of tests at the head of the flock.
Tonight, he would sleep well.
Tomorrow, he would compete in games of strategy and intellect.
And then he would be done.
Whatever happened, he would be done, and he’d deal with the consequences as they came. For now, he kept his head down and his mind blank as he left the arena, and those dazzling emerald eyes, behind him.
26
Lyana
“I did it, Cassi. I won,” Lyana exclaimed as she swept into her best’s friend room the following night, weary from the tests, yet rejuvenated by the thrill of victory coursing through her veins, lighting her every nerve on fire. “I get first pick for the girls! I won!”
Cassi sat before the crystal wall to the outside, her back turned to Lyana, wings draped across the floor. At the sound of Lyana’s voice, she drew herself up. “You won?”
Her tone was dubious at best.
“Yes, I won,” Lyana confirmed indignantly, landing on Cassi’s bed, still bouncing with energy. “Did you doubt me?”
Cassi glanced over her shoulder, one sharp brow raised over the rim of her reading glasses. “You didn’t cheat, did you?”
Lyana glared at her friend. “No.”
“Because the strength tests, I expected you to do well with those, but the mental examinations…?” Cassi trailed off, letting the implication hang for a few moments.
“Oh, stuff it." Lyana threw a pillow at her face. "I beat you at games of strategy all the time.”
Her friend dodged the attack easily. By the time she turned around, the edges of her lips had started to twitch. “Yes, but that’s because I let you.”
“You do not.” Lyana wrinkled her nose, then offered a wicked grin of her own. “You’re too sore of a loser to let me beat you at anything.”
Cassi looked at the ceiling as if weighing the truth of Lyana’s statement, then shrugged before crossing over to the bed. After placing her book and glasses on the side table, she collapsed onto the mattress and Lyana dropped by her side. The two of them became a mess of feathers and limbs, a position familiar to them.
“What are you going to do?” Cassi asked, a heaviness Lyana didn’t understand in her voice.
Letting her head fall to the side, Lyana studied her friend, but Cassi’s eyes remained on the ceiling, clouded by thoughts. “My father is sending a note to the House of Flight, requesting a mate match with Damien.”
Cassi’s gaze sharpened as she turned toward Lyana. “You changed your mind?”
It was a hopeful question. One whose answer Cassi already knew, which was why no surprise lit her features as Lyana replied, “No.”
Cassi continued to stare, waiting for an explanation.
Lyana’s elation quickly seeped from her bones, leaving her weary and exhausted, ready to reach the end of the trials, ready to let her new adventure begin. “I told my mother and father I wanted to match with the raven prince. They forbade it. But tomorrow, when the time comes, no matter what deal my father made, the choice will be mine. And I plan to do as I wish.”