Sleep was overrated.
At least, that’s what Cassi told herself as she followed the raven prince around the ballroom. Her soul was weary, and she struggled to hold on to her power, fighting the lure of the pillow beneath her head where her body rested on the other end of the palace. The ballroom was bright enough to be blinding. The movement of so many fluttering wings and sashaying dresses was going to give her a headache. And her ears were ringing from the hum of so much conversation.
Yet Cassi fought to hold on to her power, fought to remain invisible, fought to remain there. Because the longer she’d hovered in the prince’s periphery, the more intrigued she’d become.
At first, she’d only wanted to take a peek at all the finery, all the gifts, all the different houses. But then she’d seen the deep frown settle on his brow as he realized who Lyana was, and she’d been curious at the reaction. Dinner had been a bore and she was almost ready to leave, afraid her eyes would fall out of their sockets from rolling at her best friend’s obvious ploy for his attention, when she overheard his conversation with the queen—a queen who had referred to someone else as her son. Then he’d danced with Lyana, if that was what you would call it, and their words had only confirmed her belief in the single thing that could have made her best friend so determined to call him her mate.
Magic.
Cassi didn’t know what kind the prince possessed, but there was no doubt in her mind he had some sort of power. There was a hum in his blood, an electric sizzle that was undeniable, and she was surprised she hadn’t noticed it before.
Blame it on sleep deprivation, she thought with a sigh as she continued to float behind him. The ball was drawing to an end, as was the first official night of the courtship trials. Tomorrow the real games would start, with two full days of tests before a day of deliberation. The following morning, the mate matches would be announced—and that was when Cassi’s real work would begin.
She’d rest tomorrow.
Tonight, she was too intrigued.
As the flock of ravens left the crystal palace, Cassi followed, no more than a phantom in the wind as they traversed the city, making for the guest quarters belonging to the House of Whispers. As soon as the raven queen and her son walked through the door, another man emerged from the shadows, stopping Cassi in her tracks.
“What happened?” the second man asked, his voice carrying the sort of authority only high birth could provide. That alone would have hinted at his identity, but one glance into his lavender eyes, and she knew without a doubt this was the son the queen had mentioned—the true Lysander Taetanus. “Who did you meet? How did it go?”
The imposter grunted and pushed his way past, not bothering to stop. The true prince let him, smiling as he turned to the queen. “That well, Mother?”
She wrinkled her nose. “He was passable.”
Lysander lifted the corner of his lip, in a good mood the queen couldn't spoil. Cassi instantly decided she liked him. “That’s a better review than I’d even hoped from you.”
She huffed. “I’m tired, Lysander. And you've already made it apparent you have no regard for my opinion, so I would assume it matters very little what I think. I’ll be in my rooms if you need me, preparing for yet another day when I’ll have to slap a smile on my lips as I make a mockery of our most sacred ceremony. Good night.”
His head twitched as though he’d been slapped, and he stood slack-jawed for a moment as the queen swept from the room, her voluminous skirt rustling as she walked away. Cassi grinned as he shook the stunned expression from his features.
“Will no one tell me what in Taetanos’s name happened?”
A petite woman stepped up to the prince, throwing her arm awkwardly over his shoulders. “Rafe caught the attention of the Princess of the House of Peace.”
The prince showed his surprise. “The daughter of Aethios?”
“One and the same,” the woman said, stepping back. She held out her hands as though to show they were empty of the answers to the questions in his eyes.
He clasped her arm, and that was when Cassi noticed his right hand—or, really, his lack thereof—and suddenly, everything became clear. They were using a fake prince to hide his deformity—something so innocuous it had taken her five minutes in his presence to even notice, but something so obstructive to the trials.
“My surly brother? You’re sure?” the prince asked, leaning close to the woman as though the proximity could help him understand what she was saying.
Brother? Cassi frowned.
He wasn’t a member of the royal family or he’d be in the trial, surely. She thought back to his stilted conversation with the queen, how the woman had made an effort to distance him from even the pretend role of playing her son.
A bastard, maybe, she wondered, of the late king?
“Lyana Aethionus might be my mate?” the prince muttered, voice clouded with disbelief.
The statement made Cassi freeze. Her curiosity turned into a sour, bitter taste on her tongue. The questions withered away, disappearing in an instant, as a painful knot curled in her gut at this new betrayal she’d be forced to endure. Because Lyana had no idea that the prince she thought she had met was a lie, and Cassi could never be the one to tell her—not without explaining the other secrets she’d been keeping all these years, which were far too important to expose before it was time, before her king was ready. Instead, she’d have to listen to her friend go on and on, plastering a smile on her face as her insides turned rotten, preparing to pick the pieces up when the truth came crashing down, as she was sure it eventually would.
But that was her role in life.
To lie.
To hurt.
To deceive.
Cassi drifted away from this trickster prince and his excited smile that had become sinister in her eyes, away from the imposter who had made her best friend believe he might be her salvation, away from the ravens and the conspiracy they had unintentionally roped her into. Her soul let go of the magic and she flew across the city, snapping back into her body. By the time she opened her eyes, there was a knock on her door, a chirping little bum-bum-bum that left no doubt as to who was on the other side.
Cassi winced.
She folded her wings to cover her face, as though hiding her shame might make it less real. But it didn’t. And the churning nausea remained even as she rolled to a seated position, wiping the sleep from her eyes and the grimace from her lips, trying to muster the will to stand and unlock her door.
It doesn’t matter, she told herself, closing her eyes and running her hands over her cheeks, through her hair, pushing loose strands from her face. It doesn’t matter who she picks as her mate, because she’s the queen who was prophesied. My queen. The queen who will save us all. And her mate is fifteen thousand feet below, waiting for her on a foggy sea. What happens in these trials is inconsequential. Irrelevant. It doesn’t matter.
Cassi could have repeated the mantra a million times, and it still wouldn’t have changed the way her heart dropped when she opened the door and stared into her friend’s sparkling eyes. Nothing would have—nothing but finally speaking the truth.
A few more weeks.
A few more weeks and this will all be over.
A few more weeks and I’ll be done.
A few more weeks—
“Cassi, you wouldn’t believe everything that happened,” Lyana gushed as she stepped into the room, not bothering with a hello as she flopped onto Cassi’s bed and fell back, dramatic as ever, letting her wings drape over the edges as every muscle in her body relaxed.
Cassi eyed her friend, trying to shrug off the lies and the guilty mood to sink back into the life that took place outside of her dreaming hours. “I have no doubt you’re going to tell me anyway.”