Their swords crashed together, the sound echoing off the crystal dome and reverberating around the empty arena. When Lyana attacked again, Cassi rolled to the side and sliced her blade toward her queen’s calf. Lyana jumped and took to the air. Cassi pursued, her speedy owl wings gaining ground, but her friend darted left, then right, shooting up and then plummeting down, her dove wings far more agile in flight. Frustrated, Cassi tossed the sword aside. With a single thought from her, a bow filled her hands and the weight of arrows nestled against her spine. She grinned as she sent one flying.
“Hey!” Lyana shouted as she swerved out of its path. “No fair!”
“Who said anything about fair?”
Cassi released another arrow. Lyana widened her eyes indignantly, her power churning in the background of the dream. She took control of the scene and a belt of daggers appeared around her waist. With a wicked grin, she flung one toward Cassi.
I probably deserved that.
Arching her wings back, she plunged to the ground and skidded to a stop. By the time she pulled the bowstring taut, Lyana had landed. Halfway to her mark, the arrow transformed into a feather and drifted harmlessly to the ground.
Cassi frowned. Two can play at that game.
Snatching back command of the dream, she set her sights on the dagger in Lyana’s hand. The metal tip sprouted a tail, then four limbs, finally emerging as a small monkey that darted up her queen’s arm and leapt into her hair.
“Hey!” Lyana said again, her voice thick with laughter this time as she swatted at the little beast. Cassi made it vanish with a thought.
“Swords?” she asked.
Lyana nodded. “Swords.”
A blade appeared in each of their hands and they crashed together again, needing an outlet for all the energy their waking lives provided no way to expend. They were restless, and in that restlessness, they’d come here for the third night in a row. Saving the world made one a lot more stir crazy than Cassi had thought possible.
“Is Malek still sailing?”
“Yes,” she grunted as she parried Lyana’s attack, her teeth clenching at the mention of the king. Spying on him was not going according to plan. The man had his castle on lockdown. No one spoke outside of his presence, at least not about anything interesting. And every time she got within earshot of his meetings, they fell silent. He could sense her within moments, perfectly attuned to her spirit after so many years of shared dreams. And as much as she wanted to confront him and scream at him and beg him to put her body right, she refused to be the one to break. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem as though her king had plans to relent or apologize anytime soon. “He’s been in the open ocean for days. I have no idea where he’s going, and he can sense my spirit before I even see his ship through the fog. It’s infuriating.”
Lyana sighed.
Cassi used the opening to swing for her exposed left side, but Lyana spun away, refocusing on the fight in an instant. She advanced. Cassi blocked. They traded blows.
“What about Rafe?”
“Also still on the open ocean. Last I saw he was still trying to figure out how the whole communicating-with-dragons thing works, but he hasn’t run into one again. I would’ve heard the crew talking.”
Lyana ducked and sliced with her blade. Cassi jumped over it. They met back in the middle, metal ringing.
“He won’t go to the House of Peace?”
“Not yet.”
“His shipmates?”
“Let’s just say they aren’t exactly enthused about the idea of fleeing to a place where magic is forbidden. Oh—or a place that’s fifteen thousand feet in the air and ready to crumble.”
“It’s not…” Lyana protested weakly.
Cassi arched a brow.
In a burst of frustration, Lyana surged forward on the attack. Knowing exactly how to mentally and physically put Cassi on the defensive, she then asked, “Have you spoken to your mother?”
Low blow.
Cassi lifted her foot and kicked Lyana in the breastbone, forcing her back as she took to the sky. In an effort at honesty, she’d confessed to Captain Rokaro’s true identity, and not a day went by when she wished she hadn’t. Their relationship was complicated, now more than ever, and while she might have been able to ignore her mother’s obvious avoidance, Lyana wouldn’t let her. Captain Rokaro wasn’t sleeping—at least not during any of the times Cassi had tried to pay her a visit. She was hiding something, something big, and it was driving her daughter mad with curiosity.
“Obviously not, or I would’ve told you,” Cassi said, the words coming out in short bursts between quick breaths as her body grew labored with the fight. “How go things with Queen Zara?”
It was Lyana’s turn to groan. “Fine.”
“Fine?”
“In truth, I’ve stopped attending the meetings. There’s no point in just sitting there as she and Xander review logs and take notes and talk endlessly about any number of subjects I don’t care about when all I can focus on is the rift, and the magic, and the countdown running in the back of my mind.”
“Xander’s well?” Cassi asked, doing her best to keep her voice even, though just the sound of his name on her lips made her heart thunder.
Lyana rolled her eyes, unaware. “If the House of Whispers weren’t lying somewhere beneath the ocean right now, I’d say he was having the time of his life.”
For some reason, that made her chest twinge. “Oh, good.”
“Great,” her queen said, the tone implying anything but. “Except we’re not here to plan every little movement of the House of Paradise. We’re here to prevent a war. We’re here to open people’s eyes to the beauty of magic. We’re here to try to figure out how to close the rift and seal off the dragons and save the world, but no matter how much time I spend in their sacred nest with my hands pressed against the stone, I can’t figure out a gods-damned thing.”
That last word turned into a yell as she charged.
Cassi sidestepped easily. “Training is going that well, then?”
“I don’t know how to teach them.” Lyana spoke through heavy breathing, dejection evident in her tone and in her person as her blows weakened. She was, of course, talking about her army—though Cassi wasn’t sure three ravens and one bird of paradise with absolutely no experience really counted as such. “I only just learned how to use my own magic. I have no idea how to help other mages use theirs. I mean, I’m trying. Don’t get me wrong, I’m doing everything I can. But they need someone else. They need Malek and his mages. And we both know that will never happen.”
No.
Definitely not.
“And I sensed two more mages in the House of Paradise, but I’m not sure what I can do for them even if they will join me. I’m going to speak to them, if for no other reason than to lessen their fear, but I wish I could do more. With all my magic and all my power, I’m so tired of not being able to do more.”
You and me both.
The uselessness was driving her insane. Sure, she kept Lyana informed. Sure, she tried to spy and gather intel. Sure, she acted as messenger, even though the messages had lately been few and far between. But there was only so much aimlessly floating around the sky a spirit could do before one went mad, and she was part bird for crying out loud.
She missed her body.
She missed being alive.
She missed feeling, even if all she remembered feeling lately was pain.
She missed being able to move and do and act and run and fly.
She missed having true wind beneath her wings.
As their anger grew and their muscles weakened, their attacks turned sloppy. Cassi’s body burned, but not in the way that counted. This was all in her mind, in their minds—the sweat, the exhaustion, even the pounding of her blood. And knowing that somehow made it all as useless as everything else.
Tired in more ways than one, Cassi feinted left and Lyana lunged, falling for the ruse. She hooked her sword underneath her queen’s and twisted, flinging it across the practice yard. Before she could right herself, Lyana wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled them both to the ground. They lay there, panting, as they stared at the blue sky through the crystal ceiling overhead. Another lie. They weren’t back home, just as they weren’t best friends, not anymore, as the silence stretching between them seemed to whisper.
“Lyana?” Cassi finally murmured.
“Hmm?”
“Can I ask for your blessing on something?”
Her queen dropped her head to the side. “What?”
“I’d like to try to free Elias,” she said, not giving Lyana the chance to respond as she hastily continued. “I know we said it was too dangerous before, with Malek there watching. But he’s gone now, and I just— I just— I need to do something.”
A moment passed, then, “Do it, Cassi. Do it so—”
Lyana broke off. She jolted to a seated position, tilting her head as though she’d heard a troubling noise. Cassi had seen Malek behave similarly. It immediately put her on edge.
“What?”
Before she fully got the question out, the dream shattered. Lyana grabbed her spirit and flung it from her mind. She catapulted into the waking world, unable to find her balance, the scene chaotic and loud and refusing to settle. It took a moment for her to understand the truth.
An earthquake.
Lyana jumped from the bed as Xander sat up on the floor. As soon as their eyes met, they launched out the door of their guest quarters and into Hyadria. Cassi followed like a swiftly moving breeze. The trees shook. Rope bridges swayed. All around, wood splintered and groaned, drowned out only by the screams as the citizens took flight, fighting for an avenue through the thick canopy of the forest and into the open sky.
A few minutes passed.
They seemed an eternity before the isle finally fell still.
Cassi didn’t miss how her queen’s hands curled to fists by her sides or the frustration, like the desperation of a caged animal, she exuded. But there was nothing she could do either. As the King and Queen of the House of Whispers flew to help these people, Cassi abandoned them to soar over the edge and back to the room where her body lay as immobile as a corpse upon the floor.
Elias was asleep on his cot.
I’m going to get you out of here, she silently whispered. If it’s the last thing I do, I’m going to get you out of here, so at least one of us will be free.