The gentle thud of a heartbeat stirred Lyana from her slumber. Warm arms held her close, leaving her calmer and more peaceful than she could ever remember. She didn’t need to open her eyes to know who it was. His spirit called out to hers, steadfast and true. The fingers gently stroking her cheek were as familiar as her own, she’d felt them so often in her dreams. The gentle scratching of his rough knuckles lured her back to the world.
“Rafe.”
“I’m here,” he murmured, the deep timbre of his voice sending a shiver down her spine. “You’re safe.”
His blue eyes held more promise than the vast open sky as she lifted her hand to trace the chiseled curve of his jaw. “I told you I’d come back for you,” she said, a smile tugging at her lips. “But I guess you beat me to it. How did you know?”
“That you’d be in the most dangerous place possible?” His mouth twisted into a grin. “Experience.”
She rolled her eyes. “I meant that the isle was falling.”
“I—” The humor vanished from his face, leaving dark shadows in its place. Shame burned at the edges of his soul, a stain she wished she could wipe clean. “I heard it.” He swallowed the knot in his throat. “I heard it waking up.”
The creature.
Cassi had told her about his nightmares, about his communication with the dragons, about his interaction with the shadow beast. He was connected to them somehow, a fact that clearly grated at his thoughts.
“Good,” she said simply, not giving his discomfort space to thrive. “If you hadn’t, I’d be dead. Where are they?”
“Gone…for now.”
Lyana nodded, understanding the unspoken implication—they’d be back. Though she wanted to remain in his arms all day, there was no time for her own desires. Already, the souls of the injured called out to her from across the city, their pain and yearning too great to ignore. She was a queen first and a woman second, no matter how much she wished it could be different. Dropping her hand from his cheek, she pushed off his lap with a sigh.
“How long have I been asleep?”
“Not long,” he said, following her to his feet. “Half an hour, maybe.”
“And the isle’s been steady?”
He knitted his brows. “What?”
“The ground hasn’t moved? It’s been stable?”
Rafe glanced around, as though only just realizing the truth in the statement, and nodded, more confused than before. “How?”
“When the House of Whispers fell, I was too weak after the tidal wave, and I got there too late to stop it from sinking into the sea. But this time…” The walls of the sacred nest were fissured, the trees broken, the birds once housed within long gone, but the ground was steady under her feet. It didn’t sway. It didn’t shake. The isle was level—set. “I think I saved the House of Paradise. Instead of thinking it was falling into the sea, I tried to envision it returning to the soil beneath the water. This land once belonged here, before our homes were lifted into the sky. I focused on that. I thought of the cliffs as tears and breaks, I thought of the deep-sea floor as a vacant cavity, and I healed them, like I would a person. I healed the earth, and I think it worked. Now the isle is just that—an island, surrounded by water instead of air.”
Laughter, full of pride and marvel, spilled from her lips. If she could preserve the isles, then maybe her people’s way of life wouldn’t die. Sure, she still had to figure out how to prevent a war from breaking out between the avians and the mages, how to ease their fear of the world within the mist, how to seal the rift, and how to stop the eggs from hatching, but it was a start. Maybe she could do this. Maybe she truly would save the world.
“Ana.”
The hesitant scratch to his voice brought her back. Worry coiled like unruly threads in her gut. “What? What is it?”
“There’s something I think I should tell you.”
“Are you injured? Is someone hurt?”
“No, no,” he rushed to say, taking a step closer. “It’s nothing like that. It’s something my captain told me this morning, something I’m not sure how to believe.”
She tilted her head, studying him. “What?”
“She said— She said—” He turned his face to the side as a breath escaped his lips. Lyana reached for his hand. Their fingers danced across the silence, his every move making her heart flutter. The flames along his wings dampened, the light growing softer, almost romantic against the darkness of the night. When he finally looked back at her, his eyes smoldered. “She thinks I’m the King Born in Fire.”
A gasp escaped her lips.
“I know it sounds ridiculous,” he said, shaking his head as he tightened his grip on her hand. “But it also, somehow, might be true.”
Before she could answer, he launched into an explanation, reviewing his time beneath the mist and his interactions with the dragons, his nightmares and his experiments, his conversation with his captain. Lyana half listened, but the other half of her mind was spiraling back, back, back to that morning on the sky bridge. Meeting him had felt like fate, like destiny. The dragon being there. His being alone. Her watching. And later in the caves, as their magic merged in the firelight, their spirits had grazed, the touch like two halves of one whole finally rejoining. He’d been a stranger, yet at the same time a soul mate, no matter how insane it had seemed. They’d been drawn together, time and time again, no obstacles able to stand in their way, almost as though a force outside of their control had willed it.
“I don’t believe it. I can’t believe it,” he murmured, his voice softening. “But they were right. Against those monsters, I’m the only person in the world who can protect you.”
And he would.
Lyana could feel the promise in his touch, could hear it simmering in the back of his throat, could see it churning in his gaze. No matter what she said, no matter how she answered, he would spend the rest of his life keeping her safe. Because he loved her. Because he believed in her. Because despite all that had come between them, he’d never once turned away. He’d been her prince in the dark, her raven in the night, her dragon in the mist—why couldn’t he be her king, too?
“Rafe.” She took his hand in both of hers and pressed it to her chest, so he could feel the steady beating of her heart. “What if you are the King Born in Fire?”
He sucked in a sharp breath.
For a split second, all his walls came crashing down, and behind them was the boy who’d lost his mother, his father, and his very place in the world all in one devastating night, the man who’d been content to live in his brother’s shadow because at least it was somewhere to call home, the bird who had been a phantom among his own kind, and the beast who knew he would never again blend in. Hope burned like a fire amid so much darkness, shining with the belief that maybe, just maybe, he’d finally found the place where he belonged—by her side.
A blink, and it was gone.
“What if I’m not?”
He stepped back, removing his hand from hers as his jaw clenched. His hooded brows furrowed, with torment, with regret. She stepped forward.
“Rafe—”
“Ana,” he pleaded.
The tone made her freeze. Suddenly, they were no longer in the fog-enshrouded grove at the heart of the fallen House of Paradise, but back in a room now buried beneath the sea, with heavy curtains and thick stone walls, the air full of secrets and sin. They weren’t a king and a queen, but a raven and a dove surrendering to one stolen night that had destroyed so much. She wouldn’t have taken it back, and she knew he wouldn’t either, but there was no denying what their passion had cost them. His relationship with his brother. Her future with her mate. Nearly an entire kingdom.
Now the stakes were even higher.
If they were wrong, if in their desire for each other they allowed themselves to believe in something that might not be true, this time it would cost them the world.
“What should we do?” she asked, helpless and unsure.
“We don’t need to decide anything tonight, but I do know one thing. I’m not leaving you again.”
“But your wings—”
“I don’t care. I’ll keep to the outskirts of the cities. I’ll stay out of sight. I’ll live on the cliffs if I have to. Whatever it takes. I need to be there. I need to be close when they come again.”
That wasn’t what she wanted, for him to hide like some outcast, like some criminal. He was a hero. He deserved dignity, not shame and shadows and solitude. “Rafe, no—”
“Ana, I won’t risk it.”
“I know,” she cooed gently, closing the distance between them as she lifted her hand to his cheek and rubbed his skin once before sliding her fingers through his silken onyx hair. His head dipped into her touch, worry in the lines of his face. “That wasn’t what I meant. I’ll come with you.”
Confusion clouded his features, but she’d never thought more clearly. For weeks in the House of Paradise, she’d felt useless. As Xander had spent hours in discussion with the queen, as he’d ordered shipments and evacuations, as he’d helped them prepare for the inevitable, she’d lingered in the sacred nest, hovering by the god stone, waiting futilely for the answers to come. But they never had. She hadn’t stopped the rift from breaking, or the egg from cracking, or the isle from falling, and she was starting to think no matter how much time she spent in the other houses, the outcome would be the same.
Xander didn’t need her help convincing the rest of the royal families. In fact, he might have better luck without her. But the mages she’d gathered into her small army, they needed her. And Rafe, he needed her. And somewhere within the fog was a man she wasn’t ready to face who needed her too.
“I’ll come with you,” she said again. For once the answer was clear. “I’ll go to the House of Song and gather my mages, and we’ll come with you to the House of Peace. They can learn magic from your crew. We can figure out the meaning of the prophecy together. I don’t want to leave you either.”
He reached up to grip her hand and threaded their fingers together, then paused. “What about Xander?”
“He’ll do better without me. We can tell him together—”
“No.” He stepped back and turned to the side, disentangling their palms as a haunted look passed over his face. The fire in his wings flared, spurred by an inner demon she didn’t know how to cast out. “You should do it alone.”
“Rafe, he—”
“Does he know, Ana? Does he know what I am?”
“No,” she whispered, silently cursing herself. Cassi had been right. She should have told Xander—right away, she should have told him, if for no other reason than to avoid this moment with Rafe and the humiliation burning in his eyes. “He loves you. He won’t care.”
“I don’t want him to see me like this.” The words were gruff and jagged, as though ripped from somewhere deep inside his chest. They made her heart pang.
“All right, Rafe.” It was his body, his brother, and his choice, no matter how wrong she thought that choice might be. “All right. He won’t. I’ll go to him. I’ll explain. And then I’ll meet you in the House of Peace. Those creatures are gone for now—you said so yourself. They’ll be back, but not right away. We have time. Wait here while I search for survivors, while I explain what’s happened, and then we’ll fly to the world above together. You can drop me off at the House of Song. We won’t be apart for very long.”
He nodded, still choked up and torn.
She leaned forward. As though drawn by magic, so did he, until their foreheads dropped together, and they stayed like that a few moments, just breathing in each other’s presence.
Lyana rose to the tips of her toes and pressed a soft kiss on his cheek, wishing to do so much more. For now, the simple touch would have to do. He remained behind, her faithful guardian, as she flew into the wreckage of Hyadria to search for wounded souls to heal.