It was eerie to see empty air above the city of Abaelon. Cassi had visited the home of the hummingbirds many times before in her dreams. Their lush gardens and vivid blue skies had always been punctuated by the rapid movement of wings. Now, stillness permeated the streets. Palm trees swayed in the breeze, their fronds ruffling, and water ran through the aqueducts that were still standing, though many had collapsed into rubble, but there were no people. The City of Life was deserted, and it brought a chill to the back of her neck she couldn’t quite shake.
Cassi landed in the palace courtyard, the scuffing of her boots loud. At long last, another soul appeared, zipping between the gleaming white columns. The hummingbird stopped before her and inclined his head in greeting.
“Welcome to the House of Flight,” he said. “What brings you?”
“I’m here to see King Lysander Taetanus of the House of Whispers. Please tell him Cassi Sky wishes to speak to him as soon as possible.”
“Very well.”
As quickly as he came, he vanished, leaving Cassi alone once more. She shifted on her feet, surveying the damage to the buildings around her. Cracks marred the pristine white marble of the palace façade, fissuring up the columns and across the decorative trim. The tiles beneath her feet were broken and uneven. An entire building on the southern edge of the courtyard had crumbled. The earthquakes were worsening. It was only a matter of time before the next creature broke free.
“Cassi!”
Her heart leapt into her throat at the sound of his voice, but she remembered herself and dipped her head in a bow. “King Lysander.”
He rolled his eyes, a slight grin on his lips. “Come on.”
Cassi bounded up the steps and took the arm he offered. As soon as they touched, a thrill shot down her spine. Nervous flutters swarmed her insides. They hadn’t seen each other in the flesh since the night the raven isle fell, and though she’d visited his dreams two more times since their drunken encounter, he hadn’t mentioned a thing. They’d kept their conversation strictly to business, at least outwardly. Inwardly, though, her thoughts spun with questions. Did he remember? Was he embarrassed? Worse, did he have regrets?
“I’m sorry it took me so long to get here,” she said, keeping her voice low as they walked arm in arm down the vast halls of the hummingbird palace. There was no telling who might be listening. “I meant to come sooner, but, well, you know.”
“How’s the…situation in the House of Peace?”
Situation. She snorted. “I’m not sure my mother will ever forgive me.”
“That bad?”
“Let’s just say I solved the problem of how to get the guests from one place to another, and in the eyes of my mother and her crew, it was little more than slaughter.”
He laughed softly under his breath and shook his head. If he only knew. Thankfully, Luka had managed to find a few more empty houses in Sphaira to house Lyana’s growing army. For the avians, the solution was simple—they’d fly under cover of night and slip into the crystal buildings unseen. Her mother’s crew, however, had been a different story. Without wings, their trek across the barren tundra would have taken weeks, and out in the cold with limited supplies? Even with their magic, they never would have survived. Naturally, they’d been inclined to wipe their hands of this dying world above the clouds and return to the sea, especially now that some semblance of peace had been brokered with Malek—a temporary cease-fire, at the very least. But Lyana wanted them to keep training her mages, including the new recruits Cassi had managed to find among the refugees now living with the doves. The solution had been simple—a sled. There was only one problem. The only available source of wood was the ship her mother had attempted to camouflage beneath the snow.
The looks the crew had given her as the planks were stripped piece by piece could have slayed a dragon. Of course, Cassi had never been under the misguided notion that any of them actually liked her anyway. Brighty had made sure of that. The moment they’d met, the light mage had slapped her across the cheek, commenting, That’s for Rafe. Then she’d offered a handshake: And this is for Captain. The rest of the crew had been much the same, minus the sting. They accepted her presence because of her mother, but their loyalties lay with their friend.
“So they’ve been safely moved?” Xander asked, drawing her back. “The raven guest quarters are clear?”
“Oh, they’re gone all right,” she muttered. “Along with most of my sanity.” They’d used the sails to propel the sled across the vast icy landscape, making the trip in a handful of days. As soon as they’d reached Sphaira and snuck into the city with the help of shadow magic, she couldn’t have taken to the skies fast enough. “Anyway, that’s why I’m late.”
“Did you happen to check if—”
“The ravens started evacuating the House of Song? The first few groups have already arrived on the outer isle of the House of Peace, led by Helen. We got out just in time. The guest quarters are filling up quickly, but Luka is working on a way to create more shelters to keep everyone safe from the cold.”
“Thank you.” He released a heavy breath. “Any updates from the other front?”
“More of the same. Rafe is being Rafe, running himself ragged. Lyana spends every waking moment deep in…conversation with the gods. She’s getting closer to answers, but the process is slow.”
“And how are you?”
Cassi snapped her head to the side, surprised to find concern in his lavender eyes. It was in moments like this, ones he probably didn’t even notice, that his presence left her completely undone. Her throat went dry as her heart skipped a beat and she turned her face forward, fighting the blush threatening to crawl up her neck. No one ever asked her about herself. Not her mother. Not Lyana. Certainly not Rafe or Malek. She gave updates and she received new orders. She was a soldier. Yet Xander had a way of making her feel like a woman, seen in a way she’d never been seen before.
I’m better now that I’m here with you, she thought, not courageous enough to say the words out loud. “I’m alive.”
“I hope that’s not the current standard.”
“It’s more than some people can say.”
He opened his mouth, then closed it with the shake of his head, as though thinking better of it. They reached a door. Cassi followed Xander inside and waited as he sealed the opening behind them, then circled the room. Like any guest room housed in a palace, its walls had ears. Like any smart ruler, Xander had already identified them.
“We’re alone,” he said after a few minutes.
“You’re sure?”
“As much as I can be. Besides, I think the hummingbirds have more problems to deal with than worrying about my social life, or did you not notice the state of the city when you arrived? Damien hasn’t even tried to force a drink on me in a week, which should tell you everything you need to know, not that I’d take him up on that offer ever again…” He shivered.
Cassi swallowed, trying to ignore the searing heat spiking in her chest.
It was the closest he’d come to mentioning that night, but he seemed completely unaware as he turned back to her, his expression lacking any hint of the anxiety currently coursing through her body, and said, “So, the diary.”
“The diary,” she repeated, forcing the words to come smoothly to her lips.
He reached inside his jacket, slid the small leather-bound book free, and offered it to her. Cassi flipped through the pages, breathing in the musty scent, still certain it held the promise of greatness. Xander moved into the spot by her side.
“You kept it with you all this time?” she asked.
“I was worried it might fall into the wrong hands.”
An insincere undercurrent ran through his tone, drawing her attention. Cassi turned to the side, but Xander kept his focus on the open book. She couldn’t fight the sense that he was hiding from her. “If not for you, it’d be buried beneath the sea right now.”
“If not for you, it’d be safely housed within the archives.” His mouth twitched with humor and she bumped him with her hip. Their feathers pressed together, hardly any space between them. His body heat saturated the air, making her warm in more ways than one, yet his gaze remained resolutely fixed on the page, all work and no play. “I know you said you’re going to bring it to that mage in Da’Kin, the skryr, but can you read it at all?”
“No.” She sighed and returned her attention to the diary. “At least, not all of it. Maybe someone can, but I wouldn’t know where to start. Even in the world below, the ancient language is long dead. Only a few words survive, like this here. Aethi’kine.” She pressed her finger to the parchment, pointing it out. As Xander leaned over her shoulder, his breath brushed her neck, making her nerves tingle with awareness. “That’s our word for the magic Lyana has, and there are some other instances peppered across the pages. Whoever wrote this diary—and I’d guess from the loopy handwriting it was a woman—spent a lot of time close to powerful mages, or at least a lot of time writing about them, and the skryr should be able to unlock whatever memories still linger in the text. They could be useless, but I have a hunch her secrets are the exact ones we need.”
“Well, you are the expert on secrets.”
Cassi froze. All the warmth gathering beneath her skin turned to ice, burning her with the sting. It was all she needed to hear. Maybe he remembered their hours spent swimming through his glorious imagination, and maybe he didn’t, but either way, forgiveness was off the table. Those seven biting words made his position absolutely clear.
She snapped the diary closed and stepped back.
“Cassi, I—”
“It’s all right, Xander,” she cut in, angling her face toward the floor, too worried he’d see her heart breaking the moment he looked into her eyes. After everything she’d done, she deserved to be punished. She knew that. But still, there were only so many cuts a girl could take before she bled out, and Cassi had all but reached her limit. “I should go.”
“Wait.”
“No, really,” she continued quickly, ignoring his protest as she spun on her heels and made for the door. “I have what I came for, and if it’s as important as I think, there’s no more time to waste.”
“Would you just—” He grabbed her arm to stop her. “Cassi.”
“What?”
“Look at me.”
The corners of her eyes burned. Already, she could feel the tears gathering. “No.”
“Would you please just look at me? I don’t want to say this to the back of your head.”
“Say what?” She could almost hear his frown, his frustration tangible. Though her every instinct told her to run, she’d done enough running. Instead, she slowly spun. “What?”
“Cassi…” Her name turned into a sigh upon his lips and he took a step closer, reaching for her hand. Her breath hitched as he entwined their fingers. Against her palm, his pulse drummed, pounding just as quickly as hers. That alone gave her the strength to lift her chin. “Cassi, I—”
The floor jerked beneath them and they stumbled, falling together. He slammed her against the door, their bodies touching from chest to toe, but romance was the furthest thing on either of their minds as the palace walls groaned around them. The vibrations intensified, Cassi’s teeth rattling as they coursed through her. The vase on a nearby table crashed against the tiles. Bits of marble rained from above as the ceiling split.
“It’s not safe here,” Xander said as he pushed off her and pumped his onyx wings. “Follow me.”
They raced across the room and out onto the wide veranda covered in plants, then dove for the blue skies visible through the towering columns. Dust clouded the air above the city. Crashes and booms reverberated down the streets. To their left and right, hummingbirds spilled from the palace to escape the falling debris. Prince Damien hovered with a group of guards, his expression helpless, as though awaiting the inevitable. Her dread spiked.
“Xander,” she whispered, jerking on the back of his coat. He glanced over his shoulder, his body already shifting toward the prince. “Catch me.”
“What?”
“Catch me!”
She dove into her magic. The moment her wings stopped moving, her body plummeted toward the ground. Xander lunged for her, but she didn’t have time to see if he caught her. As little more than spirit, she raced for the sacred nest, hoping she was wrong.