“Cassi!”
Xander lurched as her body dropped from the sky and caught her in his arms. Limbs limp, she was too heavy to carry. With as much control as possible, he descended to the courtyard below and landed gently on the tiles. The ground shifted beneath them, rattling his bones. He hugged her torso to his chest as her legs shook haphazardly with the quakes. Her wings dragged behind her. He knew what she’d done and where she’d gone. A jolt of fear ran down his chest. “The gods, Cassi!”
It was too similar to the scene that had replayed so many times in his nightmares—Cassi lifeless as the House of Whispers sank beneath the sea, the water rising to pull her under as he watched stoically from above.
We saved her.
Lyana and I saved her.
Logically, he knew it was true. But his heart still hung on that brief moment when he had held her fate in his hands and felt torn. He’d never forgive himself for hesitating, just as he would never forgive himself now if anything happened to her before he’d had a chance to tell her the truth. He forgave her, as much as it was in his power to forgive the things she’d done. And more than that, he loved her—a fact he prayed Rafe would someday understand. After all, his brother knew better than most how uncontrollable the yearnings of the soul could be.
Gods alive, why did I say that foolish quip about secrets?
He’d ruined everything.
For weeks he’d been waiting for that exact moment—her body close enough for him to feel its heat, the sunlight streaming in from the veranda, not an ounce of hummingbird nectar on his tongue, everything just as she’d said she wanted, not a dream, but breathtakingly real. It had taken every ounce of his control not to blurt the confession the moment he saw her standing in the courtyard, the most beautiful thing he’d seen in weeks, her black-and-white wings shimmering like a mirage beneath the desert heat. Each step down the palace halls had been excruciatingly slow when all he’d wanted to do was race back to his rooms and tell her how he felt. Then they’d been there, and he’d been intoxicated by her nearness, the sweet floral scent of her hair, the smooth touch of her skin, the stunning sight of her smile. He’d lost his senses. It was the only explanation for how royally he’d messed things up.
Now she was gone. Her spirit was in the sacred nest where a monster might awaken at any moment, and only the gods knew if she’d return.
Please, Cassi. Come back this time. Please, come back.
“What happened?” Prince Damien asked, hovering a few feet above Xander. The air hummed with the rapid movement of his wings. “Is she hurt?”
“No. She— She—” Xander grappled for an excuse. “She fainted.”
“Fainted?” Damien snorted and shook his head. “Owls. Take them out of the library, and, well, you know…” He stared pointedly at Cassi. An urge to defend her tightened Xander’s throat, but he held back. They had, after all, evacuated Princess Coralee the week before, when she’d passed out in the middle of an earthquake. Some owls, maybe, weren’t made of stronger stuff, but Cassi was one of the toughest people he knew. “What was she doing here, anyway?”
“Bringing a message from Lyana.”
“Oh, what news?”
Xander looked away to hide his wince. The gods, his mouth was getting him into trouble today. What news? What news? Think…
Cassi gasped in his arms.
“Thank Taetanos,” he exclaimed, changing the subject as her eyes flickered open. All he saw in those molten silver depths was sympathy. She shook her head, the move so subtle anyone not perfectly attuned to her spirit might have missed it. His stomach flipped. The isle was falling. “Are you all right?” he said loudly, helping her sit up. “You fainted.”
She wrinkled her nose. “I’m fine.”
“Do you need help?” Prince Damien called. “I can take her ankles—”
“I’m fine!” Cassi repeated through gritted teeth.
The prince raised his brows toward Xander. “Touchy.”
You don’t know the half of it.
As Cassi jumped to her feet, the ground beneath them fell still. She and Xander shared a look. They knew exactly what it meant. The prince, however, dropped to the tiles beside them, joining their circle.
“That was a bad one,” he remarked while staring at the palace, where three of the columns framing the front steps now lay in shambles.
“Damien,” Xander said, his voice urgent. “Sound the alarm.”
“What are you talking about? It just stopped.”
“No!” He grabbed the hummingbird prince by the shoulder. “Listen to me. This is exactly how it happened in my home. Sound the alarm, now, while there’s still—”
The isle plunged.
All three of them took to the sky as the ground gave way, their wings catching them before they fell. An unidentifiable scream pierced the air.
“Go!” Xander ordered the prince, pushing him toward his guards. Moments later, a horn blared, followed by another, then another, the call echoing across the city as more and more hummingbirds spilled out of their homes. He turned to Cassi. “What was it?”
“I didn’t see it,” she murmured, her voice almost drowned by the alarm. “I left as soon as the god stone started to crack. But it’s blue, so it must have water magic.”
“Is that bad?”
“Well, our friends are stationed in a city floating in the middle of the ocean, so it can’t be good.”
“We need to warn them. We need to—”
“You really don’t feel it?” Cassi interrupted, her brows furrowed as she stared at him intently.
He shook his head. “Feel what?”
“Lyana’s already here.”
“Where?”
“Not here, here.” She cast her gaze toward the cloudless blue overhead, then across the rooftops, at everything and nothing. “Her magic is everywhere, a golden glow more potent than the sun. She knows, Xander. She probably knew before we did.”
“But that’s—that’s—”
“Impossible?” A smile flashed upon her lips. “You might want to remove that word from your vocabulary. Nothing’s impossible, especially when magic is involved. I have to go.”
His throat went dry. “Where?”
“To Da’Kin.”
“Wait.” He took her by the hand, stopping her, then dropped it as soon as he realized how familiar it might look to the hummingbirds hovering a small distance away. “If Lyana is using her magic, won’t that be where the creatures are headed?”
“It’s where I need to be.” She offered an imploring look as she patted her jacket.
The diary. Of course, the diary. How could he have forgotten? The uncomfortable pinch of the binding against his chest had become so normal, he almost missed it. Somehow, the absence made Cassi seem even further away.
“Surely, it can wait a day,” he tried to argue. “Maybe two.”
“It’s waited long enough.”
“Cassi—” He broke off, unsure what to say. Now that she was here, flying before him, flesh and blood, her presence stirring a spark within like tinder to a flame, he didn’t want her to leave. Not again. Part of him yearned to sweep her into his arms and kiss her the way he’d been longing to do in every one of their shared dreams. Part of him understood he was a king with a queen, and that an audience waited nearby. Part of him wished to take her by the hands and use whatever precious moments they had left to confess all the secret desires of his heart. Part of him realized such a gesture would be no different from a drunken confession, prompted by urgency and outside factors, when she wanted them to take their time.
In his torn silence, Cassi retreated.
“Whatever it is, it can wait,” she muttered, glancing toward the hummingbirds to hide her fear—not of how the world crumbled before them, he knew, but of what he might say. She was wrong, though. For all her experience uncovering secrets, she failed to see the truth in his eyes. “I’ll be back.”
“Cassi—”
“Goodbye, Xander.”
She fled, sparing a glance over her shoulder as she sped across the skies. The isle lurched beneath him, and his heart seemed to drop with it, tumbling from his chest to disappear into the chaos below. He watched, a sense of dread building under his skin as she shrank to nothing more than a black speck on the horizon.
What if they never got another chance?
What if that was their chance—and he blew it?
“It’s really falling,” Damien muttered, pulling Xander back to reality. The hummingbird prince hovered close by, a broken look in his normally proud eyes as he stared down at his home. The sight sobered Xander, reminding him of the gravity of their current situation. Cassi was right—she’d be back. They had time. He had to believe it.
“We should go meet your mother and father in the House of Peace,” he told the prince, sympathy deepening his tone. The isle dropped again, another fifty feet this time. “There’s nothing more we can do.”
“I know.”
“Damien.”
“I know!” Tears pooled in the corners of the prince’s eyes as he stared unblinkingly at the city growing smaller and smaller by the instant. “I know,” he repeated, more softly this time. “But I need to see it. I need to watch it disappear.”
Who was Xander to tell him no? When his isle had fallen, he’d clung to the stones like a dead man grasping for those final strains of life. The gods, he’d dropped all the way to the sea before finally letting go. The thought of Pylaeon slipping beneath those murky waters still cleaved like a chisel to the heart.
“All right.”
He signaled for the guards to begin the long flight to Sphaira. The prince threw him a sidelong glance, surprise lining his features. Xander just nodded firmly.
They didn’t speak anymore after that.
They didn’t need to.
They simply watched in silence as the House of Flight sank into the mist, lush forests and vast deserts giving way to endless gray as the vapors swallowed the isle whole.