The Raven and the Dove (The Raven and the Dove, #1)

by Kaitlyn Davis

The hidden route was courtesy of a former king with a paranoid streak unnecessary in a land that had been at peace for hundreds of years—but

Lyana stepped closer to her sibling, widening her eyes, silently pleading. Her wings lifted and shifted just enough to make her appear small and fragile, like the innocent little sister he still saw her as, despite the evidence to the contrary. A slight wobbling of her lower lip puffed it into a pout. She didn’t have to turn to see her best friend roll her eyes—she just felt it without looking.

She wanted to see everything. The libraries the owls kept. The great plains the eagles scoured. The tree villages the songbirds built. The paradise the hummingbirds cultivated. And more, so much more.

Rafe preferred to think of this as his brother’s royal voice, because it was a royal pain in his ass.

The royal families of all seven houses had been cursed with too few males to females, or too few females to males, and while love matches could be of the same sex, the matches of the monarchy must produce blood heirs.

A child had grown into a man in a single second, his youth dying with his father.

But if there was one person Lyana knew how to manipulate, it was her father. And she meant that in the most adoring way possible.

The books accepted him into their folds, their pages, and he in turn loved them.

Despite the injuries, the pain, and the dire situation, Rafe snorted, eying her skinny arms and small frame. “You?”

“We call life a game, because we each have our

own wants, our own desires—but he sees everything, he knows everything, and he leads us down our destined path. We fight back sometimes, we make moves, and so does he. On and on it goes until, in the end, he wins, like he always does. But still, we keep playing. What other choice do we have?”

He’d rather be honestly hated than dishonestly tolerated, especially when it meant he didn’t have to pretend either.

Princess Lyana Aethionus chased after no man. After all, why would she when it would be oh, so easy to get him to chase after her?

“They’ve never forgiven Rafe for being the son my father loved more than me, the strong son, the warrior. And he’s never forgiven himself either, which is why he never lets anyone get close. He doesn’t think he deserves it.”

Because the truth was there were no gods.

His magic rose to meet hers, sizzling beneath his skin, so familiar, so forbidden, so frantic, a long-lost lover coming home.

“Love is when you find a piece of yourself in someone else, a piece you never knew was missing, but without which you'd be broken. You feel whole, and complete, and accepted for exactly who you are. You can be your true self, because around this person, for the first time you have no desire to pretend to be anyone else.”

If the cost of freedom was his life, she would spend the rest of hers in a cage.