Page 142 of Blood Feast

“Traversal cuffs!” Mak examined them. “Yes, the metal and enchantments are sound.”

“How did you get your hands on a pair?” Lyros asked. “These look ancient.”

Cassia gestured downward. “We found them in the cellar. We’re not sure if they were Ebah’s or Lucian’s, but it’s no surprise they’d have such things to use against their enemies.”

“Excellent find,” Lyros replied. “Snapping these on Miranda may be easier than casting Blood Shackles, depending on how the battle plays out. Lio, Cassia, any questions about your part of the battle?”

Lio shook his head. “I’ll focus my thelemancy on helping Mak disable her. Fishing for secrets can wait until we secure her in the tower.”

Cassia shifted on her feet. “I’ll watch for your signal of when to activate my enchantment on our weapons.”

Lyros put a hand on Cassia’s shoulder. “We’ll need your roses.”

“You can trust me not to hesitate,” she promised.

“Good.” Lyros gave her shoulder a squeeze.

“You two will still need to be careful,” Mak told Lio and Cassia. “A few weeks of intense training can’t catch you up to the lifetime of professional skill Lyros and I have.” He lifted a handto ward off Lio’s protests. “That’s not a criticism, just common sense.”

Cassia put a hand on Knight, but she knew that even with a liegehound at her side in battle, Mak was right.

“Let Lyros and me take the hardest hits,” Mak said. “This isn’t the time for noble self-sacrifice, understand? Let the warriors do what we do best. You two focus on using your magic and fall back on your combat skills when you’re in a tight spot.”

Lio nodded in acquiescence.

“All right.” Lyros stepped back from the table. “Let’s saddle up. We’ll step there, a safe distance from the ruins, then approach on horseback. We’ll need to scout our path carefully to make sure we don’t spring any traps.”

Cassia shuddered, recalling the necromantic traps that had been waiting for her and Lio at Paradum when Miranda had tricked them into stepping there with her. Lio’s memories of it also flashed across their shared mind’s eye. Excruciating pain, followed by blackness. Then they had woken with Lio chained to a wall and her strapped to the Gift Collector’s work table.

Here they were, following Miranda into another ruin from Cassia’s past. The Gift had helped Cassia forgive Miranda and herself for the betrayals that had brought them to this point. But she knew Miranda’s pain and rage would only burn hotter after their last encounter.

“We held our own against four Gift Collectors,” Lio reminded them, “and Cassia and I have defeated Miranda before. Victory isn’t impossible.”

“It’s never impossible,” Lyros replied, “but it’s always a question of what it will cost.”

“As long as we capture her alive,” said Lio, “it will be worth it.”

The different outcomes they had prepared for ran through Cassia’s mind like another terrible dream. She didn’t like any of her and Miranda’s possible futures.

Cassia’s throat tightened. “Do you think there is any hope of freeing her from him?”

Mak and Lyros exchanged glances.

Lyros spoke gently. “There has never been a Gift Collector whose loyalties changed. Not one, in sixteen hundred years.”

She gave a numb nod. “Thank you for being honest with me.”

“We know you prefer the truth,” Lyros said. “In our opinion, once Lio gets the information we need from her mind, the best possible outcome is to defeat her to the point that her master must revive her. Perhaps then you’ll have a reprieve from her quest for revenge, for a time.”

Was this to be their fate? Both immortal and doomed to an eternal duel through each round of the Old Masters’ game?

Lio’s touch on her cheek fetched her gaze to him.I freed Eudias. If my thelemancy can break the Collector’s hold on Miranda, I’ll try.

Cassia clutched his hand. She knew why he was whispering this intention into her mind. Lyros and Mak would never agree to it. She wasn’t sure she should, either.

This is different,she protested silently.Miranda isn’t an innocent victim like Eudias. She gave her magic to Kallikrates and asked him to possess her. She won’t fight him with you as Eudias did.

I know.But imagine if I could discover a way to sever an Overseer’s bond with Kallikrates. We could rob him of his most powerful playing pieces and make the Gift Collectors mortal again…and perhaps give Miranda some hope of a different future.

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