Page 150 of Blood Feast

She adjusted her grip on her dagger. “What do you want?”

“The token isn’t open to negotiation. I’ll name my price and take it, whether or not you are willing to pay. You’ve come to my negotiation table now, and that means following my rules.”

A crackle prickled at her sensitive ears. Light flashed on her vision, and she screamed. It took all her Will to keep hold of her dagger and not cover her eyes.

Then pure energy blazed up the blade into her hand. A massive force threw her backward. She landed in the rose vines. But they were fizzing with the same energy, too. She heard Lio shouting in her mind, but didn’t know how to answer. Her thoughts seemed to fork and shoot out of her grasp.

Through the spots on her vision, she saw tongues of lightning travel along the vines, burning them to nothing. She was helpless in the war magic’s grip as another wave jolted up her arm and into her heart.

Kallikrates caressed her face, sparks dancing from his fingertips to her skin. “Your heart is the most vulnerable of all.”

He seized her pendant. Her ambassador cords snapped as he tore her talisman from around her neck.

No,she tried to say.

He rose to his feet, running her cords through his fingers, and fondled the pendant with a triumphant gleam in his eyes. “Thank you for unlocking the Changing Queen’s tower and retrieving this for me. Quite the token of good faith, don’t you agree?”

HEART WOUNDS

Lio couldn’t see Cassiathrough the glare of lightning magic. He only felt her pain. He clutched his chest, his senses blinded.

Mak’s magic slammed between them and the onslaught. On his knees in the snow, he had one arm around Lyros, his other hand outstretched and covered in his Grace’s blood. He gritted his teeth, shaking as he held his defenses against the war magic. “Go.”

Lio levitated and forged through the lightning spell, wrapped in shadow wards. He poured the full force of his thelemancy at Kallikrates.

Lio’s power met dream wards that felt like razors ready to shred his every thought. He flooded the maze of spells with his magic and felt the first edges of the Collector’s defenses wear away.

He was halfway to Cassia when he cleaved through another dream ward. Pain frayed his veins. He drew more power from inside himself.

Skleros stood over Cassia’s body and said in the Collector’s voice, “Save some for the next round.”

With a flick of his fingers, he tossed lightning at the roses blocking the portal. The vines fell to embers. Leaning on his axe, he strolled through the displacement gate.

Lio’s magic battered uselessly against the portal, chasing the mind that was now beyond his reach. His power rebounded back on him, and he staggered. The portal collapsed before his eyes, and the lightning sizzled out.

The air was suddenly silent and cold. Mak’s ward lifted, and Lio stepped to Cassia. He went down on his knees and gathered her onto his lap.

His heart beat erratically in his chest, telling him the state of hers. He felt her mind reaching for words and not finding them. Her movements were stiff and uncoordinated.

He cradled her closer, supporting her head, and pushed her fangs into his throat. Her jaw did lock, but there was a tremble in the joint. His blood escaped down his neck, but he massaged her throat until she swallowed. Not much. But enough.

Enough that she would live.

All of them would live. This time.

When Lio was certainCassia was stable, he stood with her in his arms. Knight had joined them, miraculously unharmed by the lightning. Lio didn’t understand how, but he was too grateful to wonder about it.

Mak drew near, leading General with Lyros on his back. Lyros was upright, but his face was ashen, his fangs distended. Bear limped along after Mak, with Moonflower and Freckles trailing him.

“We need to get out of here,” Mak said.

Lio didn’t argue this time. He and Mak joined their magic to step their Graces as gently as they could. They arrived on the front steps of the derelict tower and hurried through the front door.

They left the horses on the ground floor and headed up the stairs. Now it was Mak’s turn to help Lyros into the Mage King’s room. Lio carried Cassia onward to their chamber, casting a cleaning spell on the way to their bed. He rested her in the warm blankets and parted the charred front of her robes.

Her pendant was gone. In its place, there was a whorl of burns over her heart. Lio wanted to rip the portal open and hound Skleros until he fulfilled all his promises of revenge. He wanted to tear open the gates of Orthros until they gave his Grace Sanctuary again instead of judgment.

Cassia and Lyros needed healers. But there were no Hesperines he and Mak could take them to without all of them getting arrested. And an army of Chargers stood between them and Solia’s aid.

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