Page 168 of Blood Feast

“More later.” Her voice was a sultry promise.

He cast a cleaning spell over them both, and they resettled in the chair with her on his lap. “There was a massive power exchange between you and the letting site. It was one of the most amazing arcane phenomena I’ve ever witnessed.”

She kissed his lips. “I needed to hear that, my beloved scrollworm.”

“I will never stop reminding you how wonderful your magic is.”

Her gaze fell. “Rudhira looked at me like I was a threat.”

Lio searched for words of comfort where there were few. “I think that look was directed at all of us.”

“But it was my roses that he attacked. I did something good tonight. Why couldn’t he see that?”

“I can see it, Cassia. Tell me everything you did.”

She turned her dagger over in her hands. “Lio, I…healed the letting site.”

“You what?” he breathed. “You restored it to what it was before Kallikrates harmed you both?”

She shook her head, her eyes lighting up. “Something better. Now it’s like our letting site in Orthros. It has my blood magic in it, too. Do you realize what this means?”

“Goddess bless.” The implications whirled through his mind, the beginnings of countless theories.

“I can do more than channel magic from the Lustra,” she said. “I can channel my power into it. I don’t know if all Silvicultrixes could do that…or if it might be some unique effect of my dual magic…but don’t you think the possibilities are astonishing?”

“Yes. You’re incredible.”

A ghost of a smile touched her face. “If my Gift can somehow share Hesperine restoration with the Lustra itself, imagine what I could achieve.”

He held her gaze. “If you can heal yourself and a letting site, then I have no doubt you can heal your missing affinities, too. You can reclaim your other magics.”

The spark of joy behind her eyes faded. “I don’t need those for what I want to do. I could undo so much of Kallikrates’s harm with only my dual magic. Perhaps I could repair the fallen door and close it again so he’ll never get to what the portals are guarding.”

Lio bit his tongue about her lost magic. He didn’t have the heart to debate that with her right now, although that negotiation was still far from over.

“You’re right,” he said for now. “We left Paradum with a greater discovery, even if we lost Miranda’s trail.”

“We didn’t lose it. The Lustra showed me how to find her.”

DANGEROUS EXPERIMENTS

When they found Makand Lyros in the practice room, Cassia cast a questioning glance at Lio. He gave his head a slight shake. She agreed with him. The warriors didn’t seem in the mood for interruptions.

Mak and Lyros danced around each other in complete silence, their feet barely making a sound on the mats. Then every muscle in Lyros’s body seemed to engage. He rolled forward and sprang to his feet to launch a close attack on Mak, so fast that Cassia’s eyes could barely track him.

Lyros froze with his heart a hair’s breadth from Mak’s outstretched palms.

“Again,” Lyros said.

“Lyros—” Mak began.

“Again,” he insisted.

They returned to their positions and repeated the drill. Cassia didn’t understand the advanced move they were practicing, only that it took astonishing strength and skill to be so precise at such speed. She and Lio watched Lyros repeat the attack over and over, each time ending up with Mak’s hands nearly striking his heart.

Lyros rolled and lunged again. At the last instant, Mak opened his arms and caught Lyros against his chest. “That’s enough.”

Lyros’s hands curled into fists against Mak’s back. “Martyr’s Heart is the only way to confront a mage head-on when we’re out of options. We’ll need it.”

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