Page 183 of Blood Feast

Cassia listened, straining her Hesperine senses. She couldn’t catch a hint of hearts or auras.

But of course she wouldn’t, if a Hesperine had veiled someone to hide them from the enemy.

Cassia drove her dagger into the soil.Does any creature survive here?

Proof of life welled up through the veins of the earth.

There are survivors,she called silently to Lio, afraid her voice would disturb the delicate balance of the stones.

His heart leapt in her chest.We’ll come help you.

There’s not enough room, and we don’t want to risk a cave in with too much movement rattling the debris.

His aura rang with alarm.Cave in? I’m coming to step you out of there.

There’s no danger to me, my Grace.

She brought her roses gently out of the soil. Vines spread across the sphere of stones. Thorns fortified the bubble of safety Azad had left behind, and black roses bloomed where he had died.

Cassia kept pulling. She parted the ground with her roses and guided their strong vines to hold back the layers of dirt and rock. By the light of Rosethorn’s Union Stone, she could see a stairway leading down into darkness.

The cellar. Cave-ins from the siege must have sealed it off. How long would the roof hold?

“Hello?” she called as softly as she could. “Is anyone there?”

“Cassia?” came an astonished murmur. A figure crept up the stairs. Red light fell across her disheveled chestnut curls.

“Genie!” Cassia whispered.

Flavian’s seventeen-year-old sister crawled out of the hole, breathing hard, and threw her arms around Cassia.

Cassia held her tightly. The last time she had seen Genie, the vibrant young woman had been in Solia’s retinue of ladies. How had she come to be on a battleground?

“We have to get you out of here, quickly and quietly,” Cassia said. “The rubble isn’t stable.”

“Thank all our gods you found us. We had no water—we were running out of air...”

“We?”

“The children. The children are the only ones we got into the cellar before…before…”

“Lady Genie?” called a small voice from below. “Is it safe to come out now?”

The glow from Cassia’s dagger illumined the faces of Patria and Segetia’s children. Tenebra’s newest orphans.

Cassia held the image for Lio to see.The children are alive.

His relief and gratitude filled her, powerful and pure.What can we do?

Is there any way you could clear a path outside the keep? I don’t want the first thing they see to be…

Of course.

“We must all be as still and quiet as we can,” Cassia explained to Genie and the children. “I shall work some magic now. Don’t be afraid—my spell will keep us all safe.”

The children huddled closer together, but nodded. Avoiding Genie’s gaze, Cassia kept her lips tightly closed over her unsheathed fangs. The last thing she wanted was for her canines to frighten them. Her magic was terrifying enough.

She eased her roses down through the crumbling cellar entrance and let them climb the walls and ceiling, fortifying the structure around the little ones. Once she was sure they were safe, she expanded the vines inside the sphere of stones around her and Genie. They grew through the space where she had crawled in, and the breach in Azad’s defenses filled with thorns.

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