Page 186 of Blood Feast

“All our goddesses preserve us,” Cassia breathed.

“We’ll need all of them.” Genie’s voice wavered. “They moved through here like a wildfire. Nothing could have stopped them.”

“Did anyone make it out before the attack to get word to the queen?”

Genie pressed her trembling lips together and shook her head.

Until now, Cassia had held on to a little hope. She finally asked the question she had been avoiding. “Was Ben here?”

Genie gripped her hand. “No. He leads the knights who escort the evacuees to safety. They left with a Hesperine days ago to bring in another village. They should have returned by now.”

So they were out there, somewhere in the path of the army bent on crushing Solia’s kingdom.

“We have to warn my sister,” Cassia said.

ATONEMENT

Kneeling amid the orphans,Cassia sliced up another tunic, turning a lost parent’s shroud into bandages and diapers. “We only have one option. We have to find Ben.”

“No,” Lio said.

“We need him to take responsibility for the children and warn my sister.”

Lio handed a toddler to her older brother. “I will sneak into Castra Patria and warn Solia myself before I trust him.”

Cassia tried to keep her voice calm. “We don’t even know if the fortress has fallen. And wherever Solia is, you’d have to sneak past Rudhira.”

Lio’s expression hardened. “Then I will.”

“Cassia is right.” Lyros refilled a waterskin from the well for the next child. “Dawn is coming. We need to entrust the children to the knights and go back to the tower.”

Mak glanced at Genie, who was gathering the children to sit in circles by village, appointing the eldest in each group as the leader. “Ben is an idiot, but they need him.”

Lio’s jaw was set. Her gentle Grace could be more stubborn than any of them when pushed past his limit.

Cassia reached for him in their Union.Lio, we can’t leave him out there to die.

Lio’s anger softened.Of course not.

She rose to her feet. “Lio and I will find him. With his veils and my roses, we should be able to bring Ben and his knights back safely.”

“What’s your plan to deal with the Hesperine who’s with them?” Lyros asked.

“This is why we diplomats should go,” she said. “It will take some negotiation. My hope is that the Charger will realize it’s more important to get the children to safety than to arrest us, and there’s only time to do one of those things before dawn.”

Lio dusted off his hands and drew his staff. “And if negotiation fails, we are a match for them.”

Cassia looked at Genie again. She knew the young woman harbored as much unrequited love for Ben as he did for her. “Don’t tell Genie where we’re going. I don’t want to get her hopes up.”

Mak and Lyros nodded in understanding.

Cassia drew her dagger and called Knight to her. She focused on Ben, recalling her soulful friend, not the judgmental man they had last met. Lio’s magic picked them up and carried them away from the scene of slaughter, toward the knight’s aura.

She breathed, but the air was still heavy with fear and death. The fallow field under their feet smelled of bloodshed. Amid the bodies of warriors and mages, five knights and one Hesperine still stood. A contingent of the invasion force had found Ben’s party.

The nearest knight pulled his sword out of a Cordian mercenary and rounded on Lio and Cassia.

Cassia raised a low barrier of roses. Lio held out his staff in one hand, lifting the other in a placating gesture.

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