Page 188 of Blood Feast

Neana nodded once. “I will go to her.”

“You have our gratitude as well,” Lio said.

Neana put one hand to his cheek, the other to Cassia’s. Azad’s braid touched her skin. “Farewell. Survive to dance the night away, for all of us. May we never meet in Sanctuary.”

She disappeared with a whisper of a step.

We’ll never see her again,Cassia said.

Lio put his arm around her and held her against him.Not in this life.

One of the other four knights looked to Ben for guidance. “What will we do with the bodies, Sir?”

“Leave them,” Ben answered, “and let us remember them in our prayers. We have to go.”

The air swelled with Lio’s power as he stepped them all back to Castra Augusta. When they arrived beside the well, Mak and Lyros’s sighs of relief were audible.

Genie’s eyes filled with tears. Ben dropped his helmet and his sword. As if no one else in the world existed, he ran to her and pulled her into his arms.

Lio listened for thehound’s heartbeat through the children’s weeping and the adults’ worried voices. She still slept where he had settled her, away from the chaos around the well. She still lived.

Cassia kept her arm around him.Where do your thoughts keep drifting?

I’ll explain as soon as I have a chance.

“We only have an hour till dawn,” Lyros was saying to Benedict. “Is there somewhere we can step you?”

The knight rubbed his face. He now stood at a distance from Genie that mortals would consider appropriate. Barely. “What do you think? Could we try Lord Avar’s keep?”

Genie blinked, as if realizing his question was directed at her. Well, it was about time the man started showing some respect for her judgment.

“No,” she said. “His loyalty is wavering because of his trade with Cordium.”

Ben scowled. “When did this start?”

“Since his ancestors swore fealty to mine. They’ve always been a money-minded lot. We should go to Lord Septimus. He will stay loyal to my family and the queen because his temples have chosen Solia’s side, and the mages know all his sins.”

Lio suppressed a smile. Someone had been paying attention, and she was well on her way to becoming a cunning politician like the rest of her family.

“Then we go to Lord Septimus.” Ben gave his knights a look. “Is that understood?”

No one protested his decision to follow the advice of a seventeen-year-old girl.

Mak glanced at the twilight sky. “It will take time to move this many children. We need to hurry.”

Before Lio could reply, pressure built on his arcane senses.

“Mages!” He shouted the warning at the same time as Mak and Lyros.

Five knights and four Hesperines had their weapons out before the traversal spell popped Lio’s ears. He tasted a storm on the air.

A mage in red-gold robes manifested with lightning crackling around him. The forks of magic darted across his tan skin and black hair, then shot back inside him. Through the abating heat, Lio recognized the mage’s aura.

“Eudias! Thank the Goddess it’s you.” Lio sheathed his staff and reached out to steady the young man.

Eudias grasped Lio’s arm for support in the wake of the exhausting spell, but he kept his balance. “I’m glad to see you too, my friend.”

Now that the glare of the lightning had faded, Lio realized who had been standing behind Eudias. The young mage of Kyria in blue robes was Ariadne, his respected colleague and secret sweetheart. Her eyes, visible above her veil, gleamed with tears.

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