Page 211 of Blood Feast

Casting her senses through the castle, she found it deserted. There were no patrols in the surrounding hills, either, ally or enemy.

Lio wasn’t here. He hadn’t followed her.

She didn’t want him to chase her and fight her decision every step of the way. She didn’t want him to martyr himself at her side, either. But some part of her had never expected he would simply let her go.

What washeplanning?

Her only comfort was the light creeping over the horizon. He wouldn’t have time to do anything reckless before the Dawn Slumber hit him.

But Lyros would. He might have already reached Rudhira. Cassia had lost the advantage of turning herself in first. So she would have to strike a more compelling bargain than what her Trial brother offered.

The one thing she had to bargain with was her.

The Lustra would never let the Charge take her. She was sure she could disappear into the wilds, and not even Kalos would be able to track her.

If they wanted her surrender, they would have to meet her terms about protections for Lio.

Keeping Knight close, Cassia slipped through Paradum to her old bedroom. The place where she had lost her magic and chosen the Gift. She sealed the broken wall with a tangle of roses to block out the oncoming day. No Hesperine or mortal would find her here until she was ready.

Except for one. Miranda always knew where she was.

Cassia curled up on the floor and succumbed to the Slumber, praying her roses were protection enough.

Lio was alone inthe silence.

Without his Trial brothers and his Grace, the Blood Union now felt empty, too. The specters rose behind his eyes, and he tried to push them away.

He had to think. Act. As long as he could avoid arrest, there was hope of breaking Cassia out again. But he would have to convince her to escape with him a second time.

He would find Miranda himself, and he would take Cassia’s foci from her. Once he put them back in Cassia’s hands, she would have to see how important her power was.

But right now, he had to find shelter for himself and Dame before dawn. Their Lustra refuges were gone, and so was Cassia’s pendant, the key to the portals.

His hand went to his own medallion. The only Lustra artifact Miranda had overlooked.

He made a libation on the three wooden leaves and picked his way through the wreckage of the tower. He’d known his chances were slim, but he still felt devastated when no light sparked to guide him to a portal. The Changing Queen’s spells truly had been destroyed here.

He wouldn’t be satisfied until he checked the other Lustra sites to see for himself if Cassia’s vision was true. Kneeling with a hand on Dame, he stepped them to the lighthouse.

They landed near the brazier, which was now cold and half-buried in stones so broken and worn that they looked like part of the bluff. He levitated down to the portal in the hillside only to find it already open. The underground ritual site was lost beneath a cave-in.

He took them to the ancient Lustra circle last. The standing stones had toppled and cracked. His day terrors had become reality. The magic here had been ravaged yet again by the conflicts of Tenebra.

But it was older than those wars. Older even than the spell Ebah and Lucian had built on it. Could hulaic magic still survive here? With a worried glance at the horizon, he bled on his pendant again.

Suddenly, he knew what to do. He didn’t know what sense guided him—a rustle under his feet, a scent on the air, his heart pounding a warning through his body that predators lay in wait for him. Driven by instinct, he lifted his familiar in his arms and walked into the broken circle.

The winter fields of Tenebra disappeared. Beyond the stones, he saw land drenched in the burning light of sunset with fire raging on the horizon. Impossible. And yet somehow real in the Lustra’s mysterious paradigm.

Lio found a narrow shelter where one stone had fallen across another. He worked himself and Dame into the patch of shade just as twilight gave way to dawn.

45

Nights After

WINTER SOLSTICE

A HESPERINE HEART

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