Page 22 of Blood Feast

The walls of the library shrank in on her. Her heart pounded a warning that her immortal body was in mortal danger. There was a physical ache in her veins, as if his distance pulled on her blood.

She swallowed around the parched weight of her tongue. “Please tell me this gets easier.”

“It will,” Aunt Lyta said. “You don’t see me wanting to hit something every time Argyros leaves the room.”

He laughed. “But I fondly remember the violence you committed the first time we were apart after your Gifting.”

The nearby fern pot cracked, and fronds twined around Cassia’s ankle. She tried taking deep breaths, but her body cared nothing for air. It wanted Lio.

Are you all right?she asked.You seem to be holding up much better than I am.

I’ve had more time to develop a tolerance. But I understand precisely how you feel.

Her heart kicked even faster.This is how you felt when you left me in Tenebra and we were apart for half a year?

The way you comforted me upon our reunion was well worth the suffering. Just think of how good it will feel when we’re together again.

If she thought about that in too much detail, her Craving would only make matters worse.

She must focus her thoughts on diplomatic calculations and hope that cold, clear political maneuvers would distract her from her hunger. “I’m ready when you are, Uncle.”

“Allow me to step us.” Uncle Argyros offered his arm.

He must have guessed she hadn’t mastered that yet, given the state of her magic. Cassia beat back her frustration, lest thelibrary turn into a fern forest. “By now I should already be able to step to your library without causing chaos.”

“Ah, but we are not going to my library. Stay close and let me assist with any magical mishaps.”

By the time she had blinked in surprise, House Komnena had slipped away. Cassia found herself and Knight standing in open air next to Uncle Argyros, Aunt Lyta, and Nike. Kadi joined them an instant later.

He had brought Cassia to a rocky precipice, where the wind stripped the snowdrifts away and sent them spinning out over the ravine below. The capital city of Selas was nowhere in sight.

The Queens’ ward felt close enough to touch. Cassia stood speechless, dwarfed and cradled by the Sanctuary ward Queen Alea had cast over the entire border of Orthros. Queen Soteira’s theramancy called to her from within the protection spell. Her Hesperine senses answered, her blood magic flaring toward the ward in a gesture of loyalty to their Queens.

“The ward knows you, the newest Hesperine under its protection,” said Aunt Lyta.

Nike’s aura told Cassia she was impressed. “And your magic is certainly determined to be known.”

“Are we standing against the barrier?” Cassia asked.

Kadi nodded. “Right outside the node where the Queens first anchored it.”

“Uncle Argyros and I are joining you on border patrol tonight?” At last, something Cassia coulddo.

“It’s the only way we diplomats get to spend any family time with the warriors these days,” Uncle Argyros said lightly, but she sensed the gravity in his aura.

“Alkaios and Nephalea send their regrets,” Kadi told Cassia. “They offered to patrol the border during your Ritual so the rest of us could attend. We’re heading to join them now.”

“Give them my gratitude,” Cassia said.

“Stay safe,” Uncle Argyros fretted to his ancient, powerful Grace and daughters.

“We will,” Aunt Lyta reassured him.

“And our enemies won’t,” Nike promised.

Her sister grinned at her as they stepped away.

Uncle Argyros’s eyes darkened, and his immense thelemancy swept around them like a shadow wrapped in snow and wind. When his magic met the ward, the pressure on Cassia’s arcane senses made her break out in gooseflesh. Knight put his ears back, but otherwise remained calm despite the flood of blood magic at work around them.

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