Page 220 of Blood Feast

Cassia motioned for them to follow her. “Bring him inside.”

Lio would have followed that freckled hand anywhere. Her magic pulsed, and the ground at her feet parted to reveal a stairway. Mak hurried down with Lyros.

“There are portals here?” Realization sent gooseflesh across Lio’s skin. “This is a node.”

Cassia nodded, and there was hope in her aura.

Lio hesitated in front of her. He gripped his scroll case to keep from touching her.

Her gaze dropped to Dame. “You saved her.”

“You might say she saved me.”

Hesitating behind Lio, Dame cocked her head at Knight, her ears perked. He sniffed in her direction and wagged his tail.

Cassia led them inside the portal, where steps spiraled around the wall of a deep, narrow cavern. They walked down with the dogs and joined Mak and Lyros by an underground stream. Spell-lit torches lined the bank, casting their shadows across the ferns that grew by the water. Archways inscribed with runes led away into darkness.

Mak laid Lyros down on the thick carpet of plants. Lio had never seen his cousin like this, silent and pale. He gave Lyros’s wound a rapid examination before holding out his wrist.

Lyros struggled to a sitting position. “I won’t drink until we talk.”

“Bleeding thorns, Lyros!” Mak finally spoke. “You’re an hour away from dying and you want totalk?”

“I want to apologize.”

Mak shook his wrist at his Grace. “You think apologies matter to me right now? Drink!”

“Lyros,” Lio broke in, “now isn’t the time!”

Cassia glared at their wounded Trial brother. “What happened to ‘no abstinence over foolish differences of opinion’?”

“I need Mak to know I’m not angry about the weapons.”

Mak curled his hand into a fist. “You have every right to be. You told me not to do it, and when I was an idiot and didn’t listen, you supported me anyway. No one could ask more of his Grace than that.”

“Yes,” Lyros said. “You can. You can ask me to trust your decisions. Even about this.”

“I know you trust me. You always tell me I have the best intuition. But you’re the one with sense.”

“I’m wrong just as often as you are.”

Mak sat back. “That’s why you changed your mind about turning us in? You actually think I was right about the weapons?”

“I came back for the same reason I left. I was trying to do what would cause you the least pain.”

Mak’s face got ruddy, and his veils started to slip over his emotions. “Why in the Goddess’s name did you think I would hurt less if you got arrested for my crimes?”

“I felt your guilt at the temple. I saw everything you imagined that Miranda would do with the dagger you forged. You were torturing yourself. I would have done anything to make it stop. And the only way I could think of to put an end to this was to turn us in.”

Mak swallowed. “That was the stupidest strategy you’ve ever come up with. Watching you leave…thathurt.”

“Then why did you tell me to go? Twice?” The words seemed to jump out of Lyros, and then he rubbed his face, as if he regretted them.

By silent agreement, Lio and Cassia said nothing. If talking this through would get Lyros to accept the healing he needed, they didn’t dare interrupt.

Mak reached out and touched Lyros’s tangled hair. “You know I was just trying to protect you from the consequences of my actions. You’ve done everything the right way. You never wanted to revolutionize anything, and you didn’t need to in order to leave your mark on Orthros. Goddess, you’re the finest warrior the Stand has ever seen. After how hard you workedfor your speires, I ruined everything for you by trying to prove something.”

“You think you have something to prove?” Lyros gave his head a shake. “Mak…you’re a natural. You were made for the Stand. All I ever wanted was to be as worthy of these speires as you.”

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