Page 226 of Blood Feast

Lio swore.

“I know,” she said. “If you don’t have the heart to do it, my Grace, we’ll think of something else.”

“No. It’s a good plan.”

Lyros glanced between them. “Whatever it is, Mak and I may not be willing to risk it, either. What bait do you have in mind?”

Lio pulled their avowal cup out of his scroll case and stood it on the table. “Cassia’s third focus.”

Mak shook his head. “You’ve had your avowal cup with you all this time? Romantic idiot.”

“Guilty.” Lio smiled.

Lyros blew out an incredulous breath. “When did you realize it’s one of your foci, Cassia?”

“Last night. It reacted to the letting site.” Were her cheeks as flushed as they felt?

Lio rested his hand low on her back, and the possessive magic inside her hummed at her mate’s touch.

Mak snickered. “Well, it’s a good thing you two take your duties to the Lustra so seriously.”

Lyros’s eyes narrowed with amusement. “And a very good thing Lio didn’t ruin that cup.”

Lio cleared his throat. “In any case, if Cassia casts with it to reveal it as her focus, Miranda is sure to make her move.”

Cassia nodded. “With my pendant and dagger already in her possession, she’ll be rabid to complete the triune focus so she can use it to destroy the remaining node.”

“This will work.” Lyros rotated the map toward him. “We can choose our battleground, a location that will give us the advantage. Any thoughts on where?”

“Not a Lustra site we would risk endangering,” Cassia said. “We have to keep her away from the remaining node, wherever it might be.”

Lio’s gaze sharpened on something no one else could see. She knew that look.

She brushed her fingers across his temple. “You have an idea, Sir Scholar.”

“It has to be a place that will strengthen your magic as much as possible. But not a Lustra site. That means we need a Hesperine site.”

“Oh,” Cassia breathed. “Yes.”

They would defeat Miranda with the Lustra, but on Hesperine terms.

Lio yanked all the documents out of his scroll case and scattered them across the table. “Think about how your roses responded to the Queens’ ward. And in the Ritual hall at House Komnena.”

Lyros stood back and let Lio have at the papers. “This could give us a real chance. If we fight where Sanctuary magic survives, Mak and I can cast stronger wards.”

Mak chewed his lip. “That might help with the enchantment I want to put on the weapons, too.”

“Your spell will be brilliant,” Lyros said. “We’ll simply have to accept the risk we face at any Hesperine Sanctuary. The Charge is likelier to discover us there.”

Lio gave his head a shake, her braid falling in his eyes as he rifled through his notes and charts. “We aren’t going to a Sanctuary.”

Finally he seized on what he must have been looking for. He flattened out the small scroll in front of Cassia. It was another map, meticulously labeled in Lio’s handwriting. She recognized the coastline and rivers, mountains and forests as Tenebra and Cordium. But none of the place names were familiar to her.

“Lio…is this the shadowlands in another time?”

“This map dates from the Great Temple Epoch. I copied it from one of my father’s years ago. I thought this might help us on our journey…give us clues about the past.”

Four stars drew her eye, each one at a different location on the map—north, south, east, and west. “Are those the Great Temples of Hespera?”

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