Page 29 of Blood Feast

Blood magic saturated these wilds. The Queens’ ward had been anchored in this ground for countless seasons. Cassia drew Lustra magic up through the greatest masterpiece of Hesperine magic.

Stone cracked. Woody vines climbed out of the ground, their curved thorns hooking into the heart hunters’ flesh. Everywhere they drew blood, dark buds sprouted. Magic pounded through Cassia, flowing into her creations, and the black roses unfurled.

“Impossible,” the Collector cried with six voices. “I took your magic. I left you powerless.”

Cassia smiled and ran her tongue over one fang, adding more blood to her spell. In that moment, she felt no fear at all. Her old nemesis was gone. Her new strength was in her veins.

She twisted her hands, and her rose vines twined tighter around the necromancer’s pawns. Feathers drifted on the air as they shrank back into their beast forms, escaping her thorns and Knight’s snapping teeth. The vultures hurled themselves from the precipice.

She curled her hands into fists, squeezing more blood onto the stone. The vines snapped outward over the ledge. One twisted around a vulture’s wing, plucking it from the air.

He flapped madly, at last tearing himself away from the thorns. But on his ruined pinion, he plummeted into the ravine.

Cassia’s heart seemed to stop. The missed beat left a gaping emptiness inside her. She clutched at her chest with her bleeding hands, but she couldn’t hold it. Couldn’t stop it. Life drained out of her grasp.

No.Lio’s presence breathed into her.Your heart is still beating with mine.

At his reminder that she lived, her mind grasped what she had just experienced in the Blood Union. It was the heart hunter’s blood that had stilled in his veins.

She crept forward to the edge of the precipice and looked down.

All through Martyr’s Pass, tangles of black had burst through the white snow. Thickets of the dark roses now fortified the ward like rows of stakes below a castle under siege.

The dead vulture had landed at Nike’s feet. Cassia watched the bird transform back into the remains of a man.

She tried to breathe, then regretted it. Death smelled so much worse as a Hesperine.

In the Collector’s momentof distraction, Lio poured his thelemancy into the archers. Two of their minds sprang free from Kallikrates. With shouts of confusion, the pair dropped their bows and fled.

But the reprieve was over. The Collector’s presence grew stronger in the ten remaining bowmen, and his full attention fixed on Lio.

They nocked two arrows to their bows and fired again at Mak and Lyros’s ward.

His Trial brothers had made the most of the momentary advantage, too. Their spell felt more powerful, fortified against the next volley. As each arrowhead struck their barrier, the magefire hissed out.

Except one. The last bolt tore through the ward, hurtling at Lio’s heart.

He leapt into the air, levitating out of the arrow’s reach. It landed at the feet of the statues in the center of the square.Cassia’s statue. Magefire licked at the offerings the villagers had left there, and the flowers began to burn.

Solia’s hands were curled into fists, her knuckles white. How tempted she must be to put out that fire. Lio met her gaze and shook his head. This was not the moment to betray her secret.

Her eyes flashed, but she answered with a nod.

There was no time for Lio to duel the Collector for ten more minds, nor to wait for Rudhira. Lio had to get everyone out before the village burned—or Tenebra’s new queen used her magic and got herself branded an apostate by her own people.

But with war mages waiting to intercept them, how?

His hand went to the medallion at his neck.Cassia, do you think I can open the secret passageways into Patria now?

The Lustra has accepted you as my mate. Try!

Lio focused his Will on his medallion. The villagers’ fearful voices and Solia’s calm commands faded from his awareness. He didn’t hear the next volley of arrows hit Mak and Lyros’s ward.

But no Lustra magic hummed at him from within his talisman, only blood enchantments.

Of course. He knew what the Lustra wanted of him. He bit his palm and clasped the medallion again in his bleeding hand.

The three ivy leaves warmed at his touch.

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