Page 4 of Blood Feast

“No,” he confessed at last. “I was so focused on getting you to safety. I didn’t think to warn them about anything.”

She could feel the possible consequences of that playing out in his emotions. His heart beat faster, and her own picked up pace to match.

“We left Miranda a captive at Paradum,” Cassia reasoned. “She’s most likely in Rudhira’s dungeon now, and he found out everything he needs to know from interrogating her.”

Lio gentled his tone. “I’m not sure he took any prisoners.”

“Oh,” Cassia murmured.

It was an unexpected blow. This was the result of her and Miranda’s choices in life. Cassia had survived to become Rudhira’s immortal Ritual daughter. Her one-time friend had gotten herself killed at the end of his sword.

No. Her friend had died a long time ago, when Miranda had willingly surrendered herself to the Collector’s service.

There was no time now to mourn the girl she had once been. If her secrets had died with her, they were in deep trouble.

“I hate how much we don’t know,” Cassia said. “If Kallikrates is willing to go to such lengths to open the door, what could possibly be inside? And what harm will come to everyone if he accesses it?”

“I cannot bear to imagine,” Lio replied.

“His second requirement is already met. He has the war he wanted—between Hesperines and the Mage Orders on Tenebran soil.”

“We have to warn everyone,” Lio said. “They need to know that the war they’re fighting is exactly what Kallikrates wants.”

Anger burned through Cassia. She didn’t want to heed the letting site’s call. She wasn’t ready. How did the Lustra expect her to prevent whatever disaster lurked behind that door? She could barely control her own magic or survive a few hours without Lio’s blood.

“I’m not ready, either,” Lio confessed, his voice rough. “Almost losing you—again—changed everything. Gaining you forever changed everything. Even after we leave the tower, I won’t be able to share you the way I did before your Gifting. Not with our duties, not even with people we love.”

His rare possessiveness was the reassurance she needed. Somehow, when they left this enchanted world they had all to themselves, they wouldn’t lose it. They would take the true depths of their Grace bond with them.

She wrapped her fingers around the braid of her hair he wore around his neck. “Remember what I told you when I first woke after my Gifting. I’m not capable of putting anything or anyone ahead of you now. That was another life. Another me. You are my everything now, and you always will be.”

He wrapped his hand around his Grace braid on her ankle. “That’s what I need, Cassia.”

Her sweet, selfless Lio. He so rarely asked for anything for himself. For him to make such an appeal told her how necessary it was. She was ready to bleed to give him what he needed.

Her fears whispered to her. The world would not heed her promises. Allies would keep asking more of them, and enemies would keep trying to tear her away from him.

But she no longer relied on meager mortal strength to resist them.

She let Lio see her fangs. “Now I have the power to fight anyone who dares come between us. If they threaten you, I won’t need control over my magic. All I’ll need to do is let it loose.”

“Goddess,” he breathed. “You’re so beautiful when you’re making threats.”

She pulled his mouth to hers, and their kiss was a rough, demanding promise to each other. Their shared fury pounded through their Grace Union, growing more powerful as it cycled between them, and yet somehow easier to bear.

They weren’t ready to face the world, and yet they shared the same conviction. Their allies and their enemies were about to meet a new force of nature they could never have imagined.

The world was not ready for them.

21

Nights Until

WINTER SOLSTICE

REENTERING THE WORLD

“The pendant and ourmedallions can’t be gone.” Cassia stood in despair amid the masses of rose vines and moonflowers growing all over their bedchamber.

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