Page 79 of Blood Feast

“I know.” Cassia squeezed her eyes shut. “When I see you again, bring me a seed for the garden, just like always.”

“I will. I promise I’ll find something worth growing under all the flames at Castra Patria.” Solia pulled back. “Remember, even if you must avoid contact with the Charge, you are not fugitives undermylaw. You are still the Queen of Tenebra’s sister. I will make it clear to all my allies that whenever the Black Roses call upon them, they are to support you without question.”

Cassia nodded. “Thank you.”

Solia gave Knight a pat before going to stand beside Karege.

“May Ayur’s blood guide your hunt,” Kella said, invoking the Azarqi goddess of the moons.

Then Karege’s magic flared in the darkness. Cassia, Lio, Mak, and Lyros were suddenly very alone on the windy Tenebran moors.

Mak stalked over to Bear and General, his and Lyros’s matched pair of black warhorses, who were also their familiars. He loaded a saddlebag onto his mount in worrisome silence.

Lyros went to help him with their packs. “We need to determine our initial plan. The problem we must solve first is how we’ll cope with daylight.”

Lio fished out his astrolabe before lifting his pack onto his horse. Moonflower, white as his namesake, was not a familiar, but the gentle giant was still an Orthros Warmblood—powerful, intelligent, and all but immortal.

Cassia tallied the horses among their weapons, including her little speckled mare. Freckles might be the smallest, but she was also fast and mean. She switched her cinnamon-colored tail, looking like she wanted to bite someone, her permanent expression. Cassia found it comforting.

Lio made a couple of adjustments to the astrolabe, peering at the instrument. “With Winter Solstice almost upon us, this part of the kingdom gets only seven Tenebran hours of full daylight.Cassia will Slumber an hour or so beyond dusk and dawn, so we should have about three hours of twilight and twelve hours of night to find refuge.”

Cassia fastened her satchel to Freckles’ light fabric saddle, then lifted her larger pack onto her mount. Her belongings felt so easy to lift now. As a new Hesperine, she might sleep longer than the others, but she would make her new strength felt in her waking hours.

“We can’t rely on Hesperine Sanctuaries,” Lyros said. “No doubt Orthros will send out search parties, and those are the first places they’ll look.”

“I’m not so sure they will come looking. I could have sworn…” Lio hesitated. “I think Uncle Argyros knew we were there. And let us escape.”

Mak went still, staring at Lio. “He what?”

As Lio described what he’d witnessed in the disenchantment chambers, images of Argyros and Lyta flashed in their Grace Union for Cassia to see. “I believe he and your mother wanted us to get away. So it’s possible Rudhira will also make a point not to find us.”

Mak rubbed the back of his head, his aura a tangle of emotion. “My parents…impossible.”

“Not impossible.” Lyros took Mak’s hand. “But we cannot assume Rudhira will share their intention to let us escape.”

“I’m afraid that’s true,” Cassia said. “What if Rudhira would rather solve this with us safely under house arrest, instead of errant in Tenebra without the Charge’s support? He’ll want to find us, if only because he’s protective.”

Lio winced. “Or because we are also breaking Charge Law by going errant without his approval.”

“Marvelous,” Mak said. “So all the secret Hesperine Sanctuaries the Blood Errant told us about are exactly where we shouldn’t go.”

“We may not need Hesperine Sanctuaries.” Lio looked at Cassia. “Not when we have the Lustra.”

She held up her hands, shaking her head. “My magic has caused us nothing but trouble. We shouldn’t rely on it for anything.”

“If we can find more Lustra passages,” Lio said, “they will be the perfect solution to our dilemma.”

“The Charge has access to them now,” Cassia reminded him.

“To the tunnels at Castra Patria, yes,” Lio replied, “but we have no evidence those connect with passages in different locations. Even if they did, the Lustra opens for whom you wish. I’m sure it would just as quickly lock someone out for you.”

“And what if I spawn a forest of black roses by accident that lead the Charge and who knows who else right to us?”

Lio approached her. Closer. She had to tilt her head back to look at him. His dark blue gaze caught her like an anchor. She felt so far, far adrift. She wanted to stand in his shadow all night, soaking up the comfort of his presence. Comfort she didn’t deserve.

He rested his hand on her pendant. “There’s no need to conjure any roses. Simply use the pendant as you always have. It will be a small spell, unlikely to draw attention.”

“We don’t know what my pendant does now. You should use yours.”

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