Page 81 of Blood Feast

Lyros cleared his throat. “Perhaps after we find a Lustra portal to offer us shelter.”

Sunbind the amusement in Lio’s aura.

“Try a drop of your blood on your pendant,” he instructed in the tone of her magic teacher.

The muscles between her shoulder blades, where she used to sweat as a mortal, now tensed painfully. There had to be a better way than her setting off her chaotic magic again.

“It was my beast magic that revealed the portals to us at Patria,” she reasoned. “I can’t change my eyes now. Who’s to say the passages will even open for my plant magic?”

Lio’s remorse saturated their Grace Union, and Cassia immediately wished she could take back her words. She should have known better than to mention her lost magic. She hadn’t meant to prod his regrets about not helping her claim all her power before Gifting her.

“This is why I will never give up on your other affinities,” he said too calmly. “But for now, we need you to use your plant magic to the fullest. The Lustra has shown itself willing to adapt to the changes in your power. Try.”

He was right. They were out of options. It could take hours they didn’t have to find a different historical location, step there, and start their search from the beginning.

Cassia’s Craving would catch up to them long before dawn did. Her magic and her hunger were both burdens that only made matters worse for the four of them.

If there was a portal here, she had to find it for them, and she’d best do it before her Craving made it even more difficult to control her power.

She dismounted and planted her feet on the ground. Lifting her palm toward her fangs, she realized her hand was shaking.

Lio’s aura eased up behind her, and his hands came to rest on her shoulders. “Just like we’ve done before.”

Why did she feel as if casting spells would never be the same again?

She drew the smallest amount of blood from her hand and touched her pendant.

Magic shot up from the soil and exploded through her veins. Her senses split and spread, reaching out far. So far. As if her roots ran through all of Tenebra, and she could hold an entire kingdom in her mind’s eye.

The Lustra called out to her. It knew she had returned.

Who else would know, after this arcane declaration?

We have to make it stop,she cried into their Grace Union.

I can help, but only if you’re willing to let me.

Do whatever you can.

Lio swept into her mind, fast and deep, as he had when casting the mind ward. She sagged back into his arms, his body the only solid form in a world roiling with magic.

Let me help.He murmured through her every thought.

She was afraid to let go. So afraid to stop fighting the magic.

Let go.

She surrendered, her mental defenses falling for him in one gentle rush. His power encircled her, fortifying the mind ward, and the chaos went quiet.

There was nothing but the two of them, here in the Sanctuary of her thoughts.

She felt his touch on her Will, the gentlest guide. She followed where his magic led. Together, they took hold of the wild tendrils of her spell and pulled them all back to her. The magic sent a tremor through her as it shot back into the ground.

She opened her eyes. The flame at the top of the lighthouse had risen to a bonfire. She heard the shouts of men on the other side of the wards Mak and Lyros had conjured around her and Lio.

“Let’s not wait for them to demand an explanation. This way.” Lyros pointed.

Black roses ripped out of a crack in the bedrock under the lighthouse. The vines took hold of the stone and tore it aside to reveal a broad portal.

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