Page 102 of Blood Feast

Lio grimaced. “Remember the bones we found under the lighthouse? Those rituals involved death.”

“Yes,” Lyros said with a puzzled frown.

“Well.” Thorns, it was really unnecessary for him to blush like this. “I think the rituals here involved, ah, fertility. The magic wants Cassia and me to perform our duties to the Lustra. We’re being stubborn.”

Mak burst out laughing. “Well, that explains why you were in such a hurry to get in here.”

“It wasn’t intentional!” Lio put his head between his knees. “The Lustra has acknowledged I’m the Silvicultrix’s mate, and apparently that involves certain responsibilities. Magical and physical ones. Unless this is the site of ancient Lustri orgies, and it makes everyone who sets foot here mindless with lust. Do you two feel any irrational urges to tear each other’s clothes off?”

Mak laughed harder.

Lyros gave his Grace a warm look. “We don’t need a stone circle for that. All we’re feeling is what we feel every night.”

“Wait,” Mak said, “doany‘pleasure rituals’ in the circle affect the magic? Or only the Silvicultrix’s ‘duties’?”

Lio sighed. “I believe it’s safe to assume you may do whatever you like tonight. Have fun. Spare some sympathy in your hearts for your poor, hungry Trial brother.”

Mak patted Lio’s shoulder. “If we feel any magical earthquakes through your veils, we won’t judge.”

Lio punched Mak’s uninjured arm.

He recalled the three of them sitting like this in the gymnasium the night they had extracted his confession that Cassia was his Grace. They had all been so full of themselves, the youngest to be promoted from initiates to full rank in the diplomatic service and the Stand.

They had thought their titles made it possible for them to protect their people. That their mentors trusted them to use their power wisely. What did those accolades mean now? Adamas was all that stood between them and the Gift Collectors’ blades.

Lio wanted to ask his Trial brothers a few nosy questions of his own. Was Mak still blaming himself for all of this, or was he listening to Lyros’s reassurances? But hearing his cousin rib him, Lio couldn’t bring himself to banish Mak’s humor. He might only make Mak feel worse. Just like Cassia.

Lio waited until her breathing went silent in Slumber and her hurting aura gave way to fretful dreams. He got to his feet. “She’s asleep.”

“Can we trust you to behave yourself in there?” Lyros teased.

Lio made a face. “With a liegehound sleeping between us, yes.”

“Good old Knight,” Mak said, “an unfailing deterrent against enemy mages and thorny young Hesperines.”

Lio laughed with them and slipped away without them realizing Glasstongue had won this negotiation. They hadn’t questioned him about the real reason for this new rift between him and Cassia.

If they had, he wouldn’t have known the answer.

VIGIL OF THE

GIFT

1 Night Until Winter Solstice

NO ESCAPE

Cassia woke to aparched tongue and a cold bedroll. Her body worked itself out of the Dawn Slumber without Lio there to hold her. He was everpresent at the boundaries of their Union, fretful, distant, his self-control a seething thread ready to snap.

When she could move her arms, she wrapped them around Knight and buried her face in his fur. The scent of the herbal rose bath she had given him before the avowal ceremony was finally fading from his coat. He rolled onto his side, sprawling across Lio’s place.

She rubbed Knight’s belly. “Still occasionally jealous, darling? Happy to have me all to yourself now and then, like old times?”

Her hound let out a sigh, his tongue flopping out in a dreamy expression.

“What would I have done if you’d been wounded in that battle, hm? This kingdom is harsh, even on liegehounds. I wish I could do more to protect you.”

He licked his nose and settled more comfortably against her.

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