Page 108 of Blood Feast

She sensed Lio groan inwardly.We’ll manage. I’ll wait outside the stones until you fall asleep and leave before you wake.

Will you be safe?

Yes. I’ll come inside the circle before the Slumber hits me.

She sighed.It’s the best we can do.

“We’ll go back to the standing stones,” Cassia agreed, “but there’s one more thing I need to do here first. This might be our only chance to send word to Solia for quite some time. We should ask Ben to reassure her we’re all right.”

“Do you even trust him with that?” Lio asked.

Cassia shrugged. “We can rely on him to take a message to her, at least. Whatever Ben thinks of us, he will never break his oaths to my sister. His quest not to become his traitorous father is what defines him.”

Anger still darkened Lio’s expression. “Even if that’s true, I can’t forgive him for being disloyal to you.”

She squeezed his hands. “Just give me a moment. Then we’ll leave him in our dust where he belongs.”

“I’ll ask him for you,” Lyros offered.

“That’s all right,” said Cassia. “I’ll take care of it.”

She approached Ben. The stench of the dead threatened to make her retreat to the river and retch. But she would not let these battle-hardened mortals mistake her newfound Hesperine empathy for female weakness.

She halted in front of Ben. His lips parted, then he hesitated, his aura fraught.

“Sir Benedict, I would ask a favor of you, for my sister’s sake, if not mine. None of us need enjoy the situation.”

“What do you need?” His voice was quiet, as if his anger had gone and left him drained.

Cassia considered her words carefully. She didn’t want to tell him anything their enemies or the Charge could use to find them if her message reached the wrong ears. “Will you send word to Solia that the Black Roses are making progress?”

He swallowed. “Now I understand why you call yourselves that.”

She felt the urge to shake him. He had no right to look so uncomfortable after she had saved his life. Would he rather die than be rescued by the unholy flowers his order referred to as harlot’s kiss? “Can you get our message to her or not?”

“I told you, there’s an invasion force between us and her fortress right now. I don’t know when or if my couriers will get through to her.”

“This is the first contact I’ve had with my sister’s forces in nights, and might be the last for weeks. You’ll have the chance to communicate with her long before I do. Will you at least tell her I’m still alive? Will you give your queen that much kindness, even if you have none left for me?”

His gaze dropped. “Cassia, I… Of course. I’ll reassure her.”

His anger had been easier to bear than the familiar way he said her name.

She turned away from Ben and marched back to her fellow Hesperines.

Lio pulled Cassia intohis arms. She wasn’t shaking this time. She seemed frozen, her spine rigid. That worried him more.

Lio second-guessed his decision not to put a fist in Benedict’s face.

After holding onto him for a long moment, Cassia made to pull away. He didn’t let her go. Brushing her hair back from her forehead, he felt how warm her skin was. For the first time in her Hesperine life, she had a Craving fever, and Lio hated it with every fiber of his being.

“Ride with me,” he said.

She glanced at Freckles. “I can make it back to the stone circle on my own.”

“I know you can. I need you in my arms for a while before we have to sleep apart again.”

She softened against him and nodded. He had known if he made arguments about her own needs, she would only get more stubborn to prove she could hold up. But she had been willing to give in for his sake.

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