Page 112 of Blood Feast

The scent of sweat intensified. True to Mak’s prediction, one of the mortals would need a clean pair of breeches. The men put their backs to the table, swords out in every direction.

Cassia gave them a fanged smile. At her side, Knight snarled, a fearsome sight with his hackles up and spittle dripping from his jaws. The slurs the men spat at her made Lio discard the ideaof scrubbing their brains. He would rather twist their minds into painful shapes. But at their insults, Cassia’s smile only widened.

You’re enjoying this,Lio said.

These are the very men who used to leer at my handmaiden and me whenever I had to stay here. It is a delight to watch them cower.

“Hello, Commander,” Cassia said to the drunkest of the men. “Do you remember me?”

He signed a glyph of Anthros over his heart. “You’re the king’s bitch. No lady now.”

“I am no one’s bitch, and he is not the king any longer. You will address me as Ambassador.”

A smile spread across Lio’s face as he watched her. This was his blood sorceress, his witch of the wilds.

She took a step closer to the man, fluttering her fingers in a spellcasting gesture.

He cowered back against the table. “As you s-say, Amba-bassador.”

“Her Majesty Queen Solia the First is now the rightful monarch of Tenebra, and you are aiming that sword at the wrong side of the war. But we, her Hesperine allies, are prepared to grant you clemency.”

One of the other men laughed. “Dead princess Solia back from the grave? Hesperines fighting a war in Tenebra? She’s a heretic and a seductress, playing with our heads, men. Don’t listen to her.”

Mak rolled his eyes. “So that’s what you meant by a remote garrison.”

“Unfortunate,” Lyros said. “It seems word hasn’t traveled out here yet.”

“It falls to us to bring tidings from Patria, then.” Lio joined Cassia in a bit of theatrics. With a pull of his light magic, he cast the entire room in dramatic shadows, obscuring even thefirelight. At the soldiers’ fearful gasps, amusement danced in Cassia’s aura.

Lio painted Solia’s coat of arm above their heads in blue and gold light. “What we say is true. Solia’s tomb has been empty for fifteen years. She has returned to her people, and the Full Council of Free Lords has given her their mandate. Hadria and Segetia fight side by side under her banner.”

“Lucis will fall.” Cassia’s voice filled the room with quiet menace. “When he does, where will your fealty lie?”

One of the men tried to bolt for the door. Lio didn’t see Mak move. The man ran headlong into Mak’s grasp, and he tossed the mortal back at his comrades like a sack of potatoes. They dodged aside, managing not to impale any of their own men on their tangled blades.

“No one leaves until you choose your side.” Lyros had shifted to block the doorway.

“We will show you Mercy if you do exactly as we say,” Cassia declared. “Leave this place and ride for Patria, stopping only to rest when you must. Find Queen Solia at the fortress there and pledge your loyalty to her.”

Lio levitated toward the warriors, letting the shadows gather around him to make him seem even taller. They craned their necks to look up a him.

“Do no harm to Solia’s subjects on your way.” He strengthened his voice with mind magic, and his words echoed deeply through the room. “If you steal from a family, we will know. If you lay a hand on a woman, we will know. And we will find you.”

“What’s our other choice?” demanded the bold one who had called Cassia a seductress.

“Choose Lucis’s side,” she said, “and fight us here and now.”

The commander’s eyes were rimmed in white. “If we do as you say, you’ll let us leave? With our throats in one piece?”

“I have no desire whatsoever to taste your fetid blood,” she informed him.

“We guarantee you safe passage,” Lio promised, “if you adhere to our terms.”

“We have conditions.” The commander drew himself up, wiping sweat from his brow. “We’ll go to Patria to see if what you say is true. That much we’ll do. And we won’t trouble anyone on the way. As long as you leave us be.”

Lio and Cassia exchanged glances with their Trial brothers.

“Good enough for me.” Mak cracked his knuckles, and the men startled. “Once they get to Patria, the Charge can encourage them to make good choices.”

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