Page 115 of Blood Feast

She whirled to face him. “We just found what might be a safe place for us, and you want me to draw attention with a spell?”

“We’ve covered this place in thelemantic wards. No one will detect your casting.”

“The spells at Nike’s forge did nothing to cover my magic!”

“Those were not my spells.”

As they stood there facing each other, the air grew full of their latent magics. Knight put his ears back and trotted off to keep watch outside the door.

Lio leaned closer to Cassia, shrinking the small, taut distance between them. “I am your Grace. Your blood is in my blood, your magic in my magic. We know the Lustra has marked me. If any spells can conceal your magic, mine can.”

Her canines were so far extended, they must be aching for him. “Now is hardly the time for testing theories! I have no wish to repeat what happened at the lighthouse. We cannot afford to take that risk.”

“Why, Cassia?” he demanded.

Her hands closed into fists, and her voice rose. “Because every time I let go of my power, I hurt someone. I hurtyou.”

He gritted his teeth, on the verge of releasing the magic in his own veins. The trunk lid rattled.

Cassia retreated to the window, flattening her hands on the sill. Her voice fell. “I don’t blame you for being angry.”

He stayed where he was for the moment, giving her more space. “You know I’m not angry withyou, don’t you?”

“Yes,” she said, her voice small. “After the way my father treated me, I know I have a tendency to assume that when someone is angry, they must be angry at me. But the mind healers have reminded me again and again to stop doing that to myself.”

“I never want you to think my anger is directed at you.”

“I know you better than that. You always give me the benefit of the doubt. You are never disappointed in me. It would be easier if you were.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I can feel how angry you are over everything we’ve lost, over how my magic is nothing like what we hoped for. Yet you are sounfailingly gentle with me. It makes my heart break even more at what I’ve done to you.”

“Oh, Cassia.” He dragged his hands through his hair. “My newgift. This is something you need to understand about the Blood Union. It only tells us what someone is feeling, not why they are feeling it.”

“Grace Union is different.”

“Not when we’re hiding from each other. Just as you said when you proposed to me, our words are so important, even now that our souls are bound together.”

She half turned to him, wrapping her arms around herself. “Then tell me. Why are you angry, if not because my magic cost you everything?”

He strode to her side and turned her to face him, pulling her against him. Their gazes locked. Her eyes were dilated.

“You have that backward,” he said. “You did not cost me everything. Everything has always tried to cost me you.”

“Lio.” She sounded breathless. “I will not allow this negotiation to end against the wall.”

“I agree. The bed would be better. Those visions we saw in the stone circle will give us no mercy until we act them out.”

“No,” she gasped. “I won’t take from your vein again. Not until we talk.”

At last, he had persuaded her to talk. He had hoped her sheer stubbornness to resist her Craving would prove a powerful motivation.

“Tell me why you’re angry, then,” she demanded.

“Orthros promised that you could embrace your magic without fear. That it would be safe for you to be powerful. Then the moment you spread your wings, they punished you for it. I am so angry at how our own people have treated you.”

“Oh.” Her surprise was a flicker of light in their Union, but her gaze fell. “It’s not their fault. I knowingly broke the Queens’ laws.”

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