Page 123 of Blood Feast

Knight didn’t move to investigate their surroundings. Calm but alert, he stood close to Cassia. She put a hand on him. “Is this like the other Lustra passages? None of you can step right now?”

The other three shook their heads.

“This is astonishing.” Lio reached out toward one of the ivy walls.

Cassia tried to catch his hand and stop him, but her new immortal reflexes weren’t quite as fast as his yet.

He rubbed a leaf between his thumb and forefinger. “It’s solid. Not an illusion, then. I can also tell it’s not some kind of waking dream created by mind magic to trick our brains into thinking all of this is real. Itisreal.”

Lyros shook his head. “No elemental magic or other mageia can manipulate reality like this.”

“This isn’t mageia or manteia,” Lio said. “It’s hulaia. The raw power of creation. We’re walking through the lost paradigm of magic right now, as it hasn’t been seen since the Silvicultrixes were at the peak of their power.”

Cassia drew Rosethorn. “I’ll have more appreciation for the magical significance after we find our way out of this. All of you stay close to me.”

Lyros nodded. “If we search each turn and mark the ways we’ve already tried, we should be able to find the correct path.”

“I’ll draw a map as we go.” Lio pulled a scroll out of his case.

“How shall we mark our way?” Cassia asked.

“Not with anything magical,” Lio suggested, “including blood. We don’t know how other powers interact with this spell.”

Mak pulled a small pouch out of his pocket and gave it a forlorn look. “All I brought with me are Tuura’s candied almonds.”

Lyros patted his arm. “A necessary sacrifice.”

Mak sighed and dropped one of the treats on the ground.

“All right. Might as well try forward first.” Cassia led the way along the twisting path ahead of them.

Their steps sounded muffled in the maze. The only other sound was a whisper of leaves against leaves. They’d walked several paces when Lyros, bringing up the rear, cursed.

She looked back. Their starting point and the almond they’d left there were nowhere to be seen. A completely different intersection of three paths lay behind them now. Cassia whirled to look ahead, only to find the single trail had changed into a fork in the path.

“So much for marking our way,” Lyros said grimly. “We can’t map a labyrinth that grows into a different shape with every step we take.”

Mak popped one of the candied almonds in his mouth, then slipped another one to Knight. “Tuura’s provisions are saved.”

Lyros’s expression betrayed a hint of frustration as he glanced at Mak.

Mak shrugged too casually. “Maybe thinking isn’t the right tactic in here. Cassia, what feels like the right way to go? Your intuition seems to be working just fine, at least.”

Cassia knew when someone was having two conversations at once, the one you could hear and understand and the hidden one beneath. She aways knew what to do with a secret layer of meaning that held political significance.

But hearing the layers of hurt in Mak and Lyros’s conversation, she felt out of her depth. Love was always harder than politics. She had to figure out how to help.

They’re veiling their emotions,she lamented to Lio silently.

I don’t understand. They seemed all right when they got back from their patrol.

Have they said anything to you about how things are between them since…we left Orthros?

I wish.Perhaps if we each try talking to one of them when the other isn’t listening, we can get them to confide in us.

All the more reason we need to get out of this maze.

Cassia gave them both a reassuring smile. “That was a clever plan, Lyros. I’m sorry my ancestors’ magic is so tricky. Let’s try Mak’s excellent suggestion next.”

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