Page 128 of Blood Feast

She had her eyes closed, one fist around her pendant and the other around Rosethorn’s hilt. Two points of Lustra magic grew in her foci.

The magic flew outward from her all at once. Black roses tore out of the marshy ground, forming a barricade between them and the wolves. Knight’s opponents leapt over the rising thicketjust before the roses grew too high for any wolf to jump. The beasts harrying Mak and Lyros retreated, yelping at the sting of the thorns.

“They can feel that,” Mak snarled.

But Cassia’s face crumpled. “I can’t make the roses attack the wolves. The Lustra vines won’t turn on their own. I’m sorry. All I can do is buy us time.”

Another howl sounded from outside her barricade. Bloodied jaws tore through. The roses grew closed again, shutting out the beasts. But on every side, Lio could hear their teeth and claws working at the vines.

“Now would be a good time for obtuse arcane theories, scrollworm,” Mak called over the growls.

Lio had walked into this trap with nearly a century of knowledge from the greatest libraries in the world stored in his head. All of that meant nothing in the face of ancient power from a lost epoch. He didn’t know enough. He didn’t understandanything.

He dragged a hand over his face. “What’s happening here defies every known law of magic! If they obey any law at all, it’s some primal code we don’t understand.”

“Primal laws…” Mak echoed. “What’s the oldest law there is?”

Something passed between him and his Grace, and Lyros answered, “Trial by combat.”

“What?” Cassia protested. “No, I won’t let you—”

“Let us try,” Mak said firmly.

She shook her head, her magic growing stronger in the ground under their feet. Her rose barrier grew higher.

Mak eyed the vines. Then he slashed his finger on one of the thorns. “We, Telemakhos and Lysandros, warriors of Hespera, challenge your wolves to trial by combat, Silvicultrix Ebah of the Lustra.”

The rose vines parted and sank into the ground. The wolves stood in a ring around them. Torches that hadn’t been there before now encircled the area. They burned not with mundane flame but with magefire that felt akin to the lighthouse.

His heart was in his throat. All he wanted to do was reach out to hold his Trial brothers back from this battle. But he was beginning to understand the laws at work here.

I think Mak just found the alternate solution to the puzzle,he told Cassia.

If the wolves hurt them—

Time to trust our warriors.

The alpha wolf and a fearsome female who must be his mate stepped out of the formation to face Mak and Lyros.

Mak squeezed Cassia’s shoulder, and his reassurance flowed through the Blood Union. “They’ve accepted our challenge and chosen Lyros and me as their opponents. It would be dishonorable for you and Lio to intervene.”

Her jaw tightened, but she nodded.

Mak approached the alpha as Lyros faced off with the vicious mate. Even Knight stayed back as if he had understood this law all along.

Lio could do nothing but stand helpless and watch. Cassia took his hand, and they held on tightly. His vow pounded with his pulse, a wordless determination now. He would learn. He would know. When they finally faced that door, his ignorance would not be the death of his Grace and Trial brothers.

The two wolves moved as one, launching themselves at Mak and Lyros. Lio’s muscles braced for the pain his Trial brothers were about to meet.

Mak turned his powerful frame with graceful precision. He moved into the wolf’s attack, merged with it as if he too was a force of nature. The beast’s pounce carried them both to the ground.

His hands closed around the wolf’s two front legs. Solid. The beasts truly had accepted the challenge. His biceps strained as he forced apart the claws trying to pin him down.

The alpha’s mate had landed behind Lyros to nip at his heels. He danced out of the reach of her jaws. With his own predatory gaze, he watched her every move. They circled each other, her eyes calculating.

Mak emerged on his feet. His face was utterly calm despite the fresh claw marks on his barely-healed arm. This time, it was he who pounced. He wrestled the alpha back to the ground, and they rolled in a whirl of black fur and blacker cloth.

At last, Lyros struck, a blur of immortal speed. His fist connected, a rapid strike at the wolf’s muzzle. It must have been a vulnerable spot, for she let out a yelp that promised revenge.

---