Page 131 of Blood Feast

“You two are the diplomats,” Mak said. “I dare say you can talk our way out of it, with or without an affinity for soothsaying.”

Cassia glanced back the way they had come, but Lyros shook his head. “The only way out is forward.”

Lio took Cassia’s hand.We’ll find a way.

They walked between the stones to face the next challenge.

Cassia took one stepforward, and the marsh was gone as if they had left it behind inside the standing stones. But those had disappeared, too.

They were back in the top chamber of the tower. Only it wasn’t a dismal storage room any longer.

The room was empty and dark save for the nonagram, which now glowed with verdant green light. The symbol was drawn on the floor in a luminescent powder that smelled of ash trees and bone. The complex, interlocking pattern formed a sort of nine-pointed star, and at its center rose a small standing stone.

“Why does that look more dangerous than Hesperine-eating ivy and unkillable wolves?” Mak asked.

“Because we understand it even less,” Lio answered.

Lyros eyed Knight, who was keeping his distance from the glowing lines. “No one set foot inside it.”

Lio nodded in agreement. “Not until Cassia has a chance to examine it with her power.”

She circled the symbol, studying the standing stone from every angle, and consulted the letting site again. As if the Lustra’s power amplified her hearing, she was able to make out a sound in the quiet room. A murmur that seemed to echo along the twists and points of the nonagram.

“Do you all hear that?” she asked.

Lio frowned, shaking his head. “What?”

“The tower has a voice,” she said.

The murmur grew more urgent, and she drifted closer to the outer edge of the symbol.

Lio caught her hand, holding her back. “What is the voice saying?”

“I don’t know.” The fleeting words seemed to hold a revelation just beyond her understanding.

She couldn’t help remembering the whispers that had permeated Btana Ayal, the voices of all the ancestors who had walked in that once-great city. She hadn’t been able to understand them until one of her own ancestors had manifested and briefly gifted her the power of soothsaying.

She would never have that ability again.

“This is definitely a soothsaying test,” she said.

“May I listen with you?” Lio asked.

“Please.” She opened her senses to him.

He drew nearer through their bond, and their Grace Union heightened. She felt him behind her eyes, under her skin. His voice echoed silently in her ears.Is this what it sounds like to go through a spirit gate when you’re human?

Yes. And what I heard at the shattered gate. But that’s impossible. The ancestors can’t speak in Tenebra.

He leaned nearer with a puzzled frown.It must be some manifestation of soothsaying magic we’ve never seen before.

If I make the wrong move, the consequences could be far worse than the other traps. The ivy and the wolves threatened us physically, but soothsaying could affect our minds.

“All we can do is face this challenge as we did the others.” Lio moved behind her and wrapped one hand around hers over her pendant, holding her dagger with her in the other. The motion had to cause him pain in his healing arm, but he didn’t hesitate.

“Wait.” Lyros held up a hand. “Our wards are working.”

Mak nodded, his face still pale.

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