Page 156 of Blood Feast

Mak looked dubious. “That could simply be his pride talking. Can we believe what he says about his rival, knowing he sees her as a threat to his status?”

“I think Lio’s right.” Cassia weighed in finally. “Miranda made a catastrophic mistake—she failed to take the rest of my magic, lost a mind-duel with Lio, and let us escape. Kallikrates is sure to punish her, and that puts her at a disadvantage. But however she’s planning to earn his forgiveness, it’s sure to be painful for us.”

Lyros frowned. “And here we are, planning to chase her right into the trap she’s set for us.”

“Is she hunting us, though?” Mak wondered. “Or running? We’ve seen little sign of her.”

“Oh, Mercy,” Cassia said suddenly. “I am such a fool.”

Lio looked up at her. “What is it?”

Cassia put her face in her hand. “She has been hunting us all along. The arrow that shot Kalos was made of apple wood.”

Lio swore. “I should have realized. She’s left us an apple as a taunts before. No surprise, given the importance of Paradum’s apple orchard in your shared past.”

Cassia bit her lip. “Let us assume that either Skleros or Miranda had a hand in each of our encounters with the Collector’s forces.”

Lio nodded. “Miranda must have been hidden among the archers who attacked the Patrian villages. She shot Kalos, but perhaps also tried to mitigate the harm upon Mederi.”

Cassia set aside her coffee cup as if she felt ill. “Skleros must have been responsible for the heart hunters in Martyr’s Pass. That’s the same tactic he used when he came to Orthros with the embassy.”

“What about the Gift Collectors at the lighthouse?” Mak asked. “It’s so rare for them to work together. Could Skleros and Miranda have made sure those four discovered our location? They might have set them on us to eliminate some of their lesser competition for the bounty.”

“That makes sense,” Lyros said. “Then Miranda’s villagers led us to Roborra.”

Cassia shook her head. “She wouldn’t exploit them to get at us.”

“But Skleros would,” said Lio. “He’d take particular satisfaction in using her own people against her. With Kallikrates’s help, he could easily have planted that clue about her supposed location in the villagers’ minds to lure us to him.”

“Kallikrates knew I would understand the clue about salt and bones. He wanted to confront us in the place where I met the Hesperines who turned me against him.” Cassia’s gaze fell. “He also lured us to this tower. He and Lucis must have known it was a Lustra site. I think that’s why the king was so determined to send me here during the Equinox Summit.”

“That was around the time he was watching for your magic to manifest,” Lio said.

She nodded. “I overheard them discussing it in Lucis’s solar while Kallikrates was possessing Dalos. I thought they were talking about executing me, but in hindsight, I realize they meant the Collector’s plan to take the rest of my magic.”

Lyros’s eyes narrowed. “That’s why the tower was so poorly guarded. He and Lucis wanted you to retrieve the enchantment.”

“How could they be sure we would think to come here?” Mak asked.

The ease with which their enemy predicted their thoughts sent a chill down Lio’s spine. The Black Roses had retrieved the soothsaying enchantment and then escorted Cassia right into Skleros’s ambush so he could take it from her. “They must have known this would be our most likely place to find shelter before approaching Roborra.”

Mak blew out a breath. “So Miranda was never at Castra Roborra at all. That leaves us with no leads about her real whereabouts and two Gift Collectors with personal grudges on our tails.”

“They also know we’re here at the tower,” Lyros added. “We need to fortify our thelemantic wards around the keep. But no matter how strong we make them, Kallikrates has enough power to break through them if he decides to. We’re only safe inside the Changing Queen’s spell.”

The fire glinted in Cassia’s troubled eyes. She was drawing a Hesperine Ritual circle in her mind’s eye, five petals and five thorns over and over. Under the distracting thoughts, Lio caught her worries. Her bargain with Kallikrates had spared their lives, but there were still many ways he could twist her words and make them suffer without killing them.

Lio said it aloud. “Their goal has probably changed. They were bent on destroying us before, but after Cassia’s conversation with him, we should consider the possibility that he wants to capture us all instead.”

Despair weighed deep in her aura, but she gathered the armor of her pride around her thoughts.I know you don’t agree with what I did. You needn’t remind me.

I’m not trying to torture you for your choice. I just don’t want you to carry it inside you in silence. You don’t have to bear it alone.

Her gaze flashed.Just like when you wouldn’t let me get myself arrested alone.

Yes, exactly like that.

Lyros lifted his hand, as if to rub his chest, but then let it drop. “The heart wounds they keep dealing us in every battle aren’t a coincidence. They’re a terror tactic. Kallikrates is trying to make us feel vulnerable.”

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