Page 202 of Blood Feast

She dragged her hand across her lips and got to her feet. Wards now bracketed the space behind the sun disk. On the other side, fire roared. Flesh tore, and blood spattered. Their Trial brothers were fighting to keep the mages away from her and Lio so they could cast.

She was running out of time.

She braced her hands on the disk and reached into the letting site again. The mages were still using the Lustra-fed fires as they pleased. Her plant magic had done nothing to stop them.

Goddess help them. What if her plant magic wasn’t enough?

Lyros had a plan for this, too. If her spell didn’t work, it was Cassia’s responsibility to find a Lustra portal and signal retreat. Was it time to surrender?

She stood paralyzed for an instant of indecision they couldn’t afford.

Then she shot upward again to look over the disk. The Gift Collector was still on his feet, but his skin was sallow, his knuckles white as he drew yet another knife. The surviving war mages and their apprentices surrounded him in a battle formation. Mak and Lyros held their own in a desperate dance of stepping and levitation, weapons and wards.

There was no hope of fighting their way through to Skleros. If they tried to step, no doubt the mages would trammel them and drag them right into a fire trap.

She was the one who had lost the pendant. This was her crisis to solve.

A fork of lightning sent her ducking back behind the disk.

Are you all right?Lio’s mind voice was strained.

Yes. How close are his dream wards to breaking?

Lio wrapped both hands around Final Word and stood the staff in front of him. Blood leaked from his fists.Not as close as I should be.

We have to escape.

His frustration roared through their bond, but he didn’t argue.

Cassia opened one of Lio’s hands and pressed her own bleeding palm to his. As their libation dripped to the ground, she sought the Lustra’s guidance.

The portal was right behind them at the Mage King’s feet. A doorway directly to the letting site. Goddess only knew what secrets Lucian and Ebah had hidden down there.

Cassia touched the portal with her magic. It answered her with angry whispers. From the center of the chamber, her pendant murmured back.

No, no, no. That was why Skleros was here. Why he needed the pendant. This portal required soothsaying to open.

She had failed. They were trapped.

There was only one way out—fighting. She touched a bloody finger to her Union Stone and flashed the signal to retreat.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, only for Hesperine ears to hear.

Raising her dagger, she demolished the floor in front of her with her vines. Hespera’s Roses crawled over Anthros’s sun disk, vines snapping and thorns scratching. Mak and Lyros’s auras slid out of the way.

She gave her roses a push. The enormous bronze shield toppled forward. The Aithourians fled, some traversing to the other side of the chamber. But the two nearest and their apprentices disappeared under the sun disk’s weight. She was grateful the roar of magic in her ears drowned out the sounds.

She stood in front of her Grace and faced the war mages with Mak and Lyros beside her.

Every single Aithourian fell to their knees at once. Their mouths fell open, screaming, but no sound emerged from their throats.

She reached for Lio’s magic, but the thelemancy pouring out of him was flooding into Skleros. The Gift Collector’s eyes were locked on Lio’s as they stood frozen in their mental battle. It wasn’t Lio causing the war mages’ suffering.

Every Aithourian writhed on the ground, clawing at their chests. Tongues of flame and sparks of lightning writhed in the air as currents of magic tore out of their bodies. With sickening recognition, Cassia followed the flow of power with her gaze.

In the gallery above them stood Miranda.

THE SURVIVORS

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