Page 234 of Blood Feast

Cassia’s heart picked up pace. What if Miranda hadn’t brought the dagger with her at all?

We can still defeat her.Lio’s reassurance filled their Union. He was the calm in the center of the storm. Somehow, he was utterly confident in this moment. That certainty took root in Cassia’s heart and became her own.

Mak descended in a blur. His morning star struck Miranda’s arm. Adamas thumped on flesh and leather, and bone snapped. He tore off the scabbard under her sleeve, and his hand came away bloody. He hurled another mundane dagger to the ground.

Miranda popped out of sight, then reappeared, no longer surrounded by the warriors and dogs. Before Cassia’s eyes, the bone protruding from the necromancer’s arm righted itself, and her flesh knit back together.

Cassia swore. Miranda was still abusing Pakhne’s healing power for her own gain.

The dogs raced toward her. Mak and Lyros took to the air and lunged down on her from above. The air around Miranda rippled, as if with heat.

A louder boom deafened Cassia. In silence, the warped air blasted out from Miranda. Mak, Lyros, and the hounds went flying, propelled in different directions. Then the spell rolled over the dome.

No heat touched Cassia’s skin, but a tremor suddenly made it through the wards. Her quick levitation spell wasn’t enough to keep her from toppling to the ground with Lio.

Their libation spilled from the chalice across Hespera’s Rose. Lio lifted his head, a trail of blood sliding from his ear. His eyesfocused on Cassia for an instant, and the ferocity in his gaze stole her breath.

Blood filled the lines of the petals and thorns. More magic spilled up from the Lustra, from the temple, a flood of growth and darkness. It seemed limitless.

But as another explosion rocked the dome, Cassia feared even this much power would not be enough.

Lio drew Cassia stilldeeper into their Grace Union. The roses snaked farther over Miranda’s body, binding her more securely to the table. Thorns pricked her skin and drew blood.

But the cry that came from her lips was the Collector’s. That one small betrayal of pain told Lio that he and Cassia had just defied history. For the first time, they had hurt an Old Master. But not for the last time.

Lio would cause him so much more pain before this was over. “You never should have touched my queen.”

At that word, Cassia appeared, standing across the table from him. “Lio, what are you doing?”

“Taking something even more important than secrets.”

Miranda strained against the roses. Flipping her relic blade in her hand, she tried to saw at the vines around her wrist. But neither she nor the Collector gave any sign they had heard Cassia. Just as in their past duels with Kallikrates, Grace Union was beyond his power.

The roses sprouted new branches and reached toward Cassia. She stared at them, and a hint of wonder dawned through her fear. “You’re challenging him for my plant magic? Here?Now?”

“I told you I would make you as powerful as you were meant to be. Tonight is another step toward fulfilling that promise.”

“I begged you not to put yourself in any more danger in Miranda’s mind!”

“Look me in the eye and tell me you don’t ache to feel your magic inside you. All of your magic. If you can do that, I will let it go.”

The longing was stark on her face. All her protests and defenses, gone. When she spoke, it was not a timid whisper. It was the declaration he wanted to hear from her, again and again, as long as they both lived.

“I want it.”

He held out his hand to her. “Then I will fight for it.”

She gripped his hand. A current of magic opened between them, flowing from his heart to travel along his arm.

“Your foolish experiments will destroy you,” the Collector warned.

“Not before we destroy you,” Lio said.

As he unleashed all the thelemancy he possessed upon Miranda’s mind, he tapped into the depths of his Grace Union with Cassia. A conduit opened between them with him as the gate.

Her plant magic knew him. He gasped as it spread into the arcane paths inside him. All her wildness. All her yearning to be free. This was the true extent of his Grace’s power.

The sickroom stretched toward Miranda, as if a great mouth were sucking at the entire world. Emptiness split the seams of her mindscape. Pain sank deep into Lio’s chest and pulled. He leaned on Final Word to keep from falling to his knees.

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