Page 237 of Blood Feast

Mak and Lyros let out a battle cry and closed in on Miranda again. The hounds took up the call and resumed their hunt.

The Black Roses wouldn’t stand down until Lio won his battle.

Cassia lifted her cup high and splashed blood onto the ground at her feet. Vines of black roses tangled around Miranda once more. She shot lightning along their branches, but Cassia poured the life within her into the roses, and they did not burn.

At her command, the vines yanked the Overseer off her feet and dragged her forward. Cassia halted Miranda at her feet.

Looking into the Collector’s eyes, Cassia yanked the pendant from around Miranda’s neck.

“You have broken our bargain,” he said.

“Save your breath. I don’t negotiate with Old Masters.”

With a dab of blood from within the chalice, she sealed her battered ambassador cords around her neck. Her medallion came to rest where it belonged.

The power in the cup and the dagger throbbed in her chest. All of the arcane felt perfectly in balance and ripe with endless potential. The whispers caressed her ears, and although she could not understand, she thought they spoke a blessing.

Her triune focus was complete.

The vines around Miranda tore suddenly. Her bloody hand emerged from her bonds, holding her relic blade. She lunged at Lio’s prone form.

Dame cleared the rubble in one powerful leap and barreled into the necromancer. They rolled, landing with Dame’s weight crushing Miranda. Spittle flew from the hound’s jaws as she went for Miranda’s face.

She scrabbled for the relic blade a hand’s breadth away. Cassia shot a vine out and pulled the dagger toward her. A scream grated out of Miranda.

Then a blast of magic hurled Dame off her, and the hound fell heavily near Lio. Cassia’s fresh fury and grief made her roses tighten around Miranda’s blade. But the dagger spun, cutting through the vine that bound it, and flew back to Miranda’s hand.

The necromancer got to her feet, the mauled half of her face obscured with blood, and Kallikrates gazed at Cassia over Lio’s body. “You remember how this game works. If he breaks the rules, I punish you. Now you have erred. I will punish him.”

Lio landed in acrouch at the foot of the third door. He was closer than ever now.

Miranda lay where she had fallen, crumpled on the ground between him and the portal. She erupted into hoarse coughs,and her hand came away from her mouth covered in blood. As Lio approached her, she struggled to rise.

“Drunk on your victory?” The taunt wavered between her voice and the Collector’s. “I’ll humble you.”

Lio planted the end of his staff on her clean breastplate and pushed her back down with little effort. Stealing Cassia’s power had been Miranda’s initiation as an Overseer. Had losing it also weakened her bond with Kallikrates?

“Is he worth this, Miranda?”

“You’ll see the answer to that for yourself when he rules the world with me at his right hand and enjoys revenge on you as his eternal entertainment.”

“Is that what you want? To spend the ages at his beck and call? There was a time when you wanted freedom.”

“Power is the only real freedom.”

“You could have power without him. Your power. Do you remember what that felt like?”

She laughed at him. “Little girls with necromancy don’t have the luxury of power, Hesperine. My affinity was nothing but a prison sentence. Until it drew my master’s interest and he showed me what I could become.”

“I’m sorry no one else was there for you.” He meant the words, although he doubted she would believe him. “You deserved better than Kallikrates. A Hesperine wasn’t there to rescue you then, but I am here now. I’ve freed people from him before, and I will do it again for you.”

She spat blood at his feet. “I would rather die for the game than accept help from you, Deukalion. But I intend to survive to enjoy my reward from the Master. He has promised me the pleasure of killing you in front of him, slowly.”

“You think you’ve chosen your side. But what kind of choice did you have? You turned to him out of desperation. You deserveto know what having a choice truly feels like. I will fight for you to have one, even if you won’t fight for yourself.”

“You can never break my bond with him.” Her words were bold, but her fear ran down the walls of the passage and made pebbles skitter across the ground.

“It’s not a bond. It’s a chain. I will break it, no matter how this ends. Knowing that, will you tell me what lies behind the door? I don’t want to cause you any more pain for his secrets.”

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