Page 236 of Blood Feast

They could win this battle. And if they could do that, they might win the war.

Cassia picked up the empty chalice and levitated blood from the Ritual circle to fill it. She rose to her feet and stood over her Grace. She didn’t know what her power would do now, but she trusted it.

At her feet, Lio’s Union Stone glowed once more. Hold.

Miranda traversed out of Mak and Lyros’s reach, stumbling where she landed. Knight was on her in an instant and closedhis jaws on her bloody sleeve. Her weakened arm broke a second time, and the weed hook fell from her hand.

“Loma hoor!” Before the command to retreat had left Cassia’s mouth, Knight leapt clear. Miranda’s fork of lightning struck the ground behind him as he raced toward Dame, the handle of the weed hook between his teeth. A smile came to Cassia’s face. “Oedann!”

Miranda tossed tongues of flame to keep Mak and Lyros at bay while she healed. She was rationing her fire spells, and it took longer for her bleeding to stop this time.

Cassia lost sight of Mak in the smoke. Only the brush of a veil spell reassured her he was all right. Lyros faced Miranda head-on.

His whole body tensed. Cassia’s heart lodged in her throat. Surely he wasn’t about to try what she thought.

Lyros charged straight for the Overseer. She held out her empty hand and blew a gout of fire toward him.

He dropped low and rolled, a blur. For a terrible instant, Cassia couldn’t see him. Had the fire hit him?

Then Lyros shot to his feet, untouched by Miranda’s fire spell, in a flawless Martyr’s Heart. He slid his spear up under her breastplate with Hesperine speed. Bracing the spearhead on her collarbone, he levered the leather armor off of her, snapping straps and her clavicle. Her breastplate fell away, leaving her in nothing but a necromancer’s robe. Red light emanated from the scabbard across her chest.

She hacked at Lyros with her mattock. But it halted midair, then was hurled away. Eyes wide, she made to dodge, but an invisible force stopped her, too. Her arms were pinned to her sides, as if held by an invisible vice.

Mak’s veils fell as he reached around her from behind and slipped Rosethorn out of the scabbard.

“Cassia, catch!” he called.

He tossed the blade, and it spun toward her. Her immortal reflexes took over. She caught the hilt midair.

The magic overflowing her chalice flowed into the dagger, honing to a focused current.

The Union Stones flashed. Now.

Cassia drove her power into all four of their weapons. Black roses sprouted from Rosethorn to twine around her hand. But from Final Word came moonflowers, while the Star of Orthros and Night’s Aim sent blackthorn crawling over Miranda.

Mak’s magic met Cassia’s through the adamas. His new enchantment rang though their artifacts, and a resounding echo moved through the temple.

Kallikrates’s voice disturbed the sacred air of Hagia Boreia. “Do you think this instant of victory matters? It is the blink of an eye, to be forgotten in my endless reign.”

Heated air hurled Mak and Lyros away from him again. The dome exploded around Cassia.

Black chunks of stone hung suspended, as if the Collector had stopped the flow of time. Then they hurtled into the Ritual circle, closing in on her and Lio.

The pieces of the dome struck Mak and Lyros’s wards and broke into smaller fragments. But they kept coming. Her Trial brothers shouted her name.

Cassia tilted her head. Something glimmered at her senses from inside each sliver of stone. Rock that could become soil. Blood that could become life. She touched the thousand fragments with her power, and shoots of green ate the stone, falling to her feet in a shower of leaves.

Kallikrates hurled more lightning through Miranda’s hands. Cassia twitched her dagger, envisioning the proud cedars in the city of Haima. Saplings sprang up, lining the path to the Ritual Circle, and soared into mighty trees that drew the lightning.With a twirl of her wrist, she poured life back into their blackened branches, and they greened again.

Miranda stalked forward, and as she came, she hefted Lyros’s fallen spear. Cassia held her power, letting her enemy come. Closer.

Miranda raised her arm to throw the spear. Blackthorn sprouted from the handle and turned on her, tearing into her flesh and shooting toward her eyes. With a yell, she dropped Night’s Aim to claw the spiny branches off herself.

Mak rolled to his feet from a pile of rubble, the Star of Orthros in his grasp and a triumphant smile on his face. On the other side of the battleground, Lyros laughed and lifted his hand. His spear levitated back to him.

Rosethorn’s Union Stone pulsed with a slow signal of concern from her Trial brothers. How was she holding up?

Cassia laughed. With this much magic, she could keep Kallikrates occupied until the next epoch. She shot power in the Union Stones, and they glowed like four red stars. No surrender.

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