Page 241 of Blood Feast

“We didn’t. We survived. As bravely as Lucian and Ebah resisted you, they alone could not have stopped you from finishing the round. There was another, even greater obstacle, wasn’t there? Hesperines. We escaped and gathered the best of this epoch behind our Sanctuary wards. As long as Orthros stands, this round will never end.”

“We can afford to be patient.”

“You are not patient. All six of you are furious at being robbed of the conclusion of your game. And you most of all, Kallikrates. You relish this round, when the rules dictate you play with subtlety and secrecy. You were winning, weren’t you? Until your playing pieces took their fates into their own hands and robbed you of victory.”

There was a smile in Kallikrates’s voice. “I am still winning.”

“Not this time. This will be the last round. We will make sure of that.”

Lio was only a pace away from Miranda now. He paused, holding so much latent thelemancy ready that his thought-form wavered. But the Collector made no move to stop him.

This was a trap. But Lio didn’t know what would spring it, or what the consequences would be.

Miranda stirred, groaning. “Master?”

Kallikrates said nothing. She opened her eyes, and her gaze fixed on Lio standing over here with her relic dagger. Her chest rose and fell with a panicked breath.

For the first time, Miranda begged. “Please, Master. Any fate but this. Break me a thousand times more and let me earn my way back to you. Let me pay with my flesh. My magic. My pain. But don’t lethimdestroy me.”

“Stand and fight him, my champion. Show me you are still my greatest Overseer.”

Miranda pushed herself up on her trembling arms. Blood still dripped down her chin. She got her legs under her, only for her knees to buckle. Her strength was gone.

Kallikrates had to know that. He was manipulating her. This was as much a trap for her as it was for Lio. But why?

“Stand!” Kallikrates’s command echoed through the hall. “Defeat him, and you will have your reward. I will let you torture Cassia in front of him before you kill him for me, just as you have dreamed.”

The crow fluttered as Miranda tried again to stand.

“My power is still with you, Miranda,” the Collector crooned. “You are greater than Cassia will ever be. One night soon, she will be broken and humiliated before you and finally understand how powerful you truly are. I will listen with pleasure while she begs you for mercy, just as she did the night you took her magic. The way she wept as we hollowed her…I want to hear that again, don’t you?”

Those taunts were designed to goad both Miranda and Lio into a rage. Why was Kallikrates pitting them against each other, when he could throw all his power at Lio through his Overseer?

There was only one explanation: he couldn’t. Their bond was failing. Miranda was burning out. She had turned from a weapon into a weakness, one Lio had already exploited to steal Cassia’s magic and the Collector’s secrets.

Kallikrates wanted Lio to kill her for him and destroy his own link to the Collector’s memories. And he believed Lio would do it.

Lio had tortured seven mages for the sake of slaughtered strangers, and the Collector knew it. He expected Lio to do even worse to Miranda because of how she had hurt Cassia. There were long nights when Lio had wanted to.

But once again, a Hesperine was about to defy the Collector’s expectations.

Miranda lifted her head, glaring up at Lio through her ragged hair. Behind her, Kallikrates tightened his hand around the flapping crow. Lio adjusted his hold on her relic blade.

Miranda let out the battle cry and threw herself at Lio. The colors leached from the room as she drew on the last of her strength, aiming for the dagger.

Lio threw the blade, putting all the force of his mind magic behind the attack.

Miranda barreled into him. He caught her, holding her despite her feeble struggles. The relic blade flew true and landed in the Collector’s heart.

His howl became a wind that blew the stone walls into smoke. The bird sprang free of his hand with a cry.

Miranda sagged against Lio. He scooped her up in his arms as the floor dissolved, and they fell together into the void.

Lio gathered the fragments of her thoughts into another mindscape. He dropped lightly to his feet before the Ritual Sanctuary of Hagia Boreia. The dome rose above them, whole and beautiful against the starry sky. Through the open doors, the great statue of Hespera smiled at them from among incense and shadows.

Lio laid Miranda’s still form down on the threshold of the Goddess’s Sanctuary. There was no blood on her now, and herarmor was gone. In the simple dress of an impoverished lady, she looked so young. So vulnerable.

The crow swooped down to nestle on her chest. She woke gently this time with a soft sound of question. She reached up to stroke the bird, so carefully, as if she feared it would fly away.

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