Page 2 of Blood Feast

I won’t leave you alone with your magic and your Craving. You aren’t ready for me to be out of arm’s reach.

Her arms tightened around him instinctively. He was right.

Are you really in such a hurry to leave our tower?he asked.

She leaned into him.No. I could stay here forever.

Let me keep you to myself a little longer.

But worries from the world beyond intruded into her thoughts.

He gave her throat an adamant nip, and the sting of his teeth jolted her back to the here and now.I know there’s a war. I know people we love are in danger. But the warriors don’t require diplomats like us right now. At this moment in eternity, your duty is to yourself, and mine is entirely to you.

Her Grace instincts overtook her again, promising to banish her reason. She nuzzled his throat, her body melting against him of its own accord.

He slid his hand into her hair, tugging to give her the pressure her new senses liked.Do I need to take you back to bed and make you forget the rest of the world? Or can you concentrate on your next magic lesson?A wicked gleam filled his aura.If youmake it through one more lesson first, I’ll keep you in bed twice as long, and we’ll try something we haven’t done with your Hesperine body yet.

What a scandalous magic teacher you are.

Can you deny it’s an effective way to motivate my student?

You know I can’t deny you anything.She slid out of his arms and opened her arcane senses again.

The Lustra magic leapt up from below in answer. The letting site that her Gifting had created under the tower was a wild thing, always waiting for her to set it free. As miraculous as it was that she had opened a wellspring of nature magic for the first time in untold centuries, it made mastering her abilities much more complicated.

Lio sent his notes back into the safety of the chest. “Now I want you to practice resisting the letting site’s pull.”

Cassia mentally swatted away more tendrils of power trying to rise up into her. “For how long?”

“One minute longer than last time—while it’s misbehaving.” He lifted his hand to his mouth and bit into his palm.

“Oh, bleeding thorns,” Cassia swore, realizing what he was about to do.

He made a libation of his blood on the flowers her power had brought to life. She felt the impact of those red droplets as a quake under her feet. Her letting site opened for her Grace’s blood, and her mouth watered.

His light magic flared behind her eyelids, his thelemancy shadowing her mind. He was a part of the letting site, as much as he was a part of her, for they had made this magical phenomenon together the same night they had created her new Hesperine form.

The Lustra crashed up from the depths of the earth, drunk on his power. She wanted it. Needed to feel their combined magics feeding her veins.

No. Control. He had saved her life again and again with his magic. Now she finally had the strength to protect him in return. She must learn to use it.

She gritted her teeth and snapped her senses shut against the onslaught of magic. It filled the air and coiled around her, but she held it at bay, shaking with the effort not to channel it through her.

Lio gripped her hand, the physical contact anchoring her to the mundane world, even as her mind was swept up in the arcane. “That’s it! You’re doing so well. I knew you would.”

After the ridicule she had faced throughout her human life, Lio’s praise was always a balm. She squeezed his hand, grateful for his faith in her. The way he taught her magic made her feel as if she could do anything.

She stood fast against the force of her own power and made her Will known to it.You do not control me. You belong to me.

That’s right, My Queen,Lio purred in her mind.

The Lustra coiled tight around her, but she centered herself, deep within her strong, new body where blood magic beat through her heart.

“One minute longer!” Lio said. “You’re almost there.”

He counted off the seconds in her mind. But the Lustra pushed against her mental defenses. And then, as if it had sprouted thorns, it sent sharp points of pain through her arcane senses. She gasped, feeling Lio’s alarm in their Union.

Her letting site would never try to harm her.This is a cry of pain. It’s pleading for help, like the letting site at Paradum.

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