Page 63 of Blood Feast

Cassia drew her finger along the sharp edge of the dagger. She gasped at the voracious Lustra magic that burst out of the artifact. The scent of roses filled the air. Vines coiled around her hand out of nowhere, their thorns raking her skin. Then they snaked out of existence, and she stood there watching her hand heal.

“Did it work?” she asked.

Lio rubbed her bloodstained knuckles. “It certainly did.”

Lyros nodded. “There’s a new enchantment on it that feels like Lustra and blood magic.”

“But what does it do?” she asked.

Mak grinned. “We’ll find out whenever the enchantment wakes up in battle.”

“Are you certain you want me to cast an unknown enchantment on your weapons, too?”

“Mine first, please,” Lio said without hesitation.

She examined the staff with her arcane senses. It reminded her of Lio and felt somehow connected to her, as he was. “All right, yes. I think I have a grasp on,,,I don’t know the proper term. It’s like an empty hole in the ground waiting for a plant. A place to root the enchantment.”

“A potential enchantment anchor,” Lio supplied. “Excellent analogy.”

“Right.” She held her spade-turned-dagger over her palm. “Brace yourselves.”

As she had so many times in past hours of need, she used her blade to trace a line over her palm. The libation edged her dagger in crimson, and she felt the other three weapons respond to her blood.

Her artifact’s Lustra magic flooded through her veins. She could channel out of the dagger itself, she realized. As the blade tapped the wilds, power spilled up through her feet.

The stones of Nike’s Sanctuary shook with the might of the Lustra. She heard pebbles skitter and felt the magic in the forge bubble. But holding fast to the dagger, she could focus the chaos.

She tried to guide the magic into the weapons one at a time, only to wrestle with the unruly power. Acting on instinct, she grasped three tendrils of power at once. There. That felt right. She let the triune spell grow in the weapons.

She set her magic deep within the bed of Mak and Lyros and Lio’s spells. She wasn’t sure how long she stood there training her enchantment, building up her power around it so it would grow strong as a living part of the artifacts.

At last, vines sprouted right out of the metal, as if adamas were the richest soil and blood the most nourishing rain. Black roses coiled along the shafts of each weapon. Then the plants suddenly disappeared, leaving behind a flurry of black petals. The Lustra slipped back to sleep beneath their feet. But she could now feel the presence of her magic in the weapons.

A smile overtook her. “It worked! I think that was my first successful, controlled spell!”

“That’s what we should call our errant circle,” Lio said suddenly.

She looked up at him.

“The Black Roses.” He wrapped his arms around her, looking to Mak and Lyros with a questioning brow. “What do you say?”

Lyros ran a hand down the front of Mak’s battle robe. “Black for Orthros’s protectors.”

“Roses for our Goddess.” Cassia’s gaze fell to the petals laying across their weapons.

“The Black Roses.” Mak gave a nod. “May the Goddess’s Eyes light our path.”

“And her darkness keep us in Sanctuary.” Lyros finished the invocation.

Then Mak’s gaze fixed on something over Cassia’s shoulder. At the stark horror on his face, she froze.

Slowly, Cassia turned and saw who had crept up behind her with light steps and ancient veils.

In the doorway stood the Guardian of Orthros.

FALLEN IMMORTALS

Aunt Lyta stood verystill, for once as unreadable as Uncle Argryos. Her eyes darted back and forth to take in the forge. The weapons on the table. The dagger in Cassia’s hand.

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