Page 82 of Blood Feast

They all plunged inside, guiding Knight and the horses. With a rumble of stone and snapping of vines, the portal sealed behind them.

HOW NEGOTIATIONS END

More magefire glared onCassia’s vision. Her eyes adjusted in an instant, making the brightness bearable. In sconces all around the edges of the chamber, spell flames burned, as lively as the fire atop the tower.

The large, round room appeared hewn from the rock, with rounded arches leading off into side passages. One of the horses pawed at the ground, the soft sound echoing up to the domed ceiling overhead.

Lio crouched to examine the shapeless debris at their feet. “This looks entirely undisturbed! If we excavate, we might find artifacts from the Mage King’s time.”

With a snort, Freckles trotted farther inside to graze on the scrub growing through the broken stonework. Lio winced.

Lyros led the other horses to join her. “I’m afraid we’ll have to treat this as our war room, not a museum.”

“Our very own errant Sanctuary.” Mak gave Cassia a pat on the back. “Nice find.”

She only hoped no one else found it, thanks to the magical signal flare she had unintentionally sent up just outside the door. She glanced behind her. Black roses guarded the entrance, but the vine wasn’t spreading, at least.

Mak had barely spoken in hours, though, so she kept her doubts to herself and smiled at him. “The Lustra will keep us safe here.”

As if it sensed her words, the magic of the wilds murmured through the corridors in welcome, tinged with salt and thistle.

“It won’t let anyone else in,” she said with certainty.

Lio got to his feet, his aura keen with interest. “How can you tell?”

Cassia shrugged. “This will sound foolish, but…I simply know.”

“It doesn’t sound foolish at all,” Mak said. “Intuition is powerful. Especially when it comes from the Blood Union—and whatever Union you have with the Lustra, I imagine.”

Lio nodded. “Can you tell if we’re in proximity to a letting site?”

“It’s difficult to say.” She hugged herself. “The Lustra’s response was so powerful…it could be a nearby letting site. Or it could simply be that Tenebra is…glad for a Silvicultrix to return, I suppose.”

Or it might be nothing more than her terrible grasp of her magic.

Lio gestured to the archways. “We should explore the corridors and see what magic we can sense.”

“That’s a better idea than historical research,” Lyros said. “Do you think we could learn anything about the door under Solorum from these passages?”

“It’s entirely possible,” Lio replied. “I think we should look for magical evidence each time we encounter a Lustra portal.”

Lyros nodded. “I suggest we disappear here for a few nights to search the passages and make sure no one followed us. We need to regroup and form a plan. And Goddess knows we all need a drink.”

None of them argued with that.

They unsaddled their mounts, stowing their tack, packs, and weapons in the central chamber. Then Mak and Lyros took off in one direction, Lio and Cassia to search the corridors on the other side. Knight stayed within arm’s reach of her at every moment. Being in Tenebra again had clearly unleashed hisprotective instincts, but more than that, she suspected he was still recovering from their separation.

Cassia forged ahead into a firelit passage, keenly aware of Lio behind her. She had a sudden memory of their early walks at Solorum, just the two of them with Knight for an escort, rambling in woods full of ancient sites the Mage King and Changing Queen had left behind. She had thought she was just a bastard girl who would be forgotten by history—and by this immortal. She’d had no idea her legacy had been right under her nose. Or that her Grace had already walked at her side. Following her down these dangerous paths. No going back.

“Cassia.” His veil spells wrapped her close. “How much longer must you wrestle with yourself before you let me hold you?”

She halted, barely seeing the smaller stone chamber they had come to. They couldn’t put off this confrontation any longer.

With a sickening weight in her belly, she turned to face him. “I don’t want you to hold me. I want you to go home to Orthros as a respected diplomat and beloved son. I want you to have your life back. But that’s not possible because you’re yoked to me! Why wouldn’t you just leave me in that cell?”

He moved toward her, his spell light casting stark shadows on his beautiful face. “You know why.”

“Why wouldn’t you let me protect you?” she demanded.

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