Page 144 of Blood Sanctuary, Part One

Cassia gave him a hesitant smile. “I asked Nodora if she would give us one more chance at her welcome gift.”

The introduction to the song wrapped around them, a more sensual and compelling arrangement than could ever have been played within the hearing of the Tenebran embassy. The music beyond the windows waxed and became something transcendent.

“This isn’t what we had in mind,” Cassia said, “but it has its consolations, I hope. You can hold me much closer than you could in front of the embassy.”

“And I can do this.” Lio pulled her close and levitated them.

He carried her through the steps of their dance on his magic and in his embrace. They followed the pattern, but there were no partners to change, no onlookers to tell them their bodies were too close, no reason at all not to keep their hands joined.

When they were to touch their shoulders, he wrapped an arm around her waist and turned them. When she danced away and spun, he held her hands, flying round and round with her. When the dance brought them together again, he held her against him, felt her move, heard her feet dancing on air and a spell, knew how her blood would taste after this dance.

“I’m glad we’re getting a chance to practice,” he murmured to her.

“Practice? For what?”

“One entire night of the Winter Solstice celebration is devoted to a lovers’ dance.”

She gasped in delight as he spun her midair again.

“You’ll dance every dance with me then, won’t you?” he asked.

“Every dance, all night long, with no Tenebrans watching. No one to stop us. I promise, Lio.”

Their kind, elusive siren gave them not one, but four repetitions of the song. They touched and danced and glided the height and breadth of the library. At long last, the notes trilled, thrummed, and faded into silence. The Blood Union told Lio he had Cassia all to himself. He scooped her up in his arms and eased them downward toward their bed.

“You aren’t going to feast on me midair?” she teased.

“Extended levitation with a human requires concentration. I might lose my control over my altitude. Unexpected ascent is exciting, but sudden descent would be an embarrassing interruption.”

“Let’s dance the next one to our own music in the window seat. I plan to help you forget what control is, without interruption, all night long.”

20

Nights Until

WINTER SOLSTICE

HONOR AND VALOR

Cassia surveyed her work,still holding her arsenal of brushes and combs. Knight lay down on the privy’s decorative tile floor, taking up most of the modest chamber. He gazed up at her with his tongue hanging out, amiable and clueless.

“What do you think, Perita?” Cassia asked. “Will he do?”

Standing right outside the open door, Perita put her hands on her hips, but her severe expression wavered, not quite hiding her smile. “I’d be out of work if you devoted half as much attention to your own hair as you have to that mat he’s wearing.”

Cassia sighed at the puddles of water and soggy towels scattered everywhere. Her entire guest chambers would be redolent of wet liegehound and herbal bath. “He’s still a shaggy mess.”

“Liegehounds aren’t made to be groomed. You’re taking him to a sparring match, not a royal procession, aren’t you?”

“Elder Grace Hippolyta, the Guardian of Orthros herself, invited me to show Knight to her Stand. Orthros’s warriors are accustomed to the heart hunters’ mangy, vicious beasts. I want my Knight to make a better impression.”

“I think Knight made all the impression he needs to when he killed a pack of the heart hunters’ liegehounds in Martyr’s Pass.”

“Right you are.” Cassia pulled at the masses of fur still clinging to her grooming tools, then gave up and set them aside. “He’s out of his bandages, but everyone knows what he did during the battle. His beauty is in his deeds.Ckuundat,Knight.”

He stood at attention.

“You must be a good ambassador tonight for yourkaetlii.”

---