Blood Feast: A Fantasy Romance

21 Nights Until Winter Solstice

REENTERING THE WORLD

“The pendant and ourmedallions can’t be gone.” Cassia stood in despair amid the masses of rose vines and moonflowers growing all over their bedchamber.

“They’re not gone,” Lio said. “They’re simply…not evident at the moment.”

Cassia put a hand to her chest. She was dressed to leave their residence, but without her two talismans, she felt like a piece of her was missing. “Oh, Goddess. What if my magic disintegrated them?”

“The Changing Queen’s pendant is an artifact of Lustra magic, and our ambassador medallions are artifacts of blood magic. I doubt your power is harmful to them.”

“Where was the last place you saw them?”

He scratched his head. “The floor, where I threw them while I was stripping us naked for your Gifting.”

She peered between the flowers covering one of the carpets. “When you lost your medallion before, you were able to sense it with your magic and find it. Surely that will work now.”

“I can’t detect it’s resonance,” he admitted. “Why don’t you try?”

She flexed her senses amid the profusion of magics in the room. Within the Sanctuary ward that sheltered their bedchamber, blood magic and Lustra magic lay tangled up like wanton lovers. Light magic and thelemancy emanated from Lio’s stained glass windows. The scent of his blood on the messy bedclothes threatened her focus until he cast a cleaning spell.

“I can’t begin to separate a particular magical signature from all the spells in here,” Cassia said. “Wait. Let me try one more idea.”

She called out to the letting site, softly, so as not to provoke a raging channeling again. She sensed its mournful answer.

Where are our medallions and my pendant?She knew a force of nature didn’t comprehend words or even images, so she focused on what the talismans felt like to her arcane senses. They hold great power. I need them so I can protect the Lustra.

A vine of roses and another of moonflowers snaked higher up one of the iron bed posts. When they were on Cassia’s eye level, their leaves parted to reveal what dangled from their branches.

“No,” Cassia cried. “How could this happen?”

Lio bent to study what remained of the artifacts, his aura bright with fascination.

Their two silver ambassador medallions had fused together with her ancestor’s wooden pendant caught between them. The transformed artifact overflowed with their combined magics, just like everything else in the room.

Lio grinned. “I like this arcane pattern we’ve established, my Grace.”

“What if I ruined them? This might have changed or broken the important enchantments that were already on them!”

“Your Gifting consecrated these artifacts. We can only wait and see what new magic they manifest.” He reached out and gently took the melded talismans in hand.

When they broke apart in his hold, he gasped. The two halves fell onto his palms. The Changing Queen’s pendant was still joined to Cassia’s medallion, but it had not left Lio’s untouched. Three wooden ivy leaves remained fused to the silver amid its celestial designs.

“What did I tell you?” he said in wonder. “You’ve left your mark on me. Thank you, Cassia. To be blessed by a Silvicultrix, by the Lustra…I appreciate how rare that is.”

They untangled their ambassador cords and put on their medallions. The sight of him wearing her mark stirred a base sense of satisfaction in her. The letting site purred in response.

His own aura heated as a slow smile spread across his face. “Yes, I appreciate that very much.”

Knowing he bore her mark, not only on his medallion but in his blood, she felt a little readier to leave the tower. They headed for the door, but she paused in front of the new window he had crafted during their seclusion. She touched the glass as if bidding this month farewell. And yet he had somehow captured it in the panes of blood red roses and pure white moonflowers.

He took her hand and ran her fingers over one of the flaws in the glass, which an unpredictable surge of her magic had created during his crafting process. “You know the imperfections are my favorite part of the design.”

She wasn’t sure how they dragged themselves down the stairs to the entrance hall. Lio’s mood dimmed with every level they descended. She stood there before the front doors and started to take a deep breath to brace herself. Then she remembered she didn’t need to breathe.

She didn’t need a cloak, either. Lio, deprived of his ritual of bundling her up, kissed her forehead instead.

She smiled in the hopes of alleviating his somber mood. “I can finally dance naked in the snow without getting cold. Care to join me later?”

That got a laugh out of him. “Well, when you put it like that, there are advantages to leaving our residence after all.”

She took his hands. “This isn’t the end of anything, Lio. It’s the beginning of our new lives together as Hesperines.”

“I’m sorry. Of course it is. Don’t think I’m not looking forward to this. I’m so proud of you. I can’t wait for everyone to see the Hesperine you’ve become.”

“You have nothing to apologize for. Of course you would rather keep me naked and locked in the tower with you for another month or eight.”

“So very tempting.” He adjusted the high collar of his red festival robe. “But I won’t have you miss any of the traditions of Hesperine life. The family will want to hold your first Ritual tonight to welcome you into our bloodline. As soon as I sent our note ahead to the main house, I imagine my mother went into a whirlwind of preparation. She’ll manage to make tonight special, war or no war.”

Cassia smoothed the robe she had chosen for her presentation to the family, her black one embroidered with Hespera’s Roses. “You’ll have to help me remember the right words to say during the ceremony.”

“I’ll be with you every step of the way.” He put on a smile for her.

She could still feel the specters lurking in his emotions. She would find a way to reassure him, she swore.

A plan came to her in that moment. It was the best way, perhaps the only way, to truly reassure Lio that their love was her first priority. But could she do it on such short notice in the middle of a war? With help from all the Hesperines who cared about them, it might just be possible.

“Go ahead, my Grace.” He gestured to the double doors. “Your immortal future awaits.”

The heavy iron panels felt light to her now. She opened their Sanctuary and, with her hand in his, reentered the world.

This time alone with him in the tower had become her reality, and setting foot outside felt like a dream. No shock of icy wind hit her in the lungs to jolt her awake. The cold of her beloved Orthros wrapped around her, familiar and safe. Fresh snow covered the terrace, and the starlight on that blanket of white was all the light she needed to see. Her swift eyes could track every snowflake that fluttered around them.

She let out a giddy laugh. She was impervious. She was free.

She lifted her face to Hespera’s night sky and found herself riveted.

Lio stood at her back and wrapped his arms around her, looking up at their Goddess’s domain with her. “You can feel it now, can’t you?”

“I can feel the sky.”

“How does it feel to you?” His aura stirred with curiosity. “Tell me everything.”

As a bloodborn, her Grace had never been a new Hesperine. His mother’s transformation had made him immortal in the womb. Cassia was happy he could experience this with her now.

“It feels vast,” she said. “Deep. As if that vastness is inside my chest. The blood moon is running in my veins—I can feel its pulse. And the light moon is shining under my skin.”

“And how does the garden feel?”

She stretched her senses and her gaze out over the grounds of House Komnena. The neglected gardens had always been a wild tangle of arctic plants that clung to life in Orthros’s frozen soil.

But now they struck her nose with a thousand verdant scents. Despite the cloak of polar night, the bushes hung heavy with bearberries, and the dwarf willows were in full bloom. Vines of Hespera’s sacred thorns had overflowed the arbor in front of the tower and formed a bastion around the terrace.

“I think they like your letting site,” Lio concluded.

“Oh, my. Weeding will be even worse than I thought.” She couldn’t wait to get started.

But as they walked along the paths toward the main house, her delight faded.

“What is your greatest worry?” Lio asked. “Let us see if we can defeat it before we join everyone.”

“Thank you, my champion, but I’m being foolish. The world is going up in flames, and the one I’m most worried about is…”

“Your dog.”

Cassia nodded. “We can explain things to people. Animals don’t understand.”

“Knight is no ordinary animal. He will understand.”

“What if he doesn’t even recognize me?”

“You’ve been his entire world since he was a puppy. He’ll be overjoyed to see you again.”

“I’m his to protect, his kaetlii…or I was. Now the mortal he was bonded to is a Hesperine, a being he was bred to hunt. What if my Gifting severed our connection?”

“He already has a powerful bond with your Hesperine family. He will with you, as well.”

“It might be worse for him if the bond didn’t break.” She swallowed the lump in her throat. “Liegehounds can’t survive separation from their kaetlii. After a month without me, he might be gravely ill.”

“But he recognizes Zoe as a kaetlii now, too. Staying with her this month will have kept him safe.”

A frantic bark came from the distance, then another. Cassia’s hand tightened on Lio’s.

He smiled. “It sounds like Knight is waiting for you at the goat barn. I dare say Zoe is, too.”

Cassia started running. The barking grew louder. The grounds swept past her in a blur, Lio keeping pace beside her. She slowed outside the low stone fence of the goat paddock.

A massive, dark form launched toward her with speed to rival her own. Lio made to move in front of her, but with a shake of her head, she stood her ground before the oncoming predator.

No matter how Knight reacted, she would face him.

His body struck her, knocking the air out of her lungs. Snow met her back. He pinned her under his weight.

And began to lick her face. His overexcited whines split her ears. His whole body shook with the force of his emotions and his wagging tail, all his training and discipline forgotten.

Cassia gasped a breath, tears flowing down her face. She rolled over, strong enough to push him off, only to wrap her arms around him. They half wrestled, half cuddled in the snow.

“I know, my dearest,” she cooed. “That was the longest we’ve ever been apart in your whole life. It was so hard.”

Sniffing her everywhere, he sneezed and shook his ears.

“Do I smell different?” she asked, her throat tight. “So do you. Did you know you smell terrible to Hesperines? Yes, you do, but I have never been happier to get a nose full of liegehound musk.”

He licked her chin again. Laughing, she let him give her all the slobbery dog kisses.

She was still his kaetlii, fangs and all.

I told you so. Lio sat on the ground nearby, trying to hold his little sister’s two goats out of the fray.

I should always trust your reassurances,Cassia said.

Then another, smaller form hit her, tumbling into the pile with her and Knight. Zoe squealed and squeezed the air out of Cassia a second time. “I missed you so much!”

Cassia sucked in a deep breath, learning her Grace-sister’s scent. Betony flowers and syrup. Zoe was shaking harder than Knight. Cassia felt that tremble of emotion in her own bones. The child”s old fears and new panic and very present joy made Cassia’s heart speed up and a fresh wave of tears come to her eyes.

The Hesperines had taught her numb heart to feel, but this…this was the Blood Union. She, the lady of ice, would now live in visceral empathy with everyone who had blood flowing through their veins. Especially the people she loved, like this little girl who had suffered too much in her eight years of life.

Cassia held Zoe close. “I promised you that whenever Lio and I have to leave you, we’ll always return. You’ll never lose me now, Grace-sister. For I am as immortal as you.”

Cassia let Zoe have a good cry while Lio stroked his little sister’s hair. When the child’s sobs of relief seemed wrung out, Cassia asked, “Do you want to see my new fangs?”

Sniffing, Zoe nodded. Cassia managed to sit up with Zoe against her and Knight sprawled across her lap. She beamed at the little girl, baring her teeth.

“Now you have fangs like me!” Zoe grinned back, revealing her own tiny canines and a missing bottom incisor.

Cassia gasped. “You lost another tooth! What did our Ritual father give you as a Tooth Gift this time?”

“Rudhira carved me a new toy goat. He says by the time I lose all my teeth, he’ll complete a whole herd.”

“I want to see the new addition to your collection.”

“I’ll show you later. Right now we have a surprise for you inside!”

Lio’s brows rose. Whatever excites Zoe more than a herd of goats carved by the First Prince must be marvelous indeed.

Cassia tried flexing her new senses, probing Zoe’s emotions in the Blood Union, but the child’s aura gave her no hints.

Zoe giggled. “That tickles.”

Cassia reached over and tickled Zoe’s ribs as well, eliciting another peal of laughter. Zoe escaped with the speed of a Hesperine. Cassia looked forward to games of chase. They could play veil and step, too, if Cassia ever managed to learn essential Hesperine abilities.

She and Lio followed the suckling toward the house. Lio cast a quick cleaning spell over Cassia, only for Knight to start shedding and drooling on her anew. Her dog circled her every step, rubbing against her with his tail still wagging, nosing her for more reassuring pets.

House Komnena loomed before them, but it was not the magnificent white marble archways and buttresses or the brilliant stained glass windows that took Cassia’s breath away.

It was the magic. The house of their bloodline was so bright to her arcane senses, filled to the brim and overflowing with warm, welcoming spells.

Lio and his family had always made sure she knew she belonged here. But she had never felt it as she did now. The magic in the stone foundations was the same magic in her blood. She was built into the house, and it into her.

“Welcome home, Cassia Komnena,” Lio said with a smile of understanding.

They entered through the stained glass door of Komnena’s study. But it was not Lio’s mother who awaited them there. Cassia halted in her tracks, frozen by too many emotions.

“Surprise!” Zoe said.

Solia blazed before Cassia, the space around her crackling with the unseen force of her fire magic. Her face was hard, a warrior’s mask of discipline, but her soul was bare in the Blood Union. Cassia was dizzied by the burning roil of Solia’s anger and joy and grief and hope.

Immortality was not the future Solia had wanted for Cassia. Lio had reassured her that her sister had given them her blessing, but that had been when Cassia lay dying, the Gift all that could save her. Now, confronted with her new reality, what if Solia couldn’t accept it?

Cassia would never regret her choices. But she could not deny that a piece of her childhood heart would break, as surely as her immortal one.

“You’re alive,” Solia said.

Cassia’s throat ached. “So are you.”

Her sister strode across the distance between them and pulled her into a fierce embrace. Solia hugged her as she had years ago, when she had been the only mother Cassia had ever known. As she had when they’d found each other again after half a lifetime apart. As if nothing had changed.

“Pup,” Solia rasped.

“Soli.” Cassia wrapped her arms around her sister. Her mortal sister. And yet somehow, even as a Hesperine, she still felt safe in Solia’s arms.

“I thought I was going to lose you,” Solia said. “After everything I did for you—I failed you, Cassia. You and your mother. I’m so sorry.”

“How can you say that?” Cassia cried. “You sacrificed everything for me. None of it was your fault. Not my magical illness. Not Miranda capturing us. And not…” Cassia took a breath to steady her voice. “My Gifting was always inevitable, no matter what you did or didn’t do to protect me.”

“I know.” Solia pulled back and looked into Cassia’s eyes. “Did Lio tell you I gave you my blessing?”

“Yes.” But Cassia wanted the reassurance of hearing it from Solia herself.

“I want you to be safe and happy.” Solia took in the sight of her, rubbing Cassia’s arms as if to test her new shape. “Are you? Happy?”

“I am whole. But I’ll be even happier if you don’t have regrets.”

“None. This is who you are meant to be. I understand that now. I want to be here with you for your first Ritual…if that’s all right.”

Cassia could scarcely believe the powerful gesture of acceptance. Solia wanted to be part of this tradition with their Hesperine family. Cassia threw herself into Solia’s arms again. “Of course I want you here for this. How did you manage it?”

“As soon as we got word you were ready to see everyone, Mak and Lyros stepped me here.”

“What happened at the siege?”

“I am still the Queen of Tenebra,” Solia said. “I’ll tell you everything else later.”

“Lio and I need to tell you something.” Conscious of Zoe within earshot, Cassia didn’t elaborate. “As soon as possible.”

“We have a strategy session with the First Prince right after your Ritual. But for now, we’re all alive, here, together. Let me forget about the war for an hour and celebrate with you.”

For her sister’s sake, Cassia could do that. “Of course.”

Solia turned to Lio, who waited patiently with Zoe. “You’ve made sure Cassia will always be safe. I have no words… What do Hesperines call something even deeper than a bond of gratitude?”

He smiled. “Family.”

“Agreed, Grace-brother.”

Cassia watched her sister clasp her Grace’s hands. Solia’s fiery presence clashed with the sweet shadow of Lio’s Hesperine aura, even as the Blood Union eased with their newfound affection for one another.

They continued into the Ritual hall together. Bright spell lights and echoing voices overwhelmed Cassia’s senses. Lio rested a hand on her lower back while she stood and waited for her eyes and everything else to adjust. She was swimming in a room full of blazing stars. Their loved ones were moving balls of timeless power.

A crushing hug brought her to her senses. She would have known one of Mak’s hugs anywhere, but now she could also smell his scent of warm clove and strong blackthorn. She could feel the dangerous, safe shadows under the friendly darkness of his warding magic.

“Be gentle with her new bones,” Lio said in an aggrieved tone, punching his cousin in the shoulder.

“She’s immortal now!” Mak replied. “It’s officially impossible for me to squish the life out of her.”

“You came home in one piece,” Cassia sniffed. “Lyros—?”

She smelled mint and citrus, and another guardian shadow drew near. She felt Lyros’s lean, strong hand on her shoulder. “Right here.”

She breathed a sigh of relief. “Have you been on the front lines all this time?”

“We were summoned home to reinforce the Stewards,” Lyros explained, “since we were relieved from duty as your bodyguards for the time being.”

Mak snickered. “Since you and Lio’s bodies were busy doing other things and not in need of guarding.”

Kia’s sharp, brilliant aura gleamed nearby, but her scent was surprisingly sweet…white crocus, Cassia thought. Xandra’s cheerful mulberry aura gathered closer, then the lilting strains of cherry blossoms that were Nodora.

Cassia had seen them all before, but now, with her Hesperine senses, she felt she truly met them for the first time. People were so much more than their appearances. Impressions washed over her: the unique signatures of their auras, the sounds of their voices, and smells. So many smells that communicated more than just scent.

It’s almost as if I can smell emotion,she commented to Lio.

You can,he replied. Actually, you sense emotion in the Blood Union, but it can manifest as physical impressions.

Everyone smells like a different kind of plant.

Fascinating. Your affinity for botanical magic must influence how you perceive their scents.

“Let’s see those new fangs, then!” Kia demanded.

Cassia bared her canines to their Trial circle’s admiring exclamations.

Someone else let out a whistle. “I’ll have to promote your nickname from ‘Freckles’ to ‘Fangs.’”

With an astonished smile, Cassia turned toward one of the most powerful auras in the room. “Tendo?”