Blood Feast: A Fantasy Romance

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.

Denial burned through Cassia’s veins. This couldn’t be happening.

But it was. In that split instant, calculations clicked in her mind. If there was ever a time for one of her schemes, it was now. Their fates were in her hands.

Lio, I need you to trust me.

Cassia—

There isn’t time for debate. I have a plan. You and Lyros won’t like it, but you must go along with it for all our sakes.

I will do anything to protect you.

“What is the meaning of this?” Aunt Lyta’s voice was terribly calm.

“How did you find us?” Cassia responded with a question, although she thought she already knew the answer.

“It was rather hard to miss,” Aunt Lyta snapped. “We’re on the alert for responses from your roses so we can apprehend any enemies they snare. The magical disturbance here felt like the time they caught those heart hunters.” Her voice rose slightly. “I thought the enemy was inside the ward, and your spell had spread to stop them. When I followed a trail of black roses into the mountains, I never imagined…this.”

Cassia had been right. This was her fault. The horror in the pit of her stomach faded, and her thoughts grew colder, clearer. All that mattered now was protecting everyone she could from being implicated.

If only she could face this punishment alone. But it would take at least two of them to construct a tale Aunt Lyta would believe.

Mak took a step around the table, but Cassia held up a hand. “We owe your mother the truth. This is all my doing, and I will shoulder the full responsibility.”

“Wait—” Lyros began to protest.

“None of you can protect me now,” she interrupted him, Willing them to understand what she was up to. “Nor should you, after I dragged you all into this.”

No. Lio’s magic was a storm in his aura. Don’t you dare.

If you trust me, my Grace, you will let me see this through.

“This was my idea,” Cassia announced. “You know I’ve always been willing to do anything to protect Orthros. I thought bending the laws against weapons would be justified if it saved Hesperine lives.” Her throat tightened. It was easy to spin this lie because it felt so true. “But I realize it was a very Tenebran thing to do. I suppose I am not as Hesperine as I should be, after all.”

“Cassia.” Emotion broke through Aunt Lyta’s veils, and the hint of devastation there made Cassia’s immortal blood ache. “That doesn’t explain who crafted these weapons. You’re no smith, and that forge is hot.”

Aunt Lyta knew someone had been making weapons here. All Cassia could do was make it seem as if only one smith had been involved. She knew what Mak wanted. What they both had to do for their family and for Orthros.

“I found them,” Cassia blurted, “some ancient adamas weapons in the Hesperite shrine back in Tenebra. I brought them to Orthros along with the glyph stone. I thought they must have been made by the same ancient smith who forged the ones the Blood Errant found.” She turned to Mak. “Can you ever forgive me for showing them to you and asking your opinion?”

She waited, praying Mak would let her take this fall at his side so she could help him protect Nike. Cassia’s bond of gratitude with her Ritual mother demanded this. If Nike hadn’t saved Cassia’s life all those years ago, she wouldn’t have survived to stand here tonight, now an immortal.

Mak rounded the table and stood at her shoulder. “I don’t blame you, Cassia. It was my decision to get involved.”

“But if I had never brought them to you, you wouldn’t have gotten the idea to study them and learn how to forge adamas. I even encouraged you when you decided to set up our research in this old forge of Nike’s.”

“To violate a Sanctuary of hers and craft weapons here…I know how deeply I’ve betrayed her.”

Aunt Lyta’s eyes narrowed. “That’s why this place is covered in her wards, is it?”

Mak looked his mother in the eye. “I found this place while she was away. It’s one of the First Circle’s old bolt-holes, where she, Methu, and Rudhira used to escape their duties and work on their crafts. It makes her sad to come here now. So I borrowed it.”

Cassia could have hugged honest, direct Mak for rising to the occasion. That was a masterful series of truths amounting to a lie of omission. “Mak and I have been sneaking out here for months. Then after I saw what my roses could do, I wanted to try adding their power to the weapons.” She turned to Lio and Lyros. “We should have listened when you tried to stop us.”

“They have nothing to do with this,” Mak reinforced her.

“This is the first time they’ve set foot here,” Cassia said fiercely. “They’ve been trying to talk us out of it all along, and they followed us here tonight to try one more time to stop us…before it was too late.”

Mak was more composed than Cassia felt. “They only know about this because we couldn’t hide it from our Graces. Under the laws of Orthros, Grace Union alone does not make a Hesperine an accessory to their partner’s crimes. No Hesperine is required to testify against their Grace about something they learn through that private Union. Lyros and Lio committed no wrong, and we put them in the unforgivable position of being unable to report us for our crimes.”

Cassia hadn’t known any of that. Mak’s dedication to the law was coming to Lyros and Lio’s rescue, even as it sealed his and Cassia’s fate.

She reached for Lio’s hand and spoke the truth. “I’m so sorry Mak and I are putting you and Lyros through this.”

His eyes blazed with anger. She takes you and me together, or neither.

It won’t do me any good if you martyr yourself. Mak and I are counting on you and Lyros to stop Nike. Someone has to convince her not to tell Aunt Lyta the truth and get herself arrested.

You know it goes against everything in Nike to let you and Mak make this sacrifice for her.

Yes. She’ll confess to exonerate us. We cannot let that happen.

She would sooner go to prison in your place.

She wouldn’t allow anyone to imprison her. She would flee back to her quest to find Methu, never to return. You know losing her again will break Uncle Argyros’s heart, and this time, he’ll never heal.

She could feel Lio’s heart breaking minute by minute. She sensed every new fracture spreading in their Union. She was asking him to choose between so many people he loved. To go against his deepest instinct to protect his Grace at any cost.

We agreed to put each other first. His protest rang through the mind ward.

This is my turn to put you first.Aunt Lyta witnessed me using my magic on the weapons. There’s no way we can convince her I’m not involved. But we can still make you look innocent.

Or so Cassia hoped. Had her scheme allayed Aunt Lyta’s suspicions?

The Guardian of Orthros pierced her palm, then curled it into a fist. Her power filled the air, pressing on Cassia’s ears. The weapons levitated off the table. Then the scabbards rose and wrapped tightly around them, binding them in chains.

“Mak,” she said. “My son. You know what I must do.”

He faced his mother. “Yes, Guardian of Orthros. I’m sorry I have forced your hand.”

“So am I.” There came the briefest gleam of tears in the ancient warrior’s eyes.

Then she cast her blood to the ground. Cassia felt warding magic close around her wrists. The Blood Shackles.

Mak’s mother took hold of their arms with surprising gentleness. “Telemakhos Argyros and Cassia Komnena, you are under arrest for possession of weaponry within the borders of Orthros, failing to surrender your weapons at Waystar or the Armory of Akofo, forging the tools of war within the peace of the Queens’ ward, and imbuing artifacts with enchantments designed to kill. These accusations and your defense will be heard by the magistrates of Orthros. May Hespera’s Eyes see justice done.”

Cassia’s senses blurred, overwhelmed with the powerful magic in the room and the emotions inundating the Blood Union.

She had feared the Gifting would not find her worthy. She had never imagined she would succeed in becoming immortal only to fall so far.

Like Phaedros the Mad, she was now one of the few Hesperine criminals in the history of Orthros.

But she had always known she would do anything for her Hesperines.

Lio’s power shook their Union. You’re asking me to stand here and watch you get arrested while I go free.

Orthros needs one of the Collector’s two worst enemies to not be in prison. Tonight, that has to be you.

Orthros can fight the Collector without me, then. I will fight for you.

You can’t do anything to protect me if you’re locked up with me. Take this opportunity I’m giving you. Work with Lyros to defend Mak and me.

That, at last, seemed to cut through his fury. Yes. Of course. We’ll fix this. I swear to you, Cassia, we’ll get you out.

Aunt Lyta addressed Lio and Lyros. “Inform your Elder Houses that members of your bloodlines are in the Stand’s custody. It is the duty of your firstbloods to arrange their defense.”

“As you command, Guardian of Orthros,” Lyros said.

Lio said nothing. Cassia sensed that in this moment, Glasstongue did not trust what words would come out of his mouth.

She knew it was one of the most self-sacrificing things Lio had ever done when he silently watched her and Mak be taken away.

It took all ofLio’s Will to hold back his power. The barrels and shelves around them rattled as his Grace’s aura was torn from him. He felt like his heart was dragged through the forge’s brutal wards with her.

“We can’t linger here,” Lyros said, “but I…can’t face Argyros right now.”

“Neither can I.”

They stepped out of Nike’s forge and back to her statue. Lio let out a howl of frustration over the cliffs, his magic crashing down to join with the choppy waves below.

Lyros sounded numb. “I don’t know how I managed to misjudge so badly. I was never in favor of Mak’s weapon smithing, but I’m his Grace. I supported him unconditionally. I thought, ‘When this goes wrong, we go down together.’”

Lio was on the brink of falling into his own spiral of self blame. But how many times had Lyros been the one who pulled him back up again? Tonight, Lyros needed Lio to do the same for him.

“I know.” Lio gripped his Trial brother’s shoulder. “I am angrier at myself than anyone right now. But our regrets are of no use to Mak and Cassia. They need us to think clearly and act decisively.”

“All my thoughts and decisions were wrong. I followed Mak down this path to try to protect him, and now look where he is. His parents trusted me to be a good influence, but my Grace-mother just had to arrest her own son, and I have to go speak with my Grace-father about his defense. Hespera’s Mercy. Some kind of strategist I am.”

“We can salvage this. Mak and Cassia made this sacrifice for us. We can’t let it be in vain.”

Lyros rubbed his face. “Goddess. That’s true. I’m sorry.”

Lio squeezed his shoulder. “No apologies.”

“Right.” Lyros drew himself up. “They made sure we went free, and we won’t squander that. We need a plan.”

They gave each other a long look.

“I have no interest in waiting on legal proceedings at an immortal pace,” Lyros said.

“And I don’t care if we are also wanted criminals by the time this is over,” Lio told him.

Lyros held out his hand. “We do anything to save them. No matter what it takes.”

Lio clasped his wrist. “I’m with you, Trial brother.”