Blood Feast: A Fantasy Romance

The Most Important Lesson

Once their spell wasfinished, Lio found Cassia in the stables. Knight drowsed on a pile of hay while the Warmbloods munched grain in their stalls. Cassia had found a brush somewhere and was running it over Freckles’ side with steady strokes. The little mare preened under the attention.

All Lio could see in Cassia’s thoughts was the smooth rhythm of those brush strokes. Her utter concentration on the repetitive task was as effective as greenhouse diagrams at deflecting his mind. Almost.

He stroked Moonflower’s nose. “Thank you for seeing to the horses while we were casting.”

“This place is hardly up to Warmblood standards, but I did my best. The provisions the men left behind will keep our horses and Knight fed. Where are Mak and Lyros?”

“They want to keep watch until they’re confident no one is probing our defenses.”

Before he could say more, she pressed on. “Are you ready to look for Lustra portals?”

So she was determined not to talk yet, was she? Using arguments about her magic to get him to do what she wished would not work a second time. Especially when he knew she didn’t actually want to use her power. By the time they finished their search, he would coax her to open up to him.

“The tower looks quite ancient,” he said. “Let’s start there.”

She put the brush away and turned toward the door, giving him a glimpse of her neck before her long hair swung to hide it again. He followed her and Knight out of the stables, ducking to avoid hitting his head on the door frame. Her hound’s paws left broad tracks in the dirty snow as they crossed the bailey, while Cassia’s light steps left hardly any imprint at all.

She paused, looking to the sky. He followed her gaze to see a large hawk circling above. That was the animal form which had earned her ancestor the title “Changing Queen.” Cassia herself had transformed into a hawk when Ebah’s spirit had briefly granted her shape-changing abilities. He wondered if it was a sign.

As they watched, the hawk took a dive into the trees, oddly silent. It emerged a moment later with a small, broken shape clutched in its talons. Cassia shuddered and headed up the front steps of the keep.

“When did you last stay here?” Lio asked.

Her aura stirred with memories. “Three years ago.”

“How many times?” He opened the weathered door for her and propped himself against it, half filling the doorway.

She slipped through, so close to him that their bodies almost brushed. “Twice. The winter of the Equinox Summit would have been my third, if I hadn’t made it to court instead.”

Before she was out of reach, he caught her cheek in his hand and turned her face toward him. “You almost spent that winter here instead of with me.”

“But I didn’t.”

“Thank you for the risks you took to make that happen.”

She clutched his hand briefly, then turned and went further into the keep.

“Will you show me the room where you stayed?” he asked.

“If you think it’s useful.” She led him past a broad, empty chamber on the ground floor and up a curving staircase, higher into the tower. Knight leapt upward ahead of her. Lio walked close behind her, and her aura tingled with awareness of him.

They entered a shadowy room, and he pricked his thumb on his fang to conjure a spell light from his blood. The warm glow illuminated a round room with one bed, one trunk, and a washstand. It was even worse than her rooms at Solorum. Old anger simmered in him at the neglect she had suffered in her mortal life.

There was something about this claustrophobic room that bothered him. Something wrong about it. But he couldn’t put his finger on precisely what that wrongness was.

He only knew he ought to pull Cassia down onto that bed and replace her memories of lonely nights here.

Knight embarked on a thorough sniff of the place and sneezed. Cassia patted him as he passed her to investigate another corner. “Yes, you remember this place, don’t you, love? Not fit for dogs or ladies.”

“But perhaps it once was.” Lio cast a cleaning spell over the room to peel away the layers of dust and old torch grime. Flakes of plaster crumbled to the floor, revealing the ancient stones beneath. The leather flaps over the windows blew back, letting moonlight in through their rounded arches. “There is neglected beauty here.”

“And magic too, we can hope.” Cassia set her gardening satchel down on the table by the bed. “Strange to think I might have walked past portals here without ever knowing it. I’ll see if the Lustra is telling my intuition anything.”

He rested his hands on her tense shoulders. “No, Cassia. I want you to cast.”

She whirled to face him. “We just found what might be a safe place for us, and you want me to draw attention with a spell?”

“We’ve covered this place in thelemantic wards. No one will detect your casting.”

“The spells at Nike’s forge did nothing to cover my magic!”

“Those were not my spells.”

As they stood there facing each other, the air grew full of their latent magics. Knight put his ears back and trotted off to keep watch outside the door.

Lio leaned closer to Cassia, shrinking the small, taut distance between them. “I am your Grace. Your blood is in my blood, your magic in my magic. We know the Lustra has marked me. If any spells can conceal your magic, mine can.”

Her canines were so far extended, they must be aching for him. “Now is hardly the time for testing theories! I have no wish to repeat what happened at the lighthouse. We cannot afford to take that risk.”

“Why, Cassia?” he demanded.

Her hands closed into fists, and her voice rose. “Because every time I let go of my power, I hurt someone. I hurt you.”

He gritted his teeth, on the verge of releasing the magic in his own veins. The trunk lid rattled.

Cassia retreated to the window, flattening her hands on the sill. Her voice fell. “I don’t blame you for being angry.”

He stayed where he was for the moment, giving her more space. “You know I’m not angry with you, don’t you?”

“Yes,” she said, her voice small. “After the way my father treated me, I know I have a tendency to assume that when someone is angry, they must be angry at me. But the mind healers have reminded me again and again to stop doing that to myself.”

“I never want you to think my anger is directed at you.”

“I know you better than that. You always give me the benefit of the doubt. You are never disappointed in me. It would be easier if you were.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I can feel how angry you are over everything we’ve lost, over how my magic is nothing like what we hoped for. Yet you are so unfailingly gentle with me. It makes my heart break even more at what I’ve done to you.”

“Oh, Cassia.” He dragged his hands through his hair. “My newgift. This is something you need to understand about the Blood Union. It only tells us what someone is feeling, not why they are feeling it.”

“Grace Union is different.”

“Not when we’re hiding from each other. Just as you said when you proposed to me, our words are so important, even now that our souls are bound together.”

She half turned to him, wrapping her arms around herself. “Then tell me. Why are you angry, if not because my magic cost you everything?”

He strode to her side and turned her to face him, pulling her against him. Their gazes locked. Her eyes were dilated.

“You have that backward,” he said. “You did not cost me everything. Everything has always tried to cost me you.”

“Lio.” She sounded breathless. “I will not allow this negotiation to end against the wall.”

“I agree. The bed would be better. Those visions we saw in the stone circle will give us no mercy until we act them out.”

“No,” she gasped. “I won’t take from your vein again. Not until we talk.”

At last, he had persuaded her to talk. He had hoped her sheer stubbornness to resist her Craving would prove a powerful motivation.

“Tell me why you’re angry, then,” she demanded.

“Orthros promised that you could embrace your magic without fear. That it would be safe for you to be powerful. Then the moment you spread your wings, they punished you for it. I am so angry at how our own people have treated you.”

“Oh.” Her surprise was a flicker of light in their Union, but her gaze fell. “It’s not their fault. I knowingly broke the Queens’ laws.”

“Our laws are supposed to be just. Where is the justice in punishing you for your own nature? Our elders taught us that all are welcome under Hespera’s Eyes. When did they decide our profane goddess would not accept your thorns?”

“They accepted my roses. Just not our weapons.”

“They, who have killed war mages with their bare hands and even now have voted that Hesperines should march to war.”

She pressed her hand to his medallion. “We were always supposed to be diplomats. You worked your whole life for the title of Ambassador. You were born into Blood Komnena, the long-awaited hope of our elder house. Don’t tell me you do not feel the loss.”

“I do. I feel it so bitterly. I gave all of myself to the diplomatic service, and I earned my seat in the Firstblood Circle as Firstgift Komnenos. I proved to our people over and over that they can trust my judgment. And this is how they repay me. By casting out my Grace.”

She drew a sharp breath, and he felt the stab of pain in her aura. “Oh, Lio. This is so much worse than if you were angry at me.”

“What? Why?”

“You’re not angry at me. You’re angry at our people.” Tears welled in her eyes, wavering gold. “I haven’t merely cost you Orthros. I’ve cost you your love for it.”

“You know that when faced with unbearable choices, I will always choose your love. My first loyalty is to our Oath, my Grace.”

She hid her face against his chest, her sobs quiet against his heart. He held her while her weeping wracked her and waves of grief tore out of her. They’d had everything they ever wanted for a night, only for it all to disappear.

Lio bared his fangs, his blood pounding with the injustice of it. “I will not let anyone punish you for who you are. Remember what I said, Cassia. I want you to break everything in your path.”

“I can’t bear to hurt anyone again.”

“Look at me, my rose.”

At last, she lifted her tear-stained face.

“You taught me something, one of the most important magic lessons of my life. And now it’s my turn to teach you.”

She scrubbed her hand over her eyes. “What could I have taught you about magic?”

“Think of that night after Martyr’s Pass, when I believed I had slaughtered hundreds of mortals with my magic. What did you tell me?”

“That you could never hurt anyone like that. It’s not in you.”

“You were right. It turned out I was not to blame for their deaths. You taught me not to fear my own power. And I will not ever allow you to fear yours.”

“You understand.” The words rushed out of her. “I do fear it.”

“I know. The first time you touched your roses, their thorns cut. Now you’re afraid to repeat that pain. But that is the nature of your magic. It is not easy. It is not tame. Do not expect it to be. Let it be what it is.”

“What if it is not Hesperine?”

“That doesn’t matter. You are Hesperine. Trust yourself, as you told me to do in Martyr’s Pass. If you unleash your power, your Hesperine heart will set its limits, just as mine did.”

She swayed against him, as if standing on a precipice. “That is such a terrifying risk to take.”

“I will take that risk with you. But in return, I need all your courage. I need you to try. You will never learn if you do not cast. Will you do that for me?”

“For you, Lio, I will do anything.”

“Then let go,” he said against her lips.

She raked her mouth over his, his starving queen, finally allowing herself to her own banquet table. He served up his tongue to her, and she lit into his mouth. Her kiss made his fangs unsheathe. She sucked them, turning his canines into her next course.

She pushed him, putting him where she wanted him with all her strength. His back hit stone, and he smiled into her wicked kiss. All her resolutions about not ending up against the wall had been in vain. And he intended to make the most of it.