Blood Feast: A Fantasy Romance

The Bargain

Lio had last seenthat smile on Skleros’s severed head. How had Kallikrates shoved the Gift Collector’s detached spirit into this new body?

“Were you expecting Miranda?” Skleros rasped. “She’s out of favor after her last failure. That little bitch should have known she’ll never take my place as the Master’s champion.”

Facing the wrong Overseer was not a possibility they had practiced for. The Union Stones in their weapons flashed with quick pulses of light. Lyros’s signal to retreat.

No. A veteran Gift Collector would know even more secrets. They could take him with the same strategies they had planned to use against Miranda. Lio shot magic into his Union Stone, flashing back the sign to capture.

In that instant of indecision, more skeletons shattered all around them.

Bear’s screams tore the air as he went down. Mak landed on his back, arms and legs flat against a dark hexagram that burned through the snow. A jagged bone pierced Lyros’s chest and propelled him off his mount. He struck one of the stone cairns, and the shard pinned him there.

Lio’s heart jolted, as if trying to beat for Lyros’s. How close was the bone to his heart?

With a powerful, two-handed swing, Skleros aimed a headsman’s axe at Lio’s neck, and there was no ward to stop it.

Lio swept his staff out. The blade of the axe struck Final Word with a clang that made his teeth ache. Behind Skleros, something dark glinted in the snow. The traversal cuffs. The trap must have blown them from Mak’s grasp.

Skleros’s smile widened. “Remember what I said at Rose House. Your head is next.”

“Your heart is next,” Lio snarled.

They had no plan for this, but Cassia’s thoughts met his in the flow of power and anger between them. Their strategy was clear in both their minds. They moved as one.

Lio retreated under Skleros’s vicious swings. Cassia stood clear of the skirmish and gripped her dagger, wearing a grimace of frustration. Knight backed away, staying close to her.

Skleros’s hoarse laughter taunted them. “Haven’t learned much since our last round, have you? You’re still too soft to survive the Master’s game. And she’s still a clueless chit trying to use an artifact she doesn’t understand, destined to be no more than a tool in his hands.”

It was working. The fool underestimated them, cocky in his new form.

In the noise of battle, Lio strained to catch his Trial brothers’ faint pulses. His only reassurance that they lived was that their bodies were not returning to the Goddess in a flash of light before his eyes. Their pain fractured the Blood Union.

Pain Lio and Cassia would deal Skleros. They would show him he was not as indestructible as he thought.

Blow by blow, Lio let Skleros drive him back. The long axe had a greater range than any weapon Lio had faced before. He kept the Gift Collector at staff’s length as Mak had taught him.

The man drove at him with inhuman strength and speed. But not Hesperine strength. Lio held his physical power in check even as he pushed his training to the limit to avoid losing his head. He fell into the flow of battle, as if his staff were a part of him. He watched every twitch of muscle in Skleros, trying to anticipate each swing of that deadly blade.

Just as the axe moved right, Lio shifted into a high right guard. But Skleros pivoted his weapon. Too fast. The axe swung low and sliced open the side of Lio’s robes.

He spun his staff and knocked the axe back just before it broke his skin. The necromancer’s breath clouded in the air with exertion, but still he smiled.

Cassia’s power built under Lio’s feet. Through her, he was aware of the Lustra magic that eluded other mages’ senses. Even Skleros’s. The tainted ground roiled with vengeance.

Knight never wavered from his defensive stance in front of Cassia, protecting her as she cast. His barks boomed at the Gift Collector.

“Do you think a dog can protect you long enough to get off a spell?” Skleros spat. “He didn’t hold up very well against me in Orthros, did he?”

An explosion rippled beneath the ground at Cassia’s feet. A burst of necromancy smothered by the Lustra. Now it was her turn to give Skleros a savage smile. “I didn’t have my magic in Orthros!”

“Go ahead,” Skleros said. “Try your power against the Master. He’s looking forward to putting you in your place.”

Their ruse was wearing thin, but Skleros was far enough from the portal now. He could never outrun a Hesperine to reach his escape route.

Now,Lio said in Cassia’s mind.

Ready, she replied.

The salted soil broke, and the grieving land reclaimed the ruins.

Her roses tore across the rubble, covering the snow in black. A dozen more traps set off, leaving holes in the vines, only for more roses to pour out and cover them.

Thorns ate the ground around Mak and Lyros, crumbling the death magic that trapped them. The vines rose to form protective walls around them. Another barrier grew up around the portal, cutting off Skleros’s retreat.

Before he could escape with magic, Lio made the attack he’d been holding back. He went low, dodging under the path of Skleros’s axe, and swept his staff behind the man’s ankles. Living bone cracked this time. Skleros went down.

Cassia’s roses snaked around Skleros like chains, tearing the axe from his hand. Lio summoned the traversal cuffs into his hand and snapped them around the necromancer’s broken ankles.

She came to stand over Skleros, her dagger dripping blood to feed the roses that held him captive.

Lio leaned down, pressing his staff across Skleros’s throat. “You’re lucky there’s something in your brain that’s of use to me. I’ll wait till I’m done with your mind before I drive adamas through your heart.”

Skleros only laughed again. “You’re learning. But not fast enough. I’ve survived every round of the game since the first. Do you think I’m afraid of an infant like you?”

“You should be,” Lio said. “That many millennia of secrets will take time to extract. I won’t be done with you for a long while.”

“No,” Skleros replied, “you won’t be rid of me until the Master wins the final round.”

“Don’t listen to him,” Cassia said. “You have to help Lyros and Mak.”

Lio nodded and pulled his staff back. Knight pinned Skleros under his weight and growled in his face.

Lio levitated to Lyros first. The thorns parted to let him through.

Just in time for Lyros to stagger against him. One jagged bone dangled from Lyros’s hand. Lio caught his Trial brother and pressed a desperate hand over the bleeding hole in his chest.

Cassia dug her handsinto Skleros’s new blond hair and wrenched his head back. Her blood pounded with years of muddled pain. The Lustra’s at the king’s rape of the land. Her own at the destruction Skleros had once brought into Hespera’s Sanctuary. And now the suffering he had inflicted upon her Trial brothers.

“Here’s a souvenir from this round of the game,” she hissed.

She traced her dagger across his unblemished face, making an ugly slice from above his left eye to his right jawline. Lustra magic welled in his blood, and more tiny cuts feathered out from the wound, like thorns.

“My first scar in this form,” Skleros mused. “Do you think such a trophy an insult to me? You should know my pain only gives the Master pleasure, Cassia.”

His ruined voice grew smooth and deep. His rough tone was gone, and the syllables of her name seemed almost intimate on his tongue.

Her stomach turned over. She moved her dagger to Skleros’s throat, holding her magic at her fingertips.

One wrong move, and he could unleash untold magics on all of them.

“Hello, Kallikrates,” she said.

The Collector studied her face through Skleros’s eyes, his gaze a caress that made her want to claw at her skin. “Your Gifting has dulled your pain, but it could be sharpened again with the right touch.”

She wanted to spit in his face, but an idea took hold in her mind. More dangerous than anything she had ever attempted. Perhaps the only thing that could save them now.

She was an infant compared to this ancient, twisted mind. He had taken them by surprise at every turn. This might also be a trap in the form of words, not spells. But even so, it was an opportunity to attempt what she had never dared before.

A negotiation with the Collector.

Lio’s alarm rang in their Union. Cassia, what are you thinking?

She was thinking of that bone spearing Lyros. Of a wolf’s claws raking Mak’s chest. Of a Gift Collector’s poison creeping slowly toward her Grace’s heart. Would they live through the next close call?

This is my chance to spare us from a battle that might be our last,she told Lio.

Cassia, no—!

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him levitating with Lyros across the battlefield. She had to buy them time. If the Collector grew tired of toying with them, it would take all four of them to survive whatever spell he unleashed.

“I still understand you, Kallikrates,” she said. “You know I’ve always been a schemer after your own heart.”

His rich laughter washed over her, and she felt filthy. “You are. I see that you’re attempting to talk your way out of this round. Ambitious, little Silvicultrix, especially without your soothsaying power.”

She leaned closer and smiled with all her fangs. “How do you know plant magic is the only affinity I have?”

His gaze sharpened on her face. She had his attention now.

She pressed the knife a little closer against his throat, just enough to draw blood. “I opened a letting site in Orthros.”

He sucked in a breath, and she knew she had accomplished a great feat, even if this negotiation ended in disaster.

“I’m one of the only people in thousands of years who has surprised you, aren’t I?” She traced her dagger under his chin.

“You and Lio are threatening the game’s existence. You learned of our grand design and betrayed that secret to others. That knowledge is only for my Overseers—or those doomed to die. The rules demand that I destroy you.”

“And yet you hate the thought of sacrificing me. It goes against your grain to waste such a valuable playing piece.”

“You would have been one of my most beautiful weapons. But you’ve fallen into the wrong hands, and I cannot allow that. You know that.”

“Perhaps there’s another way.” She gave him her coldest court smile. “For the right price. Tell me what’s behind the doors, and I might be willing to help you open them.”

She had looked into the eyes of her possessive sire, lustful suitors, and predatory enemies. But none compared to the covetous gleam that lit the Collector’s gaze.

“My dear, after all these years. Could you finally be having a change of heart?”

What in the Goddess’s name are you doing?Lio demanded.

Trust me.

Their Union vibrated with his protest, but he was too busy staunching the blood Lyros was losing to do anything about her wild plan.

“I’ll never lick your boots like Miranda,” Cassia said. “If you’re counting on my devotion, you can go to Hypnos. You know what I want, Kallikrates.”

He smiled. On Skleros’s new face, it was a beautiful smile warped by the fresh scar she had given him. “You want your power.”

“That’s all I’m interested in, do you understand? The magic that’s rightfully mine. All of it.”

“Even immortality is not enough for you, is it? Unlimited time is not the greatest mystery or the greatest prize. I’m sure you found it a small ambition, just as I did. You know that the real goal is unlimited magic. The power to peel back every mystery of the arcane and break it in your hands until it no longer shapes you. You shape creation.”

Were these words merely more poison, or could they be a valuable glimpse into what really motivated him? Either way, she had to keep him talking.

“Whatever lies behind those doors is mine,” she said, “and you still need my magic to open it. I’ll consider helping you on two conditions. You tell me what it is, and you spare my errant circle. If you harm any of the Black Roses, the deal is off.”

“I heard that’s what you’re calling yourselves now. I can appreciate a flare for the dramatic.”

“If a single one of us dies, you don’t get anything from me.”

“Bold, to make such demands of your creator.”

“You didn’t create me, despite your arrogance about your little plot to breed a Silvicultrix. My mother made me, and Hespera remade me. Don’t forget it again, or I will remind you just whose weapon I am now.”

“You’ve always been your own weapon, Cassia. That’s why you and I are so alike. You are never without an agenda of your own, and you’re willing to do whatever it takes to achieve it.”

She kept her court mask in place to hide how much his words affected her. Her ends were just, now. To protect those she loved, she reminded herself. She hadn’t strayed too far from Hespera’s means, either. Had she?

She spared a glance toward Lio and Lyros. The thorns around Mak parted for them. Black burn marks criss-crossed Mak’s arms and legs, but he was sitting up. He took his Grace in his arms, pressing Lyros’s mouth to his throat. Almost safe. Just a moment longer…

“What do you think of my proposal?” Cassia prompted.

The Collector paused, as if actually considering the deal she had offered. That should have made her feel victorious. But it frightened her most of all because he seemed pleased.

Finally, he replied, “I shall consider your offer in exchange for a token of good faith.”

She adjusted her grip on her dagger. “What do you want?”

“The token isn’t open to negotiation. I’ll name my price and take it, whether or not you are willing to pay. You’ve come to my negotiation table now, and that means following my rules.”

A crackle prickled at her sensitive ears. Light flashed on her vision, and she screamed. It took all her Will to keep hold of her dagger and not cover her eyes.

Then pure energy blazed up the blade into her hand. A massive force threw her backward. She landed in the rose vines. But they were fizzing with the same energy, too. She heard Lio shouting in her mind, but didn’t know how to answer. Her thoughts seemed to fork and shoot out of her grasp.

Through the spots on her vision, she saw tongues of lightning travel along the vines, burning them to nothing. She was helpless in the war magic’s grip as another wave jolted up her arm and into her heart.

Kallikrates caressed her face, sparks dancing from his fingertips to her skin. “Your heart is the most vulnerable of all.”

He seized her pendant. Her ambassador cords snapped as he tore her talisman from around her neck.

No,she tried to say.

He rose to his feet, running her cords through his fingers, and fondled the pendant with a triumphant gleam in his eyes. “Thank you for unlocking the Changing Queen’s tower and retrieving this for me. Quite the token of good faith, don’t you agree?”