Blood Feast: A Fantasy Romance

Heart Wounds

Lio couldn’t see Cassiathrough the glare of lightning magic. He only felt her pain. He clutched his chest, his senses blinded.

Mak’s magic slammed between them and the onslaught. On his knees in the snow, he had one arm around Lyros, his other hand outstretched and covered in his Grace’s blood. He gritted his teeth, shaking as he held his defenses against the war magic. “Go.”

Lio levitated and forged through the lightning spell, wrapped in shadow wards. He poured the full force of his thelemancy at Kallikrates.

Lio’s power met dream wards that felt like razors ready to shred his every thought. He flooded the maze of spells with his magic and felt the first edges of the Collector’s defenses wear away.

He was halfway to Cassia when he cleaved through another dream ward. Pain frayed his veins. He drew more power from inside himself.

Skleros stood over Cassia’s body and said in the Collector’s voice, “Save some for the next round.”

With a flick of his fingers, he tossed lightning at the roses blocking the portal. The vines fell to embers. Leaning on his axe, he strolled through the displacement gate.

Lio’s magic battered uselessly against the portal, chasing the mind that was now beyond his reach. His power rebounded back on him, and he staggered. The portal collapsed before his eyes, and the lightning sizzled out.

The air was suddenly silent and cold. Mak’s ward lifted, and Lio stepped to Cassia. He went down on his knees and gathered her onto his lap.

His heart beat erratically in his chest, telling him the state of hers. He felt her mind reaching for words and not finding them. Her movements were stiff and uncoordinated.

He cradled her closer, supporting her head, and pushed her fangs into his throat. Her jaw did lock, but there was a tremble in the joint. His blood escaped down his neck, but he massaged her throat until she swallowed. Not much. But enough.

Enough that she would live.

All of them would live. This time.

When Lio was certainCassia was stable, he stood with her in his arms. Knight had joined them, miraculously unharmed by the lightning. Lio didn’t understand how, but he was too grateful to wonder about it.

Mak drew near, leading General with Lyros on his back. Lyros was upright, but his face was ashen, his fangs distended. Bear limped along after Mak, with Moonflower and Freckles trailing him.

“We need to get out of here,” Mak said.

Lio didn’t argue this time. He and Mak joined their magic to step their Graces as gently as they could. They arrived on the front steps of the derelict tower and hurried through the front door.

They left the horses on the ground floor and headed up the stairs. Now it was Mak’s turn to help Lyros into the Mage King’s room. Lio carried Cassia onward to their chamber, casting a cleaning spell on the way to their bed. He rested her in the warm blankets and parted the charred front of her robes.

Her pendant was gone. In its place, there was a whorl of burns over her heart. Lio wanted to rip the portal open and hound Skleros until he fulfilled all his promises of revenge. He wanted to tear open the gates of Orthros until they gave his Grace Sanctuary again instead of judgment.

Cassia and Lyros needed healers. But there were no Hesperines he and Mak could take them to without all of them getting arrested. And an army of Chargers stood between them and Solia’s aid.

All the Black Roses had now was each other.

Lio joined Cassia on the bed and fed her from his throat again. Then she fell into a kind of dazed rest against him. Knight stayed near, his ears and tail drooping, occasionally giving Cassia’s hands fretful licks. Lio thought of how many times he had seen Knight sink into this despair while Cassia lay on the brink of death.

“I’m sorry,” Lio said again. “I promised you I’d keep her safe.”

The night wore on, and Lio roused her every couple of hours for more blood. He held her distant, muddled thoughts with care. His own hunger became a sharp, hot ache, but he pushed it to the back of his mind, giving her Gift and his blood time to heal her. All that mattered was getting more blood into her and listening to her heartbeat strengthen by a tiny measure each time.

She came to in the twilight hours before daybreak. When her gaze focused on him, he breathed a sigh of relief, blinking hard.

She squeezed his hand, her grip weak. I’m so sorry I let him take the pendant.

You’re safe. That’s what matters.

She gave her head a shake. After my ancestors kept it secret for centuries…after my Gifting changed it…and everything we went through to retrieve the enchantment here… Now I’m down to one focus, and—

Shh. He stroked her hair. Don’t worry about that now. Look. Knight is safe too.

She ran a weary hand over his head. He wallowed closer to her in the bed and propped his head on her belly.

She cleared her throat. “Kallikrates spared him on purpose. He knew our bargain would be off if he hurt anyone I love.”

Silence fell between them. Lio harnessed the raging magic inside him and used it to veil his anger from his Grace. Or at least dull the effect of it in their Union.

When he spoke, he managed to keep his voice gentle. “Did you mean what you said to him? About wanting all your power?”

“No.”

“Cassia, you know I wouldn’t blame you if you did. I want you to have all your magic.”

“I don’t want it. But it’s a motivation he understands, so I let him believe it. You know I didn’t mean anything I said to him, don’t you?”

“Of course I know that.”

“Then why are you so angry?” she asked.

He swore under his breath, his veils shredding at her words. There was no point in hiding. They had promised each other they wouldn’t, even when it caused them pain.

“You opened a negotiation with Kallikrates,” Lio said.

“Negotiating is what we do. Even now. Or has that staff made you forget it?”

“That staff is for keeping you safe!” Lio’s voice rose. “You made a bargain with Hypnos himself! He will make you pay for it, Cassia, and I cannot bear to imagine what the price will be.”

“I gave him a reason to spare us.” She hugged herself, hiding the fading mark on her chest. “Would you rather he have taken the pendant and left us all dead? At least he let us keep our lives.”

“Better to fight our way out than you make this kind of pact with him.”

“Do you honestly think there was another way out of that battle?”

“Yes! The moment the Collector manifested through Skleros, you should have let me fight him with thelemancy instead of listening to a single word he said.”

“You were too busy holding Lyros’s heart inside his chest!” Cassia covered her face with her hands but not before Lio saw her tears.

He bit his tongue. Goddess, this was not what she needed right now.

“I’m sorry,” Lio murmured.

He reached out to touch her shoulder. When she didn’t flinch away, he pulled her close again.

The minutes slipped away, and the sky lightened. He thought of all the things he might say but spoke none of them, unsure of whether his words would only wound her more. He watched helplessly as she slipped into Slumber.

Before sleep claimed him too, he needed to ask Mak how Lyros was. Lio dragged himself out of bed and went to their door, where he waited for them to sense his aura.

When Lyros opened the door, Lio breathed a sigh of relief. Until the cold anger in Lyros’s aura swept over him.

“How are you feeling?” Lio tried.

Lyros leaned one hand heavily on the door frame. “It grazed my heart, but didn’t go through it. Hard to aim a corpse. Is Cassia all right?”

“She’ll mend. Slowly. Lightning magic isn’t fire magic, but it’s bad enough.”

Lyros looked at him for a long moment, his jaw clenched.

“Think about when Solia ignored you in battle,” he said at last. “What happened?”

Solia hadn’t heeded Lio’s pleas to be patient and strategic. An innocent healer mage had paid the price when the Collector had ripped out her magic. Pakhne continued to exist, hollow and suffering, without hope of a cure or even comfort.

Heat flushed under Lio’s collar. “That would have been Cassia’s fate if I hadn’t Gifted her. Don’t compare that to tonight.”

“People get hurt if we fight before we think.”

Lio thumped his hand against the door frame. “Cassia did get hurt. Over and over again by Kallikrates and his Overseers. Don’t tell me not to fight them.”

“Throwing yourself at Skleros won’t get Cassia’s magic back. Do not ever ignore my retreat signal again. Do you understand?”

“Kallikrates knows more about the Lustra than we do. If there’s any chance his secrets could help me restore Cassia’s power, I will tear apart every Overseer’s mind, and I will not retreat until I’m done.”

Lio turned on his heel and walked away. Behind him, the door slammed.

Lio fell back into bed beside Cassia, gazing at the burn on her chest. Would it be there, if he had heeded Lyros? Would they have captured Skleros, if Cassia had heeded Lio?

He thought through everything they could have done differently until day closed his eyes for him and banished him into uselessness.