Blood Feast: A Fantasy Romance

Peace Offering

After Cassia and Lyroshad a few nights to heal, Lio took it upon himself to make a peace offering. He silently thanked Tuura for packing coffee as he set out a travel pot, geomagical warmer, and sack of beans on a table in the dining hall.

He ground the beans with a mortar and pestle borrowed from the Changing Queen. This would either be the most delicious coffee in sixteen hundred years, or drinking it would inflict anomalous arcane effects on them all.

Once the coffee was steeping, he waited. As he had hoped, the scent of Imperial Roast had the effect of a magical summons.

He sensed Cassia’s aura drifting out of their bedchamber. She padded into the hall in her veil hours robe with Knight at her side. “Is that coffee?”

Lio poured her a cup and gestured in invitation toward one of the chairs in front of the fire.

Knight stretched out on the warm hearth stones. Cassia took a chair and accepted the coffee from Lio, wrapping both her hands around the cup. For a moment, she just breathed the scent. Then she took a long sip. “Mmmm.”

“How are you feeling?” he asked.

“Revived.”

Lio sat down at her feet. He checked to make sure she had put on stockings, then leaned back against her legs.

She looked down at him over the rim of her cup. “I’m a Hesperine. I will not catch a chill if my feet get cold.”

“You’re healing, and you deserve comfort.”

Her eyes crinkled with affection, and she ran her fingers through the hair at the nape of his neck. He closed his eyes, enjoying her touch.

A moment later, Mak and Lyros’s voices drifted down the stairs.

“No,” said Lyros, “I really don’t need you to carry me.”

“Don’t go all hardened warrior on me yet.”

“I am a warrior, not a human bride, and I can go down on my own two feet.”

“Won’t you let me enjoy carrying you?”

Their conversation halted abruptly, and it seemed Lyros had offered Mak a kiss as a consolation.

“No,” said Lyros.

A moment later, they entered the dining hall hand in hand. Despite Lyros’s assertions that he was in a hardened warrior frame of mind, they weren’t dressed for battle. They’d come down in their veil hours robes as well, the attire Hesperines only wore at times of relaxation among their confidantes. That gave Lio hope they hadn’t come for a fight. Then again, maybe those were the only clothes they had left that hadn’t been torn to shreds in a skirmish by now.

They poured themselves some coffee, and Mak took the other chair by the fire. Lyros sighed as if he’d lost the argument this time. He slid onto his Grace’s lap, and a grinning Mak gave him a kiss.

For a moment, it felt like they were all at ease in one of their coffee rooms back home.

But Lio knew that illusion wasn’t enough. “I owe you all an apology. I will not make the same mistake again.”

“We all owe each other enough apologies to go around,” Mak said. “Call it even?”

Lyros said nothing, but he nodded.

Cassia’s face was impassive, the expression she got when she was trying not to show weakness. “I owe you all an explanation before you hand out forgiveness.”

She didn’t look at any of them as she related her conversation with Kallikrates.

Lyros got up and began to pace. There was still so much anger in the way he moved, although his aura was veiled. Lio couldn’t blame him.

At last, Lyros faced Lio and Cassia. “Mak and I are trying to keep us all alive.”

Her hand went to her chest, where her pendant no longer hung. “Whatever the consequences of my negotiation with him, it will only come back on me.”

Lio’s own anger flared again. “That is not how this works.”

“It is,” she insisted. “He knows if he harms any of you, our deal is off. I bargained with him for your protection.”

Lyros’s gaze flashed. “Do you think ‘keeping us all alive’ excludes you? We’re trying to ensure your safety, too. Will you two stop making that so sunbound difficult?”

“Thank you.” Cassia’s voice was small. “Yes, we’ll try.”

Lyros stalked back to Mak’s lap.

Their quest was in shambles. Roborra had reminded all of them what their enemy was capable of. They were woefully unprepared and outmatched. They had lost Miranda’s trail, and their most precious resource—each other—was under strain. Over the past few nights, Lio had taken plenty of time to think about how he could fix this.

“We need a new plan. The least I can do is suggest a way forward.” He held up a hand before Lyros could protest. “You can reject the idea if you think I’m being a hothead again.”

Lyros crossed his arms. “We’ll consider it. That’s all I’m promising.”

“Thank you. I think we all agree we should avoid Skleros.”

“Yes, but Miranda is a Gift Collector, too. Kallikrates could just as easily manifest through her and fry us all.”

“We’ll plan wards for that,” Lyros interjected.

“Of course,” Lio agreed, “but think about what Skleros said. She was their master’s favorite, but now he’s displeased with her. Perhaps Skleros is more dangerous than she is right now because he has Kallikrates’s favor.”

Mak looked dubious. “That could simply be his pride talking. Can we believe what he says about his rival, knowing he sees her as a threat to his status?”

“I think Lio’s right.” Cassia weighed in finally. “Miranda made a catastrophic mistake—she failed to take the rest of my magic, lost a mind-duel with Lio, and let us escape. Kallikrates is sure to punish her, and that puts her at a disadvantage. But however she’s planning to earn his forgiveness, it’s sure to be painful for us.”

Lyros frowned. “And here we are, planning to chase her right into the trap she’s set for us.”

“Is she hunting us, though?” Mak wondered. “Or running? We’ve seen little sign of her.”

“Oh, Mercy,” Cassia said suddenly. “I am such a fool.”

Lio looked up at her. “What is it?”

Cassia put her face in her hand. “She has been hunting us all along. The arrow that shot Kalos was made of apple wood.”

Lio swore. “I should have realized. She’s left us an apple as a taunts before. No surprise, given the importance of Paradum’s apple orchard in your shared past.”

Cassia bit her lip. “Let us assume that either Skleros or Miranda had a hand in each of our encounters with the Collector’s forces.”

Lio nodded. “Miranda must have been hidden among the archers who attacked the Patrian villages. She shot Kalos, but perhaps also tried to mitigate the harm upon Mederi.”

Cassia set aside her coffee cup as if she felt ill. “Skleros must have been responsible for the heart hunters in Martyr’s Pass. That’s the same tactic he used when he came to Orthros with the embassy.”

“What about the Gift Collectors at the lighthouse?” Mak asked. “It’s so rare for them to work together. Could Skleros and Miranda have made sure those four discovered our location? They might have set them on us to eliminate some of their lesser competition for the bounty.”

“That makes sense,” Lyros said. “Then Miranda’s villagers led us to Roborra.”

Cassia shook her head. “She wouldn’t exploit them to get at us.”

“But Skleros would,” said Lio. “He’d take particular satisfaction in using her own people against her. With Kallikrates’s help, he could easily have planted that clue about her supposed location in the villagers’ minds to lure us to him.”

“Kallikrates knew I would understand the clue about salt and bones. He wanted to confront us in the place where I met the Hesperines who turned me against him.” Cassia’s gaze fell. “He also lured us to this tower. He and Lucis must have known it was a Lustra site. I think that’s why the king was so determined to send me here during the Equinox Summit.”

“That was around the time he was watching for your magic to manifest,” Lio said.

She nodded. “I overheard them discussing it in Lucis’s solar while Kallikrates was possessing Dalos. I thought they were talking about executing me, but in hindsight, I realize they meant the Collector’s plan to take the rest of my magic.”

Lyros’s eyes narrowed. “That’s why the tower was so poorly guarded. He and Lucis wanted you to retrieve the enchantment.”

“How could they be sure we would think to come here?” Mak asked.

The ease with which their enemy predicted their thoughts sent a chill down Lio’s spine. The Black Roses had retrieved the soothsaying enchantment and then escorted Cassia right into Skleros’s ambush so he could take it from her. “They must have known this would be our most likely place to find shelter before approaching Roborra.”

Mak blew out a breath. “So Miranda was never at Castra Roborra at all. That leaves us with no leads about her real whereabouts and two Gift Collectors with personal grudges on our tails.”

“They also know we’re here at the tower,” Lyros added. “We need to fortify our thelemantic wards around the keep. But no matter how strong we make them, Kallikrates has enough power to break through them if he decides to. We’re only safe inside the Changing Queen’s spell.”

The fire glinted in Cassia’s troubled eyes. She was drawing a Hesperine Ritual circle in her mind’s eye, five petals and five thorns over and over. Under the distracting thoughts, Lio caught her worries. Her bargain with Kallikrates had spared their lives, but there were still many ways he could twist her words and make them suffer without killing them.

Lio said it aloud. “Their goal has probably changed. They were bent on destroying us before, but after Cassia’s conversation with him, we should consider the possibility that he wants to capture us all instead.”

Despair weighed deep in her aura, but she gathered the armor of her pride around her thoughts. I know you don’t agree with what I did. You needn’t remind me.

I’m not trying to torture you for your choice. I just don’t want you to carry it inside you in silence. You don’t have to bear it alone.

Her gaze flashed. Just like when you wouldn’t let me get myself arrested alone.

Yes, exactly like that.

Lyros lifted his hand, as if to rub his chest, but then let it drop. “The heart wounds they keep dealing us in every battle aren’t a coincidence. They’re a terror tactic. Kallikrates is trying to make us feel vulnerable.”

Cassia finally looked away from Lio, and her gaze went to Mak. “One of us got a heart wound from the Lustra instead. Does that mean my ancestors are trying to scare us, too?”

“I don’t pretend to understand the Lustra’s strategy,” said Lyros.

Mak raised a brow at Lio. “Maybe our philosopher has an opinion.”

Lio nodded. “I think the Lustra’s heart wound was a mark of honor.”

Mak thumped his chest. “I’ll take it.”

Lio pointed at Lyros’s forehead. “That’s a sign of respect, too. The Lustra acknowledged your insight. The rest of us should take a lesson from it.”

Lyros narrowed his eyes. “You’re trying to flatter your way back into my good graces, Glasstongue.”

“You know I mean it, too,” Lio replied.

Lyros sighed again. “So what’s your new plan?”

“We focus on our original goal,” Lio said. “Finding Miranda. Without the Collector’s favor, she’s vulnerable.”

Lyros opened his mouth, then threw up a hand. “There are so many ways this could go wrong, I don’t even know where to begin.”

“If you have a better plan, I will listen,” Lio promised.

Lyros had no reply.

“All right,” said Mak, “looks like we’re going after Miranda again. Any ideas on how to find out where she really is?”

“We have an ally who can help with that.” Lio pointed at Knight.

Cassia raised her brows. “Tracking her the old-fashioned way is simple, but brilliant. However…”

“Yes,” Lio said. “It will require starting somewhere we know Knight can pick up her trail.”

“Patria,” Cassia concluded.

“That’s madness,” Lyros protested. “We’ll have to dodge Rudhira, the king’s forces, and Gift Collectors. Not to mention the Lustra passages there are full of people who want to arrest us.”

Cassia’s chin was set. “It’s also the location of a rabid letting site. The Lustra will get us in. I will see to that.”

Lio should have been filled with triumph that she was finally ready to use her magic. But thinking of her words to Kallikrates, he could not deny he was afraid for her. If she took matters into her own hands again, what might she do next?