Blood Feast: A Fantasy Romance

Justice

Rudhira moved his handto Lio’s throat, and Cassia shuddered. The prince’s eyes slid shut, and his fangs lengthened.

His magic blasted out from the center of the rose, and the blood in the thorns and petals overflowed the Ritual circle to spread across the ground. The prince’s power rocked Hagia Boreia to its foundations, as cleansing as the enemy’s attacks had been destructive.

Lio jerked awake and rose up, his mouth open in a soundless scream. He reached toward his throat, but Rudhira caught his hand and held on tight. “I’ve got you. It’s over. Drink from your Grace.”

Lio’s lips moved. No words came. But he cried out for her in their Union, a wordless plea.

She wrapped him in her presence. You’re here with me. Everything will be all right now.

His arm closed around her. She pulled his face to her throat. When he sank his fangs in and swallowed hard, everyone around them let out the breaths they’d been holding.

Cassia stroked his hair as he pulled desperately on her vein. The sweet ache of his bite made her feel the truth. You’re back with me.

She looked at Rudhira over Lio’s shoulder. “Thank you.”

He touched her head, his eyes overbright. “I am so sorry I wasn’t here.”

“None of this is your fault,” Mak burst out.

Rudhira put an arm around him and Lyros, pulling them to him. “I never meant for you to fight our battles for us. Alone. Not in Nike’s forge and not in this war.”

“They were our battles,” said Lyros, “and we weren’t alone.”

Rudhira looked around them at the temple, then ran his hand through a cluster of Hespera’s Roses. “I can see that. You’ll have to forgive me if it takes me some time to accept it.”

“There’s nothing to forgive,” Cassia said.

Rudhira sat back and ran a hand down his face. “Kalos told you about Paradum.”

“Yes.” Mak hesitated. “But I wouldn’t mind hearing what you actually said.”

“I wasn’t searching for you,” Rudhira said. “I was hunting Miranda.”

“Yourself?” Lyros sounded as astonished as Cassia felt. “When there’s a war and the Charge needs you in command? You could have sent someone…”

“I do not send my dependents to correct royal errors. The first time Lio and Cassia captured Miranda at Paradum, she escaped on my watch. If I hadn’t allowed that to happen, the four of you wouldn’t have needed to go on this suicidal quest at all. I was trying to apprehend her so you could interrogate her somewhere safe. That was all I wanted. To keep you safe.”

“We couldn’t have accepted safety in exchange for our freedom,” Lyros said quietly.

“I would never arrest you.” The Blood-Red Prince’s anger vibrated through the temple. “We Blood Errant have so many bolt holes from here to Cordium that you could have evaded arrest—and your enemies—for however long it takes the Firstblood Circle to rise from their silken asses and recognize you for the heroes you are.”

Lyros’s eyes widened. “You were planning to help us escape?”

“Bleeding thorns, of course I was!”

“But Neana told us you gave her orders to arrest us,” Mak said in confusion.

“The Charge had to believe I was upholding the law. And I had to make sure no Hesperines discovered where I was planning to hide you. I didn’t tell anyone except Nike.”

Mak looked at Rudhira with his most stubborn expression. “Cassia and I got ourselves arrested to protect my sister, and Xandra risked everything to help us avoid implicating you. We weren’t about to let you aid us as fugitives.”

Rudhira shoved a hand at the sword on his back. “I’ve been implicating myself with this blade for eight hundred years. And I have never suffered half the consequences that befell you in one night. I could not bear to live in my own skin for the next eight hundred if I didn’t stand with you in this.”

Cassia couldn’t speak, but she reached out and squeezed Rudhira’s hand.

“I tried to enlist your sister’s aid.” He looked chagrined. “Understandably, she is not in a charitable mood toward Hesperines after how we treated you. She informed me in no uncertain terms that even if she could get word to you from the warfront, she would sooner have me spend the Dawn Slumber in Cordium than trust your safety to me ever again.”

Cassia bit her lip. Had that been a lovers’ quarrel or a sign her sister didn’t think of Rudhira that way? She had so many things to ask Solia when they could finally see each other again.

Lyros shook his head. “I’m sorry we thought we had to run from you all this time, but even if you’d offered us Sanctuary, we couldn’t have accepted. We had to follow Cassia’s magic to the Lustra sites. And, with all due respect, you could never have lured out Miranda as she did. We did what we had to do.”

“I know,” Rudhira rasped, “and I question the stars for it. Why couldn’t I have at least made it easier for you?”

Mak rubbed his eyes. “Knowing you’re on our side is enough.”

“It’s nothing like enough,” Rudhira said. “I will not rest until you can walk through the streets of Selas, celebrated and not condemned. But for now, the best I can do is offer you refuge at Castra Justa.”

Mak shook his head. “The firstbloods—even your own sister—question the Charge’s mission enough without you also harboring criminals. That would implicate all our Hesperines errant, who are already making sacrifices for us.”

Rudhira’s red brows descended, and his fangs flashed. “Everywhere Hesperines walk outside the Queen’ ward, I rule. Black Roses, as of tonight, you have an official pardon from the Prince Regent, and no one can question my decree.”

Nights of fear drained out of Cassia’s limbs. She held Lio closer, stroking his back. Did you hear that?

His muddled thoughts formed into a certainty of refuge.

Rudhira closed his satchel with a loud snap. “I would have issued the pardon sooner, but my hands were tied by my own sunbound Charge law. I had to wait for my sister’s legal scroll on the matter to arrive on my desk at Castra Justa.”

Cassia doubted her ears. “Master Kona helped you pardon us?”

“She has been scouring her own laws for some way to grant you clemency. When Neana returned to me with her Grace braid and word of the children you rescued, Kona finally had the basis she needed. Under the Law of Atonement, you served justice by delivering lives to safety, which earns forgiveness for your crimes. Since it happened on this side of the border, it’s not enough to get you pardoned at home, but we will not give up on that, either.”

Cassia couldn’t quite take in the legal technicalities, but the result was clear. Lio would have a safe place to heal.

His jaw relaxed, and his eyes slipped shut again.

Cassia tightened her arms around him. “Rudhira—”

He eased Lio onto his back again. “He has enough of your blood in him for now. Let his mind rest. We’ll know more about his condition when I get him to the Castra.”

Cassia tried to brace herself for harsh truths, but she was out of armor. “What should we expect when he wakes?”

Rudhira’s voice was gentle now. “I don’t know. I have never seen an attack like Kallikrates is capable of. What I can say for certain is this: the only reason Lio is alive and sane right now is because of how you fought for him.”

She wanted to believe that. But she kept seeing the dagger plunge into Lio’s throat. Was there something she could have done to protect him from that blow?

“Look at me, Cassia.” It was a command from her prince, and yet an offer of comfort from her Ritual father.

She lifted her gaze.

“You saved him,” Rudhira said. “That is all you need to remember about this night.”

She knew she would see the battle in her dreams. “I’ll try to remember that.”

Mak put his arm around her. “We’ll be here to remind you.”

“You all fought well.” Rudhira’s gaze swept over the carpet of Hespera’s Roses that covered the ground, the Sanctuary Roses that shored up the ruins, and the thorned vines with their black blooms that stood guard. “Our Goddess’s flower, growing in Hagia Boreia again.”

“The destruction we brought here grieves me, though,” Cassia said.

“Don’t grieve,” Rudhira replied. “Anastasios would rather have a garden like this as his memorial than a cairn. When my mother Alea hears of it, she will say our youngbloods have brought her temple back to life.”

Cassia had spent so many nights despairing over what the Queens must think of her now. She drew hope from Rudhira’s prediction that the Annassa would think kindly on tonight’s events.

Rudhira beckoned to her, Mak, and Lyros. “Now come away from reminders of our martyrs. There is a living fortress of our Goddess, and I promise it will feel like home. Your horses are in my stables, and we’ve been making the fortress ready for you while we waited on the pardon.”

As they gathered their belongings, Cassia hesitated over the pieces of the relic dagger. “What should we do with this?”

“Miranda left an artifact behind?” Rudhira asked sharply.

“Do you want it for study?” Lyros asked.

“It should go in the vault at Castra Justa,” the prince answered. “There’s a warded bag in my satchel. Be careful.”

Mak and Lyros collected the dagger for him while Cassia retrieved her foci and took charge of Lio’s scroll case and Final Word.

“What will we do for a stretcher?” she asked.

“Nonsense. I will carry him myself.” Rudhira rose to his feet, lifting Lio in his arms. A bloodborn was no small burden to carry, but their prince appeared deeply grateful to have this one safely in his arms.

Cassia kept hold of her Grace’s hand as Mak and Lyros gathered around them. The hounds came obediently, quiet in response to their pack’s somber mood.

Rudhira quirked an eyebrow at Dame. “I am stepping two liegehounds into my fortress?”

“She isn’t a liegehound anymore.” Lyros put a defensive hand on Dame. “She’s a Hesperine’s familiar.”

Rudhira shook his head. “That is a tale all of the Charge will want to hear.”

“Lio can tell it to you when he wakes up again,” Mak said staunchly.

Cassia was grateful for his encouraging words, but a chill of unease slid down her throat.

Rudhira’s power bolstered them and carried them away from the fields of their battles. Cool, moist air enveloped them, and a river rushed in the near distance. Cassia stepped foot on green earth, and the vibrant Lustra murmured with interest.

They stood at the top of a cliff, with a long drop behind them and the gates of Castra Justa before them. The portcullis began to rise.

Mak craned his neck to look up at the massive fortifications. “The Fortress of Justice, in the flesh.”

Lyros took Mak’s hand. “From the night you forged your first adamas, I should have known you would lead us somewhere glorious.”

The fortress dominated the bluff, built of the sharp gray stone of Tenebra’s eastern wilds. The tall towers and layers of walls might have passed for a Tenebran castle, if not for the shining auras of the Hesperines within.

A banner flew over the keep, emblazoned with a lion, a star, a red crown, and a midnight-blue moon. Another was rising below it. Chill mountain wind caught at their robes, and the banner unfurled to display four black roses. Cassia pressed a hand to her mouth.

“I can’t give you a victory parade to House Annassa—yet—but I can give you this.” Rudhira led them into his stronghold.

Two crowds of Chargers packed the courtyard beneath black banners, and the aisle between them was scattered with black rose petals. The cheer that went up among the Hesperines errant split Cassia’s immortal ears, and she had never heard anything more wonderful.

As Rudhira led their procession, carrying Lio between the onlookers, they reached out their hands to touch Cassia’s slumbering Grace in benediction. Blessings in Divine and all the languages of the Empire wrapped her up and filled the Blood Union.

The prayers gave way to cheers as she, Mak, and Lyros passed. Orthros’s bravest shouted their names. The epithet of their errant circle roared across every courtyard they passed through on their way deeper into the fortifications. Kalos cheered loudest of all, calling out the dogs’ names. At his instigation, an entire fortress of Hesperines was soon celebrating liegehounds as if they had never been enemies.

Mak and Lyros lifted their joined fists over their heads, and a fresh wave of cheers erupted. Cassia levitated and raised her and Lio’s avowal cup for all to see. As the emotions of her people rolled through her, she let them out in a spell that conjured black roses to line their way to the heart of the fortress.

The enormous oak doors of the keep stood wide open in welcome. Before Cassia saw who waited in the doorway, their love and pride swelled in her chest.

Apollon and Nike stood shoulder to shoulder, him in a golden battle robe, her in full Stand regalia of black and silver. Cassia had never seen the artifact her Grace-father held, but there was no mistaking the heavy adamas hammer. She had never imagined she would see Apollon’s famous Hammer of the Sun in his hand. But after nearly a century, he had taken it up tonight in their honor.

Cassia’s Ritual mother stood at attention with her round shield on her arm. The Chalice of Stars was black as the sky, glittering with celestial symbols as bright as the stars. But at Nike’s waist hung a sword that sent a thrill down Cassia’s spine. The curved blade with a golden filigreed hilt was one of the Fangs, Methu’s long-lost pair of swords. The first bloodborn was with them in spirit.

When Rudhira reached the doors, Nike thumped a bleeding fist on her shield. The Blood Errant’s Union Stones flared bright in the signal for victory. Mak lifted the Star of Orthros, and his sister’s sign flashed through the Black Roses’ weapons.

Borne on the voices and feelings of the crowd, they followed Rudhira into the Sanctuary of his keep. Apollon and Nike, like an honor guard, closed the doors behind them.

Then they were alone with the Blood Errant in a great hall. Here, the illusion of a Tenebran hold lord’s castle ended. Peaked arches and vaulted ceilings made Cassia feel as if she had walked into Orthros. Beneath a blood-red stained glass window at the head of the room stood an intricately carved wooden throne.

They were in the First Prince’s domain now.

Cassia went into Apollon’s outstretched arms. He said nothing, only held her in his familiar, ancient strength. She felt safe for the first time since she had picked up her blade.

She drew deep, steadying breaths to keep from sobbing. “You’re in Tenebra. Oh, Goddess, I’m so glad you’re here.”

He patted his chest. “And Komnena is only a thought away.”

Nike had collared Mak and Lyros and showed no sign of letting them go. She hid her face against her brother’s hair. “Nothing—nothing—has ever been as hard as not coming after you. I would have followed you to Cordium and back and fought at your side, my quest be sunbound. You know that, don’t you?”

Mak grinned.

Nike sniffed. “But I thought you wouldn’t want that. You protected our borders and our family while I was errant. This time, you needed me to stay, so you could go. Didn’t you?”

“You understand,” Mak said.

“Better than anyone.” She drew back, running her hand over Lyros’s hair as if to reassure herself he was in one piece. Then she met Mak’s gaze. “I’m proud of your weapons. Don’t ever doubt it.”

This time when Cassia took Lio’s cold hand, her Grace-father was at her side. Apollon held out his arms. “Let me take him.”

Rudhira lifted his head, his magic ebbing, and handed Lio to his father. As Apollon cradled his son in his arms, Cassia felt the grief that passed through his blood.

“Come,” Rudhira said. “I have a room for him upstairs.”

He showed them to a modest chamber high in the keep, where an arched window looked out on untamed wilderness. There was a weapon rack for Final Word and Rosethorn, and a shelf held a small treasure trove of scrolls. Empty pots covered every surface, ready for plants. Cassia suspected Kalos had taken up a collection. Her gardening satchel hung from a hook on the wall, safe and sound.

The most luxurious residence could not have made her feel more welcome. For the foreseeable future, this was home.

A bed was waiting for Lio with clean, Imperial cotton sheets and the soft wool blankets pulled back. She adjusted the pillows as his father carried him over.

There was a century of sadness in Nike’s aura. “Why is history so cruel to the bloodborn?”

Rudhira put an arm around her shoulders and shook his head.

She beckoned Mak and Lyros toward an adjoining door. “I’ll show you your bunks, Stewards.”

Mak hugged Cassia one more time before he and Lyros left with Nike. “We’re right through that door if you need us.”

Apollon laid Lio in the sheets, and Cassia sat on the edge of the bed. Even in sleep, tension lingered around his eyes and mouth. She pressed a hand to his chest just to feel his heart beating with hers.

Rudhira sank into a chair by the bed. “Now we wait.”