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Kia shook her head. “It was no small challenge to discover the details afterward, for neither of them wanted to breathe a word of it, it was such a disaster. But we have since compared what we gleaned from Xandra with what Mak and Lyros extracted from Lio, and we now know the facts.”
“When you feast together,” Nodora said gently, “it is supposed to make the experiencebetter.What pleasure you take from a kiss can only be sweeter when accompanied by a sip from the vein.”
“You don’t have to tell Cassia that, Nodora.”
Nodora winked.
Cassia’s face was hot, and her heart was pounding. She really didn’t want to hear this.
Kia grinned. “The sharing of blood is indeed meant to enhance the sharing of pleasure, and that was certainly what Lio and Xandra had been expecting. But it seems the moment they tasted each other, it had the opposite effect.”
Cassia stared at her. “It did?”
Kia nodded sagely. “One sip, and the blood ran cold. The thorn lost its edge. The cup went dry.”
Nodora made a face. “It was so dreadfully awkward for both of them.”
Cassia shook her head. How could that be?
“In light of that,” said Kia, “there was no possibility of them resuming the intimacy they had enjoyed before, much less becoming lovers. It was quite over.”
“Although Lio did ask her to try again,” Nodora added sheepishly.
“And Xandra, in an admirable display of maturity and decisiveness, told him no. She may have been the late bloomer, but in this case she was the first to face facts. She realized there was no point in trying anymore and told him so.”
“That must have been…” Cassia floundered. “Very sudden.”
Kia snorted. “Long overdue, rather.”
“Everyone was so relieved!” Nodora said. “We had all come to anticipate their eternity together with great concern. Except Lio’s parents. I think they knew all along and were only waiting for him to release himself from his misery.”
“If I may,” Kia offered, “allow me to deliver the facts accompanied by some philosophy. Lio and Xandra had been in love with theideaof each other, and when they tasted one another’s blood, they were confronted in the most profound way with the reality of who they really are. They had known all along they were not suited, but did not believe it. They persisted in their pretense until that night, when the evidence in their veins made it impossible to deny the truth.”
Whatever Cassia had expected, it had certainly not been this. How could anything cool the fire when a male found himself in an intimate embrace with Princess Alexandra?
Cassia had felt the unstemmable tide of Lio’s passions for herself.
“I don’t understand,” Cassia said.
Kia smiled slowly. “Oh, but I think you do.”
Cassia had seen the look on Lio’s face when he tasted blood. Her blood.
“How could they not be perfectly suited?” Cassia protested. “She is the Queens’ own daughter. And he is…everything a Hesperine ought to be.”
“Exactly,” Kia said. “All our ideals embodied in two people. I’m not sure which of them held the other higher on the pedestal. That’s an exhausting effort, whether you’re the person trying to bear the weight of a marble statue or the person trying to be one. And no one can drink stone.”
BLOODBORN’S PATH
“Now,” said Kia, “ifyou will allow me to illustrate the point with a rather heavy-handed example…”
She and Nodora steered Cassia onto a side path. An iron gate barred their way.
“Go ahead,” Kia urged.
When Cassia opened the gate, it moaned, long and low. The sound echoed mournfully down the path beyond, which twisted between tall, dense evergreens. Cassia took care not to snag her cloak on the mighty thorn hedges that lined the trail.
The path soon opened into a circle around a monument. A tall, beautiful Hesperine of sandstone towered above them. Her powerful limbs and Stand regalia marked her as a warrior. Cassia peered at the plaque at the statue’s feet, but it was all in Divine.
