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13
Nights Until
WINTER SOLSTICE
MORTAL NEEDS
The Summit Games wereat an end, Lio had done much better in the races than the battles, and his Grace had celebrated his performance in both with equal enthusiasm. Alas, they must now get out of bed.
He tried to convince himself. It was almost moon hours. They were expected to be at the embassy’s tour of the Healing Sanctuary. Chrysanthos was a disgusting excuse for a person who had to be stopped. Lio had already had his breakfast.
Cassia needed her breakfast now. That got him moving.
Her skin caressed his as she slid off of him. She pillowed her head on her arms and watched him go, her eyes sleepy and warm with enjoyment. Cup and thorns, it felt good to have nothing but her gaze on him. His breakfast might be over, but his dessert was the sight of her lying there on her belly in a pile of silk cushions and rumpled sheets, dawdling her dainty, freckled feet in the air.
He decided not to put on his robe just yet. He turned around and sauntered away from her, all but levitating across the marble floor. He floated over the step down to the lower center of the room.
Cassia fell back asleep watching him spoon fresh-ground coffee into the pot. Lio listened to her heartbeat echo softly through his tower.
Knight woke her with dog kisses. She accepted his greeting with her usual affection, but whispered to Lio over the dog’s head, “Don’t tell Knight, but I would like a cleaning spell from you.”
“We’ll keep it our secret that you prefer my kisses.” Lio obliged her with a touch of his magic.
“Thank you.” She joined him in the sitting area.
He swept his gaze over her. “You look lovely this moon.”
She paused to kiss him before she sat her bare bottom down on a silk-padded chair. Lio handed her a large glass tankard of coffee.
“Is that cassia sprinkled on top of Deukalion’s Blend?” she asked.
“Yes. I’ve put your spice on my coffee.”
She wiggled her eyebrows at him and put the coffee to her lips, mouthing the mug’s rim as she took a languid swallow. She let out a little moan. “I don’t know how I used to wake up without your coffee. As strong as Polar Night Roast, but without any bitterness. Pure, rich darkness through and through.”
“I think cassia’s bite compliments the flavor perfectly.” He watched her throat work. If this was how she enjoyed a cup of coffee named after him, what would it be like when she enjoyed a drink of his blood?
Her stomach growled loudly.
He grinned. “My plan is a success. I have helped you work up a healthy appetite.”
“Prepare yourself. I shall drain your coffee pot and lay waste to your cupboard.”
“It’s only fair, after I’ve just done the same to yours. I’ll go get your breakfast out of the cold vault.”
Lio threw on his veil hours robe and went out the side door. He opened the hatch in the snow and wondered how much of its overflowing contents he could poke into Cassia’s mouth in the next hour. The pile of food in the cold vault soothed an unbearable urge inside him. She might insist she was fine, but he doubted she was fully recovered from her frequent fasts in the king’s household and living in fear of being poisoned.
It would take longer than a few weeks in Orthros to make up for her lifetime of hardship in Tenebra. It would take more than food to ensure she had what she needed. What she deserved.
Until he could provide for her from his own vein, he could at least continue to supply her with healthy mortal fare. He chose some of Orthros’s thick, strained yogurt and four large cassia pastries made with almond flour and honey. When he went back inside to put the rolls on the warmer, Cassia was no longer in the sitting area, and her coffee sat unfinished on the table. Lio set it on the warmer as well to keep it hot. She must be in the privy.
Knight had stolen her spot in the bed. With his head on his paws, he gazed at Lio innocently from amid the silk sheets, while the wool blanket and chew toy lay abandoned on the floor. It was a good thing Hesperine cleaning spells worked on liegehound messes, even when Hesperine magic didn’t work on liegehounds.
Lio reached into a storage basket under the table for a dog treat. The dry, solid bar didn’t look very appetizing to him, but the animal healers swore it was not only a healthy supplement to the canine diet, but irresistible to doggy cravings. Lio dropped it on the carpet at his feet and devoted his attention to the coffee.
The next thing he knew, Knight was sitting beside him and devouring the treat. While the dog was busy, Lio quickly worked another cleaning spell on the bed. The treat was gone before he finished. Knight’s eyes filled with pleading more pathetic than anything Lio’s diplomatic career had prepared him for. He gave the dog another bar to tide him over until Cassia was ready for Lio to retrieve some meat out of the vault for her hound.
While they waited for Cassia to return, Lio heard a courier enter and leave the front hall. He went into the entryway to see what had been delivered and found a few scrolls on the table under his Ritual tapestry. Glancing through them, he returned to the library. He dropped a couple of the messages on the coffee table on the way to the discreet door behind the dressing screen. He trotted down the stairwell that led to the bath and halted on the landing halfway down.
