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The mage’s aura filled the realm where he had trapped Lio. The walls of this prison were built of the pleasure the mage took in control. His arrogance held up the sky. His lust for power was the foundation on which all of it stood.
“Yours is the purest form of evil,” Lio snarled. “Possession.”
“Anyone,” the mage whispered. “Look into any pair of eyes, and you might be looking at me. Confess to any ear, and you might be baring your heart to me. Feel the caress of any hand, and you might be mistaking my grasp for love.”
“I could never mistake evil for love.”
Lio had been in the depths of Cassia’s mind. No evil had breached her there. If his Union with her had not been enough to reassure him, Queen Soteira’s healing was. The Annassa had thoroughly examined her after Skleros had drugged her. If the mage of dreams had dared touch Cassia, Annassa Soteira would have found him and driven him out.
“You have come to an inhospitable land for one of your expertise,” Lio said. “You are aware that Hesperines cannot be possessed?”
“Your unnatural union of flesh and spirit defies the laws of magic. It cannot be allowed.”
“Nothing could be more unnatural than your defiance of each person’s innate free Will. I know you care nothing for right and wrong, for nature and law. I begin to think you enjoy this fantasy of Orthros’s destruction because you know Hesperines are the beings you cannot control.”
There came a crack, and fire sprang up in the dry bed of the fountain. The bonfire rushed across the courtyard at Lio. He felt the heat bathe his face.
“Do not think you can teach me a lesson in domination.” Lio braced himself.
The fire caught the hem of his robes.
“Will you stand their like a fool and live out your worst fear?” the mage of dreams asked. “Or will you admit I am in control?”
“You show the limits of your power over me. You are wrong. This is not my worst fear.”
“Not terrifying enough for you? So be it.”
The ground bucked under Lio’s feet and hurled him through the open door of Cassia’s guest room. He staggered, barely catching his balance.
“This is no fantasy,” the Collector said. “It is a demonstration of the future I have in store for you. Everything will turn against you, before I am done with you. Especially Cassia.”
Her room was deserted. The potted roses were dying, and the dressing table was rusted. Shreds of paper lay strewn amid the moth-eaten bedclothes upon the moldering mattress. The treaty.
“Lady Cassia?” Lio shrugged. “I worked with her to pen the treaty, yes, but what is she to me beyond a diplomatic associate?”
“You think your intimate secrets so secure behind the bastions of your mind. Yet human error can topple the most secure fortress. I heard how tenderly she pleaded with you not to duel Skleros. Her urgency that you try diplomacy was not the response of an ‘associate.’ She was protecting you.”
“It took you that long to understand? I thought my demonstration in Martyr’s Pass made it clear I am protecting her.”
“You cannot hope to protect her from me.”
“Underestimating Cassia and me will be your last mistake.”
Lio turned his back on the ruined chamber and went out to the courtyard once more. He pierced his hand with his fangs again and circled the courtyard, making a libation of their blood upon the Sanctuary roses. They revived, just as the rose vines at their shrine had returned to life. He focused on the auras of their roses growing in their residence and stepped.
THE HESPERITE SORCERESS
The ward was notjust around Cassia. It was part of her. She felt each lightning bolt strike it. She braced herself against the pain, and the ward hardened. Thunder rocked the hall. Rain lashed against the ward, and sweat rolled down her skin.
“This is rather dramatic for our taste, is it not?” the Collector mused. “You and I do not favor brute force. I am certain you will appreciate my strategy.”
Cassia heard a footstep behind her and turned halfway. On the other side of the circle, Callen left Perita’s side.
“I’ll protect you, my lady!” He charged past her, drawing his scythe.
“Callen, no! Do you understand me?” She clutched the glyph shard in her bleeding hand and reached for him with her other.
He shook her off and headed toward Chrysanthos.
