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“What?” Cassia said. “How is that possible?”
Queen Soteira gestured from Cassia’s chest to Lio’s. “There seems to be a rare interaction occurring between his bond with you and your condition of being an unawakened Lustra mage. You are not drawing on any other person’s magic in this room, and I doubt you could if you tried. Your aura has fastened onto Lio’s, so to speak.”
No. The magical link between them that had seemed so natural and right was all wrong. She’d taken pleasure in stealing his power. This hunger inside her…was it something that could destroy the one she loved?
“Was any of it Craving?” she asked.
“The grief when you’re apart,” the Queen answered, “the physical need—yes. But drinking his magic? No.”
“What if I weaken him…or deplete him?”
“He has two powerful affinities in eternal supply,” Queen Soteira reassured her. “Since this phenomenon is largely unknown to us, we shall keep an eye on the long-term effects. But Hespera knew what she was doing when she matched you to a powerful Hesperine. Our Lio has enough magic even for a Silvicultrix lacking three affinities.”
And yet, Cassia could not forget Kalos’s awe at the power of the ancient Silvicultrixes. It sounded as if she could channel the magic of the whole world.
Surely sensing her worry, Queen Soteira asked, “Has he experienced any ill effects after you’ve drawn on his power?”
The pleasure it gave him…the way it energized him in return… “It seemed beneficial to him, if anything, but is that hiding the true harm I’ve been causing him?”
“I don’t believe so,” Rudhira answered. “It seems your draw on his magic isn’t hurting him any more than his bite hurts you. Based on what I’m sensing, you’ve formed an arcane symbiosis in which your blood and his magic are a self-sustaining cycle.”
But Lio had asked Cassia for her blood. He had never taken a drop until she had wanted him to with her whole heart.
She had been devouring his magic without them even knowing it. It didn’t matter how much he had enjoyed it. He hadn’t known what she was doing to him and hadn’t agreed to it. He’d had no opportunity to choose.
“Can you make it stop?” she asked the Queen.
Queen Soteira rested a hand on Cassia’s arm. “Even if I could, I would never attempt it. It would do too much harm to you.”
“We have to make it stop until I can speak with him.”
“That is out of the question,” Komnena said.
Apollon nodded. “Lio would never agree to anything that would be dangerous for you.”
“Don’t be silly,” Mak told Cassia. “Of course Lio wants to give you his magic.”
Queen Soteira took Cassia’s hands, her healing flowing into Cassia’s fingers, up her arms, and pooling in her chest where her heart was pounding.
“If not for Lio,” the Queen said, “and this extraordinary way you are able to rely on his magic in place of your own, you would be gravely ill by now. You most likely would not have survived. Do not question this miracle the Goddess has given you.”
Cassia’s ears roared, and her surroundings seemed distant. But she felt Apollon put his arm around her.
“Everything will be all right,” her Grace-father said.
“You give Lio as much as you take.” Rudhira’s words cut through Cassia’s shock. “Right now, he needs your blood to heal. If we wait much longer, he may suffer lasting effects from the magefire.”
Cassia sank down on the couch next to Lio. “Is it safe for me to touch him?”
Her Trial brothers each rested a hand on one of her shoulders. Rudhira nodded, and she took Lio’s undamaged hand.
She bit back a gasp at the sudden strength of the current between them. Her head cleared, her stomach settled, and energy fizzed through her.
“You’re certain I’m not hurting him?” she asked Rudhira.
“Your channeling is not interfering with my healing spells at all.” Rudhira handed Cassia a scalpel. “It will aid my magic if we give him doses of your blood throughout the healing process.”
“Of course.” She held the blade ready.
