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“I’ve driven the magefire out of his veins so it can’t do further harm. He is stable. But repairing the damage will take time and careful work, especially on his jaw and fangs.” Rudhira drew a glass tube from the red healer’s satchel at his side.
That made Cassia realize how bad the damage really was. Lio couldn’t swallow, much less bite.
Rudhira grimaced. “Magefire is one of the few things that can leave Hesperines with long-term injuries. Fortunately I got to him immediately.”
Queen Soteira nodded. “Magefire wounds are Ioustin’s specialty. Lio is in the best of hands.”
“But it would be wrong of me to promise a perfect outcome,” Rudhira said. “It depends on what damage I find as we go deeper.”
“How long is long term?” Cassia asked.
“At best, weeks before his jaw is able to properly engage during the drink. In more severe cases, I have seen it take years.”
Cassia’s hand clenched around the handle of the scalpel. She trailed her other fingers gently over Lio’s hand.
Years.
“It doesn’t matter how long it takes,” she swore. “I will be with him every step of the way.”
92
Days Until
AUTUMN EQUINOX
7 Anthros’s Sword, 1597 OT
BURNING SILK
Somewhere in Tenebra, it was dawn again. Cassia could not bring herself to care what chaos the lords might cause. Not while she sat here in the coffee room with polar night outside the door, and her Grace’s head in her lap.
Although Lio now slept peacefully, her heart had not stopped racing. She kept her arm around her Grace like a shield, holding a fistful of his veil hours robe. Cassia brushed her fingers along the pale, smooth skin of his jaw, now beardless, compliments of her sister’s fist.
Goddess, how had it come to this?
Mak had urged her to let Solia explain, but Cassia didn’t want explanations. Even an apology would be too little, too late.
Solia had gone too far. Cassia would never allow her to hurt Lio again.
Cassia’s fury felt like some primal beast that knew no reason, ready to tear out of her and rampage in defense of her Grace. The magic flowing into her from Lio only seemed to galvanize her anger.
But what a hypocrite she was, to feel this need to protect him, when she had been stealing his magic all along.
Her sister’s footfall at the door announced her arrival. Cassia lifted her gaze from Lio. Solia stood on the threshold, once again wearing her Imperial attire, golden scarf, and mask of discipline.
“Mak suggested now might be a good time for us to talk,” Solia said.
When Cassia did not tell her to get out, Solia entered. She took a seat on a floor cushion across the coffee table as if adders might await her amid the tassels.
“Can he bite?” she asked.
Cassia unclenched her teeth. “We’ll know when he wakes.”
Solia rubbed her face. “Words are insufficient, but I want you to know how sorry I am.”
Cassia searched her sister’s face, recalling the anger in Solia’s gaze every time she looked at Lio, but also the tenderness she had shown Cassia all her life. “I thought you cared about me more than anyone in the world. I thought you would care about Lio for my sake, at least, even if you can’t see how deserving he is of your love in his own right. Why do you hate him?”
“Cassia, I don’t. I wouldn’t deliberately attack any Hesperine with my magic. And I would never hurt someone you love. Lio let me hit him.”
