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“We’ll get you home safely,” Mak promised.
“I’ll lead you out. Come with me.” Kalos beckoned.
Lio followed the scout with Mak and Lyros’s wards surrounding them. Kalos raced through the garden gate and through the kitchens, where Agata was taking another batch of tarts out of her oven, singing a Tenebran lullaby.
They emerged among the skeletal trees of what had once been the apple orchard, where three more Gift Collectors waited. Their crossbow bolts ricocheted off of Mak and Lyros’s wards. More near-immortal enemies, standing between them and safety, slowing them down while Cassia’s life slipped away.
Mak and Lyros darted forward, but before they reached the necromancers, the Gift Collectors went up in flames. They staggered to the side to reveal Solia standing between the trees, her elegant skirts smeared with blood and ash, her sword in hand. Knight was at her side, snarling like the Lustra beneath their feet.
Over the Gift Collectors’ screams, Solia called, “Leave them to burn.”
Lio heaved a sigh of relief and raced toward her.
With her magefire and Knight’s snapping jaws, his Trial brothers’ wards and Kalos’s guidance, they fought their way through Castra Paradum. They left maimed Gift Collectors behind and dodged the undead archers on the walls. Miranda’s bloodless servants cowered in corners, and the undead horses in the stables whinnied in fear.
At a postern in the outer bailey, Solia blasted through the door with another fireball. Mak and Lyros tore the warped iron and wood away to clear the exit. They followed Lio through, and Solia collapsed the door behind them.
Beyond the castle walls, the fields were strangely peaceful. Solia brushed Cassia’s hair back from her forehead with a sooty hand.
“Your Majesty,” Lio said, “you left your siege for your sister.”
“I was her sister first. What happened here, Lio?”
“The letting site is broken,” Kalos said. “I’ve never felt anything like it. Something evil happened here.”
“Can we take her to another one?” Solia demanded, as if she longed to shake her fist at the gods or burn a hole in the laws of the world.
“She doesn’t have time for us to find it. She’s…” Lio didn’t want to say the word, but they deserved to know. “She’s dying. I failed her.”
“No, Lio.” Mak put a bracing hand on his shoulder. “You’re the one who can save her.”
“Get her home,” Lyros said.
“She won’t have her magic.” Lio’s voice broke.
Solia touched his face. “She’ll have her fangs. This is your fifth labor, Lio. Give my sister the Gift. It’s what she would want. And for what it’s worth, you have my blessing.”
“That is worth more than you know, Grace-Sister.”
“Tell her I never wanted to send her away. But you two are so selfless, I knew you wouldn’t go to the letting site if I asked. I had to drive you off. Tell her I want her at my side always…forever.”
That word forever hung in the air between them, daring him to hope. “I’ll make sure she knows.”
Solia let them go. “We will stay and fight.”
“Stay safe,” Lio said, his throat tight. “She’ll want to show you her new fangs.”
But he knew the greatest challenge was still before them. Her transformation. Lio cradled Cassia against his chest and stepped them away from Tenebra.
GIFT NIGHTS
33 Eidon, 1597 IS
PARTAKING
The Ritual Circle of House Komnena pulled Lio home. When he felt the power of their bloodline under his feet again, he slid to his knees. Blood still dripped from some injury on him, making a libation on the marble mosaic of Hespera’s rose.
Goddess, let Cassia survive.
