Page 43 of Firebird
“I…”
His attention was fierce and intense. I couldn’t hold his gaze, nor could I answer him. Standing, I pulled the aureus from beneath my tunic and held it as I walked to the terrace banister overlooking Rome. The light was fading, dots of yellow torches and oil lamps lighting up the homes and taverns below.
I felt him standing behind me. “Tell me of the other part.” His voice was silky dark, sweeping over my skin in an intimate caress.
When I didn’t speak, he gently turned me to face him, one hand on my shoulder. I held the aureus tight in my fist, a pulse beating there. Fora moment, I wondered if it originated from the coin or if it was simply my own heart beating wildly in my palm. He lifted my chin with a finger.
I inhaled at the tether drawing tight, the connection my magic strengthened at his touch.
“Tell me,” he urged.
I shook my head. “I can’t.”
I couldn’t admit that I was wholly attracted to the Roman who’d enslaved me, who spent his life killing and enslaving others to grow an empire of malevolence and malice. The very thought made bile rise up my throat, and yet, I couldn’t resist the powerful need to be near him, to draw him nearer.
I suppose that’s why I didn’t move, barely breathed, when his large hand cupped my jaw, the pads of his fingers sliding into my hair.
“Shall I tell you?”
I kept silent, a war of morals churning in my breast.
He swept his thumb across my cheek. “I’ll tell you since you’re too coward to admit it.” His hand on my shoulder slid to the side of my neck, and it felt heavenly. “You kept this coin, because it tied you to me. The gods had bound us together. Your gods, mine, it doesn’t matter.” His thumb continued to sweep, stroking sweetly. “I never thought to see you again either. But I’d never forgotten you. Do you know there were so many nights I lay alone in my tent in some foreign part of the world, feeling disconnected from everyone and everything in my life? When I felt the absolute loneliest, you would visit me.”
He chuckled at my shocked expression, continuing to hold and stroke my face softly.
“I’d see my firebird dancing across that stage. I should’ve known that night that you held magic inside of you. You bewitched me with that first glance. I’d wonder where you were in the world. Who you were dancing for. Who had the privilege to watch you.”
“My dancing days ended long ago,” I told him. When the Romans had invaded my village and killed everyone I loved.
“I hope that’s not true.” His thumb brushed close to the corner of my mouth. His gaze dropped there, his expression soft and yearning. “I hope you’ll dance once more. For me.”
Then the pad of his thumb swept over my bottom lip. He wanted to kiss me. I couldfeelit. If I allowed that, it would be a betrayal to everything I was. It would be a betrayal to my family, long buried in their cold graves. His burning gaze swept over my face, then he let me go and stepped back suddenly.
While I caught my breath, Ruskus entered the terrace carrying a scroll of parchment. Julian must’ve heard him coming. Dragon senses, of course.
“Excuse me, dominus.” Ruskus limped closer, his wobbly gait much more pronounced in the afternoon. “This just came for you.”
Julian stepped aside and unrolled the parchment. He read it quickly. There was a pinch between his brow when he turned. “That will be all, Ruskus.”
He nodded a bow, then left, never even glancing in my direction. I wondered what he and Kara thought of me, eating with the master. Probably that I was sleeping with him as well. A stab of guilt darkened my mood when Julian turned to me.
“What news?” I couldn’t help but ask. He’d given me permission to ask my questions and now I couldn’t seem to stop.
“War.”
My stomach twisted. “Where?”
“Barbarians are attacking Roman provinces in Moesia.”
“That’s not far from Dacia…” I heard my voice trail off, remembering how I’d fled west toward Gaul rather than south toward Moesia when I’d escaped the Roman attack on our village.
“It’s in the southern region close to the Thracian border.” He stood closer.
I snapped my head back to him, my thoughts having wandered quickly. “When do you leave?”
“Three days.” He crumbled the scroll in one hand. “I have a mind to take you with me.”
“Why would I go?”
