Page 102 of Firebird
I noticed Ivo standing behind her and Stefanos beside him, tearspouring silently down his face. Forcing a smile on my face, I told them all, “Julian will find a way. Don’t worry.”
“You just watch yourself, girl,” said Kara, her usual scowl on her face but etched with concern.
“I will.”
I hurried away and out the final corridor onto the street that wound along the finest houses of Palatine Hill. The men waiting for me were the ones I’d cursed, the ones who’d recognized Stefanos for what he was. A pang of fear gripped me hard, but Ciprian’s men, including the big, bearded one who’d manhandled me, seemed almost scared as he handed the reins of the stallion to Ruskus.
“Ivo!” he yelled out.
Ivo hurried out and took the reins, giving me a parting sad smile before he took the horse around to the alley leading into the stable yard.
“This way, girl,” said the bearded one, not touching me this time, and then turned downhill.
The other followed behind as I was escorted to my new home. I walked away with my head high and the sound of something shattering in the house and the sickening roar of an enraged dragon echoing to the skies.
XXX
MALINA
“You’ll have to take that off,” the blond-haired girl told me, pointing to my slave collar with Julian’s name on it.
Her name was Rhea. She said she’d been sold at a very young age and didn’t know where she came from originally, though she thought she looked like many Celts she’d met. She was extremely talkative.
I removed the collar but when Rhea reached out to take it from me, I jerked it back and pressed it to my chest. “I’ll keep it.”
She frowned, then shrugged. “If you want. But don’t let dominussee it. He’s very possessive of his slaves.” Then she added sincerely, “He’ll take it from you if he sees it.”
I didn’t bother telling her that I was not his slave, nor would I ever be any man’s property again. I might be in this infernal house by force, but I had a mission of my own. To find the easiest way to kill Ciprian Seneca.
Staring down at Julian’s name on the tin plate of my collar, I said, “I dare him to even try.”
She giggled. “Feisty little firebird, aren’t you?”
“What?”
“Oh, I meant no offense.”
“No, why did you call me firebird?” I’d wondered for so long and Julian never bothered to tell me.
She shrugged. “It’s just an expression. From that story about Aurelia. The gold dragon.”
“I don’t know the story.”
“How do you not? It’s a common one.”
“I’m from Dacia, not Rome.”
Rhea frowned. “Of course.” She walked to the small chest at the foot of what was my new bed and opened it. “It’s actually a wonderfully tragic romance.”
“Will you tell it to me?”
Rhea smiled, making her pretty face even prettier. I noted the faint bruises on her wrists as she took out a black tunic from the trunk. It was the same kind she was wearing, which was tied with a length of leather as a belt. The material was thin and transparent, her body completely visible beneath it.
“Here, go change into this. Dominus likes us all wearing his color.”
Grinding my teeth, I turned around and began to change, cringing that I would have to wear such a thing. There was no changing screen for privacy. The slave quarters were smaller, darker, and colder, without any windows, vastly different from those in Julian’s house.
“Tell me the story,” I urged her again.
