Page 37 of Firebird
“We all need to meet to devise the final plan,” Trajan was saying, his blue eyes glinting with a flare of his dragon. “There can be no confusion on what each person’s role will be. Just let me know when to arrange the meeting.”
I gave a stiff nod. “Soon.”
Then I strode away. Jovan brought Volkan out quickly. I swung up and galloped away, needing the wind on my face, needing to scrape that foul place from my soul. It wasn’t enough. It never was.
As I trotted into the courtyard, a candle burned through Ivo’s window in his little room where he preferred to stay near the horses. He stepped out as I dismounted and took Volkan from me.
“Thank you, Ivo.”
Normally, I’d take care of him myself after a late-night party, but I needed a bath. Now. Even a cold one.
Even so, I couldn’t help myself, diverting my path through the house toward the servants’ quarters. Slowly, I inched her door open.
The moon shone through her open window, bathing her beautifulface, shining on the black tresses of her hair. The crescent shape of her dark lashes, her full mouth relaxed, the slightly upward slope of her nose—everything about her was both like a balm to my soul and an ache on my heart.
I couldn’t imagine how those jade-green eyes would look at me if she’d been there tonight, if she’d watched me sit idly by.
Quietly, I walked to the window and closed the shutters, locking them. I had an insane need to haul her to my bedchamber. To have her near me so I could protect her.
What I should do is shed my human skin and carry her away to the farthest point from Rome. Somewhere she might have a chance at being safe, in a life far from me.
An instant burn erupted in my core. The beast raised his head, a feral growl rumbling in my chest. Then I heard him.
Never.
The single word vibrated through my bones and echoed through my soul.
Pulling her door shut, I exhaled a breath I’d been holding and marched toward my bedchamber.
He was right, of course. I could no more part with her than I could shove my blade through my own heart. Not when the gods had given her to me, not when she was designed to be mine.
A distant whisper floated to the surface, reminding me why I could never part with her:
Treasure.
I walked to my terrace and stared toward the palace, where torchlight shined bright, where Romans wallowed in licentiousness, where my uncle, the emperor, luxuriated in his corrupt power.
There was nothing to be done, then, except to move forward with our plan and to somehow not die in the process. I didn’t mind dying for the cause before, but now there washer.
My loyalties had shifted the second I saw her on the Celticbattlefield—bloody and terrified, defending herself against that filth in half-skin. My cold heart was engulfed in flame, and there was nothing I could do to stop the wheels Lady Fortuna spun for me.
For us.
That night in Dacia four years ago, I was newly appointed centurion by my uncle, who I’d known was not a good man. I’d left our camp with three of my trusted men that night only to get away from this oppressive feeling that I was on a path of my uncle’s choosing and there was nothing I could do to escape from him or his appalling plans for Rome. There was a constant pall of gloom pressing down on me.
Then, unexpectedly, I’d watched this young, beautiful woman dance with fire in her heart and defiance in her eyes as she looked upon me, an enemy. For our brief encounter, she’d given me hope.
As I watched her, an inner voice, not my dragon’s, had nudged me to give her the gold coin. Whether it was the gods guiding me or my own intuition, I believed that I owed her for what she’d given me that night. It wasn’t simply a dance, but an unexpected courage to walk my new path. If she could look upon a dragon with such fearlessness, knowing I had the power to kill her and her entire clan, then I could summon the same to face my own future beneath my uncle’s power.
That was why I’d paid her with such a precious coin that had been so dear, never knowing it would one day guide her right back to me.
I bowed my head and prayed to the gods who would listen that we weren’t both now doomed together.
IX
MALINA
“Why can’t she just use the mill in town?” I asked as I turned the quernstone around and around, grinding the grain.
