Page 60 of Firebird
“If I tell you this, it could jeopardize something very important.” The gold flared even brighter in his eyes, his dragon waking to the danger of the moment.
“Then why do it?” I asked.
“Because I need to earn your trust. So I must give you something valuable.”
“What’s that?”
“My life,” he answered easily, as if it were nothing.
I stared, breathing heavily, and not for the reason I was moments before. He was serious. He was willingly giving me power over his life—or death—in whatever he was about to confess.
Holding his gaze, I commanded confidently, “Then tell me.”
I could feel it in the thread still weaving us together, that what he was about to say would indeed change the balance between us.
“There are a number of Romans, including myself, who are not happy with the regime my uncle and his predecessors have created.”
“And,” I asked, near breathless, “what do you plan to do about it?”
The small flame from the oil lamp on the table glittered in his eyes, his expression softer than usual, more vulnerable. Even so, his dragon watched me carefully. Always watching.
“We plan to kill him.”
I gasped and held very still, unable to move or even blink. He went on.
“But we also know that killing Caesar will not be enough. Every emperor for the past hundred years has been worse than the one before. My uncle is the most insane and vicious of them all by far. Rome has created its own society of degenerate and corrupt leaders. We mean to eliminate all of them and create a new world order. A new Rome.”
I stared without breathing for what felt like forever. When I finallylet out a sharp exhale, I nearly fell forward reaching for the cup of water on the table.
“Here.” Julian managed to stretch an arm across and brace me by the shoulder, then he handed me the water. “Drink.”
I took several gulps, my head spinning while I slowly recovered. He eased back to his side.
“Are you all right?”
I chuckled as I held the cup in both hands in my lap. “That was rather… shocking.”
“I imagine it was.” His expression and voice were both grave and somber.
“You’re serious.”
“I am.”
“Trajan is one of your allies.”
He paused, then said, “I won’t give you the names of my allies. If I’m to risk any life, it will be only mine.”
“Do you mean you think I will report you?” I laughed. “To the emperor?”
He remained quite sober. “You could. If you wanted revenge on me.”
“For what exactly?”
“For killing your adopted clan, the Celts. Enid. For stealing you away to be a slave in my home. Or to avenge your family, whose deaths you could surely lay on my head. It was my people who killed them, and I don’t blame you for hating me for it.”
He was serious. He believed that what he told me might be his doom, that I might turn against him and get him executed. A flash of his sightless eyes staring out from the top of the Wall of Traitors made my blood run cold.
“Julian,” I said quietly, kindly, “I will never turn you in to the emperor or anyone else. I couldn’t.”
