Page 72 of Cleopatra

My guards stood behind me and I glanced at them.

Charmion raised an eyebrow. “What are you going to do? Have them bind me in chains? Or go straight for the throat?”

My hand went to my own neck where the ivory blade still lay. Charmion flinched as my hand went to her cheek. But I did not strike her. My fingers trailed the puckered scar that adorned her face.

“I’m sorry,” I said, my voice catching. “I would never…I could never—”

“I know.” She leaned into my touch and let out a ragged breath.

“I feel lost without him,” I admitted.

“I will not let you lose yourself. Not today, not tomorrow.” She pressed her three fingers to her lips.

Charmion was always the best of women. And the best of men.

She stayed with me until the moon hung in the sky. She held me when the last ship came back without Caesar.

“We need to send out another search party,” I mumbled. My lips were chapped from the sea winds.

Charmion relayed my request. I sensed my court were wary of coming too close to me. I must have cut a tragic sight. My throne had sunk into the wet sand, so that I slouched to the left. My discarded food and drink sat around me. The cloak I wore was parted in the middle to release the tension around my stomach. I knew my eyes would have turned red from the stinging breeze.

“They can’t, not tonight,” Charmion said upon her return. “It’s too dark. It will have to wait until morning.”

“No, they must—”

Shouting interrupted my pleas.

“The east,” Charmion said, identifying where the guards were calling from.

I was up and running faster than anyone would have thought possible. I ran as though I were a lion freed from a cage.

Four soldiers stood in a rocky alcove. Two were crouched low, peering into the shallows. One of them pointed as I reached them. “Pharaoh, someone approaches.”

It took me a moment to notice the shape beneath the waters. A shadow—too large to be a fish—carved through the waves.

My stomach lurched and the babe fluttered within. “Theos?” For who else could part the waves so gracefully?

But it wasn’t my brother. The curls matted to the swimmer’s head were streaked with silver moonlight.

“Julius!”

He crawled onto the rocks, his chest heaving. In his hands he held a scroll, the details of which were entirely sodden.

I ran to his side. “I knew you were not dead. I knew it.”

He smiled faintly as he collapsed backwards onto the beach. He thrust the wet scroll towards me.

“What is this?” I asked.

“The details of the convoys. I knew you’d be vexed with me if I didn’t save it.”

I laughed, then I cried, my cheek pressing against his drenched clothing.

—

I refused to let Caesar return to the frontline for three days. In that time we discussed what Egypt would look like once Theos and Arsinoe were dispatched.

“Half of your courtiers are ready to return to your court; they have become disillusioned by the rebellion,” Caesar said. “But Cleopatra, your reputation remains damaged.”