“Since when do you take an interest in arena games?” Imperator Kormac drawled. His golden Laurel of the Arkasva gleamed in the sun, as did the golden border of his black robes, as he made his way down the aisle to my bench. The Bastardmaker and about a dozen more wolves followed behind him.
I jumped to my feet, my pulse pounding as I bowed.
“Your Highness,” I said quickly. “I’m sorry I haven’t seen you in sometime.”
“Not since we heard news from the North,” he said, and gestured for me to sit.
I did, and then he took the seat right beside me.
“Leave us,” he ordered his men.
We were silent as they walked away. Not far. Away enough for us to speak in private. But close enough to remind me of the threat they posed.
“Lord Tristan,” he said, “If I remember correctly, you were never exactly told what would happen to you if you failed to bring me Lady Lyriana and Rhyan Hart.”
I swallowed. “I remember.”
“Well,” Imperator Kormac said, draping his arm across my shoulder. His other hand was on my chest. The touch was, I supposed, friendly enough. Not something that would cause anyone to gawk if they walked by our bench at that moment. And yet, my heart was thundering, sweat beaded at my forehead. Because it was anything but a friendly touch. I had the sudden realization that if he wanted to, he could crush me. Right then and there. It didn’t matter my station, or how much money I could access. If the Imperator turned on you—that was it.
It’s a dangerous thing, my dear, to not have that man on your side.
My grandmother’s warning flashed in my mind.
“You should know,” the Imperator said, “I’ve been watching you since you’ve arrived here.”
Now my heart stopped beating. Watching? How closely? Who was watching me? And when? What could they have seen? My stomach twisted violently and every part of me was hot and cold at once.
My vorakh. The visions. I’d had them again since I’d arrived—the same thing each time. The monster who killed my parents. The promise that my parents would regret what I would become. The evil inside me.
My chest tightened as I waited for him to spell it out. To tell me I was damned—that I was next for Lethea.
But no, no. He couldn’t know. I’d only had two instances. Two visions. One in the shower, and I’d been sure I was alone. The other came in the middle of the night when I was still in bed. I thought it was a dream, until the repeating images came, and the season’s sudden shift into spring did nothing to remove the chill in my bones.
If anything, I’d proven my loyalty to him and to his cause just this morning. It made me sick. I’d had to rush to thebathroom right after, I puked up my guts. But I’d found a vorakh in the Palace, visiting their brother who was competing in the trials. I’d captured them. Had Bellamy and Eric deliver them directly to the Palace prisons before I sent word to Imperator Kormac.
“Watched?” I said, nonchalantly, my pulse thrashing. Galen was in the middle of a Five and expertly doling out punch after punch. “Surely, beyond today’s excitement with the criminal I apprehended, I’ve not been so interesting to observe.”
“You seem to have taken a great interest in these trials,” he said, his tone light and conversational, like he wasn’t threatening me, like my life didn’t lie between his two hands.
“It’s the reason we’re here,” I said. “The Valabellum.”
“Not the reason you’re here,” he snapped. “You could have arrived later, arrived with your betrothed. You came early because you had a job to do. And since that job has shifted, I expected you to pivot. The entire story of Lyriana’s engagement stinks of gryphon-shit. And I expected you to find out more. To party, to schmooze, to find out what’s really happening in the North. Maybe you can’t legally hunt for her in Hart’s lands, but I did not intend for you to make daily trips out to the Katurium, to spend hours in the arena and the soturi apartments. You’ve never done that before. Not even when your girlfriend became a soturion.”
I stared ahead, terrified to make eye contact with him. His hands were still on me, and it was taking all of my focus and energy not to shake.
“N-no. But—” I swallowed roughly, my throat constricting. “But this is a unique event. The place to be it seems.”
“People don’t change. Their interests don’t change. Nor do their habits. I pay attention to such things. You’ve gone years without a shred of interest. Your Ka won’t even employ soturi. You’ve never been one for the games.”
I shrugged, the movement awkward, constricted by his hand tightening on my shoulder. “I’m not exactly one for them now,” I said. “But, like I said, these are unusual circumstances. A grand event in the Emperor’s honor.”
“Are you interested in knowing more about what we discovered as we watched you? It seems there’s someone in the trials of interest to you. Someone you’ve tried to sponsor.”
I stopped breathing. “Hard to know where to place bets when like you said, I’ve never been one for the games.”
“Galen of Ka Scholar,” he said.
My throat bobbed, my entire body still.
