“What have youdone? Alaric is going tohatethis.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
I stand next to Marcus in the forum of Aetheria, smiling and waving at the crowds of ordinary people, but feeling so torn inside that I can barely keep myself standing there.
“Keep smiling,” Marcus whispers to me, making it look like he’s leaned in for some gentle, private moment. “These appearances are important to build public support.”
I understand his strategy, which is to overwhelm Selene’s control of a few individuals within the city with our own wave of popular support. I even suspect it’s working, because there are plenty of people here in the forum, and I can feel their joy and love towards us thanks to my training sessions with Elanar.
Although I feelonepinprick of anger and hate. It’s enough of a warning when a figure stands up, a young man, little more than a boy, hefting a tomato.
“No more emperors! No return to the empire!”
He flings it at Marcus, but I’m fast enough to catch it. I can see a couple of guards already moving to grab him. The crowd is closing in too, and I can feel their anger.
“One of the resistance! Get him!”
I reach for their emotions the way I did with the fight in the courtyard, trying to soothe them and drain away their anger. People start to step back from the young man, and I borrow speed and grace from a cat lounging on a nearby wall to make sure I’m the one to grab him, rather than the guards.
He twists in my grip, grubby and furious looking, but I can feel the fear underneath it all now, the animal flight or fight response that’s far too close to what I would feel in a cornered stray dog.
“Relax,” I say. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
“We should take him,” one of the guards says. “If he’s a member of the resistance, he might be able to tell us more about them.”
I shake my head. I’m not going to let this child be dragged into a cell somewhere, terrified and threatened until he gives the guards information.
“Look at him,” I say. “He’s just a child. Probably this is all a game to him, and he hasn’t done any harm.”
Marcus doesn’t look happy about any of this. Perhaps he knows that this moment is what will be remembered today, rather than him standing serenely, meeting with the people.
“This is just Alaric, trying to disrupt everything I do,” he says.
I sigh, pushing the child back into the crowd.
“Go,” I tell him, and he doesn’t need a second invitation to scamper away. Marcus still looks annoyed.
“Why did you let him go?” he asks.
“Because he’s just a child.”
“Or is it because you don’t want Alaric’s people getting hurt?” Marcus counters.
I sigh. I’ve had enough of this. Marcus and Alaric both want to protect the city in their own ways, but they’re always at one another’s throats. Each clearly hates the other, and I’m caught in the middle.
“I don’t wantanyoneto be hurt,” I say. “Come on. Let’s head back to the palace.”
Marcus nods reluctantly, obviously seeing that his efforts here aren’t going to work now, and we start to head back. Guards flank us, but I don’t feel as safe with them as I should. I have too many memories of being escorted through the streets by the emperor’s guards, and these days, I have no way of knowing whether they’ve have been influenced by Selene.
“I want you to get ready to travel incognito,” I tell Marcus once we arrive.
“Why? What do you have in mind?”
“I need you to trust me on this,” I say. “Please?”
Marcus nods without hesitation. He’s at least willing to do what I ask in situations like this without questioning what I’m going to do next.
What I do, the moment he goes to change, is write a message and attach it to the leg of a passing bird.
