I don't use those powers with Marcus, though.He isn't some enemy to be manipulated, and even trying to do it would be a vast breach of the trust between us.It means I must sit with the feeling of his frustration and anger all the way back to his villa, until he, Alaric, and I are safely behind its walls and Alaric lets his disguise fall.
“Were you behind all this?”Marcus asks Alaric.
“Behind what?”Alaric retorts.
"Behind Lyra confronting Olivia," Marcus says."Behind her going into the middle of a crowd of people and effectively denouncing Selene.Behind her, placing all of us in danger."
“We’re already in danger,” I point out.Marcus shouldn’t need reminding of that when assassins have already come to his home once, and when Selene will probably destroy us all if she comes to power.
“But talking to Olivia like that?”Marcus says.“You know, she’s demanding that I punish you publicly for confronting her?”
I shudder at the thought of that.“What are you going to do, Marcus?Shock me again?”
He did it once, when Selene required it, to prove his loyalty to her and save me from a worse punishment.As someone who is technically Marcus' prisoner, I have no rights, no recourse if he chooses to do it.I can still remember the feeling of the lightning dancing through my body, leaving me in agony.
“Of course not,” Marcus says, sounding exasperated.“YouknowI only did that to protect you.”
“And to protect yourself,” I point out.“You wanted to make sure Selene thought you were loyal to her.”
“Exactly!”Marcus says.“And now you’ve made it pretty clear that I’m not.”
“Iwas the one speaking out, not you,” I say.
“And I didn’t do anything to stop you,” Marcus replies.“Olivia will start asking questions about the people I was talking to, and she’ll find out that I was trying to pull them away from Selene.I won’t be able to pretend that I’m on her side any longer.”
“You say that as though it’s a bad thing,” Alaric says.
Marcus rounds on him."Of course, you would think that the best thing to do is stand up openly and wait for the enemy to come at you.Your resistance has always been a thing of protests in the arena or shouting in the street.Some of us focus on the things that work."
“The things that maintain your position,” Alaric says.“Why are you so bothered about Lyra being so obvious in her efforts to argue against Selene?Is it because you’re afraid of what might happen to her, or is it because a part of you still hopes you’ll be able to maintain your position as a senator if we fail and Selene takes power?”
“I’m risking just as much as you,” Marcus says.
“Really?”Alaric shoots back.“Because, as far as I can tell, I’m the one who has to travel the city in disguise.Lyra’s the one who was imprisoned in the worst hellhole the city had to offer.You’ve always been waited on by servants, with senators happy to have gentle conversations and Selene offering you whatever you want.”
“In case you’ve forgotten,” Marcus snaps.“Assassins came to my home.”
But they didn’t do that because Marcus was speaking out against Selene; quite the opposite.Olivia sent them because she was scared Marcus was usurping her position as Selene’s closest ally.
“Stop this, both of you,” I say.“We can’t afford to fight, not now.Selene is getting ready to take the city, and we need to work together if we’re going to stop her.”
That’s easier said than done, though.Selene Ravenscroft isn’t trying to capture the city with an army, like Domitian, or overthrow the government in riots and sudden violence, the way the Republic did with the emperor.She’s trying to take it over with a combination of corruption, magical power, and the simple force of the idea she’s presenting to people: that Aetheria will be great only if those with magical power are in charge.
Alaric and Marcus both hesitate, and I can guess how hard this is for both of them when they don’t like each other at all.They’re working together because the situation requires it, and for no other reason.
Well, perhaps one other reason.They're working together for me, because I'm asking it.Rowan is working hard in the senate, Alaric is providing his resistance fighters, and Marcus is navigating the corrupt politics of the city, all because I'm asking them.I'm the core holding the rest together.
What will happen if I die in the colosseum?
That question hits me out of nowhere.I'm well aware of the possibility of dying in the arena, and have been since the first time I was forced to fight in it, so long ago.But then, I was the only one who suffered if I died.I might lose everything personally, and Aetehria would keep going forward, just as it always had.
Now, if I fall, Marcus and Alaric will pull in different directions.Rowan might be able to coordinate with them, but he certainly won’t be able to get them to work together.The people who want to stop Selene will fight her individually, and they’ll lose.The resistance will be crushed.Marcus will either be sidelined or will find himself pretending to be Selene’s friend so hard that he forgets that it’s an act.Rowan will be ousted from his position in the senate.
So much is riding on what we do in the coming days, and at the heart of it, I need to succeed in the colosseum.
“I’ll play my part,” Alaric says.
“Me too,” Marcus adds, quickly, as though afraid of Alaric outdoing him in this, or anything else.
