Selene stands, walking past me.She pauses, touching my hair casually, in a gesture that’s simply because shecando it.Selene can do whatever she wants to me here, and I don’t have the strength or magic to stop her.
“I need to start thinking about what I’m going to do with you, and all the others,” Selene says.“First Senator Rowan will probably have to die at some point.He has as little give in him as stone, that one.But first, I need him to expend the last of his political capital, so he has no friends by his side when the moment comes.The resistance will be crushed, obviously.Senator Marcus… a part of me was wondering if I should simply take up where you left off and marry him.I’m sure he’d say yes if I asked the right way.”
I groan at that possibility.Selene has enough power to control Marcus if she wants.She could make him her consort, have him stand beside her as she crowns herself empress.
“But perhaps that would be a dangerous move,” Selene says.“Marcus would want to truly rule by my side, and I can’t have that.But maybe I can think ofanothersuitable reward for him.You and the Republic helped me by sweeping away Tiberius and his madness, but now is the time for Aetheria to be remade the way I want it to be.”
“Into a place where those with magic rule over nulls without question,” I say.
“You say that like it’s a bad thing, rather than the only true way Aetheria can work,” Selene replies.“Trying to fight for anything else will only cause pain for you, and for those you care about.”
She stalks from the room, leaving me alone in there as the door slams shut behind me.It’s a stark reminder that Selene is free to do what she wants with Aetheria right now, while I’m helpless to stop her.All I can do is wait down here in the pain, the half-light and the despair, until eventually she decides what my fate is going to be.
CHAPTER TWO
I groan in pain as the guards march me back into the most secure section of the underground prison, locking me back into place in my cell.I curl up into a ball, trying to push back the tears that threaten to fall down my face while Domitian looks on from the other side of the cell.I won’t give my former enemy the satisfaction of seeing me like that.
“It would be easier if you told them more of what they want to hear,” Domitian says.He’s sitting calmly at his side of the cell.
“I won’t betray my friends,” I say.
“Don’t you think Alaric and the rest wouldwantyou to talk if it saves you pain?”Domitian points out.
“Why do you care about saving me any pain?”I ask.
“The philosopher Anumaxis suggests that we must strive to reduce the pain and suffering of the world,” Domitian says.“Of course, Brassa argues that’s a coward’s position, while Polosis suggests that our duty is to rule ourselves so that we don’tshowany of our pain.”
“You’re an expert on philosophy now?”I ask.It seems at odds with the tough former military man I knew before his attempted coup.
“My education was always well rounded,” Domitian says.“My family wanted me to have all the virtues of a proper noble.But there wasn’t much time for such things in the armies of the emperor.”
“Whereas now, you have all the time in the world to sit and think,” I say.
Domitian nods.“Enough to contemplate my actions and the way they led me here, at least.”
I never imagined Domitian would be that self-reflective, but then, I know that all we have down here in the half dark is time.Time in which to think, to talk, maybe to plan.Not that I can think of any plan that might get either of us out of here.
“Is this where you tell me you regret trying to kill me?”I ask.
Domitian shrugs.“It seemed like a necessity at the time.Now, I see that the whole coup was always doomed to failure.”
“It didn’t feel like it at the time,” I say.I groan as I push myself up against the wall.The bruises and welts on my body hurt every time I brush against the stone.“It felt as though you were just a short step or two away from being emperor.”
“It did,” Domitian says, with a note of regret.Is that regret for his actions, or regret that he didn’t succeed?“But now I see that, even if I succeeded, I wouldn’t have lasted long as emperor.Selene would have had me killed soon enough, to make way for her.”
There was a kind of clarity in his voice, an awareness of just how badly flawed his dreams of ruling had been.
“I thought the two of you were allies,” I say.
Domitian sighs.“I thought that, too.I was a fool.Selene Ravenscroft persuaded me she shared my dream of a return to the empire, but I see now she only wanted her own version of it.”
It’s hard for me to sympathize with him when Domitian would happily have seen me and those around me killed so that he could make Aetheria everything it had once been.He wanted a return to the games, the same as Selene.He wanted a society with rulers and slaves, with an emperor above it.The only difference is that Domitian wanted a place where blood, strength and nobility were what mattered, whereas Selene believes magical strength is the main thing that matters.
“Selene was never going to settle for being anything less than emperor,” Domitian says.“You know about her past, of course?”
“I know she wasn’t noble born,” I reply.“I know she attracted the attention of a scholar who saw her talent, and then rose up through her magical power.”
Domitian smiles tightly.“That’s the version she likes to tell people.Selenedoesn’ttalk about how cruel her first teacher was, or how he was found dead shortly after she left.”
