His eyes slid closed, the pain still present as he dragged me into his arms, bending over me, his mouth at my temple.
“Don’t make me do it, Lela. Don’t make me put you in danger. I couldn’t bear it if anything happened to you.”
“That’s the problem now, isn’t it?”
“What is?” He pressed a kiss to the crown of my head before meeting my gaze again.
“I can’t bear it either. But together, we can protect each other.”
He wasn’t convinced, fear still etched into his brow.
“This war isn’t just for you and your kind. It’s for me and mine as well. It’s for my mother, my father, my grandmother, Jardani. It’s forFausta. And every innocent who has lost so much under the brutal fist of Igniculus.”
“You’re asking too much of me,” he whispered.
“Even so, you will take me,” I demanded. “I’m not the scared slave girl you met in the temple, Trajan. I killed the man who held me captive. I tamed guards with my magic. I killed those who murdered Fausta.”
I reached up and cupped his face, the bristles of his beard a familiar comfort. “I gave my trust to you, and you know how hard that was for me. After what I’ve been through.”
He winced, but he needed to hear it.
“Now you must trust in me.” I smiled, smoothing my thumb across his pinched brow. “It’s for us too,” I whispered, “if we are to ever have a future together. You said so yourself, didn’t you? We must topple Rome and build it anew if you are to marry the one you love.”
He nodded, staring in hopeful wonder. “I did.”
“Then let us topple it together, Trajan.” I wrapped a hand at his nape. “Lean on me as I have leaned on you. Let me be who I was born to be, a bloodsinger witch who can kill with a word. Believe in me as I believe in you and I promise, we will not fail.” I shrugged as I pulled his head down to me and whispered against his lips, “And if we die, at least we die together, and that is what I choose. To die fighting alongside my soulmate.”
He buried his face against my neck and held me close. I held him back for a long, long time. I suppose we were both in disbelief, for I hadn’t allowed myself to believe I could love again. And it seemed he couldn’t allow himself to believe I could ever lovehimif I did.
But Euphemia had been right more than once. Jardani was the soulmate of who I’d been before the Romans came.
“I feel like I’ve been three people in my lifetime,” I murmured against his shoulder.
“How is that, my love?” He brushed a hand from the top of my head down my hair falling at my back.
“I was the innocent woman betrothed to the village boy back in Dacia. Then I was the slave woman used by the cruel master in Rome. And now…”
He pulled back, his palm cradling the back of my head. “And now?”
“Now, I am the free woman who loves a Roman dragon and fights alongside him. I am who I was destined to be.”
His eyes sparked ethereal blue, his beast watching me alongside the man, then he leaned down and gave me a gentle kiss. He lingered, brushing his lips against mine, tasting me sweetly but never deepening it. Finally, he broke away and stepped back, taking my hand.
“Come. Let us get ready for bed. We’ll need rest for the days ahead. We’ll need to leave tomorrow for Rome.”
XXIXTRAJAN
“I wish we could’ve had more time with her before we left.” Lela stood next to me on theMercury’s deck, both of us watching the lights of Rome growing closer and bigger as we sailed up the Tiber.
We had only been able to rest in Britannia for one day before we had to leave. Lela and Malina had spent the entirety of that day in each other’s company. They walked with the sheep out into the field, played with Stefanos and his dog Amica, laughed in a corner whilehelping Kara with the evening meal. I’d never seen Lela look so incredibly happy. I’d even begged her one last time to remain with her sister. But she had stubbornly refused.
“You’ll be with her again. I promise.” If I had to die to keep that promise, I would.
We could hear the city’s revels as we entered the harbor, theMercurysliding silently along the Tiber’s surface. High above us, there were at least a dozen deathriders circling the moonlit night sky.
It wasn’t surprising that we’d found theMercurydocked on the northern shores of Italia where we’d last left it. They’d dumped their cargo and were restocking for the return to Rome. It took no convincing at all to get them to smuggle us back into the city.
We’d sailed nonstop, arriving right after dusk. Dressed in the clothes of plebs and hooded cloaks, we decided it would be easier to blend in commoner garb.
