The guard uttered a stammering reply. When Velia next spoke, her voice sounded quieter, further away. Kallias dared a quick glance and saw that she’d lured the guard a few steps away from the door. Just enough space for him to slip out behind the guard’s back. If he was lucky, if he didn’t make a sound, if the guard didn’t turn his head at the exact wrong moment.
For a moment, fear held him in such a tight grip he couldn’t move. If he were caught sneaking out of the palace, it was all over. He’d never make it out of here again.
Still chattering, Velia allowed the shoulder of her dress to slip down, exposing her collarbone. She hooked a finger beneath thefallen fabric and drew it back up, her finger grazing her skin with languid, sultry slowness.
The guard took a step closer to her, as if drawn by some enchantment.
Kallias forced himself to move, to take a step. He steeled himself, quickened his pace, and then he was out the door, an arm’s length from the enraptured guard. He held his breath and darted down the side of the building, expecting every moment to hear a shout as his flight was noticed.
Kallias didn’t exhale until he was around the corner, cloaked in shadows and fully out of view of the guard. Then he let his breath out in a shuddering rush.
Beneath the pounding of his heart, he could still hear Velia laughing and chatting with the guard. Once he was sure his departure hadn’t been noticed, he slipped down one of the side streets that led toward the ludus.
Velia caught up with him before he made it more than a block. “See? Child’s play.” She grinned with satisfaction.
Residual fear was still coursing through Kallias’s body, but he tried to absorb some of her confidence. “Thank you. That was very, er, effective.”
“Oh, it was fun. Though I was worried I’d be rusty. Ferox requires very little charming these days, you see.” She chuckled.
Kallias interpreted that comment to mean she was in a relationship with Ferox, which explained why he’d seen them in each other’s company in his few visits to the ludus. A match between this effusive, bold woman and the grim, silent ex-gladiator seemed rather incongruous, but Kallias wasn’t one to judge.
That very same ex-gladiator accosted them as soon as they stepped foot within the ludus. “Where have you been?” he demanded of Velia, ignoring Kallias entirely. “At this time of evening? You can’t just disappear like that!”
She stood on her tiptoes and gave him a quick kiss, then gestured at Kallias. “I had to fetch him for Lea.”
For the first time, Ferox looked at Kallias, but his gaze quickly shifted back to Velia. “Did Lea ask that of you? I’m going to have a word with her, I don’t care if she’s injured—”
“She didn’t ask me,” Velia interrupted. “But I knew she’d want to see him.”
Ferox cast a baleful glance at Kallias. “He has two working feet. Surely he didn’t need your assistance to get here.”
“He did, actually. It seems he was being kept in the palace against his will. So it just took a bit of distraction to sneak him out.” She fluttered her eyelashes in an imitation of how she’d enraptured the guard and smiled slyly. “It was almost too easy.”
“We’re going to have a long talk about this,” Ferox muttered, pulling her into his arms. Kallias could tell he was trying very hard to be angry at her, but there was an unmistakable tenderness in the way he held her.
“Oh, I hope it’sverylong.” Velia leaned into his embrace and looped her arms around his neck. Then she glanced back at Kallias, as if she’d only just remembered he was there. “You know how to find Lea’s room?”
“I do,” Kallias said. “Thank you again.” He nodded to them both, then made his way toward the barracks building. His speed increased with each step until he was half-jogging through the narrow corridor inside the building until he reached Lea’s room.
30
KalliasknockedgentlyonLea’s door. Though he longed to burst straight in and wrap his arms around her, he knew she might be resting and didn’t want to startle her. “Lea? It’s me. Kallias.”
A quick rustle of movement sounded from within. “Kallias?” Her voice was breathless.
“Don’t get up,” he called, worried she’d overexert herself. “May I come in?”
The noises of movement ceased. “Yes,” she replied after a moment. Her voice sounded hesitant, almost wary.
He eased the door open and slipped through. The sight of her made bittersweet emotion well in his chest. They’d only been apart a few days, but it felt like months, and simply being in her presence sent a burst of joy through him.
Lea did not seem to share his joy. Her gaze was flat and unwelcoming. She lay on her bed, a white bandage wrapped around her forehead. The ill-tempered cat, Nyx, was curled up on her stomach. He emitted a low, menacing growl as Kallias took a step into the room.
“I see you’ve remembered the way here,” she said, scratching the cat behind his ragged ears.
“Lea, I’m so sorry. I wanted to come, more than anything, but…” In a rush of words, he explained everything: the emperor’s displeasure after his night spent here, Drusilla’s unexpected illness, Sextus’s departure and the note that had just missed her, and finally Velia’s assistance tonight.
Lea listened in pensive silence. When he finished, she exhaled. “I suppose now I can’t strangle you as I’d originally planned,” she said in resignation.
