“I gave you a chance, Felix. And you threw it back in my face today.”
“How so?”
“Do you deny your part in the Amazon’s victory?”
“Victory sounds like a good thing.”
Blandus Albus crossed his arms. “One of the magistri saw you with her before her match. Did you give her a potion? Tell her about the sword?”
Felix was silent.
“Well? Do you deny it?”
He lifted his chin. “I did not give her a potion.” He was calm. Too calm. “But I do not deny telling her of the sword, nor do I regret my action. Adel has earned you more than your share of profits, and for you to turn on her is despicable. Set her free if you wish her gone, but do not use her like this.”
“Adel?”Jovan faltered, pressing a palm into the desktop in a way that betrayed his shock.
“Use her like what?” Albus sneered. “Like a barbarian slave? That is her lot. I bought her, and she owes me this.”
Adel sucked in a breath.
“She’s earned her slave price a hundred times over and you know it.” Felix narrowed his eyes.
“I lost a fortune today, because of her!” Blandus Albus roared.
“If you have lost a fortune, it is your own fault,” Adel spat. “I did everything you ever asked of me and still you denied the one thing you promised—”
“Know your place, woman, and be silent!” Jovan shouted, spinning on her.
Her whole body went hot with fury. “You said you would make me a magister—”
At this Jovan threw his head back and laughed. “And you were foolish enough to believe it. Look around you.” He threw out a hand as if to offer a view of something other than a male-dominated office. “Have you known a woman to have such a position? If you have believed such nonsense, that is on your own stupid head. Speak again and I’ll have you gagged.”
“You are despic—”
Jovan flicked his wrist and another hand swung around from behind, clamping over her mouth with bruising force and pressing the back of her head against a solid chest. She flailed and kicked, only stilling when a knife flashed, resting against her throat in cold threat.
“Stop.” Felix reached for the knife and was hauled back by the other guards.
“This school is in shambles after today and you are both to blame,” Blandus Albus growled. “I’ll be lucky to recover a tenth of what I lost.”
Felix grunted as the guard wrenched his arms behind his back. “It sounds like you underestimated her skill in the arena.”
“As you underestimate my ability to ensure this ludus is secure.” Blandus Albus settled back, suddenly calm, as if his anger had been snuffed out as easily as a lamp. “Did you think I would not know that you had stolen my fighters from beneath my nose?”
Fear struck the center of Adel’s chest, though Felix merely frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“Do you deny hiring body-bearers to carry out that louse-ridden gladiatrix alive? Two witnesses say the body was breathing.”
“That is impossible. She was dead. I gave you her heart.”
“And yet, I have a witness who says they saw you accepting a pig heart from a monk. Will you deny it?” Blandus Albus asked. “Did you do the same with my Gaul?”
Felix lifted his chin and said nothing, the gesture defiant and not sorry at all.
Jovan erupted like Vesuvius. A quiver, a quake, and then the explosion. “You were an investment, supposed to be a loyal asset to the ludus. Generations of our family have run this ludus and you have betrayed us all—and for what? A barbarian slave?” He rounded the desk and drew back a practiced fist that met Felix’s face in a sickening thud. “Traitor,” Jovan spat. “I told you before, when investments fail, we cut them loose. The curse of Hades fall on you for this treachery.”
“He’ll answer to more than Hades,” Blandus Albus added. “Wait until Emperor Honorius hears of this. You love these slaves so much?” He leveled a glare at Felix. “You can join them.”
