He attempted a grin that probably made him look even more like he needed a latrine. “Yes, well, I’m about to be paraded before tens of thousands in nothing but gold undergarments.”
She bit back a sympathetic smile. “Hold your head high. It is not as embarrassing a sight as you imagine.”
And that made it worse, somehow.
His hands balled into fists at his sides. “I’m sorry it has come to this.”
She lifted her shoulders, a curl sliding forward. “It was always going to come to this.”
The flurry of fighters and magistri increased, nearly drowning out the blast of trumpets announcing the opening ceremony.
The chariot jerked into motion and Felix grabbed for the wall to keep his footing.
He drew in a breath. “You should know, if it doesn’t happen as we hoped—”
“Do not say it, Felix.”
“I must tell you that I—” Their chariot emerged into the brightnessof the arena, amid a roar of shouts. Felix squinted against the dizzying glare and the shock of cold wind.
Adel’s chin tipped up, the sudden uncertainty in her eyes sending a fire through him. “Is—is everything in place? How will we know?”
His oath to do no harm disintegrated like dust beneath the chariot wheels. He’d fight everyone in the stands to keep her safe. And yet, he knew he would not have to. There was more than his strength protecting them. The knowledge tightened his grip on the wall, steadied the thrum of his pulse.
“We don’t. But we trust that right will prevail in the end. It is rarely easy, always costly, but never hopeless.”
She gave the tiniest nod. They were nearly to the center of the arena. Nearly time to enact step one: Win the crowd.
“Ready?” he whispered.
Adel turned to face him, her throat working to swallow. “It is a game, Felix.” Her voice wobbled as her head twitched in the tiniest nod. “Only a part we must play.”
She moved toward him and he reached for her, cupping her face in his hands and drawing her as close as the wall between them would allow. Adel’s pulse pounded beneath his fingertips as he leaned closer and closed the space between them.
“Not to me.”
The erupting cheers of the crowd nearly drowned Adel’s sharp intake of breath as his mouth met hers. If he’d anticipated resistance, stiffness, he did not find it in her response. She reached for him too, a hand on his shoulder, the other tucking around the back of his neck, pulling him closer. Her lips softened first, meeting his with a welcome, an urgency he had not expected. Heady enough to almost drown out the roar of the crowd. Almost.
Hope surged through him, wild with possibility. They could do this. Defy the emperor, end the games. Free the captives.
Adel pressed her forehead to his, breaking the kiss. Her breath was ragged as her eyes rose to his in a look of mingled gratefulness and regret that left him shattered.
It was a look that saidgoodbye.
XXXVIII
THE TRAPPED AIR IN THE HOLDING ROOMwas heavy with nerves and sweat. The morning beast hunts were in full action, and the swelling and receding roar of the crowd above them betrayed the rise and fall of the hunters and animals. Adel paced the length of the cell to the locked door and back. Not a trainer in sight. Where were the monks? The other gladiatrices sat in a line against the wall, waiting with more patience than she was exhibiting.
After the parade, the gladiators had been rushed to the cells in the bowels of the amphitheatre and locked in. True, they wouldn’t be needed for hours, but she’d not considered this locking up, this anxious waiting when they had formed the plan. In her mind it had all been action. Slipping through doorways, dodging guards, running free through darkened tunnels.
Adel paused at the gate, pressed her face to the bars, straining to see up the curved tunnel of cells. No guards in sight. Other faces appeared between the network of bars on other doors. None of them Felix. None of them gladiators she recognized.
Where was everyone?
She pushed away from the gate, her mouth drying as an anxious thrum beat through her body.
“Perhaps the arena side cells are in use this morning,” Berit offered.
Adel nodded. “Yes. I am certain that is it.” Not that the wrong someone had gotten word of their plans and was at work thwarting them. She shook out her arms and stretched.Keep your wits.Harder and harder to accomplish after Felix’s kiss. After seeing him train the last several days, she’d known he would need every bit of support the crowd would give him. It had taken every ounce of willpower to voice the suggestion that would have the best chance of saving his life, elevating him from an unknown nobody to the love of the Amazon. One thing to speak it in the darkness of the cells and another to act on it in daylight before a full arena.
