"Nic, please --"
"You would have sacrificed my life to get what you most want. So from now on, I fight for me. Not for your father's sake, or Rome's, and especially not for yours. Good-bye, Aurelia." I bowed low to her. "Or shall I call you Aurelia, of the house of Quintus Horatio?" When I rose up again, I dropped the crepundia at her feet.
I started to walk away, but immediately there came a pounding at the entry. "Senator Valerius!" a voice announced. "Open up for the presiding magistrate of the Roman Senate. We have information that you are harboring a fugitive of the empire. We want the escaped slave, Nicolas Calva."
Aurelia breathed my name, but I wouldn't look at her. "Nic," she said again. "That's Horatio. We can talk to him together."
There was more pounding on the door, and Valerius and Crispus hurried into the atrium. Crispus's face was tense with worry, but I couldn't read Valerius as well. Either he was terrified, or else his heart had stopped working. Possibly both.
"You turned Nic in to him?" Crispus asked Aurelia. "How dare you?"
Her eyes pled with me to believe her. "I didn't, Nic. I swear --"
"Don't!" I shook my head. "Don't say anything else."
"Run out the back," Valerius said.
I wasn't going to run, and it would've been futile if I'd tried. The door opened and in poured Horatio's personal guard, looking similar to Roman soldiers except for Horatio's banner worn on their uniforms. They pushed Aurelia aside, and walked directly toward me.
My hand curled around the bulla, which was currently beneath my tunic. The heat in it worried me. Magic flowed in through my fingers, and up my arm. It wanted a fight.
Horatio glared down at me and no doubt was weighing the odds of how many of his men I could take out before one of them got the bulla. The correct answer: all of them. And I would've released the magic already except I wouldn't put Crispus or Valerius at risk. Or even Aurelia, who stood off to the side with her eyes wide and still full of tears.
Horatio's face twisted as he prepared to speak. "Nicolas Calva, Emperor Tacitus has ordered your execution. I am here to arrest you."
"No," I said.
"No?" He arched an eyebrow. "I'm not asking your permission, slave."
"And I'm not giving it. The emperor and I made an agreement. Once I fulfill it, I will go to him. On my own."
Valerius pushed past me. "Senator Horatio, Nic's magic is stronger than you can imagine. He plans to take the key to the Malice of Mars. If you want to live, you will give it to him."
"Stop this!" Aurelia darted forward. "Nic has not threatened his life, not once." Then she turned to Horatio. "And you will not threaten Nic's life either. He's my friend."
Horatio laughed. "And why should I take orders from a street girl?"
Aurelia bit down on her lip, then held up the crepundia, still in her hand. Visibly trembling, Horatio took it from her and examined the miniatures. When he looked back at Aurelia, there were tears in his eyes.
"Where did you get this?" he asked.
"From you. On the day you exposed me."
He made a sound in his throat and stepped closer to her. "My daughter," he whispered. "I had no idea you were still alive."
"We have much to discuss," Aurelia said. "But first, you must not arrest Nic. He's done nothing wrong."
"Hasn't he?" Any of the sentimentality he'd felt toward Aurelia vanished by the time he remembered me. "Tell me, slave, how did you get the bulla?"
"It doesn't matter how I got it." The magic flared in me again, and I clenched my fists to contain it. "What matters is how I use it."
Horatio nodded his head at Aurelia. "Wait outside, daughter. I wish to bring you home, so we can talk." Aurelia tried to say something to me, but one of his soldiers was already escorting her outside, and I still wouldn't look at her. When she had left, Horatio waved a hand forward for his men. "Burn this house, so other senators may know what happens when they ignore the orders of the emperor. Then arrest anyone who survives."
"No, you won't!" I raised a hand at Horatio. My intention had only been to warn him, but magic burst from me instead and shot him against the wall. Immediately I felt a sting across my back where one of the soldiers struck me with his sword. His cut went deep, too deep. It might've been worse if I hadn't been moving already, but the injury still dropped me flat on the ground.
"Nic!" Crispus ran to my side and rolled me to my back. I gasped with the pain of moving, but he clutched my hand.
"What have you done?" Valerius cried.