The crowd's roar grew as we neared the last bend. Aurelia and I released each other to brace ourselves for the tight turn, but we were far enough ahead of the other two chariots that nothing remained to stop us.
Or so I thought, until I heard a cracking sound beneath us. As we straightened out toward the finish line, the ground beneath Callistus collapsed like a ramp into the underworld. We had no choice but to run down with it.
"What's happening?" Aurelia cried.
Before I could reply, she had her answer.
The ramp was raised up again over our heads, and in the sudden blackness beneath the circus, all we had to rely on was dim torches on the walls.
Which revealed the hundreds of Praetors who had been waiting here, their final insurance that I would not win the chariot race.
Win or lose, they had never planned for me to finish.
I immediately raised a shield around me and Aurelia, and then sent out a burst of magic that dropped most of the Praetors to the ground. It shook the earth, and dirt rained down upon us.
"Can you get us out of here?" Aurelia asked.
Truthfully, I wasn't sure. Though I hadn't used magic for myself, I had been using it throughout the race as a protection for Livia. The bulla was working to rebuild my strength from what had been lost while on the track, but I was worried. The magic I'd just sent out should've collapsed the ground, not merely shaken it.
My
next use of magic was to free Aurelia from the chains. Once I had enough magic gathered together, I would disappear with her, though that left Callistus with the Praetors and I hated the thought of that.
Praetors were already unhitching him from the chariot. I continued repelling those who tried, but more took their places. And they were getting closer to Aurelia and me, waiting for my shield to fail, which it eventually would.
I released more magic, aimed at collapsing the ground again. A lot of dirt fell, but then I also felt the shield weaken.
"You need to let yourself heal first," Aurelia said. And I realized that although my arm was around her in a show of protection, really, she was the one still bracing me up. She put her hand on the bulla and pressed it against my chest. I felt its warmth, and that strengthened me but I could not find the Divine Star's magic, which I needed for healing. One of the whips had sliced directly across it, and I supposed in its own way, the Divine Star itself had to heal before I could.
By then, the Praetors had released Callistus from the chariot though he was fighting their attempts to get control of him. I sent magic to help him, and shot out more at other men who were getting close to us again. Then I tried to find Radulf with my mind. He would be directly overhead. Why didn't he come? I regretted what I had told him earlier, that I would no longer call for his help. Because I needed him now, and I didn't know whether he would answer me anymore. Not after the way I had behaved, and the things I had said. Even when he had tried to express concern for me, the most I had done was to stare dumbly back at him. For all my unwillingness to forgive him, I needed his forgiveness now.
"We know the Malice is hidden somewhere in Valerius's field," a Praetor said. "You lost the race, and now you must fulfill your promise!"
"You took me from the race!" I shouted. "You broke the bargain we made. This was not a fair race!"
"When has Rome ever been fair?" That was Brutus, coming through the tunnel with a torch in his hands. I wanted to erase that smirk on his face with an entire ball of magic, but I was saving up what I could for when I'd need it most.
"If nothing is fair, then we never had a bargain," I said. "You can search for the Malice all you want, but you will never find it. By the time you figure out where it was once hidden, I'll have already destroyed it."
"You'd never do it, no more than you'd destroy that bulla around your neck," Brutus said. "Above ground, we have men in the circus on their way right now to grab your sister. Surrender, or she will pay for your stubbornness."
I grinned. "Go get her, then."
"Nic!" Aurelia scolded.
I kept my expression even, hoping it wouldn't show that keeping Livia protected came at a high price to me. Even now, it was wearing my magic far too thin.
"So it's a trick," Brutus said.
It was a very good trick, one I'd have loved to see them discover. I still couldn't do Radulf's trick of fighting in a place where I really wasn't, but I could make it appear that Livia was in the circus when in fact she was nowhere near us.
There was no point in maintaining that illusion any longer, and with a deep breath, I released her image. Keeping it in place for so long had drained me, though I hoped it would prove to be worth it.
Finally, I felt my magic growing again. Even with my injuries and the shield around me and Aurelia, it was growing.
But what I did not expect was for Praetors to grab the axle of the chariot. We jolted forward, and then at once, they lifted it high over their heads, working their way up the axle. Aurelia and I rolled off the chariot and onto the ground with hard thuds.
The shield fell when I landed. I released magic in every direction while I scrambled to raise it again, but with so little light, it was easy for the Praetors to hide in the shadows. I got the shield in place for her, but instantly realized my mistake. Even if it seemed like a selfish thing, I had to protect myself first. I had to, because all that a Praetor had to do was get a single hand on me.