Mark of the Thief (Mark of the Thief 1)

But once I got farther out, I saw her from a distance, lit by starlight. She stood on a narrow road between lines of small, thatched-roof homes, dressed in a long, pale yellow tunic, and with her hair pulled back in braids. Never before had I seen her in such fine clothes. She seemed to be looking around, as if trying to find someone. Maybe me.

"Livia!" I called as I ran toward her. "How did you get here?"

But she didn't answer. And then I came to the right angle to understand why. She was a trick of light, Radulf's plan to pull me outside. Exactly what I had feared, and what Aurelia had warned me about.

"Where is the real Livia?" I yelled. "Why did you take her?"

The trick of light that had been Livia shifted. Her image dissolved, which almost felt like losing her again. But worse still, as she faded, Radulf appeared in her place.

He wasn't really here either, or at least, I didn't think he was. But some part of his consciousness was standing directly in front of me.

"How did you do that?" I asked.

"A trick like this isn't even complicated magic. Wait until you see everything I can do."

"Try it, and then you'll see everything I can do too," I muttered. "Mine is worse." That last part was a lie, one neither of us believed.

He frowned at me. "Why must we fight? It doesn't have to be this way."

"I disagree. I think this is exactly the way things must be."

"Livia is a part of my household now. She says I am like Halden, the father she never knew."

My brows furrowed at the mention of my father. Even if Livia had known his name, he would've been nothing like Radulf. Surely she didn't believe that.

"Your mother could come here as well. You'd have your family back, Nic."

"Nobody knows where my mother is," I said.

"Are you sure? What if I am the only one who does know? What would you trade for that information?" He laughed and reached out one hand. "I see the bulla responding to the moonlight. Give it to me. Now."

It was glowing as brightly as when it had first shone in Crispus's atrium. I wrapped a hand around the bulla and felt its growing burn. "You're not here. You couldn't take it even if I tried to give it to you."

"I'm here enough."

"Nic, who are you talking to?" Aurelia ran up behind me. Crispus was with her.

"Go away!" I shouted back to them. "Please!"

Aurelia pulled out her knife. "Tell me who's here. Is it Radulf?"

So she couldn't see him? Only me. In his arrogance, Radulf smiled and said, "Ah, so you have another friend now? Are you sure you can trust them?"

"More than I'll ever trust you," I shouted.

He only laughed at that. "You're probably right. Though if you can't protect yourself from me, how can you protect them?"

I turned back to Aurelia and Crispus. "Get back inside. Now!"

"Nobody's here, Nic. This is only happening inside your head." Aurelia stepped forward and grabbed my arm, but I shook it off.

Worse still, I noticed that families from the thatch homes had heard the noise and begun to wander outside. If Crispus and Aurelia couldn't see Radulf, then neither could they. All they would see was the boy from the amphitheater, wearing a glowing bulla worth years of their income, yelling at an empty road. Now I was not only dangerous and valuable; I was a madman as well.

"Let's go home." Crispus spoke gently, like I was a child. "All of us together. C'mon, Nic."

But my attention flew back to Radulf, who said, "Two hundred years ago, while Nero was emperor, a great fire destroyed nearly all of Rome. It burned for six days and nights. Some think that Nero started the fire himself, to clear away old homes and make room for his new palace." He paused and looked at the thatch homes around him. Not everyone had come outside. But those who had were pointing at me, no doubt thinking about the reward my capture could give them.

"Do you think that story's true, Nic? Would a leader of Rome, even their hero, really harm his own people to get something he wanted?"