Mark of the Thief (Mark of the Thief 1)

"I'm part of Horatio's house now, managing servants for the Senate's presiding magistrate. So you can see how much my life has improved from the filthy mines."

"Horatio is filthy too," I said. "Just in a different way."

"The senator pardoned me, after I told him where you were hiding. But to be honest, I'd have told him even without the pardon."

I turned from him and sat down on the single chair in the room. "Go away, Sal. Crawl back underground with the other worms."

He chuckled. "If you knew what Horatio has planned, you would beg the gods to take you right now."

"If I begged the gods to take any life, it wouldn't be mine." With my growing anger, magic coursed through every vein in my body, so much of it that I was terrified of what might happen in this tight space. "I could bring the entire apartment down on our heads right now. I might survive it. You won't."

"Your mother warned me about you!" he said. "I should have believed her."

"Warned you about what?" It had been almost five years since Sal sold my mother, while I'd had this magic for only a few days. She couldn't have warned him about this. When Sal failed to answer, I threw some magic at the wall beside us. A large chunk of concrete tumbled to the ground, not much, but enough to frighten him. "What did she say?" I yelled.

"I hate you," he snarled. "And even more, I hate having a debt to you. You never should've saved me in last week's games."

"And you didn't have to spare my life at the mines. So why are you here now? Not to free me."

"No, of course not." He shrugged. "But since you'll probably die in the arena tomorrow, I thought I owed you an explanation. The day I sent you away from the mines, Livia tried to tell you something about your mother."

"What was that?"

The fingers of his hands pressed together, and then he asked, "Why do you think your mother made you promise to stay together? It wasn't so that you could protect Livia. Nic, she has always been there to protect you."

My mind skipped through the last five years, all the times Livia begged me to not to defy Sal, when she hurried me away if Roman soldiers came through the mines, and how she refused to share any of her memories of our parents. I always thought I needed to keep her safe. It had never occurred to me that I was the one who needed saving.

Seeing my confusion, Sal added, "Your mother never sold you to the mines. She paid me the last of everything she had to take you. After the way your father died, she knew the empire would try to find you."

"Why? It was a lightning storm -- that had nothing to do with the empire."

"During one of Rome's battles with Gaul, your father saw his people were about to be destroyed. He tried to create something known as a Jupiter Stone, which he could've used to defeat Rome."

Valerius had told me about the Jupiter Stone, the most powerful of all the magical amulets. He had also told me that many men had gone to their deaths in the attempt to create one.

"My father had magic?" I asked.

"Not enough, apparently. Done correctly, the Stone is activated in a lightning storm, but your father failed and Rome had its victory in Gaul. Your mother fled with you and your sister, but she knew Rome would come after you too, just as they tried to destroy all of your family. Magic runs strong in some families, and Rome would not rest until they knew you could not become a threat." He grinned. "Which you are."

I wondered if Livia knew all of this. Probably not, but it bothered me that my mother would've held that one secret back from us. If Rome was determined to destroy my family, how could she have believed they wouldn't one day come looking for me?

"We hid for almost two years," I said. "But I thought it was from slavers, not the empire itself. We would've stayed in hiding, but Livia was getting sick."

Sal grimaced, as if having to look at me made him ill. "All I know is that your mother believed you and Livia were safer in the mines. Then she asked me to sell her far enough away that Rome would ignore you. And look what you've done -- made yourself known to the entire empire! It's the last thing she would've wanted."

My breath came in shallow bursts, and the magic swelled again within me. "Where is my mother?" I asked. "Is she still alive?"

He shrugged dismissively. "Whatever happened, it was all her choice. For you, Nic."

"Thank you, then." I hated to force out those words, but they had to be said. Even to him. "Thank you for taking in Livia and me."

"Not a day has passed when I don't regret it." Sal frowned at me. "Well, when I don't regret taking you."

I used enough magic to raise the fallen chunk of concrete, although it turned out to be much heavier than it looked. I stepped forward, trying to hide the strain within me to keep that rock held in midair.

"So this is your magic? Lifting rocks?" He laughed. "That would've been useful at the mines. I am still your master, you know."

Grinning, I said, "Let's test that. Command me not to drop this on you and see if I obey."