"If you don't want a fight, then leave this home. You have no right to be here."
He laughed. "On the contrary, I should have come sooner." He gestured around the atrium. "What terrible crimes this home has concealed. I'm not sure where to begin. Maybe I should start with you, an escaped slave, holding magic that should belong to the empire, or to the gods themselves."
Aurelia stepped forward. "He received it from the gods. The empire has no claim on Nic or his magic."
Brutus ignored her, keeping his gaze fixed on me. "Who purchased your freedom? And who purchased your mother's or sister's?"
"Leave them out of this." The bulla at my chest was warming again.
"Your sister is property of this empire, as are you," Brutus said. "And your mother belongs to me."
With that cue, seven Praetors led my mother out of the room she shared with Livia. One of them held a knife against her side. Beside me, Aurelia let out a quiet gasp and started looking around the room. Looking for a weapon of her own, no doubt.
Magic filled my hand, but I held it in with a tightly clenched fist. There was too much risk of missing my target and hitting my mother instead. "Release her," I muttered.
"Your grandfather allowed her to be sheltered here," Brutus continued. "Even after you stole her from me."
"I won her freedom, in a chariot race where you cheated."
"A chariot race where you lost," Brutus said. "I am justified in arresting your entire family. Especially you."
My eyes narrowed. "You won't succeed with them, and you won't succeed with me."
"Of course I will," Brutus said. "Do you think I didn't feel that explosion behind this home a short while ago? Whatever you were doing back there, it must've cost you a great deal of strength, even with the help of the Malice. Do you think I can't see how much effort you're making just to stand now?"
"I have enough strength to stop you," I said. That was true enough. It was the countless other Praetors here that worried me.
Brutus raised his hands. "I'm not afraid of you."
Aurelia crossed between us, ensuring Brutus could not touch me. "If I had my bow --"
"But you don't," Brutus said. "And if you did try to shoot me while I'm acting in my official capacity as a judge in Rome, that would be yet another crime in Radulf's home." He made a tsk-tsk sound with his tongue and pushed Aurelia out of his way, then moved closer to me. "Stand aside, boy."
I countered with a step away from him, though magic was still building within me. "You will not take anyone from this home."
He arched his neck, looking more confident than I felt. "Radulf has been charged with treason and must appear before the courts. If you continue to defy me, then I will make good on my promise to arrest everyone here."
"Touch any of us, and you'll regret it."
Now Brutus laughed. "Touching you is exactly what I intend to do."
He stretched out a hand. I immediately released enough magic to throw him against the atrium wall, where he cracked the plaster before he fell. Hearing that, a dozen Praetors swarmed in from other parts of Radulf's home, all of them with at least one weapon and with a clear coordinated plan to surround me and Aurelia. My mother was somewhere behind them. I couldn't see her anymore, which bothered me.
"Stay close," I muttered to Aurelia.
"Look behind you!" she cried.
I turned and repelled two men who had been inching forward, their hands outstretched. Then I raised a shield to protect us, though I wouldn't be able to replenish my magic while keeping that shield in place.
"What now?" Aurelia asked.
"I'm going to explode enough of this room to stop these Praetors. That'll drain me, but you'll have the chance to find my mother. Get her out of here, and Radulf, if you can find him. I'll fight with whatever I have left until you can all get away."
She scowled. "I hate all your plans, do you know that?"
By then, Brutus was back on his feet. "Surrender, Nicolas, or else!" My mother let out a cry of pain, and my heart sank. We all understood what "or else" meant.
"Release them!" Crispus shouted as he barged through the door. "Where is your authority to be here, Brutus? Where is the written order?"