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Despite his innocuous appearance, the hairs along my arms rise. He may look young, but he does have a brutish set to his features that makes me want to avoid his attention.

He crosses the room while the prefect breaks away to take position nearby. It may not matter that Nero does not look like some hero of our empire because he wears his power like a mantle. It’s there in his swagger and his loud, echoing footsteps, in the obstinate set of his jaw and the strange shine of his eyes.

When he gets to us, the emperor barely registers my existence, even as I dip my head. Instead, he openly stares at Memnon.

“A barbarian warlord,” he says with awe. “I’ve heard stories of your kind.”

“Nero,” Agrippina cautions at his side, her expression a great deal more wary.

The emperor looks at his mother, who glances back at the gilded chair behind them. Nero scowls at her until Agrippina casts her eyes to the ground. Even then, he continues to stare at her, his expression growing colder.

“If you like the throne so badly, why don’t you sit at it?” he says to her, his words biting,challenging.

My eyes dart between the two of them as the suddenly tense moment stretches on.

When Agrippina says nothing more, Nero returns his attention to Memnon. “My mother thinks you are a threat,” he says. “And that it’s unbecoming of an emperor to stand so close to a barbarian.

“But I know better. Only a fool would think of attacking me openly.” Nero tilts his head. “Isn’t that right?”

I sense Memnon studying the emperor, and it’s all I can do to not look over at the Sarmatian king.Myking. A thrill runs through me at the thought.

“Indeed,” Memnon says.

Nero turns to his mother, who has only just lifted her head. “See?” he says, gesturing to Memnon. “The man is no fool. Heeven speaks the common tongue.” Nero turns back to us. “Not many brutes do. No wonder you are king.”

There’s a mocking edge to Nero’s words, though I cannot tell if the young ruler is aware of it himself.

His eyes trail up and down Memnon. “I hear you shoot from horseback. You’ll have to give me a demonstration.”

“Nero,” Agrippina again cautions.

The emperor laughs, as though purposefully goading her. “Maybe we can make my mother the target. Then we’d see just how good of a shot you really are.”

The earlier tension in the room ratchets up, and magic sifts out from my palms. Memnon is carefully scrutinizing both mother and son.

“I am not interested in starting a war,” Memnon finally says.

“You would be ending one,” Nero corrects, his casual tone chilling me. His mother’s lack of reaction while her son openly discusses her murder is just as unsettling.

“But you surprise me,” Nero continues. “You rode into Rome armed and dressed for battle, yet you don’t want war? Howveryinteresting.”

Memnon says nothing to that, though to me he admits,I wanted to impress you.

My eyebrows rise, an action that shrewd Agrippina notices, her eyes narrowing and her lips pursing. But Nero is still captivated by Memnon and pays me no mind.

“What is your name?” Nero asks Memnon. The emperor’s eyes keep dropping to his scale mail and perhaps the few scars and tattoos that peek out from beneath his clothing and armor.

“Memnon the Indomitable, ruler of the Sarmatians.”

Memnon the Indomitable?I say across our bond, remembering that he mentioned this title earlier as well. I don’t know if I’m teasing or curious.

Please tell me you’re impressed, he says.

Oh, very.Normally, I’d have a wittier response, but right now, I feel like I’m in the jaws of some great predator, and managing a light tone at all is an effort.

“Well,Memnon the Indomitable,” Nero says, cutting into the silent conversation happening between me and the Sarmatian, “I was told you entered my city uninvited and unannounced with a small contingent of men, then proceeded to enter the house of one of our citizens. Sometime later, you then left it with a woman,” he says. “A woman who, I’m told, was to be married on this very day.”

For the first time since he entered the room, the emperor finally turns and takes me in. His eyes have barely settled on me when Memnon’s indigo magic begins circling around my body protectively.