Page 46

54 AD, Rome, Roman Empire

The sun has setby the time our group returns to Nero’s palace, this time with a panther in tow. Without a doubt, today has been the longest, strangest, most wondrous day of my life.

So when I cross the threshold into that red room, my feet barely hold me up. The panther is at my side, his stomach a little more filled out since we got him food and water.

It ended up being fairly easy to feed the big cat and bring him back here, all thanks to Memnon’s ability to alter minds. I owe him an apology, for being quick to judge and condemn, but when I turn to do so, I find my husband lingering in the doorway of our room, murmuring with his men.

Facing forward again, I take in the bed, my breath catching when I remember Livia’s few stilted words this morning about what married men and women do in beds. I still have only the most rudimentary idea of whatthatis, but the idea of doing anything with Memnon in a bed has me burning with nervous anticipation.

“Do Roman beds have teeth?” Memnon says at my back.

I blink, glancing over at him. “What?”

Memnon’s men are gone, and my husband leans against the doorway, watching me with an amused expression.

“You’re looking at the bed like it’s going to devour you,” he says, “so I wanted to know if it has teeth.”

I laugh nervously. “No, it’s just…” I take a deep breath, forcing the rest of the words out. “It’s just that I don’t know what you expect of me.”

He raises his eyebrows, but his eyes gentle. “Roxi,” Memnon says, his voice lowering. He doesn’t try to come any closer. “I don’t haveanyexpectations of you. Take the bed. I will sleep on the floor as I have done so for the past weeks. There isnothingI expect of you.”

I swallow, even as warmth blooms in the pit of my stomach.

I give my head a shake. “I don’t want that.” Not at all. Taking a deep breath, I force my deepest truth out. “I want…you, Memnon. All of you, just as you promised in your vows today. And that includes whatever happens in beds.” Maybe especially that.

I can feel Memnon’s heavy, heated gaze on me and the deep thrill that runs through him at my words. It doesn’t stop my own cheeks from heating at my admission.

Clearing my throat, I pull a blanket from the bed and arrange a makeshift pallet for the panther, studiously avoiding looking back at Memnon. Instead I distract myself by imagining Livia’s scandalized horror at my using one of the emperor’s finely woven blankets to warm a man-eating beast. I smile a little at the thought. A man-eating beast will sleep on the emperor’s linens…while I sleep with a barbarian. She would choke on her own judgment.

The panther prowls onto the embroidered blanket, and he—and he’s definitely ahe—plops down on it.

I kneel in front of the great cat, admiring his beauty, and I reach out and stroke him. The panther closes his eyes, and I swear he smiles.

“I don’t understand any of this,” I whisper, “but I am glad we found each other.”

I realize then that Memnon has still not fully entered our chamber. I glance over my shoulder and see him at the threshold of our room, staring out into the empty hallway.

Uncertainty grips me as he stands there.

Was that last conversation off-putting? Is he now second-guessing us? Maybe he’s realizing after two months of journeying that this was a remarkably bad idea. Maybe?—

Maybe I am simply protecting us, little witch, and I have absolutely no regrets at all.Memnon glances over his shoulder at me, a soft smile pulling at his lips as magic unspools from his hands. He turns back to the doorway and begins to murmur, and his billowing magic fills up the space.

“What are you doing?” I ask, fascinated.

“Warding the doorway,” he says.

“What is…warring?” I’ve never heard of such a thing.

“Warding,”Memnon corrects as his magic thins out, molding into a nearly translucent film. “It’s a protective spell meant to guard against harm. I’m setting one up here in our doorway so that no can ambush us in the night.”

Ourdoorway. A thrill runs through me at the reminder.

“Do you think that will happen?” I ask, concerned.

“Not with this, I don’t.”

I swallow at what he doesn’t say: that in the world of kings and emperors, assassins lie in wait.