Page 36 of Firebird (The Fire That Binds #1)

XXXV

JULIAN

I’d been restless all night. Seeing Malina today had only amplified my fear that something could go wrong. Perhaps it was simply that the house was so quiet that had me unsettled. I’d instructed Ruskus to prepare the others to pack. They’d soon be traveling to Trajan’s distant home where they would be safe, where I’d take Malina as soon as it was all done.

Pacing the atrium, I still couldn’t wipe away the dread that sat like a heavy stone in my stomach. I waited for Trajan, who said he’d visit tonight and give me the final details and timing for it all .

There was pounding on my outer door.

“Thank the gods.”

I hurried through the foyer entrance and opened the door, expecting to find my friend on the other side. Instead, there were six armed praetorians, all of them in half-skin.

“Legatus Julianus,” the first one said formally, “Emperor Igniculus commands that you come with us now to the palace.”

There was a coldness in his voice and a flickering of his dragon in his gaze. He was on guard… against me.

My uncle knew. Somehow, he knew.

“Let me dress properly,” I told them, as I was in my loose tunic for bed.

“That isn’t necessary.” He latched onto my forearm, something a praetorian had never done to me. “The emperor would like to see you now .”

Instinct locked in. Without hesitation, I shifted into half-skin and swiped my claws across the first praetorian’s throat. His eyes went wide as blood spurted from his neck. Then the others were on me, clawing and snarling.

Another fell into the melee from behind me. The flash of blue scales and a familiar growl buoyed me. Trajan had leaped into the fight. He must’ve arrived right after they did.

The praetorians had their swords drawn and sliced through the air at me.

“Your uncle wants you alive,” snarled one of the praetorians in garbled speech.

“I’m sure he does,” I snapped back, beating my wings and charging forward.

When he thrust his sword toward my gut, I deflected and bent his arm, driving his blade directly up through his chin and skull, blood spraying my face as I spun to fight the next one.

Trajan had killed another, then twisted again and decapitated a second with his gladius, his blue-spiked tail swiping one of the last two to the ground. Praetorians weren’t as accustomed to battle as we were, and that was our advantage. Too many hours standing around on guard and doing nothing made them no match for us.

The sixth backed away, then flew off into the night toward the palace. Before the one rolling on the ground could get away, I raised an arm, holding my hand outstretched. “Trajan!”

He flipped his gladius through the air. I caught it and stabbed the praetorian on the ground through the heart, the blade crunching through to the paved stone beneath. Then I stood straight, pulling the blade free, panting hard and staring at Trajan.

“So he knows,” said Trajan, his tail twitching behind him, his voice dangerous, eyes ice blue. “How?”

I shook my head. “Doesn’t matter.”

“I’ll get the last one.” Then Trajan was in the air, flying after the praetorian that got away.

Trajan was fast. The praetorian wouldn’t reach the castle before Trajan caught him. I stared down at the mess of bodies, trying to figure out what to do next. If the emperor knew and his men didn’t return, he’d send more or he’d come for me himself.

I turned for the door, needing my gladius, when Ruskus appeared suddenly, breathless and with a dagger in hand. Brave man.

“Dominus, are they all dead?”

“All dead.”

“What do we do with them?”

A sharp jolt pinned me still, like a rope that constricted my chest, my entire body freezing at the jarring of my very soul.

Instantly, I heard her, felt her, screaming into my mind.

Julian! Help me!

“Get the others to Trajan’s house,” I growled.

“Tonight?”

“Now! ”

Then my heart fell while my wings took flight.

Rage and terror dug their talons in deep, swelling my half-skin beast to gargantuan proportions. By the time I reached Ciprian’s outer terrace, I was too large to fit through the archway made for dragons in half-skin.

I charged through the opening, my horns and wings crumbling stone. A bearded human jumped aside at the door. I grabbed his head and ripped it from his spine, then tossed it across the room, blood spraying. I barely noted the other men crying out in fear and fleeing, for my primal gaze was on Ciprian crouched over my mate, who was bent over a sofa, her tunic torn from her back, a trickle of blood sliding down her spine, and a knife in Ciprian’s hand.

My roar shattered glass and shook the ceiling of the home I was about to destroy, along with its master. Ciprian leaped to his feet, bulging and rippling into half-skin. It wouldn’t help him.

“I’m going to rip out your throat and bathe in your blood,” I growled darkly as I stalked across the room.

His eyes widened as he took in my form. My horns scraped the ceiling with each step, crumbling plaster onto the floor. I was beyond half-skin, but not quite dragon—some terrible beast in between.

“So the traitor comes calling,” he bellowed, planting his feet, flexing his muscles, and shedding his torn tunic.

It was him. He had been the one to tell the emperor. All the more reason to destroy him.

“That’s right, Julianus.” He spat my name with disgust, circling behind a table like a coward. “I know about your nightly errands out of the city. And so does the emperor now.”

“I don’t care.” I continued straight for him. I wasn’t going to parry or play games. “I’m going to kill you both.”

“You finally figured it out, did you?”

Ignoring his ploy to distract me, I dug my claws into the table and threw it aside, the wood crashing and cracking against the wall. Ci prian scrambled toward the dining area and hauled Malina to her feet by her hair.

I lunged but he spun and pressed the tip of the blade to her throat. Her torn tunic slid off one shoulder.

She was listless, her eyes dilated, her expression scared and confused. Drugged. I could smell the taint of it on her.

Ciprian laughed while I stared at him, my tail lashing and flinging a chair across the room while I tried to figure out the best way to kill him before he hurt Malina.

“I wish I’d been there when you finally learned the truth.”

I could barely hear his blathering through my intense focus on my mate. Her dazed expression and fumbling to stand distressed me. The dragon was edging hard for my skin. He wanted out.

My focus homed in on where Malina gripped his forearm, her gaze finally finding mine. She curled her fingers tight. I understood, so I entertained Ciprian’s rambling. “The truth about what?”

He backed up, tightening his hold on her. “I suppose that would make any man go traitor.”

I’d stopped stalking closer and locked in place, lengthening my claws, arms at my sides. “What are you talking about?”

“Fratricide, of course.”

I froze, staring at him, trying to make sense of what he was saying. Slowly, slowly, dawning realization chilled my blood. My breathing became more labored.

While I wrapped my mind around what he was confessing, Ciprian belted out a loud, maniacal laugh.

“You didn’t know!” His speech was barely discernible in half-skin, but I could understand well enough. “You didn’t know that your uncle murdered your father. Well, he arranged for it anyway. Your mother too, and everyone in the house. He couldn’t have a slave-loving brother while creating the empire he wanted.” He shrugged, the gesture looking like a twitch in half-skin, his sharp blade still too close to Malina’s throat. “Couldn’t blame him. I’d have done the same.”

My mind reeled and my gut churned while I held myself perfectly still. My uncle was the one to tell me they’d caught the perpetrators and executed them. I’d never questioned it. I’d never suspected him when it made perfect sense. Without my father—another Ignis of equally noble blood—protesting the emperor’s every move, he could control Rome with unchecked dictatorial power. And he had. He’d even controlled me… until now.

“Who did the actual killing… of my family?” I asked, my timbre rumbling with danger.

He laughed again. “That’s the fun part. Take a guess.”

I already knew. It had never made sense, Ciprian’s swift rise within the ranks, when his father had resigned from his legion too soon as a mediocre centurion of no high rank.

“Your father did it.” I bent my neck till it cracked, my voice dropping deeper, my blood running hotter, scorching through my veins. “Your father killed mine.”

“And he was happy to do it. My father was loyal to the new emperor. Unlike you.” He let his blade drift away from her throat ever so slightly as he shifted in thought, distracted. “Why did you betray your own blood?”

“Now, Malina!”

She gripped his forearm and sank her teeth into his skin. Ciprian bellowed and jerked away on reflex. Before he could snatch her back, I was on him .

Malina fell to the side as I shoved Ciprian to the floor and straddled him, my clawed hands wrapping his throat. I bent forward and hissed, “May you rot in the deepest of hells.”

For the first time since I’d known him, there was true fear shining in his demonic eyes, then he was fighting and snarling and growling… and growing .

“Malina!” I bellowed. “Run!”

He was shifting into his dragon. I glanced left to see her crawling to the outer terrace. She couldn’t run.

Then it was too late. My beast wasn’t about to let her go unprotected. He was tearing out of my skin, bones splintering, body and neck elongating, fire blazing deep within as I staggered onto the terrace and became the beast…

Vengeance.

The enemy opens his jaws and snaps. I crave his blood in my mouth, his flesh in my teeth. This demon shall go back to the netherworld. He belongs not on this earth. Not in our skies. He has no right to breathe air.

He hurt our treasure.

She crouches against a tree. Makes herself small and unseen. But I see her. I will protect her. I purr to let her know I am here. She is safe.

I slide my body in front of her and roar at the enemy, then slice my tail down upon the rubble of the enemy’s lair. It crumbles beneath my might. He will do the same.

He roars. He leaps at me, jaws open.

Fool, this lowly demon.

I beat my wings and embed my claws deep into his flesh. The ripeness of blood. I relish the cracking of bones. He whips his head and curls his neck to clamp his jaws onto me.

Too late. I have my teeth in his throat. I rip it from his body, just as he belches fire. The flames burst from his mouth and the hole in his throat I have made. My scales protect me. I toss his head to the side and roar my rage to the skies. My voice shakes the trees and the earth with my power and rage.

I am death incarnate, and the world will know my wrath.

My enemy’s demon spirit is already gone. But my rage needs more. I slice my claws down his body. It twitches in the final throes of death, his tail curling and shaking. Then he is still.

My fury is not sated. I summon the fire in my belly and pour it onto the carcass of the demon who thought to take my treasure. The stench of his burning corpse fills me with sweet pleasure.

Still, it is not enough. I inhale deep and blow a stream of fire into his lair, toppling the roof and incinerating everything within. There will be nothing left of him. Not a stone of his home, not an ash or a bone. I will devour all with my flames.

“Julian!”

My mate stands beside a tree, completely bare, her slender body lit by my firelight. She is weary. She is weak. She needs protection.

A whiff on the wind brings my attention to other dragons nearby. I should kill the uncle. I should not let him live for what he’s done to me and mine.

“Julian.” A low whisper, a soft plea.

My treasure. My mate.

I must protect her. We will go.