Page 33 of Scorched Earth

The question had slipped out, and while Marcus was tempted to blame exhaustion and his rattled brain for the error, the truth was that he was desperate to know Felix’s state of mind.

Servius was quiet, and that alone made Marcus’s stomach plummet. Yet it fell lower still as his friend said softly, “He had half the legion hunting for you. Refused to believe that you’d desert, especially withQuintus ranting that Teriana would never abandon her people. He was convinced you were in the temple when the floor collapsed and went through the xenthier involuntarily. Was all any of us could do to keep him from ordering an entire century of men after you. But then—”

Servius broke off as the sharp clack of legion-issue sandals against stone filled the building, his gaze going up the hallway.

“I’ll speak to the prisoner now.” Felix stepped in front of Marcus’s cell. “Alone. Take Quintus with you—I’ve no interest in his incessant need to involve himself.”

Servius wavered, appearing ready to argue, but then he slammed a hand against his chest. “Yes, sir.” With no further comments, he disappeared from view.

A lock clicked and hinges creaked, then Quintus was shouting, “She wouldn’t have done it! Wouldn’t have left them! Don’t believe the lies, Felix! No matter what you think of him, Teriana wouldn’t have—”

There was the sound of a fist thudding against flesh, then Servius’s muttered, “Shut your bloody gob, Quintus,” and the thump of the door shutting.

Leaving Marcus and Felix alone, the only sound the rising storm of Thirty-Seventh voices outside the prison calling for his blood.

13MARCUS

Neither of them spoke, the silence stretching, and for Marcus’s part, it was because he didn’t know what to say.

Felix took hold of the bars and leaned his weight against the cell. He wore his old armor, the breastplate scratched and dented in a few places, including across the embossed 37. Given his friend’s commitment to maintaining legion standards, that meant he’d seen recent combat. His fair hair was freshly shorn, but his golden skin was shadowed with exhaustion.

Felix looked him up and down, then slowly exhaled. “Doesn’t look good for you. They’re calling for your blood.”

“That’s not their call,” Marcus answered. “It’syours.”

Felix’s eyes locked on his, then, in a flurry of motion, he let go ofthe bars and slammed his palms against them with a loud bang. Leveling a finger, he said, “Fuck you, Marcus. Don’t you dare dump this on my feet as though I created this mess. You did this.You.”

His tongue was frozen in his mouth, his brain nothing but noise. Though Marcus knew he should say whatever it took to buy himself time for path-hunters to arrive and prove where he’d been, all that came out was, “I’m sorry.”

Felix huffed, then looked away. “Yeah, I bet you are. There’s something about having to beg for your life that makes every man sorry for the choices that got him there.”

“No,” Marcus said. “I’m sorry for what I said to you before I left to go inland. You didn’t deserve any of that from me.”

The silence stretched, the tension between them thickening enough that Marcus struggled to breathe. Then Felix said, “What difference do you think that makes? Do you think any of them care that you said shit to me and now you’re sorry? They’re not angry that you’re an asshole, they’re angry that you deserted. I’d say apologize for that, except we both know that you’d be spitting into the wind.”

Marcus bit the insides of his cheeks, not bothering with denials. “Ashok, the man who was working with Urcon, told Teriana that it was one of my men who’d betrayed her location. Whoever it was wanted to be rid of her, wanted things to go back to the way they were before she joined our camp, and he paid Ashok in gold to do the job. I’d been trying to figure out who the traitor was. Teriana suspected Titus, but I—”

“Thought it was me.” All the color had drained from Felix’s face. “You thought that I’d set up the men guarding her to die, just to get rid of Teriana? Thought that I put the Thirty-Seventh at risk, just to have her killed? Thought that I betrayed my best friend and commander, just because myfucking feelingswere hurt?”

All the reasons, all the justifications, that had once made perfect sense now felt like lunacy. “Yes.”

Felix leaned against the bars, his eyes on the floor, and Marcus’s chest tightened as his best friend’s jaw trembled.

“It was bad enough when I thought you were angry that I was against you and Teriana. Bad enough when I thought you’d chosen her over me.” Felix lifted his face. His eyes were red, gleaming with unshed tears. “Now I wish I could go back to thinking that, because the truth is so much worse.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Stop.” Felix scrubbed his hands over his shorn scalp. “I…”

As Marcus watched, his friend turned his back to the cell, then slid down the bars to sit on the floor, face pressed to his knees. “I hate you for this. I hate you so much.”

Not as much as Marcus hated himself.

His mouth was dry, but he said, “Teriana was gambling with the men while we were in the interior, and one of them had a newly minted gold dragon with Cassius’s likeness on it. It triggered her memory of the coins paid to Ashok by the traitor, which were the same mint.”

Felix went still. “Those weren’t in circulation when we left Celendrial.”

“No, they weren’t,” Marcus replied. “But of a surety, Cassius had access to them.”