Page 98 of Scorched Earth

“You all right?” Nic moved as far as the chain would allow him and reached down to pull her upright. His face was unmoved, but she didn’t fail to notice that his palm was slick with sweat. Off to the right, one of the boys was puking, several others sitting pale-faced in the dirt, barely seeming to hear the congratulations ringing in the air as they warred with unspent adrenaline.

“Well done,” Marcus said to them all, the manacle still locked around his ankle. “You kept your nerve, which means you live another day. And I don’t have to piss blood for a week, for which I am profoundly grateful.”

Shehadn’t kept her nerve.

“Back to drills!”

The legionnaires all returned to what they’d been doing under Servius’s command, leaving her alone with Marcus and Nic.

“There are plans in play,” Marcus said to the younger legatus. “But if you wish to be privy to them, I have to be able to trust that you’ll keep my confidence. Lives are at stake, and loose lips might cost them. Earn my trust and you will be brought into the fold. Understood?”

“Yes, sir.” Nic saluted sharply. Catching the keys Gibzen tossed him, he unlocked the manacle, then the one around Marcus’s ankle before he straightened. “Thank you, sir.”

Teriana was certain Marcus would leave then. Would walk away, because it felt like every interaction caused the gulf between them to widen. Instead, as the manacle fell from his ankle, Marcus approached her.

“It is going to be hard,” he said so softly that none of the others would be able to hear, though they were surely trying. “Violent. Ugly. And you won’t be the same after it’s over. Do you still want to go through with it?”

“Will you win my people free?”

“Yes.” There was no arrogance in his voice, no vaingloriousness. Just utter certainty.

“Then do it,” she whispered.

Marcus’s eyes searched hers for a long moment, then he took her hand and uncurled her palm. The hair ornament had dug deep into her flesh, her sweat tinged with blood, but he picked it up without comment. Though hundreds, no,thousandsof legionnaires watched on, he unwove one of the braids nearest to her face and strung the bead on her hair.

Her body trembled as he swiftly rebraided it, knotted the end, and stepped back. Showing not a care for the thousands of eyes judging the exchange.

Marcus had not lost his nerve.

Far from it.

“One last thing.” His voice was low, and Teriana couldn’t help but sway closer to him, anticipation burning in her chest as he said, “Make sure you do a good job. Servius will inspect after you’re finished, and it will need to be up to Thirty-Seventh standards.”

Her jaw dropped. “You aren’t serious? I’m not cleaning that mess.”

“Fair is fair.” He scrubbed a hand over freshly cut hair, surveying the training men before he met her gaze again. “I’ve requested theThirty-First legion be sent to reinforce us. When they arrive, I’ll invade Gamdesh.”

Teriana’s heart lurched.Oh gods, it’s happening.

Marcus turned to walk away, but then paused and said, “Teriana, next time, don’t break.”

35KILLIAN

“If there is one good takeaway from this disastrous turn of events,” Agrippa said, “it’s that I now know it’s not just us mere mortal men who make mistakes while consumed with thoughts of a woman—even god-marked men with magical instincts are vulnerable.”

“There is truly not a day that goes by that I don’t regret not killing you.” Killian again tested the ropes binding his wrists, and again found them secure.

“Don’t bother,” Agrippa advised. “The Anuk know their knots. And you’d be consumed by guilt if you killed me.”

“I would not.”

“Be silent,” their captor snapped, and Killian shot him a look that promised death, and not a quick one.

Prince Xadrian’s face was concealed by his face coverings, but the gleam in his brown eyes betrayed the smirk beneath them. Killian remembered that smirk and added another regret: not killing this little prince when he’d had the chance in Rotahn.

“While it’s tempting to attribute this ill will to patriotism,” Agrippa said, “I have a growing sense that there is something of a personal grievance between you and the dear prince.”

“When I was stationed in Rotahn defending the Rowenes gold mines, he and I encountered each other a few times.” Killian cast a sideways glance at Agrippa. “You’re familiar with him?”