“Pretty, too.” He held my gaze, and I begged my pulse not to respond to him. I wouldn’t give any of them an ounce of what I had. “You won’t speak to me?” He asked softly, leaning closer, his breath brushing over my face.
I refused, holding his gaze. He grinned and clapped his hands, calling to the room. “We have a fighter here. Soon she shall give me what I need.” He leant in so only I could hear. “I shall look forward to it.”
Somehow, I managed to get words to rise up my throat. “I have nothing you desire. I’m just a girl from a far-off isle with nothing to give.”
He watched me carefully for moment too long, his stormy gaze calculating. Eventually, he pushed away. “Take her to the others. Maybe she will understand why not giving me what I need isn’t to her benefit.”
He turned without another glance in my direction. Shaky, I looked about me. The Mage looked almost disappointed; the meeting hadn’t gone as she wished. I didn’t need to be a witch to know that. Augustus’ face was carefully neutral, and he didn’t move as a soldier stepped forward and pulled me off the dais, although I could have sworn his lips tightened a notch.
Without time to think or ask questions, two soldiers peeled away from the other guard and took one of my arms each.
“I have nothing for you,” I called, unable to stop myself.
The Emperor just waved his hand over his shoulder as he turned his back.
The soldiers dragged me with considerable force. My skin pinched where their fingers bit into my arms, my feet barely touched the floor. “Where are you taking me?” I asked, but I knew better than to expect a response.
This was the lion’s den.
Lions didn’t talk. They killed without mercy.
My heart ached as my feet dragged along the floor, skimming along the marble tiles. I should have stayed with Tristram after all. Maybe he was the one meant to unlock my power—or, maybe it was none of them.
Maybe I shouldn’t be around men.
I could live with that. If I could get back to the stones and through to my own time, I’d be on a plane back to Queens as quick as humanly possible and then I’d lock myself up in Saint Margret’s Nunnery on the corner of Brook Avenue.
I’d do it.
Hell, I’d do it.
A crazed laugh escaped from my lips, but the soldiers didn’t bother to acknowledge it as we marched lower and lower into the depths of the palace in Palatine Hill.
The passageways were dark, lit only with flickering candles. When we drew to a large wooden door, a metal grill gave a view of a murky interior. No sound met the thumped greeting one of my guards hammered on the door with his closed fist.
The door swung open and I launched through the air as the soldiers pushed me inside.
“What, no goodbyes?” I growled up at them from the ground.
Again, they didn’t acknowledge I’d spoken, and the door swung shut into my face without any advice or instructions at all. A scampering rustle caused me to spin around and I pushed myself back against the wooden grain of the door. That sounded like mice. Or rats. Rats would be worse.
Blinking into the dim light, I tried to make out where I was. The room was warm, which I guess was a blessing, but the light was so low it was impossible to see further than my hand in front of me.
The emperor had marched me thousands of miles and flung me into a prison.
“Shit.” I slung back against the door. I’d travelled a very long way, for nothing it seemed.
Closing my eyes, I shuddered and shook. Tristram’s last cry echoed in my heart and it was all I could do not to sob. A tear trickled from under my lashes and I dashed it away. I didn’t deserve to cry. Tristram had been dead a matter of weeks, yet I’d already allowed Augustus to trick me into a kiss.
I didn’t deserve the luxury of grief. I was a monster. A dangerous monster.
And I was alone.
Another tear slid and then another.
“Shh.” A hand smoothed against my hair and I almost jumped clear out of my skin. My heart stuttered, heart attack pinching, before restarting again with an alarmed boom.
Wildly, I glanced around in front of me, not quite sure what I was seeing.
Girls, more girls than I could head count, silently waited in front of me. I tried to make them out in the dim light; the ones I could see looked half-starved and neglected.
They watched and waited as I stared back at them.
What on earth had I walked into?
One thing was for sure. I was definitely not alone.
Chapter Ten
If I could shut my mouth, I might have been able to get some words to form. Instead it hung open, flapping uselessly.
The longer I stared, the more I could see as my eyes swiftly adjusted to the dim light. It wasn’t as completely black as I first thought, there were small torches flickering in sconces against brick walls.
“Who are you all?” I asked.
A tall woman, probably around my age, peeled herself away from the crowd. Her hair, a dark red, was weaved into a thick plait that swung over one shoulder. Although her clothes were ragged there was little avoiding the strength contained under her smooth skin. She reminded me of Sarah Connor in the original Terminator movie, like she’d been doing chin ups to stop herself from going crazy.
“We are the girls he didn’t want,” she stated.
What, all of them? I swept my gaze back out into the gloom. “How many of you?”
“Hundred and eleven, including you.” Her dark head cocked to the side, and she shifted her powerful frame. “Although the rumour is, you’re the one he is seeking.”
“Uh. I don’t think so.” It was a lie.
She smirked and
