“I didn’t finish my training.” I met his eyes but reigned in my aggression. “I am not a true Druid.”
He flashed a smile, he really was absurdly handsome if you liked that well-oiled, highly groomed kind of thing. His skin, broad muscled and olive rich, shone with scented oils. His hair was curled, and it looked like it had been artfully pulled around the golden leaves of his laurel crown.
“I heard your capture was traumatic and bloody.” The light in his eyes told me exactly what he thought of this news.
“It was unnecessary considering I had already offered to come with no fight.”
He laced his hands together thoughtfully. “I believe my witch was concerned that while your words had meaning, your heart was not heeding them. Nor the heart of the woodsman.”
“He was not a woodsman; he was my liege and king.”
A vein ticked in his neck and I took a minute step back. “I believe, Druid, you will find I am the liege of everyone.”
“Indeed.” I kept my answer precise although I knew for a fact that the Roman Empire never quite managed to invade and conquer everywhere. So unless he was hoping to rewrite the history books… oh.
I schooled my features into what I hoped was a pleasant smile while I ran through the situation in my head.
Zafina had said she’d been here for over six months. He’d been looking for me the whole time Mae had been coming into her powers. He had girls here who could do things, although possibly not as much as me, but that remained to be seen.
Was the advance of the Roman Empire about witchcraft? Had magic been used to further their cause? Imagine that in the history books! Hadn’t the Empire receded once they failed to breech the outer areas of the British Isles… wasn’t that Scotland? Had the Roman Empire failed because Mae died on those stones and the magic he was seeking so brutally died with her?
Bloody hell, did I have all the magic?
Why?
“You look, Priestess, like you are working out a problem that is too large for your pretty head.”
“No, My Liege.” I dropped him a low curtsey. Did people curtsey in Druid times? I had no idea.
His face lit with amusement. “I believe we are going to have fun.”
“You don’t know I’m the girl you are looking for yet.”
His gaze fell across my lips. “I’ve been looking for you a long time.”
“As long as you’ve been Emperor?”
Those grey eyes swirled with hidden depths. “Longer.”
“But the other girls didn’t have what you wanted?” What did he mean longer? I wanted to keep him talking though, I needed all the information I could get.
“Mae, do you believe in the old ways?”
I held in a groan. Father had talked about the old ways. The red and the gold, but I couldn’t see where the old ways was getting us. “My father taught me,” I admitted, allowing him some honesty, hoping it would stand me in good stead.
“So you know about the need of men.” His eyes trained steadily on my face and I held in a shiver. He was predatory. I could sense it off every inch of him. I just had to stay on the right side of him. One wrong move and I could end up dead, or worse at his mercy as he continued to take over the world.
“Yes,” I whispered.
“But men and women they aren’t supposed to be separated.”
“What do you mean?” I batted my eyelashes a few times for good measure.
“The one I seek, she is more than power. More than any limit this baleful earth has to provide. She is the very earth herself.”
Well, honestly that’s a relief.
“Okay. My father didn’t tell me that.”
“He probably wanted it for himself.”
“Or maybe he knew it wasn’t me, that I don’t have what the men want.” That sentence came out utterly messed up, but he didn’t blink—and actually now I remember seeing Gladiator and I’m not surprised.
“What do you have? The Mage was sure, she said your blood ran with that of the gods of old.”
She said what?
“It doesn’t. I’m sorry, but it doesn’t. Is that what you are looking for, a God? A Goddess? They don’t live on earth, they are just beings that humans worship.”
The Emperor slid off his gilt chair and stepped close. The air filled with the pungent scent of amber and some other rich spice I couldn’t name. His finger touched my bare shoulder, a light passing caress which skimmed up my neck to my cheek. He turned me so we were face to face, his lips a centimetre or two from mine. “I’d make a Goddess an Empress of all the earth if I could find her.”
“I hope you do.” I tried hard not to breathe, not wanting our breath to mingle as it would before a kiss. “But I’m afraid I won’t be her.”
The stormy greys locked on my gaze. “We shall see. I heard that when your woodsman was killed, a hedge grew in front of the scene to protect you from the view.”
“You heard true, but it wasn’t me. The trees and plants of my homeland have a funny ability to do as they will.”
His lips quirked at the edges.
“And they say here that the temple walls choose who should be Emperor, but how can that be believed?”
“The red veins don’t coexist with the magic of the old ways, do they? They want it for themselves. That’s why the old ways have ended?” I asked.
His face flitted instantly into a frown of annoyance and I waited for his rebuttal. He leaned closer which was even more unnerving.
“I will own the power, my druid, and the whole world will beg at my feet.”
I nodded, because I believed his intent. I just knew I’d do anything
