Fallen City by Adrienne Young - 41

River water dripped on the polished floor of Villa Matius as I stared into the mirror in the atrium. I was trying to force myself to believe it was really there. The unfolded wings curled around my upper arm, the tips of the feathers fanning out until they touched and overlapped. The cuff looked like gold melted in the forge of the temple, glowing with a telltale light that made the air sparkle.

I tried to wedge my finger beneath it, attempting to slide it over my skin, but it wouldn’t budge. It was fused to my body, with no clear place where the cuff ended and I began.

It was a gift. It had to be. Like the stylus in the obsidian box in Nej’s chambers and the ringlet of gold that marked Luca as chosen. I’d been recounting the tales in my mind since I pulled myself from the river. The gods were not kind, like Ophelius said. But there was a time when they used mortals to do their bidding, intervening in our world to enact their own wills. So, what did they want from me?

The heavy iron doors to the street on the other side of the villa groaned open. I pushed the sleeve of the chiton down, covering the cuff, and sank to the floor, pressing myself against the stone wall. I was hidden by the chest in the servants’ quarters, but I watched that square of light on the floor cast through the doorway, like Théo had done.

Outside, the sound of doors being kicked in and glass shattering echoed in the street. They were searching for us. Driving us out like rats until every seat in the Forum was empty. If I was lucky, Villa Matius would be spared the search. The New Legion would expect it to be empty.

That square of light flickered, blinking out as the door hit the wall, the shadow of a legionnaire slipping through the darkness. I pulled my knees up to my chest, trying to become smaller. I could see him as he flitted in and out of the beams of moonlight. The reflection of scale armor and the blue sash tied around his arm. This wasn’t a soldier of the Loyal Legion. The district had finally fallen.

His knuckles were white around the hilt of the short sword he had drawn at his side. The muscles that corded his arm flexed as he moved with silent feet through the atrium. The chamber across the hall creaked open and then he went to the next, searching the villa one room at a time.

My shaking hands came up over my head when he reached the servants’ quarters, and I tried to swallow down the cry erupting in my throat. But it was too late. Footsteps came barreling toward me just before hands took hold of my chiton, and then I was screaming. The man dragged me across the floor as more boots sounded down the corridor, followed by more shadows on the wall. When the face came into view this time, I froze.

Luca.

He stopped midstep when he saw me, the faint sound of an inhale in his chest. A second later, his tribune appeared in the doorway behind him.

“Centurion.”

The man standing over me gave Luca a respectful nod, but Luca was still staring at me. Like he couldn’t believe I was really there.

In the next breath, he pulled the short sword from his hip and stalked toward the man, his arm arcing backward before he reached out and grabbed his armor. With his next step he drove the sword up into the man’s ribs. A crackling, gasping sound broke in the legionnaire’s throat as Luca twisted the blade, and then he shoved him backward, where he lost his footing on the steps.

My hands fell limply into my lap as I stared at him. A sob loosed in my chest as Luca closed the distance between us, sinking down to his knees and wrapping himself tightly around me. His arms encircled the whole of my frame, draping me in darkness, and I ran toward it. I desperately wanted to disappear into him. To hide where no one could find me.

Théo checked the street before he quietly closed the door, and my hands climbed up the sleeves of Luca’s tunic until my fingers hooked around his neck. I pulled him closer to me and his face pressed into my hair. He was speaking. Saying something in a voice too broken to understand.

“I’ve got you.” His mouth came low to my ear, his grip tightening around me. “I’ve got you.” He sounded like he was reassuring himself.

I let myself get heavier in his arms, my breaths slowing. “What happened to them?” I whispered, my face still buried in his shoulder. “What happened to those people?”

“They’re dead,” he said.

“Why? How could you just—”

Luca pulled back from me, hands finding my face, and I could finally see his eyes. They were bloodshot. Red and swollen. “I didn’t.” He wiped the tears from my cheeks with his thumbs and I leaned into the feeling.

I searched his face, desperately wanting to believe him. “I told you this would happen. I begged you,” I said.

There was a moment of cold silence before my hands twisted tighter in his tunic, and then I pushed away from him. He watched me get to my feet, still kneeling before me.

“I thought they were going to kill me,” I rasped, trying to catch my breath. “I thought…”

He stood, coming toward me, but I moved out of reach.

“You did this.” I sounded as if I was still trying to wrap my mind around it. To follow every decision that had led us here, to this place.

Tears burned in his eyes, and the sight of them made it painful to breathe.

“I know.” He swallowed.

“You may not have put your blade to their throats, but you did this, Luca.”

“I know!” he shouted, making me flinch. The words were delicate. Fragile and afraid. “You think I don’t know that? I know what I am.”

A tear slid down the arc of his cheek, finding the edge of his jaw. An anger burned in his expression that I could hardly bear to look at. It was hatred. Pure, undefiled hatred. For himself.

He wasn’t the only one who felt that way. The two of us had been broken too deep to be stitched back together. So, why couldn’t I leave him? Why couldn’t I walk out of this city unless he was with me?

The door to the street opened again and I peered over Luca’s shoulder to see Théo, his face unreadable as he looked between us.

“The Commander has crossed into the district,” he said quietly.

Luca ran a hand over his face, the mask he wore returning. Gone was the man who’d given himself to me. The one I still thought I could save. Now the Centurion stood before me, with armor that sank deep beneath his skin.

“Don’t let her out of your sight,” he said, his eyes not leaving mine.

From the corner of my eye, I could see Théo nod sharply before he positioned himself by the door.

Luca didn’t look at me again before he turned and left, but the cut of the words he’d spoken felt like it was drawing blood.

I know what I am.