Nothing.
And then – everything.
Orange streaked across the courtyard, a cat bolting for cover, and the ground beneath Felix’s feet shuddered. Panic gripped him, that same water-sick instability he’d felt in the statesman’s house.
The rattling intensified, stone chattering. Camilia released Felix, lunging to steady the Priest before the old man’s knees gave out. Felix slid to the ground, back against the altar, cradling his wrist, pulsinghot and sticky. From this angle, he couldn’t see where Loren stumbled off to.
This was Felix’s chance. The animal part of his brain took over, and he scrambled on slick hands and bruised knees towards the door.
‘No!’
A weight barrelled into Felix – Loren tackling him off course. They rolled in a swirl of temple robes, grappling while the world continued to shake. Loren moved with the same decisiveness Felix had noted the instant before the bowl crashed down, eyes flashing with inexplicable, horrified recognition.
As if to say –I know you.
It ended, as all things had that day, with Felix dizzy and disoriented and smeared in his own blood. Loren took advantage of Felix’s weakness and pinned him flat, didn’t relent even as the rumbling quieted. Loren’s chest heaved, and Felix’s skin crawled. He was too close. Too close.
‘Stop,’ Felix begged, desperation trembling like he’d swallowed the quake. ‘Let mego.’
At first, Loren merely blinked, and Felix’s frustration heightened, not knowing how to convey that he wasn’t trying to run, not this time. All thoughts of escape had fled. What he needed was space, any amount of it, before he vomited bile over them both, but he had no hope Loren would grant him that. That he’d understand, without words, what Felix asked.
But after a long, sticky pause, Loren surprised him. He pulled back, grip loosening. With a final twist, Felix broke the hold and scooted away. He’d offer his other arm to be sliced if it meant strange hands would stop touching him.
A moment of suffocating silence passed before Felix realised all eyes were on him. Becausehisblood cooled on the altar. Because it was so easy for others to draw conclusions about him when they didn’t even know his name.
‘An aftershock,’ Camilia suggested, though she didn’t sound convinced. ‘From the quake earlier.’
The Priest hummed, rubbing his chin. The stare he directed at Felix cut him to the bone. He might as well have been on display at a school of medicine. Not a person, but an oddity. Something to ogle. ‘Curious.’
‘I propose,’ said one twin, ‘we read his entrails for a sign.’
‘Sera,’ scolded the other. ‘We would need to pay an augur for that. It’s not in the budget. Though, given the circumstances, Umbrius might make an exception.’
‘With Umbrius in charge, the council ignores anything remotely resembling bad news,’ said Camilia. ‘Anything that threatens peace. Or the economy, rather. Why stir panic when he can pretend trouble doesn’t exist?’
Sera muttered something about where this Umbrius character ought to stick the economy.
The Priest hefted onto the stool with a world-weary sigh. ‘We have not had funds for augury since I was a boy, and Umbrius shows little interest in omens besides. Though if we don’t kill the boy, it begs the question of what, exactly, we do now.’
‘Let him go,’ Camilia said. ‘If we have no further use for him.’
Sera cackled. ‘For free? You said that soldier wanted him. Demand a fee in exchange, and we can all eat well tonight.’
‘If I may . . .’ Loren said, still crouched an arm’s length from Felix.
Felix couldn’t help but focus on him. Loren thumbed a frayed cord around his neck, back and forth, an unsure gesture. The frantic drive he’d shown tackling Felix had fizzled away.
‘You think he’d pay? More likely his master would cut off our heads before handing over the reward,’ Camilia said. ‘Clearly the thief is poor luck. Pompeii has enough of that already.’
‘If I may . . .’ Loren tried again.
‘He seems sweet,’ Shani said. ‘We could keep him around. A pet.’
Sera scoffed. ‘We have Castor and Pollux. How many more mouths must we feed?’
‘I’ll take responsibility,’ Loren blurted.
The room’s attention fell on him.
