Wrath of the Storm by Jennifer A. Nielsen

Wrath of the Storm by Jennifer A. Nielsen

Author:Jennifer A. Nielsen [Nielsen, Jennifer A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2016-01-30T16:00:00+00:00


I raised the sword into the air, aimed toward Brutus. As I’d expected, the cost to my magic was high, but I had enough in the Divine Star to do this and perhaps to defend myself afterward. At least, I hoped I did. Once this sword found its target, the reaction would be swift and fierce.

If I was wrong, however, and didn’t have the magic, then at least I’d fall knowing that Brutus would come to the Elysian Fields with me. Or in his case, he’d go to Tartarus, where evil men were sent deep into the darkest pit guarded by a monster with fifty sharp-toothed jaws. I liked the idea of him spending some time there, though it was hardly fair to the monster to have to deal with a venomous man like Brutus.

Both my palms were turned to the sky, fingers inward, keeping the sword in place. All it would take was to rotate them toward the emperor’s box and the sword would fly at Brutus. My heart pounded with the realization of what I was about to do. If I could do it.

Threatening the Praetors, or even giving them a few bruises and broken bones, was one thing. They had started this war, and whatever I’d done to them had been meant only to save my life and the lives of those I cared about. I tried telling myself that killing Brutus was no different. He would continue on with this war until either my defeat or my death. If I were to have any chance of one day living a normal life, this was the right thing to do. Maybe it was the only thing to do.

And yet I wasn’t sure that I could do it. The look in Livia’s eyes when I’d told her my plans still haunted me.

My hands began to shake, and with it, the sword quivered too. I closed my eyes, attempting to summon a depth of courage that I knew I did not possess.

Seeing my hesitation, Brutus took the moment to grab Crispus and pull him directly in front of his body. Crispus cried out, and when I opened my eyes, I saw him struggling to move away, but Brutus was keeping him in place.

“What if the sword misses?” Brutus shouted. “Now will you do it?”

No, of course I wouldn’t. Immediately, I rotated my palms downward, and the sword fell with it, near my feet.

“Arrest the slave boy!” Probus ordered his guards.

“Wait!” Brutus thrust Crispus aside and spoke to the emperor, muttering words I couldn’t hear. Crispus was kept on the outside of their close conversation, though I noticed him trying to speak as well. At one point, Brutus pointed back to Crispus, who shook his head and said a few more things, but the emperor nodded, obviously in favor of Brutus’s proposal.

The guards surrounding Probus kept their place, but Crispus’s curly blond head disappeared from my sight, so I gathered he had just been given orders to come through the tunnels into the arena where I stood.



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