"You've had the rock all along?" The Mistress snorted, smoke rising from both nostrils amidst her disgust and anger. "You tried to trick me?"
Technically, Aurelia tried to trick her. I had outright lied. But whatever she called it, I wasn't bluffing with my threat, and she knew it.
I picked up the bulla and put it around my neck first, then put the Malice on my wrist, loosely lacing it up, which was all I had time for. The flow of magic into me was swift and strong.
I sent a ball of magic up to the Mistress, aiming at the wing. It hit in the softer flesh between the bones and sent her sideways.
"Release her!" I shouted. "I can do worse to you, and you know it!"
"What if you could stop the Mistress, do you think it would matter?" Brutus laughed at the thought of it. "Just as I will be replaced if something happens to me, the Mistress will be replaced if something happens to her. Diana can always find someone new to curse. The only way to end this war is to allow Diana to win. Stop fighting us, Nicolas. Pledge your magic and the amulets in service of Diana. Then all our troubles will be over."
My eyes narrowed. "If I make the Jupiter Stone, will Aurelia be safe?"
Aurelia shook her head. "Don't listen to them!" She started to say something else, but the Mistress squeezed her again.
"He must listen," the Mistress said as she flew in circles overhead. "He will serve me or face the consequences!"
"If I still had my bow, I would stop you!" Aurelia cried.
The Mistress laughed. "You have the heart of a hunter, girl. You wield the bow and arrow as fiercely as a goddess. The blood of a dragon can flow through your veins as well. If you bring any harm to me, Diana knows exactly how to use this girl."
Even from where I stood, I saw Aurelia's eyes widen as she understood what the Mistress was saying. That's why Diana had been watching Aurelia all this time. If I killed the Mistress, Aurelia would become her replacement. If I ended one curse, another would begin.
"Make the storm, Nicolas," Brutus said. "Do it, or the Mistress will drop the girl back to the floor."
"Do it the way you described to me." Tears streamed down Aurelia's face. "Only that way."
"Break the curse," Atroxia said into my head. "I beg you to end my suffering."
And in doing so, I would likely cause Aurelia's suffering. She loved me, more than I had ever deserved, and in a way I had never been loved before.
"Of course he will do it," Brutus said, then looked directly at me. Satisfaction gleamed in his eyes in a way that infuriated me. "You are the sacrifice to the gods, are you not?"
I had not thought of it that way, and yet that was exactly correct. Why had Caesar's ghost marked me in the caves, and allowed me to steal that bulla? The magic I held wasn't a curse or a punishment. It was given to me so that I might carry out a purpose Caesar wanted. It was the same reason the Malice of Mars had come to me, even though there had been other Romans with magic, including Radulf, who had wanted a Jupiter Stone for years. Mars intended the Malice to fall into my hands. Why? Would he care that I had greater powers or the ability to defeat any attacker? No, the only purpose for the Malice was that it gave me the strength to challenge the lightning for a storm.
This must also be the reason why every attempt to escape my fate had failed. Because as far as I might ever run from the empire or from magic or even from the gods themselves, I could never run from my own destiny.
When I came here, my plan had been to make a storm, and only that. To bring in lightning targeting the Mistress while I stood protected within a shield.
But that was not my fate. It was always intended that I make this Jupiter Stone.
An amulet that carried the power of Jupiter himself. One that could only be created to benefit someone else. Never for the person who created it.
When my father had attempted it, it was to save my family and our ragged town from the Roman invaders. He had the right motives, but lacked enough magic.
Through me, Radulf had enough magic, yet he had always wanted the Jupiter Stone for himself. If he had attempted to create the stone, he would have failed too.
Above me, the Mistress had deposited Aurelia on a narrow cornice high above one of the alcoves. There was nowhere for her to go from there, and it was too high for her to jump down. But if she kept her balance, she would be safe.
What if I were only making the stone to save Aurelia's life? Would that allow me to survive it?
"You will not survive it," Atroxia said into my head. "But you must create the storm."
I looked up at the Mistress, who had landed on a cornice at the opposite side of the dome. For all her greatness and grandeur, the dragon looked remarkably lonely. Alone. Empty. Somewhere behind the Mistress's fiery eyes, Atroxia was also awaiting my decision.
I directed my attention to Brutus. "Whatever happens at the end of this, I want your solemn vow to release Aurelia."
"When I am holding the Jupiter Stone, she will go free," he said.
"Please don't do this," Aurelia said. "Nic, you know what will happen."
"You will go free; that's what I know."
Before she could answer, I looked away. I had to while I still had enough courage to move. I stared up through the oculus, noticing for the first time that the moon had shifted its position in the skies just enough to bathe the altar in its silvery light. Diana was at work in here tonight.
Caela was no longer visible, but I knew she wasn't far away. I whispered a call to her. "Find Aurelia," I said. "When this is over, find Aurelia."
Finally, it was time to begin. I looked down, gathering magic into my hands and arms, letting it fill my chest and the hollows of my legs. The storm I wanted was no ordinary rainstorm. I wanted dark clouds to obscure even the brightest star, winds that would uproot the strongest trees, and sharp sparks in the air, tangible enough that any Roman with the sense of a clay pot would race to be indoors.
For all its showmanship and grandeur, Rome had never seen anything like what I was about to bring.
Above me, the heavens began rumbling. My show had begun.
I knew when enough clouds had gathered above us because darkness filled the Pantheon. Torchlights still glowed where they had been placed on the walls, but they flickered in the wind that filtered down from the oculus, giving the room an even more ominous feel.
Ahead of me, Brutus had backed into the alcove directly beneath Aurelia. With the bow near his feet, it wouldn't be hard for him to upset Aurelia's delicate balance if he thought I was tricking him in any way, but that was not my intention. I simply needed to ensure I didn't lose control of anything I brought into this room. I hoped Aurelia was balanced enough on that cornice to withstand what was coming.
Outside, we heard the scratches of tree branches against the sides of the building, and the tumbling of loose objects as they blew down the roads. I hoped everyone outside had cleared from the area because it was only about to get worse.
When I looked up, my arms raised with me, high as I could reach. Then I pulled them low, and with that, I pulled rain down to the earth. It came in fat, flooding drops of water, so heavy that they fell like tiny silver balls upon my head and my shoulders. Within only seconds, water began building on the Pantheon floor.
Knowing what would likely come next, Brutus climbed onto the statue, getting his feet out of the water. That disappointed me. I wouldn't have minded if he were in the water when the lightning came down.
The Mistress also launched herself into the air, though she was becoming agitated and finally touched down on the head of the statue of Jupiter. Something about that seemed appropriate.
Most of the time when I used my magic, I felt it draining me, slowly weakening me. Even with the Malice, that happened. But not tonight. Something in this storm was building the powers already within my chest and shoulder. I was stronger than I had been when the storm began.
For whatever it was worth, I'd have to trust my own instincts, and hope the magic was powerful enough to sustai
n me until it was over.
Until all of it was over.
Through nearly every hour of my turbulent life, I'd gotten by on the insistence that I had no intention of dying that day.
Tonight was different. Tonight I would die. I knew that now.
I removed the bulla from around my neck and wrapped the cords around the Malice, holding the amulet itself in my hand. Beneath the bulla, safe in my palm, was the stone. It was only a rock now, but before I was finished, it would be different. Everything would be different.
I lifted the rock over my head and shouted up through the oculus, "I am marked by Julius Caesar, bearer of his bulla containing the magic of Diana, and wearing the Malice of Mars! They give me great powers, but tonight I seek the greatest power!"
"Diana will receive that greatest power," the Mistress said. "For she is the greatest of all the gods."
I didn't accept that. "Is that why her temple is a full day's ride from Rome? Why her twin brother, Apollo, sent me the griffin, and why Mars sent me an amulet that makes hers seem like a toy? Is that why the other gods have always favored Venus over her?"
"She has been wronged!" the Mistress scowled. "Who is Venus? A goddess of love? What is that compared to Diana, who blesses the hunt?"
I lowered my arm, even as hard rain continued falling, and I had to shout above the noise. "It's everything. The hunt is death, the end of a life. But life exists because of love, something Diana knows nothing about. It saved my life when Gaul was invaded, and helped me survive the mines. Love kept me going when the world literally crashed down upon me. That's why Venus is the favored god. She builds and sustains and gives. Diana only takes."
"Diana should be the ruler of all gods!" the Mistress said. "And with the Jupiter Stone, she will prove it!"
"Diana has betrayed the gods!" The vestalis had seemed content to be forgotten in this room, but now her voice boomed louder than mine had ever been and her finger pointed accusingly at the dragon. "Diana deserves no honors!"
"You only want Atroxia!" the Mistress said, and even in the rain, smoke blew from her mouth. "You want me gone!"
"You are a curse that never should have existed!" the vestalis said. "You are a symbol of the crimes you have committed, but Diana will haunt you no more. I have come for Atroxia. The vestals will reclaim her tonight."
More smoke puffed from the dragon's nose. I couldn't risk her attacking the vestalis, although I had greater faith in the old woman's abilities to take on this dragon than my own.
Yet I shouted, "Turn to me, Mistress! I am the one who angers you! I freed you from the temple only to trick you with the Malice."
Fire burst from her mouth. It was immediately doused by the rain, but her growing anger was evident. That was good. I wanted her angry.
So I yelled even louder this time. "I fought you again and locked you inside the cave, not for Atroxia's sake, but to punish you! You were the one I entombed there!"
The Mistress began flying around me, her circle coming ever closer. "I defeated you in the cave and brought you here."
I shook my head, holding up the Malice again, with the bulla and rock still in my hand. "With this Malice, I cannot lose. So if you think you defeated me --"
"Another trick?" the Mistress screeched with anger. "Why?"
"Because I intend to break the curse tonight. I intend to destroy you."
"No!" the Mistress shouted, and somewhere farther away, Brutus shouted it too, though his shouts were for different reasons. Brutus had seen through my plans. In her anger, the Mistress did not.
She charged directly at me, fire blazing from her mouth, and eyes nearly as hot with rage. As soon as she was within the moonlight, I brought my arms downward again, but not to bring in the rain.
I brought lightning.
It didn't touch me, for I had ducked low on the altar, and the Mistress had flown directly over me. She was between me and the lightning when it struck her back. With lightning searing her from wing tip to claw, she continued forward under her momentum and crashed into the far wall of the Pantheon. At least two statues toppled over, and most of the paintings on the walls fell. Every remaining bronze sheet that had been in the dome crashed with her, all of them falling to the ground.
And suddenly everything went quiet.
Because what landed on the floor of the Pantheon was not a dragon, cursed and terrible in its greatness.
What landed there was a young vestalis who had been imprisoned in a tomb since the death of Julius Caesar. And a prisoner of the dragon every day after that.
The curse was broken.
And impossibly, I was still alive.
The Jupiter Stone had not been made. More important, it did not need to be made.
I was still alive.
The rain continued to fall, though the drops were lighter now than before. Brutus jumped back onto the floor to survey what had become of the Mistress.
He stopped when he saw Atroxia lying there, on her side facing away from us, and moving, though only a little.
The vestalis rushed over to Atroxia, helping her slowly get to a seated position. As she did, she said to me, "She is forgiven, Nicolas. She will rejoin the vestals and spend the remainder of her days helping to build the best of what it is to be Roman."
Now Atroxia met my eyes. The only time I had seen her before was in the catacombs of the temple on Valerius's land. It had been dark in there, and her grip on my wrist had been so painful, I'd barely noticed her appearance then. But I didn't see how I could've missed it.
Atroxia's hair was as red as the scales of the dragon had been. Her lips were equally red, though the rest of her skin was pale, perhaps the consequence of centuries without seeing the sun. But her beauty could not be denied. She might've even been lovelier than Livia, something I'd never thought possible for anyone.
"You saved me," Atroxia said, almost in disbelief. "After all I've done wrong, you saved me."
"No!" Brutus shouted, not to the vestalis but to me. "You've ruined everything!"
I used enough magic to punch him back to the wall, then said to the old vestalis, "You both must leave! This isn't over."
The vestalis immediately got Atroxia to her feet and then helped her onto Callistus's back. He would get them safely away from here. If only I could get Aurelia out of here too.
"I told you what would happen if the Mistress were destroyed," Brutus snarled. "Didn't you believe me?" He cried out to the heavens. "There must be a new Mistress." His gaze lifted to Aurelia.
I wasn't sure how to get her safely down from where she stood, nor if that was enough. She needed to get out of the Pantheon, as far from Brutus as possible.
Suddenly, the cornice beneath Aurelia crumbled and she screamed. Her arms flailed until she found a chunk of rock protruding from the wall. It was holding her for now, but it wouldn't for long.
Diana must've done that, upon Brutus's request. Nothing else should've caused that piece of wall to collapse on its own.
"The moment she loses her grip, Diana will curse her," Brutus said. "It will be the only way she survives that fall. She will become the new Mistress."
"I won't let that happen!" I shouted.
Brutus ignored me. "And when she becomes the Mistress, will you destroy her with a bolt of lightning too? No, of course not. For you will obey this Mistress just as I was sworn to obey the last one. Once the curse is in place, she will demand the amulets from you, and you will give them to her!"
"You promised to let her go!" I said.
"And I will, if you save her from the curse!" Brutus said. "Pledge your loyalty to Diana, swear to use the amulets to serve her, and there will be no need for a Mistress. I will take the Jupiter Stone in her place."
I stood tall on the altar again and raised my hand. "Hold on, Aurelia, please."
She kicked against the wall, still trying to save herself. "Don't make that stone, Nic!"
All I said to her was a mumbled "I'm sorry." Upon my silent command, the rain fell heavier
than before, and thunder rolled overhead. Then I looked over at Brutus. "And when the stone is made, I will use it to end this war. If there are no amulets, there can be no rebellion in the heavens. No curses. No Praetor War. Everything ends tonight." I raised my arms and saw sparks of light dance in the dark clouds above me. I felt their tingle in my fingertips.
"You will not destroy those amulets," Brutus said, moving forward. "I can still get the Stone. I can still give it to Diana and earn my rewards!"
My attention returned to Aurelia. "Whatever happens after this is no longer my story to tell. But I hope you will."
"No!" Brutus lunged for me, intending to grab my legs and pull me down from the altar. But just as had happened with the Mistress, the moment he touched me, I called in the next bolt of lightning. My final bolt.
This one did hit me.
It entered my hand, starting with the bulla and running down my arm through the Malice. It raced through my shoulder and exploded inside my chest, then spread from there into every limb, and into my head, where I felt as if my brain had ignited with a power such as I never had understood before.
Brutus had vanished. He'd gotten one hand on me, which normally would've taken every bit of magic I had to continue with this storm. But the lightning took him first. Jupiter himself carried the Praetor back to the heavens. Brutus was gone.
Yet the lightning had not finished with me yet. Perhaps in the skies, a bolt lasted for only part of a second, yet it lingered in my body, weaving itself between every fiber of my existence. Raw, perfect energy poured into the rock held in my palm, filling it with a light that could only compare with the brightness and heat of the sun.
This was a Jupiter Stone, the power of the gods. Jupiter's powers, superior to all other gods. For that moment, standing within the bolt of lightning, I had that same power too. I felt everything, knew everything, and finally understood everything. I saw in my mind the past and future interwoven as one long thread, and myself in the center of time, holding both halves together.
Rome would fall, eventually, and much of civilization would collapse with it. But not yet, and, more important, not because of me. Other civilizations would gradually rise in its place all over the globe, achieving glories I never could have imagined on my own.