Ceres nodded. She put away one of her blades, grabbing Stephania’s hair so that she could bare her throat. Stephania stared up at Ceres, and Ceres could see the fear there, but she could also see the defiance.
“So you’re just going to cut my throat in cold blood?” Stephania demanded.
“I’m going to execute you for all the crimes you’ve committed,” Ceres countered.
Stephania twisted in her grip, managing to get to her feet. This would have been so much easier if Ceres had still had the powers of her Ancient One blood. Stephania would already have been stone.
“My crimes?” Stephania said. “What about your crimes? You overthrew the Empire that brought stability to this region. You butchered its troops and plotted to bring down its king. Why?”
“So that people could be free,” Ceres replied. She wasn’t going to let Stephania pretend that they were somehow the same.
“And are they?” Stephania asked. She gestured, as if to take in the city. “You took away the only thing holding back invaders from outside. The people of this city will be slaves, or slaughtered. All their deaths are on your conscience.”
The hard part of that was that it was true. If Ceres and the rebellion hadn’t risen up, the Empire would still be exactly what it had always been. It would be filled with crushing inequalities, run by rapacious nobles, and take everything from the poorest, but it wouldn’t be this.
“This came out of the war for it,” Ceres said. “Not out of what we were trying to do.”
“And did you think there wouldn’t be a war?” Stephania demanded. “Are you that naïve that you thought the Empire would just hand over its power?”
Ceres couldn’t believe this. Was Stephania trying to tell her that all this was her fault for trying to change things and make them better?
Stephania wasn’t done either, it seemed.
“Let me tell you how things could have been,” she said. “If you hadn’t shown up, I would have married Thanos without any of the things that happened later. I would have maneuvered for power in the Empire for both of us, and we would have gotten it.”
“You in power?” Felene said from the side. “Are we supposed to pretend that’s a good thing?”
Ceres could see that she was getting restless. She had a knife in her hand now, and was shifting her grip on it as she waited.
“Me and Thanos in power,” Stephania replied. “Do you think we wouldn’t make good rulers? His sense of fairness. My understanding of what it takes to rule. I am not cruel for the sake of it. I could have been a great queen, beside Thanos.”
The hardest part was that it was probably true. Ceres knew enough about Stephania to know that she could be kind to those around her as well as cruel. She thought of herself first, but she wasn’t Lucious.
Ceres could see how it might have happened. Lucious would have had some kind of accident. News about Thanos’s birth would have been spread as rumors. Eventually, Claudius would have adopted him formally as his heir. Perhaps Stephania was right. Perhaps she and Thanos would have been the perfect ruling couple. Perhaps it would have been some great time for the Empire, achieving more for its people than invasion and death.
None of that mattered though.
“I don’t care,” Ceres said. “You had me tortured. You were going to kill me. You have killed people who followed me, who were my friends.”
“And you’ve killed how many imperial guards?” Stephania demanded. “How many of my handmaidens are dead or in the hands of Felldust’s warriors thanks to you?”
Ceres didn’t know. She wasn’t even sure that she could explain the difference, except by saying that they’d chosen that fight, and that she’d tried to save lives where she could.
“Is it just that they’re not on your side?” Stephania asked. “You’ve decided you’re good, so anything you do must be good? Invading a city? Killing the nobles there? How many people have you turned to stone? How many are worse off now, because of—”
“Enough talking,” Felene snapped. “We aren’t here for a philosophy lesson. If you want a reason to do it, my murder is more than enough. Kill her.”
Ceres knew that Felene was right. This was the moment when it had to happen. She couldn’t leave Stephania alive behind her; not when it meant that she would just keep coming after her. Leave her alive, and Ceres would never be safe.
She lifted her blade, ready to thrust it into Stephania’s heart. Unlike her, Ceres wasn’t going to drag this out. That was one difference between them. Ceres didn’t want Stephania to suffer. She just wanted this to end.
Stephania seemed to sense what was going to happen, because she backed away until she was pressed against one of the statues there. She looked around as if seeking somewhere to run, but there was nowhere for her to go.
Ceres readied herself, determined to strike true.
CHAPTER TWENTY SIX
Thanos ran for the spot Athena had told him about, trying to recall her directions as he hurried through the streets.
“The spot with the statues and trees,” Thanos said to himself. In Delos, there were plenty of spots like that, where greenery intruded on the marble and stone of the city’s buildings. There were fewer of them in the poorer districts, though. Nobles didn’t see the point in providing them for ordinary people.
He tried to make sense of the streets around him, recalling all he could about the city’s layout. He’d been out into the city more than most nobles, but even so, finding his way was far from easy. Especially not when there were invaders there.
Thanos pressed himself back into a doorway, trying to stay quiet, as a group moved past.
Which way from here? He wished he’d thought to make the queen come with him and show him, but there would have been dangers in doing that too. She might not have been able to keep to the shadows as easily. She certainly wouldn’t have been able to do what Thanos did next, which was climb onto one of the nearby roofs, looking for a spot that matched her description.
He saw a space not far away that had trees around it and a fountain in the middle. When he saw what was happening there, Thanos skidded down from the roof, landing hard and redoubling his efforts. He hoped that he would be in time.
“Ceres! Wait!”
He didn’t dare call out too loud, in case he brought down trouble on all of them. Yet he had to risk something, because if he didn’t…
He reached the circle at a full run, sprinting in between two of the statues. Ceres stood with Stephania pinned back against a statue, her sword drawn back ready to strike her through the heart. But to Thanos, it looked as though she was about to thrust the blade through Stephania’s stomach, slaying her and her child together.
“Stop!” Thanos yelled, running into the circle of grass and trees.
Ceres was there, and Stephania, and, incredibly, Felene. Thanos had never thought that he would see the three of them in the same place together.
“What’s going on here?” he demanded.
To his surprise, Felene stepped in front of him, as if to hold him back. “An execution. One that’s long overdue.”
Thanos shook his head. “I can’t let that happen. Ceres, this is wrong.”
He started to move past her, but she moved back into the way. Ceres looked around, and he could see the hurt there.
“You want to stop me killing her?” Ceres demanded.
“I want to stop you from killing her child,” he corrected.
She seemed to soften a bit at that.
Then her look hardened.
“Not to mention your wife,” Stephania spat from her spot by the statue.
Thanos saw Ceres tense, and he pushed past Felene, grabbing for her arm. His fingers closed around it, and a part of him still expected to be flung back by the powers within her even though he’d heard about Stephania poisoning her. He expected Ceres to rip free, but for once, Thanos was stronger.
She looked back at him, and she just looked hurt then.
“She’s ki
lled so many people, Thanos,” Ceres said. “And you just want to forgive her?”
Felene chipped in at that point. “She doesn’t get to walk away from this free, Thanos. She tricked me, and then stabbed me in the back. I… I’m dying because of her.”
Thanos stared at her. He’d only known Felene for a brief time, but that news was like a punch to the stomach. He could see why Felene would want Stephania dead. He could see why anyone would. After all, he’d killed Lucious for only a little more. Thanos shook his head. He knew that there were some things that couldn’t be forgiven. That wasn’t the point.
“I’m not looking to forgive anything,” he said. “But Stephania is pregnant with my child. It broke something in me when I thought I’d lost that because of Lucious. It would be worse losing it because of you. Lucious was a monster, and you’re anything but that.”
Still, Ceres hesitated.
“When you left, I was worried that you kept going back to her,” she said. “I was worried because you chose to marry her, settle down with her, have a child with her. You keep saying that it isn’t Stephania you want—but you don’t act like it.”
Thanos could understand that. It seemed sometimes that the world was conspiring to push him and Stephania together. Yet the truth was that it wasn’t her he loved.
“Please,” he said. “This isn’t about her. It’s about us. If you do this, then every time I look at you, I’ll find myself wondering about what my child might have grown up to be. I’d find myself hating you, and I can’t imagine myself hating you, Ceres.”
She paused for a moment, and Thanos could see her arguing with herself. She still held the sword tightly, and Thanos didn’t know what he would do if she thrust the blade at Stephania.
Would he be able to act in time if she did? Would he be able to get between her and Stephania? Would he fight Ceres to save Stephania? Fight the woman he loved to save the mother of his child? Could he bring himself to do that?
He didn’t need to answer that question though, because finally, mercifully, Ceres stepped back.
“Are you sure that this isn’t about what you feel, Thanos?” Ceres demanded.
Stephania chose that moment to speak, stepping away from the statue and moving around to where Ceres couldn’t just thrust a blade into her. Thanos really wished that she hadn’t.
“We could still be good together, Thanos. I know you still feel something, even if you want to pretend that you don’t.”
Thanos stood there, unable to speak. Did Stephania really think that things could still work out between the two of them?
“You came back to save me,” Stephania said. “You sent Felene to carry me across the sea to safety. A man who feels nothing wouldn’t do that.”
“I wish you hadn’t,” Felene said with a wince. She leaned against the nearest statue, coughing. The back of her hand was wet with blood when she was finished. “I’m really starting to wish I hadn’t stopped drowning her.”
Thanos could understand that, and guilt flashed through him at having brought the thief to this.
“There’s still a way out of this,” Stephania said.
“Yes,” Ceres said. “We run.”
Thanos saw Stephania shake her head in disagreement. “This isn’t about you. It’s about us. Thanos, and me.”
Thanos held up a hand to stop her. “This isn’t about us, Stephania.”
All this time, and she still wasn’t prepared to accept it.
“We’re still married,” Stephania said. “We’re still having this child. And we can have so much more. We can still come out of this situation ahead.”
Thanos heard Felene snort.
“Honestly, what did you ever see in her?” she demanded. “Days at sea with her, and all she did was whine. And now this nonsense. Just clap a hand over her mouth so that we can go without attracting the attention of every warrior in the city.”
That was a real concern. Thanos had seen what was happening in the city. His small boat would still be there, and if he was lucky, they might be able to catch up with the smuggling boat to go further, but they needed to move now. Hesitate much longer, and they would lose their route out of there, right at the moment when soldiers would be coming for them.
“Felene is right,” Ceres said. “We need to go. I don’t know how many soldiers will have followed us down the tunnels beneath the city.”
“And there are plenty around on the streets,” Felene said.
To Thanos’s surprise, Stephania didn’t seem put off by that.
“Then we bring them to us,” she said.
Thanos frowned at that. “What?”
He was more convinced than ever that she wasn’t thinking clearly, although the truth was that Stephania had always been good at hiding what she thought from him. She’d plotted behind his back for almost as long as he’d known her, and Thanos had only known about what she was doing for a short time.
“I had to run when they broke into the castle,” Stephania said. She glared at Ceres. “You ruined that plan, but there are still ways back.”
“Stephania—” Thanos began.
“The warriors of Felldust value strength and cunning,” Stephania insisted. “A leader is only a leader for as long as he can hold onto his power. Between us, you and I have all the cunning and strength we could need.”
Thanos couldn’t quite believe what he was hearing. Even so, he felt as though he ought to check.
“You want to challenge the First Stone?” he asked.
“I want you to challenge him,” Stephania said. “I can get us to him. I can convince him to fight. You can kill him, and I will be able to turn that into more, by persuading them that it means you have succeeded him. We couldn’t stop the invasion, but we could control it so it hurt far fewer people.”
Thanos heard Ceres scoff at that.
“So it didn’t hurt you, you mean?” she said. “If it were that simple, why couldn’t I just walk up and kill him?”
“Because this isn’t just about cutting the head from the snake,” Stephania snapped back. “You’re thinking like some kind of bard’s song, where the hero walks up and kills their foe and that’s it.”
Thanos found himself cocking his head to one side. “Isn’t that what you’re proposing I do?”
Stephania shook her head. “It’s more than that. It’s politics. It’s not enough to kill him. You have to look as though you can succeed him. She couldn’t do that, but we could. The current queen of the Empire and her husband, joining with Felldust not by being conquered, but by taking a position within it. It’s a story they could believe. A story they could get behind.”
Thanos couldn’t believe that she was actually suggesting this. She made it sound so easy, as if they could just walk up and steal someone else’s invasion from them. Then again, it was what she’d done with the throne of the Empire, wasn’t it?
“You’re mad,” Felene said. “A country isn’t just some bauble that you can lift from a rich man’s corpse.”
“How else do you think people get them?” Stephania demanded. She looked back to Thanos. “We can do this, Thanos, and it would be good for the Empire. Felldust is going to finish its invasion, but together, we could control how it happens. We could limit the damage. And our child would be heir to the whole of Felldust, as well as the Empire. We could do this.”
Thanos could hear the determination there, and for a moment he could feel himself being carried along by it. Perhaps it would be possible to do it. Perhaps he could just take over Irrien’s seat, and stop the worst excesses of the invasion. If he could save people like that, didn’t he have a duty to do it?
Then he looked across at Ceres, and knew that he could never really do it. Stephania’s answer meant staying with her. It meant trusting her and working alongside her. Thanos couldn’t do any of those things. Especially not when Stephania would probably use any power she got as a way to strike out at Ceres.
“No,” Thanos said. “No, I’m not going to do it
. I know you, Stephania. Even if by some miracle all this worked, you’d be plotting the moment we got into any kind of power. Tell me that you wouldn’t try to kill Ceres the moment you had the opportunity.”
“We could let her live if that’s what you wanted,” Stephania said.
Thanos looked over at her, then at Ceres, then back again. The truth was that it wasn’t even a choice, not anymore. Whatever he’d once had with Stephania, it wasn’t the same as the things he felt for Ceres. Stephania had tried to paint a picture of the two of them living together in harmony, but the truth was that the only one of them Thanos could picture himself with was Ceres.
“No,” he said. “This is what is going to happen. We’re going to get out of here, all of us. You’re going to live, because you’re carrying my child, but when that child is born, you’ll go, and we’ll never see you again. I won’t be caught up in your plots, Stephania. It isn’t you I want. It is Ceres.”
Stephania scowled.
“You think you get to decide what happens to me?” Stephania demanded. “You think you get to choose for me?”
She took a breath, and Thanos guessed what she was going to do a moment before she did it. But he wasn’t fast enough to move in and stop her.
She shouted, loud enough that no one in the docks could have helped but hear it.
“Warriors of Felldust! We’re over here!”
She looked back at Thanos in something like triumph.
“It looks as though we’ll have to go with my plan after all, doesn’t it?”
CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN
Stephania smiled in triumph as the others looked at her in shock. Did they really think that they got to decide what happened to her? Did they think that they could just condemn her to a life where her child would be taken from her? When she would be cast aside to be less than nothing?
She would fight off the world rather than let that happen. No one would take what was hers. Not Felldust’s sorcerers, not the nobles of Delos, and certainly not Thanos. She would die before she let that happen.