“How do you know so much?” I ask on a breath.
She continues to hold my gaze, then shrugs a shoulder. “I was taken from a land similar to this one, a magical one.”
“Are you magical? Do you have powers?” I ask.
She smiles softly, then shakes her head. “I do not, but I have seen it, in Bunafi.”
“Would you like to go back one day?” I ask.
The men shout and move around us as they prepare to pull up on shore and dock the ships, but I block all of them out. There is only me and Laurentia right now. Nobody else. She stares at me, her eyes not even blinking as she watches, but she isn’t looking at me, she’s back at home, her home, wherever that is.
“I do not,” she whispers.
“How could you not? You’re a slave here,” I point out, as if she needs the reminder.
She licks her lips, then flicks her gaze down to her feet before she lifts her eyes back up to meet my own. “I have food, a place to live, and I am at your side. There is no position better for me than where I am right now.”
Laurentia says the words, but her voice falls flat as she does. There is something else, but I’m not sure if it matters. She seems pretty set in her words. I want to ask her more, a lot more personal and in-depth questions, but I decide against it.
“What about your family?” I chance asking, deciding this is about as deep as I can get with her. I don’t want to upset her at all.
She clears her throat, shaking her head a couple of times. “They are not of any consequence.”
“How?” I practically shout without thinking.
Her eyes widen and fly up to meet my own. She licks her lips, and I take a step back, opening my mouth to apologize, but she speaks before I can get any words out.
“They sold me to Tiberius’ people,” she whispers. “I am lucky. I have a good life here, very good now that I am useful,” she states.
I hate it for her, I hate it for all of the people that Tiberius claims are slaves. I don’t know how badly they’re treated, Laurentia looks healthy and she has clean clothes, but I really despise that they aren’t free.
“If I can get you to my world, would you go?” I ask.
Her eyes widen and she takes a step back. This is not the first time that I have mentioned this and I have been met with the same type of reaction. She smiles sadly, then shakes her head.
“It is not for me, Empress. I have a wonderful life here and I would not wish to jeopardize any of that.”
“But you are not free,” I whisper.
“I am as free as I wish to be.”
She doesn’t leave the conversation open for anything else, and I don’t ask anything else either. Instead, I shift my gaze toward the land in front of us, as the boats are approaching the beach to be parked, docked, whatever it is, for a while.
Inhaling a deep breath, I close my eyes and I feel it, almost immediately. Magic. Laurentia was right. You can feel the magic. You can taste it, too. It’s sweet, almost like an orange, it’s like sweet candy and I want it inside of me. I want it all over me.
When I open my eyes, I don’t see what I should. The beach is gone, I’m not on the ship anymore, and I gasp.
TIBERIUS
A woman’s scream fills the air. Turning around to look at the ship, I freeze. I see it happening before my eyes, and yet, I cannot believe it. Drucilla disappears right in front of me. She vanishes. I take a step toward her, and then another, but she is gone before I can even reach the ship’s side.
I reach out in vain, knowing she is already vanished. Her famulus screams uncontrollably next to where she had been standing. I jerk my chin to Brutus, who is still onboard, and wraps his hand around the screaming woman’s mouth before he drags her away.
I’m not sure what to do next. I should have allowed the pontifex maximus to come with us. I should have had him cast some kind of spell to ensure that she would stay next to me. It doesn’t take long for Brutus to appear at my side after he’s taken the servi to the other ship and deposited her.
“Where has she gone?” I demand on a growl.
“I could only think of one place,” he murmurs, then turns around and stares at the mountain peak in the distance.
“You don’t think?”
Brutus clears his throat but doesn’t say anything immediately. Brutus isn’t one for things fantastical, he is a realist. What he sees is what he believes and until Drucilla, I felt the same way, now I am not so sure that there isn’t more out there. There is something working that cannot be seen.
“I cannot imagine she would be elsewhere.”
“To her homeland?” I ask.
He shrugs a shoulder. “Possible. Though I believe unlikely.”
I believe unlikely as well, considering we just arrived on the venefica’s land and she disappeared moments later.
“Shall we find her, then?” I ask.
“We shall,” he grunts.
Reaching out to Felix, I call for him, telling him what has happened. He arrives at my side moments later. Brutus’ horse does the same. In just seconds, we have a group of five of my best men on their beasts, and we are headed in the direction of the mountain.
I’m unsure of how long it will take, unsure of the terrain, but we have been through much worse as a group. These are my brothers beside me, the men that have been at my side since I was a boy, the men I have fought beside before I even knew the feel of a woman’s cunnus.
I trust them with my life. With the future of Savona. With everything.
It takes us several days to reach the base of the mountain. We don’t sleep, we barely eat and piss, we are on a mission and that mission is to find my empress. She is the future of Savona, she is mine.
Even if I did not want her, that does not matter as she is tied to me now, she is my property until her last breath. She is also mine to protect. Tugging back on Felix’s reins, I growl at the sight before me.
“We cannot climb this way. It is too steep, not just for the horses, but for us as well,” Brutus needlessly announces.
Making a decision that may not be favorable, but one we all need, I announce that we will be camping out here this evening. We all need the rest, the horses especially, and tomorrow we will decide on a plan of action.
There is reluctance, but in the end they all agree with me and I am again, grateful for the group of men that I have chosen to be at my side in all things, in all battles. It doesn’t take us long to set up camp, Brutus fishes and hunts, bringing back a feast of rabbit, dormice, and two fish.
“You have done too much,” I point out as we sit down to prepare the feast over the fire.
He chuckles. “It is pure selfishness, cousin. I am starving. I knew everyone else would be as well.”
We spend the night eating and drinking with one another and it reminds me of a simpler time, before I was the emperor, when I was simply Tiberius. Although, with these men, I have always been nothing except Tiberius.
“What is it like?” one of my men, Antonio, asks me.
“What is it like?” I play dumb, knowing that he must be referring to Drucilla in some way or another.
He watches me for a moment, then his lips curve up into a grin. “Being chosen by the gods, the prophecy, a woman who has been designed and created just for you?”
I don’t think I had thought about that before, about the fact that she was created solely for me. She was though, just for me. There is nobody else that her body was made for, but to please mine. It should anger me that she gave herself to another before we found our way to one another, but I cannot seem to be bothered by that.
“I do not know yet. I have not had a moment to think about it all,” I confess.
He shakes his head with a smile. A few moments later, we all turn in for the evening, exhausted from the last three days’ ride toward the bottom of this gigantic mountain.
Lying down on my small bedroll, I look up at the sky. The purple stars twinkle in the sky and I can’t help but no
tice that they are the same color as Drucilla’s eyes. A lot in my country matches those orbs of hers and I decide that it must have been done intentionally by the gods themselves.
Closing my eyes, I fall asleep immediately, but not for long.
A chill slides over my entire body and I suck in a gasp as my eyes widen and I try to sit up to grab my gladius. I can’t move. I am frozen to my bedroll and a purple mist surrounds me. I can’t do anything but look straight up into that purple mist.
Chapter Fourteen
DRUCILLA
I let out a scream, but no sound comes out. The world around me slowly fades as I am surrounded by a purple mist. If Laurentia was right, that mist can only mean one thing—witchcraft.
Shit.
Shifting my gaze to where Tiberius is standing, I watch him vanish before my eyes. I try to reach out to him, I call out to him, but not only am I unable to speak, I’m also unable to move. Then everything goes completely dark.
Moaning, I roll onto my back. Opening my eyes, I stare at the dark stone ceiling and push myself up to a seated position. The bed I’m lying on is soft, the room dark and all stone. Standing, I rush toward the door and try to pull it open, when it doesn’t budge, I push. It still doesn’t move.
Lifting my fist in a panic, I bang on the thick wooden door. Nobody comes to my aid, in fact, it’s complete silence inside of this windowless room and outside. My entire body starts to tremble and I take a few stumbling steps backward before I collide with the bed.
My ass sinks down onto the mattress and I tremble.
I’m terrified.
I want Tiberius.
Tears form and I silently beg for them to not fall down my cheeks, but I fail. They fall and when they land on my hands in my lap, they’re purple.
“What the hell?” I breathe.
Just as the words leave my lips, the door swings open. Lifting my head, I blink at the woman standing in front of me. She’s stunning, absolutely beautiful. I don’t know who she is, but her white-blonde hair and green eyes are focused directly on me.
“You are home, Drucilla,” she says, her voice melodic and soft.
“Home?” I ask.
She nods her head, holding out her hand for me. I hesitate taking her offered palm. I don’t know her, I don’t know anything about this world. I do know Tiberius and I know that while he isn’t perfect, he is my husband.
“This is where you belong. It’s where you were meant to be,” she breathes.
Shaking my head, I stay seated. “The prophecy said that I was meant to be with my husband, with my warrior,” I state.
Her eyes narrow and her upper lip snarls. Her beauty fades before my eyes or maybe I am finally seeing her. She takes a step toward me, bending slightly at the waist as her gaze focuses on mine.
“The prophecy will not come to fruition,” she snaps.
“Why? What have these people done to you?” I ask.
She continues to snarl at me, then shakes her head once. “Everything. They have done everything and I will ensure that this prophecy stays undone. Making him unable to love was clearly not enough. Now, we must keep you apart.”
“You made Tiberius unable to love?”
She stands tall, her snarl disappearing as smugness crosses her face. “When he was born. The gods, a specific god, called to me. I knew who Tiberius was deigned to be. I knew he could not love his intended or the prophecy would come to fruition.”
“And this would be bad because?” I ask, trying to stall.
I don’t know what I’m stalling for, but there is a sliver of hope inside of me that Tiberius will crash through this place at any given second. If the woman in front of me senses that I’m stalling, she doesn’t say a word, instead, she continues to talk.
“When the prophecy comes to fruition, my sisters and I won’t be the ones in charge of the world any longer. Your…” She pauses, then snarls again. “Offspring, will be the most powerful beings on this earth. Can you imagine all of that given to a child?”
“What are you going to do to the children?” I whisper.
I don’t know if my sisters have found their men or if they have had children, but it seems like that’s what happens here, immediately. Meet man, have sex with man, marry man, make babies and I have a feeling, like in my story, they don’t happen in any particular order.
“Find them. End them. They are not naturally derived. They are created by the gods and not human.”
I almost laugh—almost. Instead, I stare at her, unbelieving that she is real. That this whole thing could be real. Six months ago, I would have laughed in their face if someone told me this is where I would be, locked in some kind of room staring at a witch in another dimension.
“You won’t get away with it,” I whisper. “If my sisters have babies, they would never give them up, not ever.”
“Not even to save you?” she snorts.
Shaking my head, I stand to my feet, shuffling toward her. “No, not even to save me and do you know why?”
“Do I care?”
I shrug a shoulder, sure that she probably doesn’t, but I decide that I’m going to tell her anyway.
“Because my sisters would know without a doubt that I would want them to save their babies over me. My life doesn’t matter as much as their children’s do. So, whatever you’re trying to accomplish, it will be fruitless.”
I watch as her face turns red with her anger and she takes a step backward, then wordlessly turns around and closes the door behind her. Feeling a bit smugger than I probably should, I smirk, feeling like a victor.
I shouldn’t feel this way, not in the slightest.
What I should feel is terrified that this witch, and what sounds like her witchy friends, are going to do something even bigger than they had originally planned.
Pressing my lips together, I look around and wonder if there is a way to get out of this place. There’s no way out, so unless I can make myself vanish and reappear out of the room, then I’m probably royally screwed.
TIBERIUS
I try to fight my way out of the mist, but I fail. I see a beautiful face looking down at me. She has some of the same features as Drucilla, but it is clearly not her. She smiles, then she licks her lips before she speaks. Her voice is so soft and sweet, my body immediately reacts to it.
“I’m waiting for you, Warrior Tiberius. I want you,” she coos.
My mentula instantly stands at attention just from her words alone. I’m unable to move, but then something happens, I feel her weight against me. Shifting my gaze to the side, I notice that the purple mist still surrounds us.
“Your men cannot see,” she breathes as her hands reach down and she strokes my hardened mentula.
I grunt, lifting my hips as a burning sensation fills my belly. This feels so much like the moments I share with Drucilla, I am confused, but I can’t stop. It is wrong, this woman obviously holds magi and this is not natural, especially the way that she appeared.
But I cannot stop.
When she sinks down along my length, I grab at her clothes and lift them from her body, exposing her nakedness. She drops her head backward as she rides me. I watch. My head telling me that this is wrong, my heart feeling empty, my belly burning, and a need filling me that does not feel right.
She rides, her body lifts and falls, grinding and moving, her breasts bared as she moves. Then she begins to move faster and harder, she lifts her head, her hands shifting and landing hard against my chest, her nails dig into my flesh as her eyes connect with mine.
My breath hitches when she swivels her hips and bucks, her hips jerking. She clamps down around my length and the move causes my release to spill from me. I let out a growl, angry that I have spilled my seed inside a woman who is unworthy of it, a woman that is not my empress.
Lifting my hands, I wrap my fingers around her waist and try to pull her off of me, but she does not move, no matter how forcefully I attempt.
“Venefica,” I hiss.
&nbs
p; She leans down, licking her lips as she moves her hips slowly, milking all of my seed from my body. “Yes, that is what I am and you have just given me your child. You’ve just planted your seed inside of me. It will create a powerful being.”
“You are not my empress,” I grind out, still trying to remove her from my body.
She laughs, her voice no longer that sweet melodic sound, instead, it is hard and causes me to flinch. My mentula grows soft immediately, though she still sits astride me. Clearing my throat, I continue to attempt to pull her off of me, but it does not work.
“Yes, I have her hidden away from here. She will be destroyed once she finds that I have lain with you and I am indeed filled with your heir. She will not wish to be yours and I will transport her back to her homeland.”
“Why?” I grind out.
“Your people have ruined the lives of mine for thousands of years. In this world, not just Savona. It is time your world suffers the way that my people have.”
Shaking my head, I lift my hand and wrap my fingers around the front of her throat. “You will not get away with this. Also, you have no idea how I feel about your kind or the hell that you will bring this entire world if the prophecy does not come to fruition.”
“I do not care,” she snaps.
“I came here to free you and your women,” I rasp.
“It is too late and it matters not,” she says right before she vanishes completely.
Sitting straight up, I lift my hand to wipe the sweat from my chest. I am breathing heavily, my eyes searching around the small campsite, and I am the only one awake. All of the men sleep heavily, slightly snoring in the damp night air. That is, until I hear Brutus grunt.
“What has happened?” he asks as his eyes open and focus on me.
“How did you?”
“Something was not right, it woke me.”
Closing my eyes, I slowly open them and connect to his gaze. “What did you see?” I ask.
Bride of the Emperor (The Prophecy of Sisters Book 4) Page 10