Agrippina sighed and turned her head back to gaze at me.
“He was such a complex man. Always letting on like he was less capable than he really was, I never understood why. Regardless, the important thing to understand is that of all the languages I understand, Etruscan is the one he personally taught me. Few men can speak it, you know, but I believe you know another. Marcus Varus. He’s the one unconscious on the floor there by the door.”
My heart skipped a beat. How could she know it was Varus who lay crumpled at Santino’s feet? It was too dark and she had been facing away from us when we had come in. I opened my mouth to speak, but she pressed a long, slender finger against my lips. Her fingernails were well groomed, and her skin smelled of fresh flowers.
“Not yet, Jacob Hunter. You may speak soon, but first you must understand that I know a great many things about both you and the orb. The past four years have opened my eyes to a great many wonders, most beyond description. I have learned how glorious a tool the orb can be, but also how dangerous it is. It can have a powerful effect on the mind. Some are strengthened by its power while others are corrupted by it. Only time will tell which.”
She looked down longingly and took my hand in her own. “You are drawn by it. It calls to you, beckoning you to use it. I know this because I feel it too. I have experienced its longing for the past four years, and when I imagine your separation from it, I feel a great sadness. You see, we share a bond, you and I. The orb speaks to us. It is something not even you and your Amazon can share.” She paused a moment and drew my hand to her knee, gliding it smoothly along her thigh so that it rested against her hip. She scooted closer, if that was even possible. “I came here to see if you still had a connection with the orb and… with me. It fills me with such joy to learn that you still do.”
“You came…?” I started, but she cut me off.
“Yes. I came here for you. I want to help you. I want you to help me. To use the orb together and make Rome everything it was meant to be and more. We can do great things, you and I.”
I felt a distinct soreness in my eyes, a burning sensation that meant I hadn’t blinked in quite some time. I squeezed them shut and wondered what had brought on such a trance, knowing It wasn’t Agrippina. There was nothing sexual about her current demeanor at all, despite obvious contradictions to the contrary. I looked at my hand pressed firmly against her shapely thigh and felt nothing at the sensation. I had touched Helena in that manner hundreds of times, each as exciting as the last, but I felt nothing now. I looked into Agrippina’s eyes, and failed to feel the slightest urge to lean in and kiss her. I suspected in that moment that Agrippina felt the same.
There was something oddly off about the whole scenario. It almost felt like she was right, like we did share some kind of bond. I glanced at the orb and glared at it. There sat a perfectly good rationale in of itself. I pulled my hand away from Agrippina’s leg and pressed it against my temple, trying to think as I squeezed my eyes even tighter.
After a moment, I rose to my feet, pulling away from Agrippina, her hand still lazily attached to my own. She wasted no effort keeping me close, but clung to me until I was too far away for her to hold on. I felt disoriented and nauseous, so much so that I almost fell down the steps but a sudden adrenaline surge steadied me. My mind started to clear and Agrippina’s spell, or whatever it was, faded away.
The orb’s blue glow dimmed.
I sheathed my boot knife and retrieved my rifle from behind my back. I held it out in front of me and straightened my posture as well as I could. I felt drained, and my head was still swimming in confusion, misunderstanding and sudden fatigue. It took everything I had left to even look at Agrippina.
“I said no more games,” I said breathlessly. “Stay where you are and I won’t hurt you, but that orb is coming with me.”
Agrippina frowned and reached around to caress her burned behind. “So you’ve chosen that path then.” She sighed and looked away. “Unexpected, but if that is your choice, there is something else I wish you to know.”
I looked down at her warily. “What?”
She met my gaze, her deep blue eyes sparkling in malice and a type of cruel enjoyment.
“I want you to know that just prior to the battle outside of Rome four years ago, I issued a bounty for your Amazon.”
“What?” I asked, not completely understanding.
She blinked innocently. “I offered five thousand sestertii to whoever brought me her head. At the time, I didn’t even know why, really. Silly decisions like that come to you when you are young, I suppose.”
“You… you…” but no words came to me. My head swam again and, this time, I succeeded in stumbling down the stairs. I managed to keep my footing but a sharp pain in my chest doubled me over in pain as realization of her words hit me. I held myself up with my hands on my knees and fought off the anger building inside me, demanding my body cooperate and allow me to breathe again.
I failed, and a mental image of Helena’s severed head popped into my mind. Her mouth hung lifelessly ajar and her green eyes were aimed at the sky, without color and dripping with blood. I smacked my temple with the palm of my hand, trying to forget the image ever existed, and yelled out like a man possessed — completely failing to maintain my demeanor.
She had all but killed Helena herself. On that already bloody day, not a single enemy Praetorian would have passed up the opportunity to cash in on Agrippina’s lucrative reward. Helena’s death had been a guaranteed thing, and only through the grace of God, had she survived. She had been no more than a mere pawn in Agrippina’s sick and twisted game of life, a game with no moral boundaries, common sense or consequences. A game where people died on a whim. Her whim.
Nothing prepared me for the hatred, the pure evil vehemence that course through my veins like the mightiest of rivers in that moment. Not the death of my mother, the bloodshed that sparked World War III, the sense of frustration over marooning us in Rome, or the feelings of guilt over failing to protect the woman I love all those years ago.
Agrippina’s naked form gazed down at me calmly. I stared at her with tear stricken eyes as I shouldered my rifle with a shaky hand, chambered a round, flicked off the safety, and shifted my aim towards her stomach. In that moment, if I was going to kill her, I would ensure it was long and painful. I paused, allowing the fact she was going to die seep into every synapse in her brain, but she didn’t even seem to care. She just sat there, exposed for all to see; convinced she sat in control of everything.
“Every game has an ending,” I choked, looking into sultry blue eyes I could barely see. “And yours is over.”
I pulled the trigger.
Three rounds of deadly vengeance seemed to crawl towards Agrippina as they cut through the air. The concept of time no longer held sway over reality as it once did and I could almost see the distortion of air around each bullet as they sliced through the air at a leisurely pace.
That’s when I noticed that the bullets would miss.
My mind was overclocked, racing so furiously that I didn’t even notice how my aim had faltered. Somehow, a previously unknown assailant had pushed my rifle to the side milliseconds before I had fired, angling my shots to hit Agrippina’s bed sheets a few inches from her thigh. My attacker then came at me in a dive from a location I had previously thought empty, his momentum and mass hitting me with such force that we tumbled deep into the room. Time began to progress normally again and I rose to my feet, slinging Penelope around to my back and got a good look at my attacker.