Gilded Serpent by Danielle Jensen (top 10 novels txt) 📕

to do this. I know your heart, Lydia, and if I let Mudamora burn in order to be with you, you won’t just despise me for it. You’ll despise yourself.”

No one on Reath understood her like he did. But it wasn’t fair that to be true to themselves, they had to be apart.

“You are my heart.” His hands curled around the sides of her head, his tears falling to mix with her own. “And I will love you until my dying breath, that I swear to you. But you have to let me go.”

There were no words in any language that could convey the emotions in her chest, so she lifted up on her toes and kissed him. Felt him flinch, and then his grip on her tightened and the kiss deepened. Her lips parted, her knees shaking as his tongue chased over hers, her shattered heart throbbing as he pulled her against him. As she pushed the strength of her mark into him, vanquishing injury and exhaustion, hoping that he’d feel her with him through this.

That he’d know she’d never give up on him.

“Hate to break this up, but time’s a-ticking,” Agrippa said, and Lydia tried not to sob as Killian relaxed his hold on her. As he stepped away.

“Baird’s got the chains,” he said. “When you’re ready.”

Nodding, Killian wiped at his face, then strode to where the giant was standing next to their packs, manacles and lengths of chains held in one hand.

“Baird’s going to take you to an abandoned farmhouse about two miles from Helatha,” Agrippa said to her in Cel. “You wait there until we come with the Queen, and then we’re going to hightail it to Mudamora.”

She didn’t answer.

“He might get out, okay?” Agrippa scrubbed a hand through his hair. “Bastard’s got a lucky horseshoe shoved up his ass, I swear it.”

“What is it that they teach you at Campus Lescendor about luck?” she murmured, staring at Rufina’s fortress—at the Pit.

He coughed, then cleared his throat. “To make our own.”

“If you betray Rufina, she’ll never stop hunting you,” she said. “She needs to die.”

“We’ve been through this, Lydia,” Agrippa said. “This is the only sure way to get Malahi free, and for Killian, that’s the priority over killing Rufina.”

“What if we can do both?”

Curiosity blossomed in his eyes. “I’m listening.”

“Are you familiar with the sacking of Hypaxe in Denastres Province?” she asked, naming one of the more famous victories in Celendor’s history, one won by guile rather than brute force. The Denastrian king had taken several influential Cel hostages and threatened to kill them if the legions didn’t pull out of the area surrounding the city. The legatus in command sent an offering to the gates on the condition that one of the hostages be released, a gift of food and drink, fabrics and spices, all of it carried in by dozens of young boys, their indentures included in the offering. Little had the Denastrians known that the boys were all students from Campus Lescendor. During the night, the boys freed the prisoners, helping them escape over the walls into the arms of the legion waiting below. The next morning, the legions sacked Hypaxe, leaving no survivors. And when that legatus returned to Celendrial in triumph, it was those boys who held the chains of the Denastrian king.

“Everyone in the Empire knows that story,” Agrippa said. “But Killian’s an obvious danger, even in chains. She’s not going to let her guard down around him, that’s why Baird and I are going to rescue Malahi.”

“I know,” Lydia said. “But she will let down her guard around me.”

 98MARCUS

The sun overhead was merciless in its heat, and by the time they reached the Forum, Marcus was drenched with sweat, the effort of driving the blasted chariot greater than if he’d been marching alongside the boys of the Fifty-First.

Dropping the reins, he stepped out of the back of the chariot and fell into step next to Wex, it requiring too much of his self-control not to look over his shoulder at Teriana, who walked with Austornic. Her face betrayed no emotion, but her eyes were violent swells of inky black, betraying her terror over what was to come.

Climbing the steps where he’d watched his men put Cassius into power, Marcus stepped under the shade of the portico and then into the Curia itself. The halls were nearly empty, the Senate in session, and his palms turned to ice as they approached the golden doors leading to the chamber that contained the most important men in the Empire. And though it wasn’t his chief concern, Marcus couldn’t help but wonder if this time, his father would actually be seated in their ranks.

Wex paused, turning around. “Teriana, you will have to wait outside. Austornic will stay with you.”

And though he knew he shouldn’t, Marcus looked over his shoulder, his eyes locking on hers. I’ll see this through, he silently promised her. To whatever end.

She gave the slightest of nods, then Austornic was tugging her over to one of the benches lining the hallway, more of the young legionnaires surrounding them and blocking her from Marcus’s view. Which was just as well. He needed to focus on the challenge at hand.

The doors swung open, the golden dragon splitting down the middle to reveal a narrow corridor between the tiered bleachers. On the opposite side of the open space was a dais holding an empty golden chair. And looming above it towered a painted map of not just the Empire, but all of Reath.

“Commandant Wex of Campus Lescendor,” the speaker announced. “And Legatus Marcus of the Thirty-Seventh Legion.”

Striding into the open space, both he and Wex came to a stop in front of the dais, a quick scan revealing that while the bleachers were packed full of senators, Cassius was not among them.

“The consul is delayed, Commandant,” said a legionnaire with a 29 stamped on his armor. “He had other pressing matters to attend to.”

“I’ve no doubt,” Wex answered, then he stepped closer