“What are you doing?” Radulf seemed as surprised as I had been when he first appeared on the platform. He stepped forward, forgetting our fight. “Nic, how are you doing this?”

“I need that arena floor.” With that, I directed the clouds to pour down their rain, and they obeyed. It was more than I wanted, as usual, but the onslaught of water quickly put out the fires in the arena, leaving great clouds of steam to mix with the rain and suffocate the air around us. Once the last fire went out, I tried to part the clouds and end it, but the storm was still worsening. Thunder rolled above us, echoing in the skies. That frightened me, more than I wanted to admit. I had never wanted the thunder to come.

I ducked as the storm cracked overhead, and my shield protecting Horatio fell with it. Radulf crouched as well, then cried, “Nic, stop this!”

If only I knew the way to stop it. Where there is thunder, lightning follows. Every storm I’d experienced in my life brought with it the thoughts of my father standing on a tall ridge in defiance of Jupiter’s power. But now, Sal’s words filled my head — my father had had magic too. He had faced the lightning, hoping to create a Jupiter Stone, and with it, end the war in Gaul. But he had failed, and died.

Radulf grabbed my shoulders, forcing me to look at him. “Nic, we cannot be out here with the lightning! Send this storm away, now!”

I closed my eyes and willed the clouds to part. Another roll of thunder crossed the sky, and so at first I was sure I had failed, but slowly it faded and I saw sun again. The audience cheered at that, which surprised me. I had forgotten they were here.

Radulf sat back, clearly as relieved as I was. I knew why lightning storms frightened me, but I hadn’t expected him to be afraid as well.

Before he recovered, I stood and called out to his men, who were still standing on their raised blocks, although they were now dripping wet and significantly less godlike than they had been before. “Drop your weapons,” I yelled. “Or they will be eaten out of your hands.”

And I raised both arms, then spread my fingers apart. Obeying my will, the thirty-six lifts from the hypogeum below opened into the arena. Felix had said the animals were still in place from what had originally been planned as a hunt this morning. If the mob had expected a hunt, I would give them one. But the animals would not hunt one another.

Out from the lifts came lions and bears and wild boars. There were also tigers and large black cats, and even an elephant. And because I had the bulla, they would hear me and obey.

“Do not harm any unarmed man in this arena!” I told them.

The animals charged, knocking the blocks out from beneath Radulf’s men and baring teeth in ways that even made me nervous. Weapon after weapon was thrown aside, followed by the men breaking through the north gate of the arena to escape. The animals went with them, every last one. The audience exploded with cheers.

I figured Rome would probably not have another venatio for some time. Mostly because they had just lost every single one of their animals.

And if nothing else went well for the rest of this battle, that alone made me smile.

I kept four animals back, to stay with me in the arena, specially chosen for Radulf, who Valerius had told me was terrified of lions.

Indeed he was, for when he saw them coming, Radulf jumped off the platform and went running for a lift that still had its doors open. Except a familiar face was coming up on that lift, with a long knife at her waist and a bow in her hands. I’d never been so happy to see anyone in my life.

Aurelia jumped onto the arena floor and nocked an arrow aimed directly at Radulf. “Another step closer and you’ll get poked.”

He threw some sort of magic at her, but I had already put up a shield to block it.

“I stand with you, Nic, as an equal!” she said. “This is what friends do!”

“Not here!” I yelled.

“You asked me to stand with you!”

“Symbolically!”

“Can we fight about this later?” she asked.

I smiled over at her. If I won this fight, I would gladly engage in more arguments with her. Radulf was backing away from the lions, but when they began chasing him, he tripped over one of the hidden pipes and fell hard to the ground, unconscious. This was my chance, but I didn’t have long.

I crouched on Radulf’s left side while Aurelia knelt on his right. She used her knife to cut through his tunic, revealing his Divine Star.

“Exactly like yours,” she said.

“Not for long.” I started to lift the bulla off my head. When I pressed it to the mark on his back, the bulla would absorb Radulf’s magic. In minutes, he would be nothing more than a corrupt general fit for the emperor’s dungeon.

“Aurelia, get away from those lions!” Horatio reached down and grabbed Aurelia’s arm, then yanked her back with him.

“They won’t hurt me,” she protested. “Nic would never —”

“He will command those lions to leave,” Horatio said darkly. “Won’t you, Nic?”

I looked up. When he had grabbed his daughter, Horatio had also gotten Aurelia’s knife, which he held to her throat. Despite the fact that Radulf was already stirring, I let the bulla fall back to my chest and then stood with my hands held low, a sign that I would not release any magic. As warm as the bulla was, whatever I tried doing to him might hit Aurelia. Under my breath, I whispered to the lions to go, that the gates were open for their escape.

The audience didn’t like that. They had wanted blood, but I didn’t much care. This was only a game to them. From my perspective, things were far more serious.

Having regained consciousness, Radulf slowly got to his feet and glared at Horatio, still with Aurelia in his grip. With a snarl, he said, “If you could do this to your own daughter, why would I ever trust your loyalty?”

“I can be of use to you, Dominus!”

Radulf yelled, “You lied to me! You did give Nic the key! There’s no other way he could’ve called in that storm!”

“I don’t have it!” I yelled. “Horatio still has the key, and if you harm him, it’s lost forever.”

Horatio shrugged. “You tried to warn me, Nic. The key is not what you think. We both have it now.”

Radulf frowned at him. “That’s all I needed to hear.”

And he threw out something at Horatio. Calling up what little magic I had left, I put up a shield for Aurelia, still in his grip, but couldn’t make it reach Horatio in time. With a brief cry of pain, he crumpled to the ground, instantly dead. Aurelia ran from his clutches into my arms.

“He didn’t even have a chance to fight.” Aurelia was trembling and struggling to breathe. “Just like that …”

She started to turn back to her father’s body, but I put my hands on her shoulders and pushed her toward the open gate of the arena. “Get out of here, where you’ll be safe.”

“What about you?”

“This is my fight. Now run!” And she did.

The audience received Horatio’s death with a mixture of jeers and applause, which was horrifying enough. But at least they had seen Radulf kill one of their own leaders. Now they would have to know that he was no great hero, no one worthy of their praise and affection. If nothing else, that was some victory for me. Nobody would follow Radulf now.

Indeed, I saw Valerius stand again in the imperial box and wave his hands for their silence. When he had everyone’s attention, he called out, “With the death of Senator Horatio, I am now your presiding magistrate, leader of the Senate and of all Praetors of Rome. And as a representative of Emperor Tacitus, I am ordering all Praetors to surround and arrest Senator Horatio’s two murderers: General Flavius Radulf Avitus and the escaped slave, Nicolas Calva.”