Chapter 5 Names Die, Legends Rise

An abandoned tavern beneath the shadow of the aqueduct. Hidden tunnels once used by rebels from an old war. Messages passed in bread loaves, weapons smuggled in wine barrels, secrets etched into the backs of coins.

Cassia moved like shadow and fire.

Every night she studied the faces of the Senate. The movements of the guards. The rumors of the empress and her general-Livia Corvus, the lioness in crimson, and Marcus Dravus, the man Cassia had once promised to marry.

She said nothing about him to Titus or Selene. Not yet. Love, after all, was a more dangerous poison than hate.

The city changed around her.

Children chalked strange symbols on alley walls-a thorned crown.

Merchants spoke of a woman in black who cursed the rich. Soldiers began to double their patrols, but their eyes held fear.

And in the shadows, rebels gathered.

They didn't know her name.

They called her the Thorned One.

The name spread like fire. A ghost. A rumor. A reckoning.

Titus laughed one night as they listened from a rooftop to two guards speak of the legend. "They say you ride a horse made of bone and drink the blood of the corrupt."

"I prefer wine," Cassia muttered.

"But blood looks better in a poem."

The rebellion grew.

Selene