Not anymore. But Empress Plotina would have plans of her own. Oh, yes. Titus remembered the strange ripple of her face when he’d confronted her, the dread he had of turning away, as if she might spring onto his unprotected back in one mad leap like a spider. You’re safe, he’d told himself. The Emperor knows the truth now; he won’t listen to any of her poison. And once Trajan is gone, she won’t be Empress anymore. She’ll have no influence in Imperial matters.

He hadn’t counted on Trajan dying. Hadn’t counted on Plotina succeeding, actually being able to buy her protégé the purple.

However she’d pulled it off, it was done. Plotina had made her Dear Publius emperor, and doubtless he’d be grateful for the favor. Titus heard her snarl again in his ear, clear as if she stood an inch behind him. I will see you dead for this.

“Titus?” Faustina’s voice brought him back—that low, sweet-toned voice that could vibrate through his chest like the plucked string of a lyre. “You’re a thousand miles away.”

“Just wondering how Sabina will take it.” He forced a smile after the lie. “Being Empress. Somehow I don’t think it will suit her.”

“It would suit me!” Faustina tried to smile, but her eyes began to fill again. “Gods, I don’t care if Hadrian’s emperor, or my sister’s empress. I don’t care about any of it. Father, Trajan—the two best men in Rome are dead.”

And so am I, Titus thought.

He took a deep breath and said it. The thing he’d come here to say, the thing that had squatted painfully in his throat like a ball of thorns all the way to the Norbanus house. “I can’t marry you, Faustina. Not now. Not ever.”

Her head jerked up and she stared at him.

“You’d be marrying a dead man.” The words came out very flat. “Plotina’s wanted me dead since I exposed her for a thief, and now that Hadrian’s taken the purple she’ll get her wish.”

“That’s absurd!” Color flooded Faustina’s cheeks. “Hadrian doesn’t have any reason to—”

“He’s disliked me since the campaign in Dacia where I showed him up for a fool in front of Trajan.” And for another reason he had no intention of telling Faustina: Plotina had seen Titus that night when he kissed Sabina. She’d have told Hadrian about that by now, certainly, and he wasn’t a man to overlook such a slight. No, the new Emperor had no reason to extend any mercy to Titus.

“Sabina wouldn’t allow it! If she’s the Empress of Rome—”