It was the most I’d ever heard her say in all the years I’d observed her.

“We should get down to business.” She arranged herself briskly on a padded stool. “Officially I’m dining with my sister Cornelia and her husband, which gives me only a few hours. Domitian still tracks my comings and goings.”

I closed my mouth with a snap. She was a conspirator, too? Domitian’s marble-perfect wife with her emeralds and her good works? The Empress?

Paulinus looked as if someone had just whacked him right between the eyes. Arius’s gaze flicked back and forth between her and me as if drawing comparisons. And Marcus kissed her cheek with the ease of an old friend.

“The usual precautions?” she asked him.

“The usual. I’m supposed to be dining with Lady Diana; we’ve been friends for years, so no one will question it.”

“Yes, Diana will cover for you.” The Empress cast a glance at all of us. “Are they trustworthy, Marcus?”

“What about you?” I stepped forward. “Are you trustworthy, Domina?”

Marcus spoke as formally as if addressing the Senate. “The Empress and I have been working together since Lady Julia’s death, Thea.”

“Then why isn’t the Emperor dead yet?” Arius folded his arms across his chest. “I decide I want a man dead, I don’t wait around six months to do it.”

“See here,” Paulinus began.

“No, he’s right to ask.” Marcus looked at my lover. “The Empress and I took some time feeling each other out—neither of us being terribly trusting.”

“Normally I would prefer to work alone.” The Empress’s fine patrician voice was matter-of-fact. “But I realized it would take more than me to bring down Domitian.” She looked at me, speculative. “I did consider recruiting you, my dear, but I wasn’t sure if Domitian had cut all your nerve out or not. He has a tendency to do that with his women.”

He hadn’t done it to her.

She looked around our little circle. “Is everyone satisfied now?”

Paulinus rubbed a hand through his hair. “Before we go any further,” he said unhappily, “I want to make one thing clear. I won’t do it myself. I’ll smooth the way for you, but I won’t do it. Not if it’s poison, not if it’s a knife.” Looking away. “I owe him that much.”

“We don’t expect it of you,” the Empress assured him.

Arius looked disgusted, and I nudged him. He wasn’t disposed to like Paulinus, probably because he knew I’d once shared Paulinus’s bed. “In another lifetime,” I’d assured him. “I hardly remember it.”

“Don’t think much of your taste,” Arius had grumped.

“And your bed was empty all those years you mourned for me?” I said tartly. He’d at once found something else to talk about.

We sat down, awkwardly, to plan the death of an Emperor. That is, Arius and Paulinus and I were awkward. Marcus and the Empress were quite at ease—and at once, they turned to Arius.

“As an assassin, you are the logical choice,” said Marcus. “Are you willing?”