He froze as he balanced above her, his startled gaze locked with mine.The top of Cleopatra’s head was barely visible beneath him… and her leg was wrapped around his naked hip. His wide grin mocked me and my eyes instantly flew to the floor while color exploded into my cheeks, mortified by barging into such an intimate moment. It was clear that they were making up.
“I’m sorry… so sorry.I’ll just be… out here.”
I backed out as quickly as I could, dropping into a chair in her seating area.I wished I could just melt into the floor or drop into a gaping hole or something.I couldn’t remember the last time I had felt so humiliated.It was worse than the time I had killed my car at a red-light in Pasadena right after flirting with a carful of hot guys next to me… worse than the time I had lost my balance on the diving platform and had tumbled into the water before my race even began- and that had been in front of a huge crowd.This was much, much worse.
I nervously bounced my leg as I waited, trying to make my face cool down and return to its normal color. I was so not looking forward to looking Antony in the face when they eventually emerged.I got up and restlessly began straightening up the already spotless room, trying to occupy myself while I waited.
A half hour or so later, Antony emerged with a self-satisfied smile plastered on his handsome face. His hairline was damp and mussed and his face was flushed as he adjusted the pleats on Egyptian-style kilt.He looked back up at me in amusement, noticing that I was trying to avoid his eyes.
“What’s the trouble, Charmian?It’s nothing you haven’t seen before!”
He laughed as he crossed the room and I felt my face once again explode into flame.
“Yep, I’ve still got it!”He gloated as he swaggered out of the room.
I wanted to laugh, but didn’t as I remembered the reason that I had come here in the first place. The dreadful, horrible, startlingly serious reason.I took a deep breath and walked toward the bedchamber, but stopped as Cleopatra stepped into view.
“Charmian?”She lingered in the doorway, naked as the day she was born.“Can you summon a house-girl? I need hot water brought up for my bath.”
“I bet you do,”I grumbled as I turned to obey her request.
“What was that?”she asked, surprise evident on her face.She might not have heard the words, but she had certainly heard the inflection.
“Nothing, my queen…I’m just sure you need a bath.”She smirked, in a smug expression not unlike Antony’s, but I continued on in a rush.“I do need to speak you, though.About something… important.It is why I rushed in here as I did.”The smirk quickly disappeared from her face as she stared at me.
“What is it?”
Her voice was tight and she was frozen in place, as though she knew I was about to reveal something earth-shattering. The delicate henna scrolls that curved across her shoulder blades shimmered in the light.
“We should sit,”I advised softly, grasping her bare arm and guiding her toward her bed.I draped a dressing gown around her slender shoulders and then sat gingerly next to her.
I spent the next twenty minutes explaining the Order of the Moirae, my role as Keeper and our current predicament… praying the entire time that the priest’s counsel was as infallible as normal and that we were doing the right thing.
I wasn’t sure exactly what would happen to me if he was wrong.I was breaking an oath by spilling our secrets.But honestly, what was the worst that could happen?We only had a week more to live in this life.I had to trust that when we were reborn, her memories would be wiped clean, just as mine always were.
When I was finished speaking, her face was entirely devoid of color as she stared at me.
“No…”her voice trailed off as she stared out the window past me, her hands shaking as she twisted them restlessly in her lap.
“Yes,”I confirmed needlessly.I had left out a few details, however, such as the fact that she was fated to live a tragic life every time.There was no reason to trouble her with that.
“Every word I spoke was the truth.In this life, you are meant to lose Egypt.I’m sorry, my queen, it is just the way it is meant to be.But everything will work out in the end.You just aren’t able to imagine it right now.”
She stared at me once more, her dark eyes bleak.
“What have I ever done to offend the gods so much?”she murmured painfully.
“You’ve done nothing wrong, Cleopatra,”I replied.“There is a plan for life, a gigantic master plan, and this is just one of your parts in it. We’re all players in a huge production and Egypt, right now, is your stage.”
“But I will lose it.Egypt will slip from my grasp.”
I nodded slowly.
“What about the children?”she whispered.
Icy fingers wrapped around my stomach and squeezed, stealing my breath.I couldn’t tell her that Octavian would eventually have Caesarion, her oldest son, killed.There was no way she would follow-through with anything if she had that knowledge.I steeled myself to lie. With a perfectly calm voice, I answered.
“They will be fine,”I assured her.“Octavian will take care of them in his own home.”
And he would.He would raise her twins, Selene and Ptolemy, and marry them off into good marriages. But he would have Caesarion killed for the simple reason that they shared the same father… Julius Caesar.Since Octavian was only the adopted son of Caesar, it was too threatening for him to risk having Caesarion challenge him as Caesar’s rightful heir.None of this I could mention to Cleopatra, of course.