Reckless

Chapter 13 part 4

Ancient Times

POV: Roxanne

"Please, I cannot just stand here and do nothing!" I plead, my voice breaking with the force of the emotions that are stirring up inside of me. I glance between Arsinoe and Drusilla, the rigid and distant Drusilla, her red hair pulled back severely from her face, her black eyes completely bored and disinterested as she looks at me, her lips pursed in displeasure compared to the warmer and approachable face of Arsinoe, her golden eyes round as she takes in my distress. Seeing my leader is completely unmoved by my circumstances, I get down on the ground and kneel before her, forehead pressed to the ground, hands knitted together as if in prayer in front of me, as I say through my tears, "Please, let me go to my sister. Let me save her from the wrath of the Romans."

"Get up," Drusilla snarls, nudging me with her sandaled foot. I slowly raise my face from the ground and look at her. She arches a brow at me in a challenging gesture when I do not immediately leap to my feet. I slowly scramble to stand as she snaps at me, "What good would it do if you set out to your sister now?" I open my mouth to say something, but she holds up a hand for me to stop as she hisses, "By the time you got there, your sister will already be dead and so will her daughters. When you show up, they might just remember that she had a sister and then you will be dead. A witch with great promise at the start of her life, lost over nothing. I cannot abide such a waste of raw magical talent."

"She's my sister," I object, desperate to convince her to let me go. "I do not care if I get there too late; if I do not even try to do something, I will never be able to live with myself. I will carry that guilt with me for the rest of my life. I need to at least try to save them, even if it is a fool's errand. If I do not try and I live forever, what good will I be then when I cannot even recognize myself?"

"I forbid it," Drusilla shouts, and I flinch back at the overt display of her erupting anger. Her face is stained pink, showing the depth of her anger at me, as she says, "If you even try to go there and defy my orders, I will cut you down. I cannot abide insubordination. If one witch steps out of line and gets by with it, all witches will soon follow. And with the rumors of someone trying to create myths into reality, start with vampires, I need all of my witches in line." She leans in and snarls, "When you chose immortal life, you chose a new family. What difference does it make if Boudicca dies today or in twenty years? You will lose her no matter what. It is time to move on."

Drusilla turns heel and stomps away from me, leaving me standing in the stone room, the heat from the torches mounted on the walls making me feel even more sick as I stand there, realizing that there is nothing I can do to save to save my family. Desperate, I turn my attentions to Arsinoe and whisper, "Can you do nothing to help?"

Arsinoe's eyes line with tears as she holds out her empty hands and says, "I have no more magic that I can give in a war effort. All I can promise you, Aoibhe, is this: if your sister or her daughters can make it to Egypt, I will get them to safety. I will protect them and give them a new life. But that's all I can do. What happens to them is up to the gods now."

I sniffle, wiping my nose with the sleeve of my tunic as I mutter, "I hope your gods are more forgiving than my gods. It has not been my experience that the Celtic or Roman gods are forgiving in any sense. They have spared no one from any of the horrors that have come. I doubt they will start now with someone they would consider so insignificant."