Chapter 13

NEPTUNE

It had been a long time since I'd been this excited to visit Rome, but seeing Bo's face light up every time I told her something about the city that wasn't in the books she'd read, was something else. Though I was also surprised by just how much knowledge she'd already procured. She'd certainly done her homework on the places the cruise was stopping.

"Where are we?" she asked, looking around the park in front of us and trying to tell.

"The Circus Maximus," I responded. "Or what's left of it."

She frowned and I could see her trying to recall what it had been used for. I almost supplied the information for her, but after hours of walking around Rome with her, I knew better than that. She liked being able to remember things herself.

"The chariot racing," she said finally.

I nodded. "This was the first stadium of its kind in Ancient Rome, and it had space for tens of thousands of spectators."

"And now it's grass," she said.

"And some ruins." I pointed to where the remains of some of the stands stood in front of us.

"Is it not weird?"

"Is what not weird?"

"Seeing the ruins of a place that you knew. You said you raced chariots at one point, did you do that here?"

I nodded and held out my arm for her.

She took it without hesitation and let me guide her around.

"This is where we used to enter the stadium," I said when we came to a stop under what used to be a grand archway. "We'd ride out on our chariots and the race would start. We can walk around the circuit now."

"We should."

I started to retrace my steps, almost able to hear the nickers of the horses and smell the stench of sweat, leather, and metal that always seemed to fill the air at these events. More sounds followed, the sickening crunch of wood when a chariot broke, the cries of fallen charioteers. And most of all, the cheers of the crowd. The memories might be distant, but there was something about them that still lingered.

"Sometimes it feels strange," I said to answer her original question. "This place is oddly peaceful now, at least compared to when I first knew it. The Roman crowds were known for being particularly bloodthirsty."

"Were they as bad as the history books suggest?" Bo asked.

"Much worse." I came to a stop. "Chariot races were dangerous, especially for the drivers, but the gladiator fights were worse. They'd end in death, more often than not. And if they didn't, sometimes the crowd would call for someone to die anyway. People were disposable, and no one cared."

"It sounds like you cared," she said softly.

"Now I can see it for what it was, I do. But at the time, I don't think I gave it much thought. When I first started racing here, I was immortal, but not a god. I even raced under my own name. I suspect that's probably part of how I managed to become a god."

She raised an eyebrow. "Because you rode a chariot?"

"Oh, definitely. People always had their favourites. Chariot drivers, gladiators, musicians. It's the same now. It's just a lot safer to compete in a race or to enter a competition where the point is to beat your opponent."

"Did any of the other gods compete against you?" she asked. "Or as a gladiator?"

"I'm sure they did, I can't have been the only reckless youngster to have gained immortality around that time, but I don't know who," I admitted.

We fell into comfortable silence as we continued to walk around the park that covered ancient tracks. It was strange to be here. I wasn't sure what had made me come back, it wasn't somewhere I normally came.

My gaze slipped to the beautiful woman beside me, her black hair tied in a neat braid down her back and the sunhat obscuring part of her face.

Bo was why I'd come back here. I'd wanted to show her this. To share a part of me that normally stayed hidden away.

"Why are you telling me all of this?" Bo asked, as if she'd read my thoughts. "Don't get me wrong, I'm glad you are, I like getting to see all the different parts of you, it's just that...well, some of this doesn't really reflect well on you. Why would you want me to know about it?"

I should have expected the question, especially when I'd been thinking about it myself. "Because I want to," I said simply.

"Is this where you add something corny that you've never told anyone any of this before?" It was hard to tell if she was fishing or if she was teasing me, but the answer remained the same regardless of that. She deserved the truth.

"I've told people before," I answered. "Not many, but some. But that's not to say that I don't think you're special."

Bo smiled at me. "I know you're not saying that. You've already told me you consider yourself to have been in love dozens of times. Are they the people you told?"

"Some of them," I responded. "Others I never got a chance to before it ended."

"And yet you've told me and we've barely known each other for a week," she pointed out.

I shrugged. "Sometimes, people meet and they just click. Have you never had that before?"

"I suppose." She lifted her hand up to touch the leaves of a passing tree. "I always felt like my childhood best friend was one of those people. We were connected from the moment we first met. And you. I feel that way about you."

Relief filled me at the words. I'd thought that was how she'd been feeling, and from some of the conversations we'd had, it certainly seemed as if it was, but I hadn't wanted to assume anything, especially when she was right about us barely knowing one another. Except that wasn't true. I felt like she already knew me deeply. "I feel that way about you too. Kindred spirits, or something like that. I'm not really sure, you'd have to ask one of the fate gods."

"You said that it happened to you before?" she asked.

"Yes."

"When was the last time?"

"Oh, now you're asking. I think around the turn of the century."

"You're over two thousand years old. You're going to have to be more specific than that." Bo's amusement came through her voice.

"Oh, right. Turn of the twentieth century. I met a man who died a few years after the outbreak of World War One. I was devastated."

She raised an eyebrow. "Were you together?"

"No. He was just a friend." A sad smile came to my face as I remembered him.

"What was his name?"

"Emilio." I didn't even think about not telling her. There was no reason not to. He'd been gone a long time, even if I'd never forgotten him.

"You didn't have to think about that," she said.

"Do you have to think about the names of the people you've been close with?" I asked.

"I suppose not, but I've been alive a lot less time."

"I can remember their names as if I last saw them yesterday," I said. "Other people I've interacted with, not so much. Don't ask me what Caesar was like, I barely remember."

"So I passed some test that Caesar failed?" she joked.

I laughed. "I guess you did. I never thought about it like that."

"I'd say that's something I can use to impress people in the future, but let's face it, no one is actually going to believe me unless they happen to know you."

"Probably not," I agreed. "Some people even don't believe me when I say I've met some historical figures."

"Like who?"

"Oh, Scorpus. He was a famed charioteer, he rode to victory here many times. But no one seems to believe me that I met him."

"Did you race against him?" she asked.

"I did. The first time he beat me, I sulked for a month. It was only afterwards that I realised he needed the win more than I did. I was racing to prove I was the best, he was racing for his freedom." From her blank expression, I could see that context was lost on her. "Most of the drivers in those races were slaves."

"Oh." She looked around the ruins of the stadium. "Did he ever get his freedom?"

I nodded. "He won enough races and earned enough money to buy his way to freedom."

"I didn't even realise that was possible."

"It was surprisingly common in Ancient Rome, there were laws about it. But they were complicated and I can't remember the ins and outs of them."

"That's okay, I can just find a book about it."

"Do you want to read about it?"

She nodded. "I always want to know more. About the places I visit, the food I eat, the things I learn."

"The gods you meet?" I teased.

She let out a light laugh. "Yes, them too. Though one thing I've learned about gods is that they have far more interesting things to tell me than the history books do."

"I'm glad I can feed your need for knowledge. Is that what you read most? Non-fiction?"

She nodded. "I know it's dull..."

"It isn't dull," I assured her quickly.

"People say fiction is more fun. And I do like fiction too, but nothing beats non-fiction written by someone who loves the subject."

"Always books?" I asked.

"Books were the only way I could travel and learn before I started working with Mei," I said. "So then it was always books. Now I try to visit at least one museum whenever I'm in a new city. Though I think they're going to be ruined for me now I've walked around Rome with someone who lived the history."

I wanted to tell her that I could take her to other places, show her the ones I knew, and introduce her to people who had known the others, but I bit my tongue. We needed a bit more time before I made that kind of bold statement, even if I wanted it to be our reality now.

We continued to walk around the park, talking about memories, history, and all of the things that made it up, and the only thing I could really think was that I could spend years talking to Bo about these things. Not just my own history, but the things she'd learned too.

I just needed to figure out if that's what she wanted, and how I could make it a reality.