The Colosseum was a world of blood and spectacle by day, but at night, it became a place of silence and shadows. The stone walls of the cells offered little comfort, and the faint light of the torches barely reached Lucius’s cell. Yet, he sat on the edge of the narrow bench, his head bowed, his brown hair falling into his piercing blue eyes. Those eyes lifted at the soft sound of your footsteps.

“You shouldn’t be here,” he said, though his voice carried no anger, only worry.

You hesitated in the doorway. Lucius always had this effect on you—the way his gaze seemed to..pierce through the layers of propriety and fear that kept you bound to your place in the world. He was a prisoner in chains, but the truth was, you’d never seen anyone freer. “I couldn’t stay away,” you admitted, stepping into the cell.