Chapter 9: The Ides of March
Maeve awoke to an empty bed, the sheets still warm from where Caesar had lain. Dread churned in her stomach as she hurriedly dressed, her bare feet padding against the marble floors as she rushed to the Senate.
She arrived just in time to hear the screams.
The great hall was filled with chaos. Senators fled in every direction, their togas stained with blood. And there, at the foot of the statue of Pompey, lay Julius Caesar. His body was riddled with wounds, his once-proud form slumped against cold stone. Blood pooled around him, seeping into the cracks of the marble.
Maeve's knees buckled, a strangled sob escaping her lips.
She pushed through the crowd, her hands slick with his blood as she cradled his face. His once-vibrant eyes were dull, staring at something beyond her, beyond this world.
"Julius…" she choked out, rocking his lifeless body against hers.
A hand touched her shoulder—Antony, his face stricken with grief. "Maeve, we must leave," he urged. "It is not safe here."
But safety meant nothing anymore.
Nothing meant anything anymore.
Maeve pressed her lips against Caesar's forehead, her silent goodbye as grief hollowed out her soul.
The man she loved was gone.
And with him, so was she.
The world moved around her in a blur. She did not eat, she did not sleep. Days passed, perhaps weeks, yet time held no meaning.
Antony tried to offer comfort, but there was no comfort to be found. The fire that had once burned within her had been extinguished the moment she saw Caesar's lifeless body.
And she had no desire to rekindle it.
One evening, she slipped away, her feet carrying her to the highest balcony of the villa. Below, the city of Rome bustled, its people oblivious to the anguish tearing her apart.
She had once dreamed of freedom. But what was freedom without him?
Maeve stepped onto the ledge, the wind tugging at her hair. She closed her eyes, the last words Caesar had ever spoken to her echoing in her mind.
"I have loved you in ways I have never loved before."
With a final breath, she let herself fall.
And for the first time since his death, she felt free.