The Tyrant's Tomb

“You’ve seen him?”
“Just sensed him. He’s got his reasons for staying away. Doesn’t like the
Romans. He’s working on a plan to help the local nature spirits.”
“And…if that plan is to help them run away?”
In the diffused gray light of the fog bank, Meg’s glasses looked like her
own tiny satellite dishes. “You think that’s what he wants? Or what the
nature spirits want?”
I remembered the fauns’ fearful expressions at People’s Park, the dryads’
weary anger. “I don’t know. But Lavinia—”
“Yeah. She’s with them.” Meg shrugged one shoulder. “The centurions
noticed her missing at morning roll call. They’re trying to downplay it. Bad
for morale.”
I stared at my young companion, who had apparently been taking lessons
from Lavinia in Advanced Camp Gossip. “Does Reyna know?”
“That Lavinia is gone? Sure. Where Lavinia went? Nah. I don’t either,
really. Whatever she and Peaches and the rest are planning, there’s not much
we can do about it now. We’ve got other stuff to worry about.”
I crossed my arms. “Well, I’m glad we had this talk, so I could unburden
myself of all the things you already knew. I was also going to say that you’re
important to me and I might even love you like a sister, but—”
“I already know that, too.” She gave me a crooked grin, offering proof
that Nero really should have taken her to the orthodontist when she was
younger. “ ’S’okay. You’ve gotten less annoying, too.”
“Hmph.”
“Look, here comes Reyna.”
And so ended our warm family moment, as the praetor reemerged from
the station, her expression unsettled, her greyhounds happily circling her
legs as if waiting for jelly beans.
“The place is empty,” Reyna announced. “Looks like everybody left in a
hurry. I’d say something cleared them out—like a bomb threat, maybe.”
I frowned. “In that case, wouldn’t there be emergency vehicles here?”
“The Mist,” Meg guessed. “Could’ve made the mortals see anything to
get them out of here. Clearing the scene before…”
I was about to ask Before what? But I didn’t want the answer.
Meg was right, of course. The Mist was a strange force. Sometimes it
manipulated mortal minds after a supernatural event, like damage control.
Other times, it operated in advance of a catastrophe, pushing away mortals