AD 64

Freed from the games, champion gladiator Leonidas faces the corruption and challenge of Ancient Rome with Cassia, a scribe, at his side.

Leonidas swears he sees his deceased friend, the gladiator called Xerxes, alive and well in Rome. But it is the festival of Lemuria, when malevolent spirits need to be appeased, so the man might be a ghost, following Leonidas for reasons of its own.

As Leonidas struggles to discover the truth about the apparition, he uncovers details of Xerxes's past that he'd rather not know, ones that pose danger to him and Cassia in the present.

Leonidas now wonders if he ever truly knew his closest friend, and what terrible secrets he is about to uncover.