Vestal

Rhea Artuso never expected to make it to 18. She never bothered to fall in love or apply for college or learn a skilled trade because she didn't think she'd live long enough for her efforts to matter. But now she's graduated from high school and her parents seem to think that the best method of dealing with their ambitionless firstborn is to ship her to Rome to spend the summer with relatives. Rhea's last memory of Rome is of being buried alive by an angry mob at the age of 17. In the angry mob's defense, she did violate her oath of chastity and there's not much point being a vestal virgin if you aren't in fact a virgin. And she may have allowed the eternal flame to extinguish, which is also considered a major faux pas since her primary responsibility as a virgin priestess was to guard Vesta's eternal flame. She tells herself she would like nothing better than to forgive and forget-which might not be the entire truth because forgiving and forgetting also means forgetting Nesreen, the gladiator she fell in love with and the reason she was no longer a virgin-but she also knows that violating a sacred oath is the sort of crime you don't just pay for once. Who knew who, or what, might be waiting for Rhea in Rome? But slinking through life terrified that someone might uncover your secret isn't exactly a satisfactory way to live. In ancient Rome, Rhea just risked death. In contemporary, civilized society, they'd lock her up and throw away the key if they knew she was a reincarnated "virgin" priestess. Besides, unbeknownst to Rhea, someone already knows her secret. And that someone is determined to help Rhea overcome her fears of the past. Fortunately, that someone also happens to know exactly how to pressure Rhea into accepting her parents' offer. After all, what kind of little sister would Emeline be if she couldn't nag Rhea into returning to a city where she was publicly executed 2,000 years earlier?