Page 10 of A Vow of Embers

It could put both me and Io in danger.

I ran my fingers through my too-short hair and then brushed a piece of lint from my black tunic. I wished that I could have put something else on. It wasn’t as if Prince Alexandros hadn’t seen me in this already, but I was sure he would be there in all his finery and I would feel less than.

That thought made me lift my chin. I wasn’t going to allow him to make me feel small. I was a princess of Locris. I was the only Locrian maiden who had won the tribute race. I was an acolyte in the goddess’s temple.

The prince would not have that kind of power over me.

Despite feeling nervous, I also had some hope. Io was responsible for that. I had been overwhelmed, defeated, and she’d given me a way to protect myself and those I cared about. A way to get the things I wanted. She had helped me to rebalance the scales between the prince and me.

The sky had turned a strange color, and a hazy gloom hung in the air around me. As if another eclipse were about to happen. It made me remember when I had been crossing the ocean on theNikos—Ihad explained what an eclipse was to a scared sailor and the prince had asked me if I had studied Aristarchus and his heliocentric model of the universe. I’d been so busy trying to hide my own background and education that it hadn’t occurred to me to ask why a common sailor was also familiar with Aristarchus.

All the signs had been there, pointing to the fact that Jason was not the person he said he was. I’d been so caught up in my own problems and so willing to accept the facade he presented that I hadn’t bothered to dig deeper.

And it had led to my sister being in chains.

Antiope and Maia showed up first, along with a dozen heavily armed guards. I went to speak to Maia but Theano arrived immediately after they did, and I lost my chance to talk to my mentor privately. I could have used her counsel.

“Let’s move,” Antiope said, pulling her sword out.

This was significant, Theano leaving the temple grounds. From what Io had told me, the high priestess never left the temple for any reason.

I followed behind the group and found myself holding my breath as Theano stepped through the gate. I half expected an earthquake or thunderclap to sound when it happened, or for the soldiers to rush over and grab her.

But none of those men moved. There was no fanfare. Just a woman passing under an arch.

Antiope led the group and immediately turned left into the alleyway where I’d kissed Jason.

Alexandros,I silently amended. It was still hard to think of him that way when he had been Jason to me for so long. I had to get accustomed to his new name, though. It felt like if I slipped and accidentally referred to him as Jason out loud, it would be revealing something I wanted to keep hidden.

And he would be too clever to miss the implication.

We hadn’t gone very far when Antiope announced, “This is it.”

My senses stopped functioning. My mouth filled with a bitter taste and I couldn’t feel the ground beneath my feet. There was a high-pitched ringing in my ears and the world turned bright white for a moment as I realized where we were.

I shouldn’t have been surprised that we were in front of the same house that Jason had brought me to the night of the festival. The one he’d “found” a key for and then coaxed me inside, intent on seduction. I had been ready to spend the night with him here.

In both of our nations, men and women did not sleep together unless they were married, something my own parents had taught me. It was easy to blame the honeyed wine for my actions, but a part of me suspected I would have gone through with it even without the wine. I had wanted him that badly, so much so that I had been willing to throw away everything for him—the rules I had learned growing up, the celibacy vow I had taken.

I would have sacrificed everything for him.

And he had been using me.

My cheeks felt hot as I remembered precisely what he and I had done here ... Theano would banish me permanently if she ever found out how close I had come to breaking my vows.

That he owned this house was simply more evidence that he had meant to manipulate me the entire time. We hadn’t happened upon it accidentally. He had planned every step of that evening.

He had chosen this spot intentionally for this meeting. He had brought us here to throw me off balance. Was this meant to be some kind of reminder or a veiled threat?

The anger was choking me. I could taste it, feel it in my gut, spreading into every limb.

I had never hated anyone the way I hated the prince. Hating Ilionians had been more of an abstract thing: They were our enemies and I hated that they were the reason my nation was suffering and my older brother, Haemon, was gone.

But it hadn’t been personal.

This? I felt fury and hatred for the prince in every bone, every muscle, every single fiber of my being.

It couldn’t have been more personal.