Page 109 of A Vow of Embers

“About him, notforhim,” I disagreed.

“No,” she said with a shake of her head. “We want your happiness. You weren’t meant to stay at the temple with us. You have been called on to other things. We all know that, even if we don’t say it. The goddesshas plans for you and I think Xander is part of those plans. And I suppose I shouldn’t speak for everyone else, but we all want this for you. And I think, in some secret part of your soul, you want it, too.”

Her words affected me deeply. So much so that I couldn’t show it to her. There was truth in what she’d said and I didn’t want to acknowledge it. So I made light of it instead.

“You’re just caught up in your own bliss and want it for everyone around you,” I said, tugging on her arm so that we could keep walking. I wanted this day to be over. I was going to take a nice, long bath and then go to bed early.

We walked in silence for a little while until she suddenly announced, “Rokh told Xander that he should just bed you.”

I nearly tripped over my own feet before I came to a halt. “What?” Was that why Alexandros had been more physical with me lately?

“Rokh and his brothers agree that you two are madly in love and that if you got all this sexual tension out of the way, then you could work things out.” She said the words with a determined edge, like she was challenging me.

Was it because she wanted that to be an option for herself as well? “Ahyana, we can’t. Our vows.”

“Vows that are supposedly based on laws that you keep showing me are not actually real. I don’t believe that the goddess doesn’t want us to fall in love. I think priestesses should be allowed to love and have families if that is their choice. We should not have to stay celibate.”

I put my hands on her shoulders, wanting her to look at me. I was worried that she would get caught up in something foolish. I agreed with her, but that was not the reality that we currently lived in. I didn’t want her to break the goddess’s law and get buried alive as punishment. “You feel this way because you’ve met someone that you think you could care about.”

She shrugged me off. “It’s more than that. I feel like we’re supposed to be together. He makes me feel complete.”

Again her words struck me. Not just because of her intensity and passion, but because I knew exactly what that felt like.

How different might things have been if the prince and I had been honest with each other from the beginning?

“I just want you to be careful,” I said. She was an adult. She could make her own decisions.

She gave me a big smile. “I will be. I promise.”

As we went into the palace, I figured that I would have to have a serious conversation with Zalira. Maybe she would be able to get through to her sister in a way I couldn’t. Although I didn’t want to burden Zalira right now. She was going through a lot.

We were all a mess.

This might be the reason why the law existed in the first place.

I walked with Ahyana to Io’s room. Io was on her bed with her three-legged cat purring in her lap. “There you are! Did you have fun?”

Ahyana twirled around before she fell back onto her bed. “I had the best time. I think I’m in love.”

That got everyone’s attention and they all started questioning her.

“Give me a moment!” Ahyana said. “I need to get something to drink first because I’m going to be talking for a long time.”

Her words prompted me to share the theory I’d come up with.

“The fountain water from the temple is magic,” I announced, and everyone stopped what they were doing.

“What did you just say?” Zalira asked me.

“I think the water is magic.” I explained to them what had happened that day, how I’d come to that conclusion. “How else do you explain how strong we are? And why would Maia insist that water from the fountain be brought in every day?”

I couldn’t tell whether my adelphia believed me. They hadn’t fought men the way I had, both before and after the temple. I knew that I had become very strong. But they had no basis of comparison like I did.

“How long do you think it would take the water to clear our systems completely?” I asked.

“A day?” Io suggested.

“Then I’ll conduct an experiment. My last drink was two hours ago. Twenty-two hours from now, we’ll see whether I’ve become weaker. What do we have to lose?”