Page 121 of A Vow of Embers

My stomach heaved, my throat burned. I wanted to cry but would not. He did not deserve any more of my tears. He had told me from the beginning who he truly was. A philanderer who moved from one woman to the next. Why did I expect better from him?

Xander had saved my life. He had made me believe that he cared about me. That I mattered to him.

Last night had obviously been some kind of aberration. He had seemed so protective and kind.

And I had been fooled so easily again.

I let out a short, bitter laugh. I’d been worried about him using those passageways and I shouldn’t have been. He was happy to meet with his mistress publicly, where everyone could see him.

Fidelity was important to me. I would demand it from someone I loved. I didn’t care what the Ilionians thought about marriage. I would have a man who was faithful to me.

Not one who made promises to me and then kissed another.

I’d been foolish enough to harbor a secret hope that something might work out between us, but that was entirely gone now.

I would never give him this kind of power over me ever again.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

The next morning I lay in bed as he moved around the room. I had stayed up all night, determined to not fall asleep and dream. I didn’t know how much time had passed before he eventually returned to our room after kissing that woman. I’d heard him speak to the guards outside our door and then he came in.

He stopped by my side of the bed, looking down at me. Then he had gone into the washroom, where he presumably washed the scent of her away. I had reached under my pillow and wrapped my fingers around my xiphos.

But I didn’t stab him when he returned, even though he deserved it. He had locked me up so that he was free to cavort with his mistress. Now that I knew exactly what the two of them could do together, it made everything a thousand times worse. I almost wished Io hadn’t told me.

He came over to my side of the bed again and stood there. I could feel his gaze on me but I kept the blanket over my face.

“I’m having dinner tonight with my phratry. You’re going to have to stay here again today. I’ll have your meals brought up to you.”

I felt something above me, as if he were reaching out for me. If he touched me I would slice his gut open. I didn’t care if it happened to me, too.

“Wife?” He sounded annoyed.

I hated when he called me that. I gripped my blanket tighter. But I heard something else in his voice. Something I didn’t want to hear.

Regret.

He was sorry.

It wasn’t up to me to ease his guilty conscience. He had made his own choices and now he had to live with them.

He sighed and then left the room.

This was pathetic. I was pathetic.

I threw my blanket off. I was going to live my life, and he was not going to keep me locked up in this room. I went out onto the balcony and called Suri’s name. She leaned out of her window and I waved her over.

Then I went to his side table and opened the drawer, removing the keys I’d spotted earlier. When Suri entered the room, she shut the door. I thrust the key ring at her.

“Which one of these opens the treasury?”

She thumbed through them until she found the one I needed. She held it between her fingers and passed it back to me. I wanted to crow in triumph. I had known that the key would be there.

This had been very unwise of him.

“We’re breaking into the treasury tonight while the prince is at dinner with his brothers,” I said.

Suri let out a small sigh but she nodded. I grabbed papyrus and lead to write a note. “I need you to find my sister Quynh and give this to her. Don’t let anyone else see it, wait for her answer, and then destroy it.”