Page 133 of A Vow of Embers

Had he expected another reason?

“I am no one’s second choice,” he said, and I had no idea what he meant by that.

“Neither am I!” I wasn’t the one kissing other people. He was. I would not allow him to turn this around on me, as if I had done something wrong. I had only done what he asked me to do—I had properly played along with his scheme.

That I’d had my own personal reasons for doing so was beside the point.

“Was that some kind of attempt to make me forget all the things that you have done?” he demanded. He was primed for a fight. I saw it in the lines of his body.

“Me? I am not the one committing crimes against you!”

He let out a bark of disbelief. “What crimes have I committed?”

“There is a very long list. You are the reason my brother is dead!”

“I think I would remember killing the prince of Locris.”

I balled my hands up. “You didn’t do it by your own hand, but your blockade and your exorbitantly high tariffs did it. He went looking for an alternate trade route in order to save our nation and now he’s dead.”

Shame flashed in his eyes but then it disappeared. “The tariff is not exorbitant, and it has not been increased.”

I made a strangled sound. He couldn’t be serious. “You are the one who has been increasing it over the last three years!”

“And why did I supposedly raise the tariffs?”

“For your gambling and whoring and parties.”

“Who told you that?”

“The traders.” I felt a bit ridiculous saying that, as they had already proved themselves an unreliable source of information.

“Would those be the same traders who told you I was half-beast?”

I remembered the conversation he and I had had in Locris, when I’d thought him a simple sailor and asked him questions about Prince Alexandros. I’d shared that piece of information with him. “They weren’t wrong,” I muttered.

Although he was more whole beast than half.

“The gambling and parties are nothing more than schemes and are not paid from the tariff. As for the whoring, the only woman that I have shared a bed with since I got this scar is you, so unless you’re implying that you’re a—”

My temper raged so loudly that I grabbed the vase with Dolion’s flowers in it and threw it at his head. He easily ducked and the vase shattered against the wall behind him.

“Feel better?” he asked in a mocking way as he crossed his arms over his chest, and it somehow made me angrier. “The tariff has been at approximately the same rate for the last thousand years. I have sat in hundreds of council meetings. I know the exact number for a fact.”

“You are bleeding my nation dry! I saw the books in my father’s office. You are charging us six thousand minae a year!”

He looked genuinely confused. “You are mistaken. It’s sixhundredminae.”

“If it was only a tenth of what we’re being charged now, people wouldn’t be selling off everything they own and starving!”

“There is no point in continuing this conversation,” he said with a shake of his head. “You’re wrong and won’t listen to reason. I’m going to take a bath. Try not to get stabbed while I’m gone.”

Was he now blaming me for getting attacked? That was so inane that I didn’t even know how to respond. I did not want to be anywhere near him. I marched over to our bed and grabbed my pillow. “I’m going to sleep in Io’s room. My sisters can watch over me.”

His jaw clenched, his mouth settled into a tight line. “You will stay in our room, where I can protect you. If you go into my sister’s room, I will drag you back here.”

He went into the washroom and slammed the door shut. I threw my pillow at the bed. I was so unbelievably frustrated and furious. It was a terrible combination. Especially when he refused to even engage in good faith with me, denying me the chance to work out some of this aggression.

Xander was wrong. Completely wrong. He had no idea what he was talking about. I looked around the room, wanting to destroy more things, knowing that I would enjoy the satisfaction of things shattering and breaking.