Page 138 of A Vow of Embers

“Not in the palace treasury. I would know.”

I suspected he was aware of every coin, jewel, and precious metal in his treasury. I knew I would be. If he said it wasn’t there, I believed him.

“We should go,” he said, putting the book back.

“Why are you doing that?” Shouldn’t we be taking it with us?

“I don’t want Erisa to know that we’re onto her. We’ll figure out next steps, but if we steal this book, whoever she’s bribed will alert her.” He pushed the false bottom back into place and arranged the other books on top of it so that it would look as it had before.

This aggravated me. I supposed I didn’t actually need the book, as he was the person that I had wanted to show the proof to, but I didn’t like leaving it behind.

He blew the candle out and we waited for our eyes to adjust to the dark. “Let’s go,” he said.

I had become rather adept at sneaking out of places, having done it so often. The lone guard made a lot of noise and it was easy enough to avoid him as we left the building.

Xander took a different route back, and it made me wonder if he was again inexplicably worried about us being followed. We were nearly back to the palace when we came upon a party with dozens of people that had spilled out onto the street. There was food and music, laughter and singing. A group of children kicked a ball back and forth. The ball came careening over to us and I stopped it with my foot.

A little girl ran after it and held out her arms. I picked it up and tossed it back to her. She smiled at me and then returned to her group.

“Look at that,” I said.

“What?” He sounded more annoyed than normal, lost in his own thoughts.

“Those boys and girls playing together, having fun. Next year those boys will go to school and those friendships will end.”

He made a snorting noise as we headed back to the palace. His lack of response concerned me. As we crossed through the gates, I asked, “Are you going to vote yes on the education proposition?”

Xander stayed silent for a long time. So long that I didn’t think he was going to answer. Then he finally said, “I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?” I repeated, shocked. The answer seemed so obvious to me. “Not voting for it would be a grievous mistake.”

“What do you know about it?”

“Very little, because despite all your protests about how we have to work together and how I’m meant to be your wife, you leave me out of everything important that is happening in this palace!” It was so frustrating. I had told him that I could be an asset. That I could help him.

And he had denied me at every turn.

“Why would I include you? Your recklessness could destroy everything I’ve worked for. You have no idea how deep this goes or how long I’ve been at it. Tonight your desire to prove that you were right over something inconsequential could have gotten both of us killed.”

How could he be saying this to me? “Inconsequential? The Locrian people starving is not inconsequential!”

We had come into the main part of the palace and I saw servants looking at us, talking to one another. He noticed them at the same time and grabbed me by the wrist, practically pulling me up the stairs.

When we reached our bedroom, I saw the guards’ eyes go wide as he brought me inside, probably wondering how we had gotten out when they’d been at their posts the whole time.

Xander did not close the door gently. I wondered if he knew any other way to shut a door besides slamming it.

“You think that you’re the victim here,” he said. “But I am the wronged party. I am the one who has been harmed by you and your petty anger.”

That petty anger roared inside me. “How?”

He came so close to me that we breathed the same air. “Do you know what my stepmother plans to do to my people? She will destroythem. Enslave them. She will impose taxes so high that no one will be able to pay them and then she will incarcerate them for it, letting them ‘work’ off their debt. She will make sure that they’re never free. Hundreds of thousands of innocent lives at risk of being ruined.”

That made me feel ashamed. “I didn’t know—”

“You didn’t know that there’s more to the world than your own selfish desires?”

“I am not selfish! There are so many things you could accuse me of, but selfishness is not one of them and you know it!” He was trying to provoke me. I understood that but I couldn’t stop defending myself.