Page 144 of A Vow of Embers

She sighed. “Lia, I do know my brother. If he keeps things from you, if he’s lied, it has been for a greater good. He wants to protect people from my stepmother. He lies for the exact same reason that you do.”

Did that make me a hypocrite? That I justified my own lying but condemned his? Her words forced me to consider her statement that he and I were more alike than I wanted to admit.

When I didn’t respond, she sighed again. “You two can keep fighting about the same things over and over again and make each other miserable or you could try to come to some kind of truce so thatyou can work together and both get what you want. Your situation makes me exhausted and I’m not even part of it, so I can’t imagine what you’re both going through as you keep having the same repetitive fights. Moving forward, I’m going to stay out of your relationship. You two need to figure it out by yourselves and break this awful cycle.”

Io yawned and I saw that she truly was tired. It bothered me that I might be the cause. That she was so worried about Xander and me that she might be losing sleep over it.

Wanting to assuage my guilt, I took the cloth from her hand. “Go to bed. I’ll stay up with him.” It was the least I could do.

She raised her eyebrows at me, and I added, “I promise he’ll be alive when you wake up tomorrow.”

“All right,” she agreed. She stood there for a moment, her hands fidgeting. I knew she wanted to say something, so I waited. “Have you tried praying about this? Asking the goddess for direction? For guidance?”

“The goddess no longer speaks to me.” My voice caught on the last word. I hadn’t realized how much it bothered me until just now.

“Why do you think that is?”

“Because your fool of a brother is blocking her somehow? Or she’s angry with me for getting married?” Or she was upset over all the times I had come so close to breaking my vows to her?

“Or maybe she’s already given you all the tools you need to succeed and so it’s up to you to follow through.”

“That doesn’t seem fair,” I protested.

“As I’ve already told you, we do the work she needs done.” Io leaned forward to brush the hair from Xander’s forehead. “He might wake up. And if he does, he will probably be thirsty. And his tongue might be loosed.”

I didn’t know what that meant. “Like it’s going to fall out of his mouth?”

“No,” she said with a little laugh. “I didn’t have time to go to the infirmary to get an antidote but I did have several vials of my father’struth serum in my room that I’ve been experimenting on. My father insisted that it contain an antidote that would work against many types of poisons just in case.”

Then she told me good night and left. I remembered that the first time I’d met Io, she had mentioned knowing all about the fear of being poisoned. If I had been paying closer attention, I might have realized that she was admitting back then to being a princess. I couldn’t imagine what their lives had been like growing up in a place where they’d had to constantly fear for their safety.

Maybe it explained why they were the way that they were. Where Io had chosen to see only the good in people, to embrace them as a way to move past her dark upbringing, her brother had gone the opposite way. Expecting danger at every turn, distrusting everyone.

I had grown up with a loving, happy, close-knit family. What excuse did I have for turning out like the prince?

Chapter Forty-Seven

I hadn’t meant to fall asleep. One moment I was thinking about what Io had told me and the next I was standing at the main dock in Locris with my family. Waving to a departing ship.

It was the day that Haemon had left us to go looking for a way around the blockade. I didn’t want to live this again and I most certainly did not want Xander to witness it.

Looking up at the sky, I said, “Why are the dreams always about my life? Why aren’t they ever about him?”

The scenery around me swirled and I felt dizzy, crouching down to keep my bearings. Then everything settled and I was standing in the palace.

A little girl sat in the corner playing with a puppy. I realized that it was Io. She made a cute chirping noise.

“Look what I have, Little Bird!” A young boy was playing with a wooden ship. He must have been about seven or eight years old. It was strange to see Xander this way—so young and light. He grinned at his sister and I saw the adoration in her eyes.

“Xander.” She ran over to hug him. A voice whispered that she was the reason for the nickname, as she hadn’t been able to say Alexandros. The voice told me that the nickname she’d given him was very special to him.

“Do you see my boat, Io? Someday I’m going to sail on one just like this.”

She patted the boat and made another silly chirping noise.

A nanny came into the room. “Come along, princess. It is time for your bath.” The girl protested in true Io fashion, not wanting to leave her dog, but the nanny had her way by picking her up and carrying her out.

I watched as Xander carved his name onto the bottom of the boat. He ran out into the hallway and I followed him. We were in a part of the palace I’d never been in before. “Mother! Look what Father brought me!”