Page 147 of A Vow of Embers

“Everyone knew how fragile my mother’s mental state was. I have a very distinct memory of Erisa and my mother having a conversation where Erisa encouraged my mother to join Jason in the next realm. I think she was trying to persuade my mother to end her life.”

That must have been soul-crushing—to know something like that but not be able to do anything about it. Erisa had played a part in his mother’s death.

“It destroyed my father. I don’t think he ever recovered. He kept statues and paintings of my mother and would close himself up in his room talking to them. I’m not sure what my stepmother did, but she somehow convinced him to marry her within a few months after my mother’s death.”

That death hadn’t only destroyed his father. It had destroyed Xander’s family and the future that he had expected to have.

“I’m sorry.” It seemed like such an inadequate thing to say.

“That was when my father began to use the truth serum and the poison antidotes. It was also when my sister got sick and nearly died.”

“You think your stepmother was trying to kill both of you.”

He nodded. “My father didn’t have proof, but he was wary of her. He began my training and I remember his relief when he realized that I was goddess-blessed. He told me it was my responsibility to keep our family safe.”

That was a lot to put on a young boy.

“Once, when my father was very drunk, he said he wanted me to lead Ilion. Made me promise I would do whatever it took to make surethat happened. He told me about my stepmother’s plans to enslave the nation, something she had repeatedly suggested to him. And then he told me something that changed the entire course of my life.”

“What did he tell you?” I asked.

“He said that he had never shared a bed with my stepmother. That Kyros was not his child.”

Chapter Forty-Eight

“What?” I unintentionally screeched the word and he had to shush me. I modulated my tone. “This changes everything. He cannot be your father’s heir. You have to tell the council!” Why hadn’t his father told them himself?

“I do not have any proof, and my father died before he could verify it. I hoped that I could find some evidence of what my stepmother had done, the plans she had orchestrated, and I began to go out and search on my own, leaving my phratry here to keep an eye on things. After she tried to kill Io, I encouraged my sister’s desire to join the temple, thinking it would keep her safe. That was when this happened.” He gestured to the mark on his face. “I no longer went to public functions because of the scar. If people knew the prince had been scarred like that, I wouldn’t have been able to move about Troas freely. And I was determined to find evidence.”

He had already admitted to me that stopping his public appearances had been a mistake and had allowed his stepmother to get ahead of him in the race for the crown. I knew he regretted it.

“She had bought and paid for so many people all over the city and here in the palace. Someone is letting people in to attack us,” he said.

“Or those assassins already live here.” That sent a cold spike of fear down my spine. To think that the people only a few feet away might be planning to try and kill us.

“Yes, or they’re already here,” he said, agreeing with me. “The only people I currently trust are my phratry and your sisters. Everyone else is suspect.”

“Why would you try to find proof by yourself? Why wouldn’t you have your brothers help you?”

“I would never ask them to do something I wasn’t willing to do myself,” he said. “Thrax does help me. Whenever I would sneak out of the palace, he would keep an eye on things for me here. Rokh would also check in with Io on a regular basis at the temple. I won’t put my phratry in danger. This is my quest, my responsibility.”

Io’s words echoed in my mind, again reminding me that she thought Xander and I were very much alike. His words were evidence—I so often did the same thing.

“One for many,” I breathed.

“Is that from your Daemonian battle master?” When I nodded, he said, “The others are also too easy to pick out in a crowd. They would all stand out. Especially Thrax. I wanted to track down leads, cultivate potential contacts. Find out for myself what she had done. It’s why I became Jason.”

Did he not understand how he stood out as well? Foolish man. He wouldn’t ever disappear into a crowd. Although I did understand why he had chosen a persona as a sailor—not only because of his mother, but because it would have been easy to explain his absence to the people he spoke with as him being off at sea. “Why was Jason a gambler?”

“Gambling halls and taverns are one of the best places to find out information. Lots of drinking combined with lots of gossip. And people are much more forthcoming when you lose to them.”

I wondered how much money he had spent in his pursuit to find proof of his stepmother’s crimes. He probably would have gotten more accomplished if he hadn’t tried to do it all by himself. “You should let your brothers help you. You don’t have to do everything alone.”

He made a grumbling sound, as if I had bothered him and the conversation had now ended.

I found that I wanted him to keep talking. To know more about what he had done. “What did you discover?”

“Not as much as I would have liked. As I said, she’s very good at covering her tracks. I had a lead on the man who potentially fathered Kyros, but he disappeared. I assume he’s dead.”