Page 16 of A Vow of Embers

Instead he was only keeping me still. And right here, pressed against him, was not a good place for me to remain. I could already feel his lips against mine, as surely as if he were actually doing it. I feared doing something that I would never recover from. I had to remind myself of how cruel he had been, that he had let me suffer in the worst way imaginable—letting me think my sister had died.

I forced myself to talk. “What do you think you are doing?” I demanded.

“Are you reaching for a weapon?”

“What? No. You know that my xiphos is still in the basket by the door.”

He stared at me, as if trying to figure out whether I was lying. “You have other weapons. You were reaching into your tunic.”

My fingers had grabbed the edge of the contract. “To retrieve this.”

He glanced down at the papyrus and released my arm. He took several steps back and I was grateful for it. I could breathe again and hopefully think rational thoughts.

I held the contract up. “It’s not a weapon, unless you worry about dying from paper cuts. And there’s nothing else in here,” I said. “Last time I checked, my breasts were not weapons.”

“If you were another woman, there would be a joke I could make.”

Yes, another woman that he wanted to bed. Not me, the pathetic, foolish girl he was repulsed by.

Why did that matter to me? It shouldn’t have. I figured my pride had been wounded, which most likely had been his intent. His anger still didn’t make sense to me and I hated when things didn’t make sense.

Although that had been the entirety of my life ever since I’d left Locris. I decided not to respond to his barb and instead sat back down in my chair. After a few moments, so did he.

“We need to discuss terms for our marriage.” It wasn’t easy to get those words out, as I still did not want to marry him, even though I knew I had to.

“Were you not paying attention earlier? That part is already done.”

“I meantmyterms for going through with this.”

He leaned forward. “Those terms have also already been arranged. You marry me and your sister stays safe.”

I had to squash my temper so that it wouldn’t explode out of my mouth.

He took advantage of my silence. “You’re not in any position to negotiate. You already said yes.”

Fortunately, Io and I had come up with several different scenarios as to what we could do if he tried to shut me down. She had encouraged me to pay close attention to what he told the high priestess to see if there was anything I could use, and the prince had delivered.

“I did say yes. But you were the one who so helpfully pointed out today that you need the entire palace to believe that we are an actual couple and in a real marriage. You’ll need me to help sell your story. I agreed to marry you so that you wouldn’t hurt Quynh. I didn’t agree to anything else beyond that, and I can make things very difficult foryou. If you want me to go along with your ruse, then you’ll agree to my terms.”

Something flashed in his eyes that I couldn’t interpret but looked a little like admiration or respect, but then it was gone.

“This is why people use ‘Locrian agreements’ as an insult,” he informed me. “Because your people are bad at doing what you said you would.”

I wanted to protest and tell him that wasn’t true but again realized yelling at him wouldn’t get me anywhere. When I didn’t respond to his slight, he let out a sigh and asked, “What are your terms, Princess Thalia?”

“I will need jewels, clothing, and attendants commensurate to my new position. And I’d like Parthenia to be my maid.” I was starting with the things he probably would have allotted to me anyway as his wife. My plan was to begin small and build up to the bigger things, most of which I didn’t think he was going to like very much.

“That can be done.”

I nodded. “I will be allowed to write letters home to my family.”

“I wouldn’t dream of stopping you,” he said sarcastically, probably in reference to the fact that he knew from personal experience that I had already gotten a message to them since he had inadvertently helped me deliver it.

That was something I was excited about, getting to tell my family that both Quynh and I had survived. They hopefully already knew that I had lived, and I only wished that I could see them in person when I gave them the news.

But there was no chance of that happening until I recovered the eye of the goddess.

I glanced down at the contract. Io had told me about a practice that I was unfamiliar with—in Ilion noble and royal men paid a bride price, which was money given to a woman’s father after the marriage had taken place. I hadn’t known that existed and was entirely outragedwhen I found out. I was not an object to be bought. I wished that I could tell him to keep it, but my family desperately needed help.