Page 179 of A Vow of Embers

“I would hate to break local custom,” I said softly.

I saw the surprise in his honey-colored eyes, but then his expression turned to interest.

“It would be rude,” he agreed.

I closed the distance between us and kissed him softly. He held still, allowing me to do it. Just that small, tiny brush was enough to set off hot and bright sparks through me.

We broke apart when Themis and Heliodora interrupted us, coming over to exchange congratulations and to give their thanks. My stomach wobbled as I thought about how I’d allowed myself to get caught up in another moment with him.

A moment later Stolos joined us. He shook Xander’s hand enthusiastically and said, “I have five daughters that I love, and I have never thought they deserved less than my son. Thank you for what you did.”

And I saw on Xander’s face that he already knew. A fact he confirmed when the archons left us to speak with others.

“His oldest daughter had to return home because her husband beat her so badly that she nearly died.”

He had investigated Stolos’s family and had correctly guessed that voting this way would make Stolos happy. And might sway him for the future vote.

“You did this for Stolos’s vote.”

Xander shook his head. “That might have played a small part, but you were right. Things needed to change.”

Maybe one of the things changing was us.

And I had no idea how true that statement was about to become.

The days continued to pass in the same fashion: lessons, sparring, teaching, researching, every night in my husband’s arms. I wrote to my family in Locris but still hadn’t received a response. Io alternated between creating new, more advanced potions and reading books. Suri usually volunteered to test out Io’s concoctions, including one that temporarily turned her skin a purplish color. I tried to steer clear.

I sent my sisters to the kitchen with notes for Quynh, but she refused to come and see me, not giving an explanation. I finally got desperate enough to ask Xander about it and he said she couldn’t get away and that I needed to stop sending my adelphia because someone would notice.

He was right. I had been taking a chance but I needed to find out what was happening with her and Thrax. Why she hadn’t told me. To make things right between us and to apologize to her.

I promised myself that I would do better where he was concerned. I couldn’t risk losing my sister.

On the day of the party that Io had been so excited about, Zalira and I stayed behind to spar for longer. We both needed to work offsome frustration. We talked a bit about Stephanos, but nothing had changed. She was determined that it would not.

“Because we’re going back to the temple and this will become nothing but a memory,” she said. “I don’t want to regret foolish, impulsive decisions.”

It was hard to imagine that future because everything happening now overwhelmed me. But there was going to come a day when I was back in Locris and this would all be long behind me.

I didn’t want to have regrets weighing down my soul, either.

But I had come to question which kind of regret would be worse.

When we returned to our rooms, Io demanded that I go into my washroom immediately and get myself clean. She had laid out dresses and I wanted to see them but she wouldn’t let me.

“I’ll come help you get ready after you’ve bathed,” she said.

“What about Parthenia?” I asked.

“She isn’t feeling well, so I told her I’d help you tonight. Hurry!”

And by the time I’d finished bathing, Io and Suri were already dressed.

“You both look so beautiful!” I said.

Io’s dress was covered in embroidered flowers of various colors and sizes so that she looked like a walking garden. She had put her hair up, as had Suri. Suri’s dress at first glance appeared a deep, dark brown. But it seemed to change colors as she walked, alternating between various shades of brown. I was about to ask how that had been achieved when Ahyana and Zalira joined us.

Zalira’s dress was a sky blue with embroidered silver clouds and lightning bolts along the edges. Ahyana had changed her braid ribbons to bright yellow and had on a matching dress that had been edged with black. When I got closer, I realized that it wasn’t a stripe but hundreds of ravens.