Page 182 of A Vow of Embers

As I brushed my hand over the pendant, Xander’s eyes followed the movement. I saw his fingers twitch, and a look in his eyes made me think he wished to replace my hand with his own. I expelled a shaky breath as I imagined him doing so, his knuckles brushing against my soft curves.

Rokh came over to Ahyana’s side. “You look like sunshine and summer and honey,” he said and then asked her to dance.

Io had said there would be dancing, but it looked complicated and we didn’t do that in Locris. I didn’t know any of the steps.

Ahyana and Rokh leaving made the rest of the group disperse. Io and Suri went over to Themis and Heliodora. I guessed that they were going to try and make certain the archons remained on Xander’s side.

Stephanos looked as if he were struggling with a decision until Thrax told him to come and get something to eat. Xander followed them.

Dolion smiled at me. “Would you like to dance?”

It was so kind of him to ask, when my own husband had abandoned me. “I’m not familiar with this kind of dancing.”

“I could teach you,” he offered.

My gaze darted over to Xander. There was only one person I wanted to teach me things.

Zalira slid her arm through mine. “You’ll have to forgive me, but I’m afraid I have need of Lia right now.”

This was probably partly due to being close to Stephanos again, but also because she sensed that I was feeling a bit disappointed and rejected.

“I’m here if you need me,” Dolion said before he went off to join his brothers.

Part of me wished that I could have feelings for someone like Dolion instead. He was nice and thoughtful and didn’t reject me at every opportunity.

But he wasn’t Xander. I made myself stop staring at my husband and turned toward the small dais where the musicians were playing. There were very few instruments left in Locris, most of them having been sold off to buy food. We sang but we never had musical performances like this one.

The lute player in particular drew my attention. He expertly plucked the strings, running his fingers back and forth to elicit the perfect notes.

“It’s very pretty, isn’t it?” a man said near my shoulder. “The music?”

The first thing I noticed was he was wearing an amulet containing a shard from the eye of the goddess.

A life mage.

This was the first time I had seen one since I’d arrived at the palace. Xander had told me long ago that the life mages were regulated and managed by the palace, and I hadn’t realized that it meant they were locked away and didn’t interact with the court.

“It is,” Zalira agreed while I quickly scanned the room.

There were at least a dozen of them here.

And who knew when I would get this kind of opportunity again?

After the man had drifted away, I said to Zalira, “I need to temporarily kidnap a life mage. I’m going to find out how they do magic.”

She looked at me in confusion. “Why?”

I was very aware of the fact that I hadn’t told them about the eye yet. I still didn’t want Xander to find out.

Although to be fair to Io, she hadn’t told him about how to break the link between us. And I knew that because I was fairly certain that if she did, he would be pressing me to fix it.

Thinking about him caused me to look for him again. My breath caught when I saw who he was speaking to. Chryseis.

She wore a dark pink dress and looked like a flower come to life. He had kissed me one night and then her the next. And now he was smiling at her while she beamed up at him adoringly. It felt like she had thrown a knife from across the room and it had hit the center of my chest.

I was still upset with him for kissing her. And annoyed that it took so little effort on his part to cause me to forget.

Zalira stared at me, waiting for me to respond. It took me a moment to recall her question. “I think if we find out how they do magic, it might help us.”