Page 185 of A Vow of Embers

Did she judge me unworthy?

Or would I make myself so by giving in to the temptations I felt every time my husband so much as smiled at me?

“We keep our vows,” he said. “And our magic works because of our vows.”

I would have to do better. I usually forgot all about my vows whenever Xander kissed me. I couldn’t do that again. I wouldn’t be able to wield the power of the eye or save Locris.

Zalira returned. She didn’t have Io with her but she held up a potion. “She told me where it was. She wanted to keep her brother from becoming suspicious.”

She handed me the vial and I opened it and addressed the apprentice. “I would rather not have to threaten you again or remove any of your appendages. Drink this.”

To my surprise, he took the vial and drank it immediately. I had expected to struggle with him, or for him to attempt something like pouring it on the floor.

With a defiant tone, he said, “This won’t work. I will remember everything and I will tell the other mages. No potion made by a woman could ever work. The goddess didn’t intend for women to—”

He slumped in his chair, passed out.

I was not in the least bit concerned about it working. I trusted Io and her skills. He would never know how wrong his assertion was.

“Where should we take him?” Zalira asked.

“Let’s leave him here.” Perhaps someone would think that he had wandered into this room by mistake. “We need a glass of wine.”

I lifted him up and dragged him over to the door as she went to fetch the wine. He was much easier to move than Xander. Zalira again returned quickly and handed me the glass. I poured the entire thing onto his dark green tunic so that it would seem he had overindulged and passed out.

“We can go,” I told her.

She nodded and stepped out into the hallway and then loudly said, “Stephanos!”

I understood her implication and remained behind the door. I hoped he wouldn’t glance this way and wonder what she had been doing.

But thankfully he seemed too distracted. “I have been looking for you.”

“Here I am.”

“There is something I must say to you.” I heard the urgency in his voice. “I cannot keep it to myself any longer.”

“It is too late for us. Marry another. Forget about me.” Her pain made my own heart ache.

“I will never do that. If you had stayed, I would have cared for you and Ahyana.”

“No, Stephanos. I couldn’t be the reason that you lost your family. I never would have taken that from you. I know what it did to me.”

“You didn’t trust in me.”

“That’s not true!” she protested. “That wasn’t the reason. They would have disowned you.”

“Even if they had, I am their only son. They would have moved past it, eventually. And if they hadn’t, I would have been with you, which was the only thing that mattered to me. It still is.”

“No.” Her voice broke. “You can’t do this. I have taken vows.”

“I know what you have promised, but I have to. Tell me not to say it and I won’t. Tell me to go and I’ll leave and never bother you again.”

But Zalira did not tell him to stay quiet. She didn’t tell him to go.

“Have your feelings changed?” he asked.

Again, I heard nothing.