Page 229 of A Vow of Embers

“Why didn’t you tell me the eye was gone? Why did you give it to me in my dream? Let me think that I could save Locris?”

There was only more silence.

I had sacrificed so much already, survived impossible odds, faced down overwhelming temptation, kept my vows, and for what?

It had all been for nothing. There wasn’t a way to restore Locris.

I had never felt so alone.

Until I remembered that I was not alone. I didn’t have to do everything by myself. There were so many people who cared for me, and I could rely on them, depend on them.

Trust them.

We would all get through this.

Despite reminding myself of these facts, I still felt despondent. I couldn’t save my nation because the eye was gone.

I looked over at the goddess’s face. It was odd to see it without her cloth veil. Her head wasn’t ruined and crumbling like the one in Locris. This one had cracks in it from where it had hit the floor, but it was still whole.

As I gazed at her, a loud, booming voice filled my mind. As if Demaratus stood in the room and were shouting at me.

Stupid girl, what did I tell you about giving up? Think! How many eyes does your goddess have?

My heart jumped into my throat as I looked at those empty sockets.

Two.

She had two eyes.

Two eyes in Locris, two eyes in Ilion. Not just one in each place, as I’d always thought.

There were four eyes total.

One from Locris had been split up and given to life mages. Lysimache had destroyed one from Ilion, throwing the dust at my feet. And she had admitted earlier that she had used an eye to ruin Locris, something I hadn’t picked up on at the time, as I’d been too stunned by her revelation that she was the one who had cursed us.

But that meant there was another eye of the goddess from Ilion unaccounted for, one that could still restore my nation. Hope filled my chest, and the humming in the ground suddenly returned full force, shaking the ground so hard that I nearly fell over, the power of the goddess reaching out to me.

I would make the former high priestess of this temple tell me where I could find the last eye.

Then my adelphia and my husband were going to help me retrieve it.

Darkness is coming.

Not “coming.” It was already here.

I glanced at the statue again. The prophecy had promised things I didn’t think I was ready for. I didn’t want to be a sacrifice, even if that was how Demaratus had trained me. To put my life on the line for the sake of others. One for many.

There had to be another way. Because my death meant Xander’s death, and I wouldn’t allow that to happen.

Again I reminded myself that I wasn’t alone. There were so many people willing to fight with me, willing to help me.

I had to stop being scared and building walls to keep them out. I had to let them in, to show them who I truly was, to be vulnerable and open and let them care about me the way that I cared about them.

Especially my husband.

Because the only way that Xander and I would both survive this would be if we learned how to count on each other, to trust one another and become a true team, an actual partnership.

As the goddess always intended for you to be,a voice whispered.

I nodded. Her message was clear. I would choose differently.

I didn’t know what was waiting for us, but I did know that with the people I loved by my side, we would stop the darkness. We would save Ilion and Locris.

All of us together.

Many for one.