Page 3 of A Vow of Embers

The women closest to me moved away from one another and Theano stepped through the gap they’d created. The veil covering her face seemed to be vibrating, and I wondered what emotion she was currently feeling. Anger? Annoyance? Happiness at the chance to be rid of me? I wished for the thousandth time that I could see her face.

Maia started to speak but Theano raised her hand. “I heard everything,” she said. She then held her hand out, and Maia picked up the crumpled papyrus and gave it to her. Theano unfolded the paper and nodded.

“It seems as if I will have to meet with the prince tomorrow at sundown.”

“You cannot possibly be entertaining the idea of—” Maia started to say, but Antiope spoke over her.

“We do not have to meet with him. I cannot guarantee your safety and I don’t trust anyone who—”

Theano held up her hand again and they both fell silent. “The house is close. I have spoken and it will be done.”

To my surprise Maia responded. “Lia cannot marry him. It is against the goddess’s law and Lia’s vows.”

The high priestess stood there quietly for several moments before she said, “We cannot afford to anger the prince of Ilion, especially if he becomes king. That is not an enemy I wish to have. The meeting will take place. Make whatever preparations you need to. And Lia will be coming with us.”

She intended for me to attend? Another surprise. I had expected her to make choices about my life without me having any input, as she usually did.

After Theano left, Maia let out a loud sigh and then waved someone over. I felt hollowed out, empty, like I had lost the ability to feel anything beyond anger. I was in shock, still not able to process what had just happened.

Jason, the sailor I had foolishly fancied myself in love with, was the prince of Ilion. He had spent every moment of our time together trying to trick me into declaring my love for him so that he could bind me to him, making it impossible for me to refuse to marry him.

And when that didn’t work? He’d taken my sister hostage while letting me mourn her death.

There were too many feelings hitting me all at once, too many things to consider. I couldn’t allow myself to think about what Quynh had gone through. What the prince had ordered his men to do to her. How Thrax might have hurt my sweet, precious sister. It was too much. It would overwhelm me. I had to focus on the here and now.

There wasn’t any question in my mind about what would happen tomorrow. The prince would get his way and I would go along withwhat he wanted. Anything to keep Quynh safe. I didn’t worry that the high priestess would refuse him. The fact that she was willing to meet him away from the temple said that she was ready to accept his offer.

“Lia.”

I blinked rapidly, surprised to see Zalira and Ahyana, two members of my adelphia, standing in front of me. “Maia wants us to take you back to our room to rest.”

They put their arms around me and I went with them, my heart still pounding in my ears, the blood rushing hotly through my veins. The adrenaline had started to fade and I felt myself shaking.

“He had Quynh. She didn’t die.” It was as if I had to say the words out loud to make sure that this was real. That I hadn’t dreamed all of this—that my sister was actually alive.

“We know,” Ahyana said, sounding sad while she squeezed me with her arm.

“I’m going to kill him for taking her. Cut out his lying tongue.”

“You don’t want to do that,” Ahyana said, and I braced my shoulders, expecting her to lecture me on the sanctity of life. “What you want to do is stab him in the gut so that he’ll bleed out slowly.”

“Ahyana!” Zalira sounded scandalized. “She’s not going to stab the prince in the gut. Obviously the best place for her to stab him is in the heart to end it quickly. Io wouldn’t want him to suffer, and it would reduce the chance of him fighting back.”

Despite my anger and worry and fear, my adelphia sisters made me smile. Until I realized what Zalira had just said. “Io wouldn’t want him to suffer?”

“She told us,” Zalira said, confirming my suspicion. “We know everything.”

Ahyana added, “We decided that there shouldn’t be any more secrets. Suri, Zalira, and I had a very serious discussion, wherein we were required to immediately confess if we were also a princess in hiding.”

I didn’t know how to feel about Io telling our sisters the truth of what had happened between the two of us, and revealing the secretthat she’d kept since she’d joined the temple—that she was Alexandros’s sister, a princess of Ilion. I wondered if she had told them how she had betrayed my trust and brought her brother to the gates of the temple in a misguided attempt to protect me. She believed that I was the savior from some prophecy, destined to save Ilion, and thought that the prince could keep me safe.

And she might have had a point, considering that assassins had recently broken into the temple with the express purpose of finding and killing me. I didn’t know why and suspected I would never find those answers here in the temple. The priestesses were so tight-lipped and didn’t share information with us.

When we reached our room, I walked over and sat down on my bed, feeling completely drained. I pulled my knees up to my chest and wrapped my arms around my legs. I had to calm down and think clearly. Even if I was terrible at scheming, I couldn’t walk into this meeting without some sort of plan.

Unfortunately, the only thing I could think about was that I had to keep Quynh safe. Everything else was unimportant. I couldn’t fall apart now, even if I wanted to sob and rage. I had to come up with something.

My bed sank as Zalira and Ahyana sat down next to me.