Page 4 of A Vow of Embers

“Are you all right?” Ahyana asked, putting her hand on my arm. “You can talk to us.”

“I can’t,” I said, my voice wobbling. “If I talk, I’ll start crying, and if I start crying, I don’t think I’ll ever stop.”

“Then we’ll do the talking,” Zalira said.

Ahyana tapped me lightly. “Yes. Because we need to have a chat with you about Io.”

Chapter Two

That was enough to get me to raise my head. “I don’t want to talk about Io.”

“Considering what we just witnessed, you’re running out of time,” Zalira said. “We have to discuss it now. We might not get another chance.”

She was right. I was going to leave soon. I should hear them out even if I didn’t want to. I owed them that.

“I know you’re angry with Io and you have every right to be because she betrayed your confidence.” Ahyana said the words quickly, probably worried that I was going to tell her to stop speaking.

“Alexandros came to the temple to demand I marry him, made that scene, because of Io.” I didn’t know exactly how long the prince had been aware of my identity, but I suspected that it was from the first day at my parents’ palace in Locris. So while Io hadn’t shared with him anything he didn’t already know, her telling him had put these events into motion.

Ahyana nodded, but I didn’t miss the determined look in her eyes. “Io doing what she did returned your sister to you.”

I sucked in a breath, not sure how to feel about what she’d just said. That wound was still raw.

She softened her tone. “If I thought Zalira was dead and then found out she was alive, I wouldn’t be able to stay mad.”

Because she was too nice of a person and lacked imagination. I shook my head and let out a calming breath. I wasn’t angry with Ahyana. Truth be told, I worried that the anger I felt toward Io had more to do with her brother than with her actions. It probably wasn’t fair to blame her for the choices the prince was making. Io had told me she had no idea that Alexandros had tricked me and pretended to be someone else and I believed her. It would have been hard to explain why—it was just something I felt deep in my gut.

I also didn’t like being mad at Io. When I’d quarreled with my sisters back home, we’d never had an argument that lasted for longer than a day. I had always been quick to forgive the people I cared about.

“You know she meant well,” Ahyana added, probably sensing that I was weakening. “She is trying to protect you. She did what she did out of concern and because she believes in what the goddess told her to do—that she has been tasked with protecting you.”

“Io took a life to save yours, killing that invader who was trying to stab you,” Zalira said, as if I could ever forget what Io had done for me. “That’s how much she loves you. How devoted she is to you.”

Guilt gnawed at my stomach. They were right. The choice she had made to tell her brother about me might have been misguided, but it had come from good intentions.

Io hadn’t been trying to hurt me.

“Our adelphia can’t be fractured,” Zalira said, and I heard not only the concern but the fear in her voice. “It’s too sacred.”

“We’re going to be broken up regardless. I’m leaving. I’m going to marry that ... that ...” There wasn’t a word bad enough to describe him.

I could see why people had said he was a monster.

“Things will work out,” Ahyana said, smiling at me with that irrepressible spirit of hers. “The goddess has made us a family, and that won’t end.”

It felt cruel to tell her that she was being naive. Everything had changed.

We were at the end of our time together.

Prince Alexandros had made sure of it.

Ahyana’s pet raven, Kunguru, flew in through the window and landed on Ahyana’s shoulder, cawing loudly. She exchanged a loaded glance with her older sister.

“What?” I asked, apprehensive.

But before they could answer, our bedroom door opened. Suri walked in with Io. Suri looked defensive, as if she were ready to fight me. She crossed her arms and gave me a threatening glare, her eyes then dropping to my sword, which lay on the bed next to me.

She was worried that I was going to physically attack Io. Did she really think so little of me?