Page 42 of A Vow of Embers

“Because I don’t have proof and I have been trying to—” He suddenly stopped, as if afraid that he was about to reveal too much.

Like he’d just remembered that we were enemies.

I didn’t really care what he’d been about to say—I cared about my sister’s safety. “She doesn’t know how to defend herself, and in the kitchens, there’s no one who can protect her.”

“There are guards in the kitchen. They are also stationed everywhere in the palace Quynh might go. And a member of my phratry, usually Thrax, watches over her room at night.”

“Thrax? The man who stole her?”

“The man who saved her life,” he snapped back. Alexandros seemed to take a moment to compose himself and then said calmly, “I promise you that your sister is safe. It is part of our contract. No harm will come to her. I wouldn’t allow it.”

“I want to talk to her. Right now.”

“You can’t,” he said.

“Isn’t it bad enough you’ve already destroyed my entire life? The least you could do is allow me to speak to my sister!”

Several different expressions seemed to cross his face all at the same time. It happened so quickly that it was hard to discern what he was actually thinking. “If you try and talk to her or scream at me about this, my stepmother will become aware of the relationship. If she is planning on killing you, she will add your sister to her list. Quynh will be safer if you keep your distance.”

I didn’t want him to be right but I feared that he was. It felt ironic that Io had sent me here to be safe and it seemed like everything had become so much worse.

He said, “No one knows that you and Quynh are sisters. You don’t look anything alike. No one knows that she is a princess. Some men from the army might recognize her from when I brought her out, but the army is loyal to me. They aren’t a bunch of gossiping fishwives. As far as people in the palace are concerned, she is merely a new servant.”

“Theano knew that the other Locrian maiden had survived.” Someone might put it together. My adelphia knew she was my sister, but I hadn’t told anyone else.

“She knew because of the scene you made at the temple, telling the women with you that I had kidnapped her from the race.”

Was that true? Had I inadvertently put Quynh’s life at risk by not being able to control my outburst? This was why Demaratus was always lecturing me about mastering my emotions.

“I also arranged for a woman to be sent to Locris this morning who looks like Quynh. Last night several different sailors in different taverns down at the docks spread the tale that the other Locrian maiden was going to be sent home after you agreed to marry me. Many witnesses watched her sail off.”

I would have admired his thoroughness if I weren’t so angry with him. “But she is unique looking. Someone will figure it out.”

“She was the one who suggested she cut her hair. Anyone who saw her at the temple saw long hair, and the decoy on the boat has that same long black hair. You forget that Ilion is not Locris. We are a nation with worldwide trade. There are people who live here from all over the world, including those from Goguryeo and neighboring nations. Quynh might be unique where you live; she is not here.”

The lengths that he had gone to in order to protect Quynh ... he had gone over and beyond what might have been necessary. He despised me and yet he had done it anyway. I figured it was for her benefit and not mine—that they had bonded on the trip from Locris when I was suffering from seasickness—but when he did kind things for my sister, it made it difficult for me to remember why I hated him so much.

Until I reminded myself that he only had to do all of this because he was the one who had put her in this position. He was the one using her to blackmail me. He claimed to be protecting her—but what if this was just another way to lock her up? To have guards always watching her so that she and I couldn’t meet?

I had promised him that I wouldn’t try to sneak her out, but it seemed as if he didn’t trust me to do what I’d said.

“You could have actually just put Quynh on the ship,” I said.

He frowned at me. “I could have, but then we wouldn’t be at our wedding feast.”

Which was him admitting that my sister was a means to an end for him. He didn’t actually care about her safety, only that he could use her to coerce me.

Even if he was using her, even if his protection was meant to keep us apart, he didn’t have to do any of it. He could have thrown her in a locked room and kept her there.

“Why would you do this for her?” I asked quietly.

He was silent for a long while before he finally answered, “Quynh didn’t ask to be caught up in this situation. She doesn’t deserve to lose her life. And as I said, I promised in the contract that she would be kept safe.”

He could have gone the opposite direction. He could have told everyone she was my sister and done nothing to protect her. If his stepmother had killed her, it wouldn’t have been his fault.

Of course, he wouldn’t have my cooperation if something happened to Quynh.

As much as I hated being rational right now, there had been multiple attempts on my life since I’d left Locris. I loathed the idea of trusting him but I was afraid that in this situation I had to.