Page 54 of A Vow of Embers

The guard on the left smiled at me. “Maybe just for a couple of minutes.”

“Thank you!” I was glad I hadn’t had to fight anyone. The guard unlocked the door with his key and let me inside.

I gasped when I walked inside. This room was ten times the size of the temple treasury. I had thrown Ilion’s prosperity in the prince’s face more than once, but I’d had no idea. This was ... unimaginable wealth. Alexandros couldn’t spend this in a thousand lifetimes.

How much of this was from Locris?

I should have renegotiated my bride price. No wonder he had been so willing to pay it. The current terms were nothing to him. Not even a drop in a bucket.

The vast room was filled with the same kinds of goods as the temple treasury. Coins, earrings, vases, necklaces, crowns, rings, armor plated in gold. I didn’t see any large, green gems but that didn’t mean it wasn’t here. In fact, I didn’t see any loose gems at all. Everything was in a setting.

One wall had rows of shelves and there were wooden boxes along each one. I opened the box closest to me and it was a ruby necklace with matching earrings. The next box had a diamond necklace set. Each box I opened had a different piece of jewelry.

“Princess, you have to go.”

The guard who had let me in entered the treasury, looking very concerned. I didn’t want to push my luck, so I nodded at him and went back to the entrance.

“Thank you for allowing me to visit.”

He only closed the door and locked it again, that concerned expression still on his face as I headed back to the stairs. I was busy dreaming up my next steps. I wondered if I could smuggle Suri out of the temple and have her use her special finding skills to check the treasury.

That would be impossible. Maybe I could find a copy of the treasury key and figure out a way to immobilize the two guards so that I could search at my leisure.

If I had Io and her sleeping potion ... I sighed. This had all been easier when I had my adelphia with me.

I climbed the stairs back to the level that my bedroom was on. I was grateful that I hadn’t gotten lost or turned around. It would have been humiliating if the prince had been forced to launch a hunting party to find his wandering bride.

That would certainly aggravate him. The thought of annoying him made me smile, but the smile fell off my face when I walked into my room and saw Alexandros standing in the center with his hands on his hips, staring at me.

“Why were you in the treasury?” he demanded.

Chapter Eighteen

“How did you—” I didn’t finish my question. How did he already know? How had he gotten here before me? I had come straight back.

Just as I realized that the second guard hadn’t been there when I’d left, Alexandros said, “I told you the army is loyal to me. What were you doing in the royal treasury?”

I closed the door, worried that our voices would carry down the hall. The second guard must have alerted the prince and he had come straight here to confront me. “You said I wasn’t a prisoner.”

“That wasn’t an invitation to help yourself to my treasury.”

I could sense that he needed more of an explanation. This wasn’t something he was going to let go. I gave him the same excuse I’d given the guards. “I wanted to get new jewelry and thought I’d verify for myself that they’d be kept safe.”

He narrowed his eyes at me. “You touched your mouth.”

Had I? “I did not!” I insisted.

“Can you ever speak without lying?”

“It makes you the world’s worst hypocrite to say that. Every word that has come out of your mouth since I met you has been a lie!”

“Says the liar,” he scoffed. “Are you stealing from me?”

“I’m your wife. That makes it my treasury, too.” I didn’t think that was true, but his anger and accusations had primed me for a fight, so now I wanted to provoke him.

“You are my wife in name only, and nothing that I have belongs to you, despite our lopsided deal.”

“Lopsided?” I repeated. Did he not realize what it had taken for me to agree to this?