Page 64 of A Vow of Embers

Not able to help myself any longer, I called out, “Quynh!”

I was finally, finally going to talk to my sister.

Chapter Twenty-One

I was about to run to her when she turned and saw me. So many different emotions flitted across her face, but the last one was a mixture of resolve and determination. I knew that look. “Lia, I love you and I miss you, but you have to go back.”

“What?” I was confused. “Why?”

“I will see you soon but not like this. We can’t risk it. It isn’t safe. You have to go!”

My first instinct was to argue with her, to sprint down the hallway and throw my arms around her. But she was so sure, so clear, I couldn’t do it. Although it felt like boulders had been strapped to my feet, slowing my steps, I trudged back to the dining room.

“That was quick,” the prince said as I sat down next to him again. He said it in a way that made me suspect he knew exactly what I had done.

A healer was working on the nobleman Thrax had knocked unconscious. Part of me hoped that when he woke up, it would be without several of his teeth. I was angry and hurt and confused, and all that energy needed to go somewhere.

I turned my gaze to Alexandros. He was the one who had put Quynh in this position. He had made her a servant where she could be harassed by strange men.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” he asked.

“I’m reminding myself how sad Io would be if I slit your throat.”

He had the audacity to look amused, which made everything worse. “Have I ever told you how adorable I find your murderous impulses?”

My mouth dropped. I understood that he’d said it to disarm and stun me. Was this part of his ruse? An insult?

Or letting me know that he didn’t consider me a threat to him at all?

The person on his left said his name and he turned to speak with them, again turning his back on me.

My insides churned and it was difficult to sit still. I had been so close to Quynh, close enough that she could finally speak to me, and she had ordered me to leave. Which meant that Alexandros had probably been telling me the truth.

I wasn’t sure what to do with that information.

Thrax returned to his chair, loudly scraping the legs against the floor before he seated himself.

Although it made me die a little inside to ask, I had to know. “Is she ... is she all right?”

“She’s fine,” he immediately answered in a cheery tone. “Feisty as ever. No biting this time, so that’s an improvement.”

Much as I despised Thrax, I did have to give him credit for standing up for her and knocking that man unconscious.

Part of me hoped that Quynh would return to pour wine, just so that I could see her again, while the other wanted her to stay in the kitchens so that no one else could harass her.

Fighting against my urges was never easy and was sometimes a fight I lost. I started running through the terms of my contract to remind myself that although I was giving up some things, I would be getting so much in the end.

It was then that I remembered a promise Alexandros hadn’t made good on. “You said you’d give me access to your mother’s library.”

The prince asked the man next to him to give him a moment, then turned to face me. He plastered that fake smile on his face. “I said I would give you access. I just didn’t say when.”

Bastard.

“You should have been more precise with your terms, princess,” he said.

I should have. I already knew how he loved to find a loophole, and I should have made it a point to make everything exact, with no room for him to exploit it.

Then he returned to his other conversation, effectively closing the subject.