Page 7 of A Vow of Embers

“Wouldn’t you?” she asked quietly, and I gasped, outraged by her implication. “I know you still have your secrets, and I’m not asking you to give them to me. I understand why you wouldn’t. I also know that you’re looking for something. If kidnapping me meant that you could force Xander into giving it to you, wouldn’t you do it?”

Would I kidnap Io and keep her as my prisoner if it meant that Xander would give me the eye of the goddess, the relic I had come to Ilion to find, and then guarantee me safe passage back to Locris? The answer to that question was an unequivocal yes. It wouldn’t bring me any joy, but I would do it.

“See?” she said. “Not so different.”

“I don’t want to talk about your brother,” I said in the most determined tone I could.

“I’m sure you don’t, but we have to. It’s why I’m here. I know about your meeting tomorrow, and you’re going to need my help.” She opened her satchel again, and this time she brought out some papyrus and pieces of lead. “I stole these from Theano’s office.”

This really was a new Io, because that didn’t sound like something she would ever do.

“My brother wants you to think that he has the upper hand, but that is not true. You have power here. He cannot get his kingship without you. You will get him to sign a contract that you and I are going to create. If he signs it, he’ll never break it. Once an Ilionian gives their word, they will not go back on it. It’s why the Great War happened—the Ilionian prince who had stolen another man’s bride vowed to her that he would protect her and love her and never let her go. It’s why they fought to the last man, as they were all sworn to him.”

That vow had led to the destruction of Locris, a connection Io seemed to quickly make as she fell silent. She got up and walked over to the table near the window and laid out the materials. She changed the subject back to the contract. “Should we begin?”

“Why are you helping me?” I asked.

She had a sad smile. “Because I love you both and I want both of you to get what you want. He is my brother, but you are my sister. My adelphia. By blood, by oath, and soon by law. I will not abandon you; I will not forsake you. We are bound, forever and ever.”

The words from our vow ceremony rushed back to me, along with the urge to trust her. The one I’d felt since the very first time we met.

“But I would ask for one thing.” At this her gaze slid down to the floor and I braced myself, worried that I might not be able to give her what she wanted. “Please don’t kill my brother.”

She didn’t know what she was asking of me. Now was not the time to discuss that, though. That would be between me and the prince.

I didn’t answer her request but walked over to the table to join her. I pulled out a chair to sit down.

“Do you think you’ll ever be able to forgive me?” Her voice was soft but I heard the pain in her question.

Some petty part of me wanted to hold on to my anger, but I knew it wasn’t right. “It’s going to take a long time for us to get back to what we used to have. But you are my sister.” As she’d said, by vow, by blood, and soon by law. I could no more stay angry at her than I could with Quynh or my other sister, Kallisto. And I wanted to try and make things right between Io and me before I left. I wouldn’t get to see her again and we shouldn’t part on bad terms.

Although I didn’t know if I could grant her the boon she’d requested—letting her lying, scheming, duplicitous brother live.

Chapter Three

I had Jason pressed against the wall, my xiphos to his throat. He was leaning forward, impaling himself against my blade to kiss me. Only this time I stepped back so that he couldn’t.

We were near the spot where I’d defeated that group of drunk men who had tried to attack me. The night I’d snuck out of the temple. Why were we here again? Was Jason trying to lower my defenses, reminding me of a good time that he and I had shared together to wear me down? “This isn’t going to work,” I told him.

“My charm? I believe it will,” he said, wiping at the blood trickling down his neck. “It always has in the past.”

“I’m not doing this with you.”

“So you’ve said before,” he said with a smirk. “And yet you keep ending up in my arms.”

The truth of what he said burned through me. “Because you tricked me!”

He frowned slightly. “How am I tricking you?”

“Do not play games with me. You’ve been lying to me about who you really are.” I walked away from him, ignoring the men I’d left lying on the ground. When this had happened in real life, I had gone to the hetaera house to make certain that the women hadn’t suffered because they’d helped me and Quynh, but given that this was a dream, I didn’t have to do any of that. I began walking toward the temple, hoping he couldn’t follow me there.

“And who am I?” he asked, walking behind me.

“Prince Alexandros.” I looked over my shoulder to get his reaction.

His eyes flared in surprise. “You think I’m a prince? Lia, I appreciate the compliment, but I assure you I’m the furthest thing from that.”

That gave me pause. Was this a dream that he and I were sharing, as we had so many times before, or was it something I was imagining alone? Given that my hair was brushing against my waist, I knew for sure I was in a dream, but was this just what my psyche wished had happened? That I could have figured things out that night and not remained in the dark for so long?