Page 82 of A Vow of Embers

Servants always knocked before they entered. No one just let themselves into our room.

My pulse beat double time. I reached for my xiphos and stepped into the shadows on the balcony. I heard the door closing and prepared to peer around the side to see who had entered our room. Should I call out and warn the prince?

“Lia?”

I dropped my sword and it clanged onto the stone of the balcony.

It was Quynh.

Chapter Twenty-Six

“Quynh!” I ran to her, throwing my arms around her. “You’re here. I can’t believe that you are here!”

She laughed and hugged me tightly. I didn’t ever want to let go. But I had to make certain that she was well. “Are you all right?” I demanded, putting my hands on her shoulders and scanning her from head to feet. “Have they hurt you?”

“Lia, I am fine. No one has harmed me. I have missed you so much.” She reached up to wipe away the tears I hadn’t even realized that I’d been crying. “I knew you would make it to the temple. I knew it. I’m so proud of you.”

The tears fell harder. “If I had known you were alive, I never would have left you. You know that, don’t you?”

“My dearest sister, of course I know that. It’s why I made you promise that you would go on. I knew you would die by my side and I couldn’t bear it. The only reason I could let go was because I knew you would succeed.”

I hugged her again. “When Thrax and the prince brought you out, all I wanted to do was run to you. I couldn’t believe that you were alive. I had mourned for you for weeks. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever gone through.” Even harder than when I’d lost Haemon, because at least then I’d had my family with me and the tiny hope that he might have survived.

“And now I’m going to make sure that you never go through that again. That no one in our family does,” she said.

I leaned back. “What do you mean?”

“There is so much for us to talk about. We should sit down. Xander has stolen a small window of time for us.”

“Wait,” I said and went to the trunk that had my belongings from Locris. I rummaged through my satchel until I found what I was looking for. I pulled it out and ran over to her.

I slid her family’s bracelet onto her wrist and pulled it tight. Something settled into place in my heart, as the bracelet was now back where it belonged. “I kept it safe for you.”

She smiled at me, her eyes bright with tears. “I knew you would. Thank you.”

It occurred to me then that Alexandros was still in the washroom. I closed the balcony doors and then led her to the farthest point away from where he was. I took two chairs and set them behind my dressing screen. I was probably being overly cautious, but just in case someone came into the room, I didn’t want them to see us right away.

When she sat down I reached out to touch her hair. “Who made you cut it?”

“It was my idea. All of this has been my idea.”

“I don’t understand,” I said. “What are you talking about?”

She let out a small sigh. “There is so much that I’m not even sure where to begin. Maybe I should start with when we were separated.”

That was like a punch to the gut, remembering the night when I had begged her not to let go, to not give up.

Thrax had climbed a ladder and pulled her from my arms. I remembered her scream of terror, the way I had lain on that roof unable to move, paralyzed with grief and fear and hysteria. The only reason I had gone on was because of the promise she’d made me give her.

“When Thrax kidnapped you,” I said. I was angry at him and angry at myself. I’d never get past the fact that I didn’t watch after she was taken. I would have seen that she wasn’t dead. I could have gonedown and saved her. She could have come to the temple with me, and Alexandros wouldn’t currently have this leverage over me.

Although something told me that he would have found another way to force my hand.

Quynh reached out and rested her palm on my forearm. “You mean when Thrax saved me.”

“What?”

“There was a large crowd gathered and they intended to kill me. Thrax climbed up and got me, put me over his shoulder, and fought off every man while I was struggling to get away from him. At one point he had to put me down, telling me to stay put, and I just sat there, frozen in fear with my sprained ankle, while he defeated dozens and dozens of men single-handedly.” There was admiration in her tone. Respect.