Page 9 of A Vow of Embers

I wanted to protest that I wasn’t interested in wearing expensive clothes or draping myself in jewelry for the sake of a bunch of elitist riffraff, but the idea of spending the prince’s money did appeal to me.

“You should ask him for a pet terawolf,” Zalira whispered on my right, softly enough so that Io wouldn’t hear.

That idea had some merit. Considering how deadly terawolves were, maybe he wouldn’t survive the encounter and then my hands would be clean.

“And attendants!” Io went on. “You will need attendants. Ask for Parthenia. She was my maid when I lived at the palace. She is very good at what she does and you can trust her.”

“Add it to the list,” I said. Despite Io’s recommendation, I couldn’t see myself trusting anyone new.

Speaking of untrustworthy people, Artemisia entered the room with her adelphia. They were being loud and rude to the people around them, shoving girls out of their way to get to their preferred spot. It was the one good thing about leaving the temple—not having to ever interact with her again. Artemisia shot me a smug look, as if she were just as pleased that I was going. She was another who had hated me and wanted me gone from the beginning.

I had to hope that she would leave the rest of my adelphia alone after I married the prince because I would no longer be here to protect them.

That thought unsettled me more than I would have liked to admit.

Maia was down on the dais and called the class to attention.

“My mother had a private library. You should ask for access to that as well. It might help you. And I’m sure my brother will agree to everything,” Io said to me. “You’ll see that he is very reasonable.”

It was not easy to suppress my reaction and I very much wanted to roll my eyes. Her hero worship of Prince Alexandros was exhausting.

“There was a time when the gods lived among us and had half-mortal children,” Maia said loudly, which quieted the room. “They spoke to us, guided us—”

“Why did that change?” someone asked, interrupting her.

“Perhaps our lack of belief made them withdraw from us. To go from speaking to us in person to visiting us in dreams so that we aren’t sure whether our own minds are making things up or if the goddess actually has a message for us. Why would she make an effort to talk to us when we dismiss her and her warnings?”

Murmuring broke out through the class but Maia ignored it. She hadn’t actually been looking for a response—it was more of a rebuke for our collective faith not being strong enough.

It did make me think about the dreams I’d had. What was I supposed to understand from them? Was the goddess involved at all?

“We have stories of when the gods and goddesses would meet with mortals, how they would test heroes and their half-mortal offspring to see if they were worthy. The god of war had chosen a particular champion, Darius, but wanted to make certain that he was pure of heart. When Darius was traveling he came upon a wide, dangerous river with a strong current. An old man waited on the bank, asking Darius to carry him across. Darius did so without hesitation, despite the danger to his own life, and the god of war granted him a special weapon to defeat his foes.”

Maia continued with other stories about tests and trials, but I was still thinking about how she’d said the goddess communicated with us through our dreams. I had been so willing to believe that the goddess had been speaking directly to me, that she had a mission for me.

But given what I had learned about my dreams, the way the prince had been using them to manipulate me ... I had a hard time imagining that she had been involved at all.

It caused me to take every single one of my interactions with “Jason” and filter it with the knowledge that I had now. Like the night we’d broken into the library, how that yellow feather had “accidentally” flown out of his bag in front of me. He had intended for me to see it, to put the two things together—that he had been the one to save me during the tribute race so that I would feel grateful to him. It might not have even been him who had helped. Maybe he had ordered his men to keep me alive at all costs.

Everything he had done had been to manipulate me along this path, to force me at the end when he needed me.

And it had not just been in person. I had spent more than a month with him in my dreams. Doing things that made me blush by the light of day. All those weeks thinking that I was getting to know him. Talking to him, sharing myself. Emotionally, mentally.

Physically.

I drew in a shaky breath as I thought of all that had passed between us in our shared dreams. The way that he had used those dreams to manipulate me.

And the dream I’d had last night ... what had been the point? Why had he created it?

Unfortunately what I remembered most was the way he had kissed me. His strong arms around me, his mouth insistent on mine, his body a hard line against me. How he’d set me aflame with a simple kiss, how badly I wanted him despite how much I hated him and everything he had done.

Maybe that was the point. To show me what a fool I’d been. How easily he had drawn me in.

And how willing I was to be drawn in again.

Chapter Four

My heart thudded hard in my chest as I waited in the temple courtyard for Theano to arrive so that we could go meet the prince. The contract Io had drawn up was tucked into my breastband and I felt the edges of it against my skin. I knew it wasn’t visible but I was worried what the high priestess might do if she realized that I had it.