Page 91 of A Vow of Embers

I broke through the water and sucked air into my lungs. My brother had his arm around me and was dragging me back to the shore. I tried to help but all I could think about was dragging sweet oxygen into my chest.

We landed on the shore and collapsed. I coughed out the seawater I had inhaled. My brother patted me on the back, helping me.

I turned to thank him but it wasn’t Haemon who had pulled me from the depths.

It was Alexandros.

Why had he saved me?

I scooted backward, away from him. “What are you doing here?”

He raised one eyebrow at me like it was a foolish question, and I supposed it was. I glanced down and realized that I was no longer a little girl but myself. Haemon was nowhere to be seen. The clouds disappeared and the sea had calmed. We were on the shores of Locris, in another dream.

“You’re afraid of drowning,” Alexandros said, his gaze pointed at the horizon.

“Everyone is,” I said, my heart still beating so quickly that I feared I might become lightheaded and lose consciousness.

Although that might not be a bad thing. It would allow me to escape whatever this was.

“No, this is different. You’re terrified of it. This is your greatest fear,” he said.

How could he know that? It felt so unfair that he knew something so personal about me and I didn’t—

Words whispered into my mind.

“You’re scared of heights,” I said.

He whipped his head around to stare at me with those golden eyes. It was true. I could see it. That was his greatest fear.

“Why are you smiling like that?” he demanded.

“It’s nice to know that some parts of you are human. You have fears like the rest of us. Maybe in our next dream, I’ll save you from falling off a cliff.”

His mouth twitched. “After you’ve pushed me off it?”

I was about to respond when he held his hand up and asked, “Do you hear that?”

I woke and reached under my pillow for my xiphos, sitting up in the bed.

The prince was next to me, having done the same thing. We held our weapons out, waiting. The sound was coming from across the room. A scratching noise, followed by a mewling.

Something was in here with us.

“Stay here,” he said as he got up.

There was no chance of that. I followed him, keeping my sword up, looking around for any attacker. Quynh telling me about the attempt on my life at the wedding had shaken me up. I hadn’t even known about it.

Alexandros kicked my trunk and the sound disappeared. “It’s coming from in there.”

That whispery voice told me to open the lid and I reached for it.

“Don’t!”

But before he could stop me, I pulled it open. Something was moving at the bottom of the trunk. “Get a light.”

He retrieved a torch and brought it back. I saw a small silver lizard. Had this escaped from Io’s menagerie? I reached inside and held out my palm.

“Stop. It could be poisonous. A trap.”