Page 98 of A Vow of Embers

“Lia.” I heard anguish. A warning.

And a promise that made me shiver.

He looked as if he intended to devour me, and I knew that despite all my resolutions to be strong, I would welcome it.

Alexandros began to walk toward me and my heart thundered harder with every step he took.

Chapter Thirty-One

Our bedroom door was suddenly flung open and Io entered without knocking. “I heard the yelling and thought I should intervene before the entire palace comes to investigate.”

The prince froze in place as soon as his sister came in.

“Out,” Io said. “I have to help your lovely wife get ready for your picnic.”

He did as she asked, and I supposed she was the only person who could order Alexandros around. He gave me one last lingering, smoldering look and then he was gone.

I put my hand over my chest, as if I could calm my heartbeat from the outside.

“Your new dresses are here. Including the Remulan ones.”

I was only partially listening to her. The rest of me was still in that moment when the prince was stalking toward me. I was certain he had been about to kiss me. I didn’t know exactly why or what had prompted him to do so.

What would he have done when he reached me?

What would I have allowed him to do?

I feared the answer to both questions.

We had been having a productive, meaningful conversation. Yelling might have been involved, but this time he had listened to me. Taken me seriously.

For all of Io’s talk about me being a savior, what if this was what it meant? Maybe I was going to help bring about change here in Ilion and make the lives of women better.

She had been chattering away, removing my tunic, and had slipped the new dress on me. I’d been so distracted by my thoughts that I didn’t realize what she’d put me in.

I stood in front of my full-length mirror, where she used long, sharp shoulder pins to keep the top in place. The neckline plunged down my front, all the way to my navel. My breasts were covered, but a great deal of skin showed in the middle of my chest. And on my back. And my sides. I felt completely exposed.

“I can’t wear this,” I said.

“You can and you will,” she said as she tightened a belt at my waist. “The Remulan style is the latest fashion. This is your armor for the court, remember?”

“If I move the wrong way, everyone will see my breasts!”

“Then don’t move the wrong way.”

“That is not at all helpful!” I told her. I turned back to my reflection. Other than the large amount of exposed skin, the dress was beautiful. It was an emerald green covered in tiny silver beads that seemed to glitter when the sun hit them. Io brought me a long chain necklace with an emerald at the end that landed just above my belt.

“You really should let me pierce your ears.” She held up a pair of matching earrings and sighed.

“Io, I can’t go outside like this.”

She whirled me around so that I was facing her. “You are a princess of Locris and Ilion. You can do anything you want to do. Have confidence in yourself. Every woman there is going to die of envy.”

I didn’t care what the other women thought. Although I never would have told her this, a part of me wondered what Alexandros would think when he saw me in this dress.

Why was his opinion the only one that mattered to me?

“Are you coming to the picnic?” I asked.