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Startled by the question, I look to Eryx, who seems equally perplexed. I don’t know what game she’s playing, but I’m doing everything I can to keep calm and get through this encounter.

So I give her question the consideration it deserves. I imagine Sandros standing next to Eryx. He would be a bit shorter and leaner, but his face was the stuff of poetry.

I say, “The same.”

“Hmm.”

Alessandra reaches over to take her husband’s hand in hers. She plays with his fingers as she continues to survey me.

Finally, she asks, “What do you want?”

For Eryx to disappear from my life. I say, “At first, I wanted to ask that you deny the man the dukedom so it would remain in my care.”

Eryx’s breath hitches, but I press on.

“However, after spending some time getting to know him, I have to admit that he makes a fine duke. It is my wish that he be recognized formally by Your Majesties as the new Duke of Pholios.”

That perplexed look has yet to leave my sister’s face. She still doesn’t know what to make of me. Alessandra turns to Eryx. “Leave us.”

I wonder if he’ll dare to disobey, when I know leaving me alone with the king and queen is the literal last thing he wants to do.

He says to me, “I won’t be far.”

It’s a threat more than a promise.

“You too,” Alessandra says to Petros, who has remained within hearing distance all this time.

“Spoilsport,” he says to her good-humoredly, but he obeys as well.

And then I’m alone with my sister and her husband.

CHAPTER 16

Once Eryx is gone, Alessandra leans forward in her chair.

“What game are you playing?” she asks me.

“Game?”

“Yes, you aren’t behaving like your usual self.”

“For the first time in my life, I’m allowed to be my real self.”

“And what does that mean? A man finally tempted you into bed and now you’re climbing down from your high horse?”

I can’t help but smile. This is the first real conversation we’ve had in years. “No, I’m no longer dependent on Father or anyone else for my survival, so I don’t have to be the woman men want me to be.”

Alessandra narrows her eyes. “And what woman is that?”

“The airheaded beauty who wants nothing more than to please her father because she’s too stupid to want anything for herself.”

Alessandra sits up straighter in her chair. She eyes me from head to toe as though meeting me for the first time. I suppose in a way, she is.

“I had Father wrapped around my finger for years, and you were none the wiser to my antics. I had the whole world fooled, and now I have everything I’ve ever wanted.” Almost. “So there’s no point in keeping up the ruse. Not with you, at least.”

I keep my eyes locked on hers. There is no looking away or backing down. This is me.

Kallias turns toward his wife as though waiting for her to do something. She finally schools her features and asks, “And what is it that you’ve wanted?”