Page 7 of Ties of Deception (Tethered Hearts)

Chapter

Seven

I was tired after traveling back from Fierro and had dismissed my maids early. Somehow, I just knew the Aida prince would choose tonight—when I was emotionally shattered—to visit again. I sat at the foot of my enormous bed and stared at the wafting curtains, waiting and alert so he didn’t catch me asleep.

I’d replayed the day over and over in my mind, bouncing between hating how vulnerable I’d been, and longing to become familiar with that world so I could stand up to bullies like Charity and help people like that poor girl.

I didn’t want to be somebody who was powerless, even if I wasn’t sure what exactly I wanted to do yet. And I was starting to face the uncomfortable truth that hiding safe and cozy in my villa was not going to help me achieve anything. I was just languishing here.

After half an hour, I started to feel foolish for waiting based solely on a gut reaction. I lay down and pulled up the covers, just as a sharp clatter made me sit up again. A rock skid across the mosaic floor. I scowled, jumped out of bed, picked it up and chucked it back in the direction it had come from. Hard. Unfortunately, the moving curtains and the shadows of dusk meant I couldn’t make out my target.

“You would be sad if that had hit me.” The god’s voice sounded amused.

I folded my arms, squinting between the pillars as I tried to find him. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”

“Imagine if it had hit me on the head?—”

I really didn’t feel in the mood for this. “With pleasure. Actually, stop talking, I need to imagine that again.”

“—and I had been knocked unconscious. Then what would you have done?”

“Left you out there and slept easy. Maybe you would have died.”

“It could have been seen as a sign of aggression between our countries. That could mean war.”

“Or it would mean the whole world would know you’re the sort of person who breaks into people’s villas to harass goddesses in the middle of the night.”

There was silence for a heartbeat. “Are you ready to leave your pretty little cage yet?”

I still couldn’t make him out. I stepped closer toward his voice. “Not with you.”

“Fine, stay there, and be a pretty songbird for everyone to admire.”

I frowned and glanced at the tiny red and yellow bird asleep in its ornate cage and hated how accurately he described how I’d felt coming home today.

“I can work things out for myself. I don’t need you and your Aida games.”

“Aida games? You realize we don’t actually kidnap people or whatever nonsense you’ve been told.” He snorted. “I never said you couldn’t work this world out. But with me, things would be much, much quicker. Not to mention more entertaining.”

His offer was more tempting than I wanted to admit, but surely there was a safer way than trusting this man. “I don’t think I’d like your idea of ‘entertaining.’”

There was a heavy sigh, and something rolled to my feet with a much hollower sound than a rock. At first, I thought it was an apple, but when I bent to touch the red orb, I realized it was a pomegranate.

I frowned as I clutched it in my hands. “Run out of rocks, have you?”

“Not when you so kindly returned the last one.”

“Well, what do you expect me to do with this?” I waved the fruit in the air.

“Whatever you wish. It’s a gift and a sign I mean you no harm. A truce.”

I stared at the smooth, hard fruit for a minute. “You think giving me a pomegranate will convince me you’re not trying to seduce me?”

His voice dropped. “Oh, I never said that. I just said I wouldn’t kidnap you.” Despite my annoyance, his words sent a warm shiver down my spine and heat to my cheeks. The feeling made me hate him even more. “But it is a sign that I mean you no harm. I won’t touch you again without your permission.”

I narrowed my eyes and walked to the edge of the marble steps so I could see his features. I didn’t want him to think I was afraid of him, and I wanted him to see my glare. “Yet, you won’t leave me alone?”

As I made out his broad, strong face between the shadowy bushes, a strange emotion flickered across it as if I’d triggered an unpleasant memory. Something more than sorrow, maybe closer to pain. But it was quickly masked by a sincere expression as he finally met my eyes.

“There you are.” His voice was annoyingly gentle. “I will go now if you ask. But my offer will stand until I have shown you what you need to see.”

What I need to see… What could he mean by that? How could he presume to know what I needed ? Yet, I couldn’t help but be intrigued even against my better judgement.

I sighed in frustration, throwing the pomegranate back and forth between my hands and enjoying its cool smoothness against my palms. Something pressed sudden and warm against my mind, like a memory I couldn’t quite reach. A sense of strong familiarity with the fruit in my hands. The Aida nearby. A sensation that was…pleasant. It lasted a few moments before vanishing. Was my mind merely recalling the strange picture I’d had of the pomegranates before? The sensation left me unsettled.

“I don’t trust you.” But the words didn’t come out as hard as before.

He smirked, far too much humor entering his voice. “Few ever do.” He paused and his smile became more genuine. “But maybe, I could start to prove my trustworthiness to you. If you’d let me.”

I half turned away from him; I had no energy for his games. “Leave me, please. I…need to think. Maybe we can talk another day.”

“As you wish. But I wanted you to know—that girl you met in Fierro? I tracked down her home and gave her food, medicine, and money. Her father won’t die. I thought you’d want to know.”

Something fragile buried deep inside me, cracked and rushed to the surface. It should have been me. It was my role as a Grace to help the people of Atos. I could have done something, somehow. My very purpose was to make people’s lives better. Yet I had failed to help somebody who had needed me the most.

I blew out a long, shaking breath, allowing his words to alleviate my guilt. I was so glad she was all right, even if I had failed her. A weight lifted, and tears rose unbidden. I bit them back. I wanted to thank him, but I couldn't speak. I looked back at him, but he’d already gone. I stayed there, staring into the darkness long after his words had been swallowed by the wind.

When I finally returned to bed, his words still tumbled around and around my skull. I needed to find out about this world. He could act when he wished and save those he wanted. He had knowledge and power that brought him freedom. Surely I could deny any romantic advances from him while accepting what he offered so I could gain that same knowledge and so to find my strength and purpose?

While I didn’t know his motives, it felt like a dangerous game to play. But right now, I wasn’t sure I had another choice. I couldn’t languish here in ignorance. I needed to finally do something.

Drusella burst through the atrium in a flap, a scroll of parchment creased in one hand. “What did you do? The empress has summoned you! I told you to keep your head down.”

My stomach dropped and my mouth went dry. “Am I in trouble?” I had given no remarkable impressions. No positive ones anyway. Was it because I had left the main road at the festival? Or was she as annoyed as Charity that I had been speaking alone with the prince?

“Goodness, no. It’s a sign of favor, but this is too soon, all too soon. You’re not ready for that world yet. Attention is not necessarily a good thing. Every little mistake you make has lasting consequences in court.”

If I wasn’t in trouble then why…

I swallowed down my frustration and impatience—Drusella always gave the same unhelpful, vague warnings—and ignored the nerves tightening my belly. “Would you explain exactly what you mean?”

Drusella stilled for a moment, frowning in thought at the floor as if deciding how to explain something complicated to a child. I swung my legs over the side of the recliner, wondering if I was about to get more specific information from her. What had happened to other goddesses that had her so worried?

She sat beside me and took my hands. “Purity, my dear. Do you understand what your role as goddess is?”

I nodded, trying not to fidget. “It’s to bring prosperity by being happy.”

“And you understand that this”—she paused to wave one hand across all the finery around us— “all this luxury and wealth is to ensure that?”

“I do.” I started to fidget and stopped myself. My patience for her dramatics was starting to wear thin. She took both my hands again.

“And that all the sacrifices of the people in the Riverside District are to make you happy.”

“Yes.”

She leaned even closer. “And surely, you yourself want to be happy?”

“Of course.”

She tightened her grip on my hands, and her eyes met mine with an intensity edged with fear. “Then understand that nothing that comes from the world of empresses and princes and other goddesses will make you happy. Not their promises or their beauty or their games. I have seen it time and time again. There are no winners in the game of politics. Just keep your head down and seem unthreatening and innocent. Interact enough to stay safe, but not so as to attract notice. Your place is here in this villa. Your happiness is here. Don’t let them steal it from you.”

My lips had parted with shock. What was she so scared of? That I would be so emotionally wounded that I could no longer Bless the petitioners? Or that I would leave the family like that other goddess, exchanging this for a more exciting life? Or was it something more?

Despite her words, my determination only grew. This was a new chance to understand the world and find my place in it—beyond the constant effort of forcing myself to be happy.

Drusella pushed the parchment into my hands and shook her head. “I wish we had more time before it came to this. But you are our goddess. I know you will make the right choices. Try and ensure you are boring enough not to get another invitation.” She stood, attempted a smile, and took quick strides back to the atrium, leaving me alone with the letter.

I stared down at the empress’s invitation written in gold ink and considered again the Aida prince’s offer to help me navigate this world. I wasn’t so naive to think he would do it for free. It would come with strings attached. But if I was careful…

Still, the chances of him visiting before the day of the invitation were slim. And more importantly, I needed to concentrate on why the empress had summoned me, when she’d kicked me out of the palace on my previous visit.

Who might be behind it? The Aida prince? Prince Sebastian? Charity? Maybe even a kind word from Constance?

I had the feeling I’d been sucked into the heart of these games whether I wanted to be or not. I’d have to learn fast.