Chapter Sixteen
Her question surprised me so much that I couldn’t formulate a response.
“I would guess you haven’t,” Lysimache said. “And if he hasn’t bedded you, then you’re physically connected. His pain is yours. Someone only has to kill one of you to get to the other, and my guess is that will happen sooner rather than later.”
Of course she would know about my physical link with Xander.
Another reason she’d been willing to let the wedding go through instead of killing me outright as she had planned.
She had gambled that someone else would do the job for her.
I glanced down at my bandaged hand. “I’ll go home and have sex with him today. ”
This seemed to amuse her. “And break your vow? I know you think you can save Locris. Do you really think you can access the goddess’s power if you do not do what you promised her?”
My worst fear laid bare. I did my best to not react.
She added, “He doesn’t trust you. He never will. You don’t know the royal family. I’m certain he keeps things from you.”
Why was she saying this? How had she figured out that Xander had become a weak spot for me? Enough. It was time to get at the bigger questions.
“Where is Artemisia really from? Who is she working for?”
“As I’ve already told you, I don’t know.”
It seemed she really didn’t care who destroyed Ilion and Locris, only that it was done. “Why didn’t you go with her?”
“When I initially consulted with the oracle, I asked her how I could stay alive to defeat the savior. She told me that I could ingest the eye in micro amounts, but that by doing so, I would never be able to leave Ilion again or else I would instantly die. I must be connected to the lands where the goddess’s power lies. It’s become my prison.”
Which was another reason why she hated Ilion so much. “You told Artemisia to kill everyone in the temple because they all had the potential to tap into their goddess aspects and could have stopped her.”
“Yes, and it’s why they went looking for the rest of you in the palace. If I’d known that you five had already figured the magic out, I would have paid for assassins myself.”
“Where is the final eye of the goddess?”
“I gave it to Artemisia.” If she was surprised that I’d figured out there was another eye, despite her implying at the temple that she had destroyed the last one, she didn’t show it.
“And where is she now?”
“I don’t know.”
It was incomprehensible to me that she hadn’t asked Artemisia any questions about her background at all. “Why did you give her the eye? Why not just destroy it like you did with the other one?”
“Because it has power and she can use it.”
“And in exchange she will obliterate Ilion and Locris off the map for you.”
Lysimache nodded.
A thought occurred to me as I remembered the prophecy. What if the eye was the greatest weapon? It was worth asking about. “What is the greatest weapon that I’m supposed to wield?” I asked.
“I know it’s part of the prophecy, but I don’t know what it is. I would assume the eye.”
If that was true, then I didn’t currently have a way to use it to protect Ilion. “What is the red dirt?”
“I don’t know,” she said with a sigh, as if she were bored.
“What is the hammer of Arion?”
At that she frowned. “I’m not sure, but if I had to wager a guess, I would say the weapon Artemisia was using.”
Now we were making progress. “What or who is Arion?”
“The son of the goddess.” Her eyes went wide. “What have you done? Why do I have to answer? What is this?”
I had known it was only a matter of time until she realized what I had done. I pressed forward. “Who worships Arion?”
“Many . . . many people do,” she said with a groan. “Why am I being forced to say things that I don’t want to? This isn’t how truth serum works!”
“Why does Arion want to attack Dea’s believers?”
“Because he hates his mother and wants to destroy her!” The words were just above a whisper, as if she were trying desperately to contain them. She jumped to her feet and took the tray of food and threw it against the wall.
“What rules and laws did you change at the temple?” I asked.
Her words were coming out a garbled mess as she fought against the compulsion. Was the fountain water giving her the strength to resist?
“Get away from Lia!”
I had been so focused on the high priestess that I hadn’t realized Dolion had entered the room. He positioned himself between us, as if he meant to protect me.
“Did priestesses used to marry?” I demanded.
“Yes!” she shrieked, pulling on her hair like the pain would prevent her from answering.
“Who changed it?”
She tried to clamp her lips shut. “Many . . . many high priestesses changed things!”
I realized that she was avoiding the question and speaking in generalities. I needed her to be more specific. “What changed with priestesses marrying? How did it change? And when? Why was it altered? Tell me why!”
Lysimache fought every word that escaped her lips. “Be-because . . . couldn’t risk . . . them . . .”
The high priestess started to scream while she reached for Dolion’s belt and yanked out his short sword. She kicked him in the chest and knocked him against the far wall.
She’s going to kill me.
Adrenaline surged as I prepared for her to leap at me. I heard Thrax and Zalira coming up the stairs. They must have heard the chaos. I was about to call on my aspect when the high priestess suddenly stopped screaming.
Because she lifted Dolion’s blade and, with a malicious smile, drew the sword against her own throat, cutting her vocal cords.
Blood streamed from her neck as she collapsed to the floor.
“No!” I tore a strip of cloth from the bottom of my tunic and ran over to her, putting pressure on the wound. “You do not die,” I said. “We are not done!”
She managed to smile at me, blood staining her teeth.
Her words from earlier echoed in my head.
I win, daughter of Ajax.
“What happened?” Thrax asked. Dolion explained it to him, but I was focused on stopping the bleeding.
Lysimache made a gurgling sound, and it sounded as if she was choking on her own blood. Drowning in it.
The cut was too deep. She wouldn’t survive.
I put my face over hers, making certain that she was looking into my eyes. “When you face the goddess, she is going to give you exactly what you deserve,” I promised her.
The high priestess’s expression changed at my words to one of horror, and then she was gone—her mouth wide, her eyes glassy and open.
I should have brought Xander with me. He could have stopped her before she was able to kill herself. What had she been about to say? What would have been so important that she would take her own life rather than be forced to answer?
Zalira’s hand rested on my shoulder. “She’s gone.”
I was still holding the ripped part of my tunic against Lysimache’s throat. I stood and turned toward Dolion.
“Why did you do that?” I asked angrily. “Why would you come in here armed?”
“You had a weapon with you?” Thrax demanded.
“I thought she was going to hurt Lia,” Dolion said, sounding annoyed. Because we were upset with him? He turned toward me. “You were in danger and I just acted. I was trying to protect you!”
“I can protect myself,” I told him. His interference had cost me the rest of my answers.
“You know that no one is allowed to bring any kind of weapon into this room!” Thrax said.
Dolion’s tone shifted to one of regret. “I should have known better. I’m sorry. I was worried about Lia.”
“I understand.” Thrax clasped his phratry brother on the shoulder. “It was an honest mistake.”
Zalira asked me, “Are you all right?”
“I should have let Io come. She might have been able to save her.”
“You can’t think that way,” she said. “First, with the way she’s been lately, I’m not sure Io would have even tried. And second, no one could have saved Lysimache. She made sure of that.”
Zalira was right. The high priestess had bled out too quickly.
I had come so close and didn’t get all the answers I needed. I felt disconnected from myself, my mind hazy, as if I couldn’t think straight. I had to get out of this house. I turned and went down the stairs, grabbed my weapons, opened the front door, and started walking toward the palace.
I was vaguely aware of Zalira trailing behind me with the horses, but I was in some kind of a daze.
I didn’t hear or see anything else. I kept replaying the moment when Lysimache had killed herself over in my head.
If I’d just been a moment faster. If I had only realized what she’d been about to do, I could have stopped her.
I relied entirely on muscle memory to lead me back to my room.
At some point Zalira must have handed off the horses to one of the guards, as she hadn’t gone to the stables and was right behind me.
When I opened my bedroom door, she said, “Do you need anything?”
To sleep for a hundred years? So that when I awoke, this would all be over? “No.”
She nodded toward her room. “I was able to hear your entire conversation with Lysimache. I’ll tell the others everything that happened.”
“Thank you. I just want to . . .” I wanted to curl up in a ball and pretend like none of this was happening. To shut out the entire world and have it all disappear.
“Go rest,” she said, and I saw the concern in her eyes.
I went into my room and closed the door.
I headed straight for the bed and got under the blankets, pulling them over my head.
I wished I could sleep. Instead I lay there and continued to repeatedly run my final encounter with Lysimache through my head.
Seeing the expression on her face just before she died.
I lost track of time, staying in that moment.
My stomach grumbled. I was hungry. And thirsty. But I didn’t want to move.
“Lia?”
Xander had come into our room and slammed the door behind him. I stayed under the blankets.
He sat next to me on the bed. “Are you all right?”
“No.”
“I heard about Lysimache. Thrax found me and I came straight here.” He sounded so concerned that I started to cry.
“Don’t do that,” he said as he tugged the blankets down from my face. “You know it destroys me when you cry.”
I swallowed down what I was feeling, determined to stay in control. I couldn’t weep and fall apart in his arms. Once I managed to get it to stop, I said, “At least this time there’s no one for you to slay. The person responsible is already dead.”
He wiped away the tears on my cheeks and then glanced at my hands. “I hope you strangled her to death.”
“This wasn’t from me trying to kill her. I was trying to save her,” I said, holding my hands aloft. Her blood had dried on my skin.
“Why?”
“Because I had more questions. She killed herself before I could finish. So she wouldn’t have to answer.” I exhaled loudly, willing myself to not start sobbing. I had been so close, but in the end she’d taken her secrets with her. “Will you promise me something?”
“Anything.”
“I want you to burn her body. I don’t want her to be reunited with the earth. She deserves to suffer and wander as a shade for the rest of time, never knowing peace.”
If he was alarmed about the anger in my voice, he didn’t show it. “I promise. I will personally make sure it’s done.”
“Thank you.”
“Do you want to tell me what happened?” he asked carefully, averting his gaze.
As if he expected me to shut him out.
That would have been the wisest choice. Not the easiest, but the one that would keep me on the right path.
I didn’t do that. I told him nearly everything that I had learned, leaving out mentions of the eye of the goddess. I included what she’d said about him and our relationship. “Lysimache said that you keep things from me. Do you?”
“Yes.” His answer was immediate. “But they’re not things you need to know.”
My heart lurched. I had absolutely no right to feel hurt, because I was doing the same to him. Had just deliberately made that very choice a few minutes ago.
And the things I kept from him . . . he probably should’ve known them.
My reaction made no sense. I was being a hypocrite.
He studied me and my pulse began to beat erratically. Because he looked like he knew exactly what I was thinking.
“I’m glad she’s gone,” he finally said.
“So am I.”
We lapsed into silence, and I found myself blurting out words. “You saved my life and you didn’t even know it.” I could at least give him this. Let him know that despite all my anger at what he’d done, I was sitting here because he had forced me into marriage.
“What do you mean? Because every time I’ve saved you so far, I’ve definitely known it.” That teasing lilt was back and my stomach fluttered in response.
“It’s not my fault everyone wants me dead,” I said miserably.
“No, it’s not,” he agreed.
“Lysimache planned on killing me while I was at the temple. She was going to make it look self-inflicted because of my homesickness. I was so angry with you for blackmailing me into marrying you, and it’s the reason I’m still alive.”
He watched me, his expression guarded.
“And if I’d told you no, if we’d all been at the temple when Artemisia attacked . . .” The lump in my throat refused to let me keep speaking.
“Don’t think about that,” he said.
“How can I not when I literally have Lysimache’s blood on my hands? All that she has taken from me, all that she has made certain to keep away from me in the future . . . I can think of nothing else.”
“Like what?”
You. She made sure I could never have you. Lysimache had put all this in motion by cursing Locris. She had put me in this position where I couldn’t have the life I wanted because I had to remain worthy to undo her evil actions.
“None of it matters,” I said, defeated. “Because I’m just like her and I’m going to meet the same end and there’s nothing either one of us can do to stop it.”