CHAPTER SIXTY-EIGHT
When I got into my room, I slammed the door shut and locked it. This wasn t a moment for my other sisters and I knew they would follow.
This was going to be between Io and me.
She was sitting on her bed crying. She looked at me, her eyes full of guilt. I m so, so sorry, she said. He came because I told him about you.
It was like she had punched me in the gut. I had considered the possibility that Io had told him who I was and immediately dismissed it as impossible. But she had betrayed me. You promised me you wouldn t tell anyone.
I promised not to tell our adelphia and I didn t. I had to tell Xander.
This family and their obsession with technicalities! This was not the time to be splitting hairs. Why? Why would you do that?
There are so many reasons, she said, trying to dry her tears and steady her voice so that she could speak to me. I m so sorry. I know you must be furious with me. But I cannot let my nation fall into my stepmother s hands. She is making a play for the throne for my younger half brother. There is so much more here at stake than you realize. A much bigger picture.
So to make your brother king, you sacrificed me?
No, Lia, that s not what this is. She let out a sigh. I m explaining it all wrong.
Did you know that Alexandros is Jason? I demanded.
Io made a confused face. What?
When I met him, he told me his name was Jason. I have been seeing him. Kissing him. And . . . I let my voice trail off. I wouldn t tell her how far I d been willing to let things go.
For one brief moment she looked shocked but then she quickly recovered. That s good, isn t it? she asked hopefully. You like each other. It will make things easier.
No, it s not good! He has been tricking me this entire time to get me to agree to marry him.
She shook her head. That doesn t sound like Xander.
I wasn t going to stand here and let her defend her evil brother. How long has he known who I am?
How long had he been teasing and kissing and manipulating me into submission?
I saw him at the festival, before I went to bed. He comes to the temple and checks on me regularly to make certain that I am all right. It was after I d talked to you. He told me about some of the moves our stepmother has been making and I told him who you were. He needs you to marry him to keep the throne out of her hands.
Io talked to Alexandros? I realized that this had happened more than once. The day I snuck out into the city. You were worried about me going alone. You told him. That s how he found me.
Yes. She sounded miserable. But I didn t know he was telling you that he was someone else.
I had thought these were coincidences. Happy accidents. But there had been a more sinister design behind it all the entire time.
Had he known from the moment he d stepped foot into Locris? He could have bribed someone in the palace to point me out. And then I went into the tree courtyard and kissed him, like a complete fool. I hadn t even made him try to catch me. Like a fish deliberately swimming into a net, voluntarily catching itself.
I collapsed onto my bed, hard.
From her body language it was obvious that Io wanted to comfort me. I knew she hated hurting me, but it didn t make the pain of her betrayal sting any less. I didn t think she was the reason he knew who I was. I believed that he had known for a while now, but it still hurt that she was so willing to break my trust. She hadn t told him anything that he didn t already know, but her confession might have forced him into acting sooner than he d planned.
I left the palace to avoid being forced into a marriage, she said. I know what that s like. I don t want that for you but I also need you to know that I love my brother and he is a good man.
Jason, or Alexandros, was a lying, deceiving, philandering, self-centered, vile . . . I couldn t even think of a bad enough word to call him. I should have paid closer attention when Demaratus was cursing at us for not performing up to his standards.
But I wouldn t say any of that to Io. I would never be able to convince her of the kind of person her brother really was. If you say so.
Several quiet moments passed between us before she said, Do you know how my brother got his scar?
He said something about a woman with a jealous lover.
She frowned, as if she didn t like my answer. My stepmother was worried that I would marry a foreign prince, obtain a powerful marriage, and then throw my support to Xander for the crown. She decided to eliminate me and thought no one would care if a daughter was killed. Xander fought off her assassins but was left with a permanent reminder of her treachery on his face.
That didn t change anything. I could see that Io wanted it to, but it didn t erase either one of their betrayals.
When the attempt failed, that s when she tried to marry me off to one of her cronies and I came here instead.
I put my head into my hands. There was too much pain, too much confusion, too much emotion.
There s something else, she added.
What else can there be? I asked, throwing my hands into the air. I couldn t begin to imagine what she had to say that she thought I would want to hear.
She looked down at her hands, folded on her lap. As if she were considering where to begin. When I was young, I had an illness that threatened my life. No life mage could fix me. No medicines or potions healed me. The physicians told my father that I was going to die. As a last resort my father brought me to the temple. Daphne was the one who took me. She brought me into the flower garden and laid me on the ground and left. The goddess appeared to me there.
As angry as I was at her, I couldn t help but be caught up in her story.
What I remember most was how beautiful she was, how loving. The way that she glowed, her golden hair and green eyes. She knelt down on the ground next to me and asked me what I wanted. I said I wanted to live. I told her that if she saved my life, I would devote myself to her. She reached over and touched my head. I was immediately healed and have not suffered from that sickness ever since.
I don t understand what that has to do with me.
She gave me a small smile. I m getting to that. After she healed me, she kissed me on my brow and said that she had a special quest for me to fulfill. She told me that I was to protect her savior. The one who would save all of Ilion. I vowed to her that I would.
Now I was growing impatient. And?
And you re the promised savior, Lia. You aren t safe here at the temple. I think you ll be safer at the palace. Xander won t let anything happen to you.
I sucked in a big breath. She wasn t making any sense. I am not Ilion s savior. I would still be happy to see the entire place burned to the ground.
Especially now that I knew who Alexandros was and what he had done.
You are, she insisted. I suspected it from the first moment I met you.
Now I was on my feet, walking over to the farthest wall so that I could get as far away from her as possible. You can t be serious.
I am. You are flame-kissed in more than one way. Your red hair, your skin when I burned you. And you bear the mark of the goddess on your left shoulder. The seal. It s her symbol.
No, it s Theano s seal, nothing more.
You are marked.
By you!
She just shook her head like I was being the ridiculous one. The prophecy never said the person was born with the mark-only that they would bear it. Which you do. You are fated to restore magic and save Ilion. I will keep my promise to the goddess and do what I must to see to your safety. And I can t think of anyone better to watch over you than my brother.
Io couldn t mean what she was saying right now. It was all nonsense. I was the last person who could be expected to protect her nation. I would not sacrifice anything for these people who had done nothing but try to kill me since I d left Locris.
Except your sisters, a voice reminded me, and I immediately silenced it.
I need you to leave, I told her. It was all too much, especially with her sitting there, watching me.
She stood up. I m here if you need me. She walked over to the door and unlocked it. Then she paused in the doorway. I did what had to be done. I am sorry for hurting you. I didn t want to do that.
The problem was that she had.
She shut the door, leaving me in silence.
I couldn t even think about Io s promised savior nonsense. It was a problem for another day.
My immediate issues were with her brother.
Jason was Alexandros.
No matter how many times I said it, I couldn t bring myself to accept it. The Jason I had come to know was nothing like the man I d met today.
I didn t understand why he had been so angry with me. Shouldn t he have been attempting to charm me? Cajole me into accepting his marriage proposal?
Maybe deep down he was angry with himself for tricking me. No, that couldn t have been it. Alexandros struck me as the kind of man who would do whatever he had to in order to achieve his desired outcome.
Was he mad because he knew what my answer would be?
No one really knows me.
But I do.
Out of sheer frustration I picked up my pillow and tossed it across the room.
I remembered what else he d told me. That he would be returning in twenty-four hours and he was going to do his worst.
His worst, I scoffed. He could try. I would be ready for it.
And I felt that way until I reminded myself that he was the prince of one of the wealthiest nations in the world. He had a great deal of resources available to him.
Alexandros s worst might destroy me.
I refused to come out of my room. I wouldn t do my chores, wouldn t go to training or my classes. My sisters all tried talking to me but I wouldn t speak. Io didn t come back to our room that night or the next day. I wasn t sure where she had slept and I didn t care.
Just so long as she stayed away from me.
I wouldn t eat, either. Kunguru kept coming into the room and dropping off berries and pieces of bread for me.
While I knew both Demaratus and Antiope would be telling me to prepare myself, to eat and sleep so that I was ready to face my enemy, I couldn t do it. Especially sleep. Alexandros might enter my dreams and I didn t want to deal with him in the dreamscape anymore. I was done with him. I stayed up and pet Kunguru, who insisted on cuddling close to me.
My answer was going to be no. There was nothing that Alexandros could say or do to me that would convince me otherwise.
It might have seemed selfish to refuse, potentially putting the priestesses and acolytes in danger, but now I knew for a fact that he would never attack the temple. His little sister was here. The one he would sneak out of the palace to talk to and watch over. Given the story she had told me about how he had risked his life to protect her, there was no way he would launch an assault and possibly put her in danger.
If he thought I would so easily cave because he had threatened to tell Theano that I had kissed him a couple of times, then he really didn t know me at all, no matter what he said.
I thought of all his pretty words, of the pledges and promises. He d never meant a single one of them. Just more manipulation that I had eaten up like honey.
Like pasteli.
I groaned, upset that my own thoughts continued to betray me. I didn t want to remember how he had tricked me and how pieces of cheap food had won me over.
Or how he had tried so hard to get me to say that I loved him. I wouldn t have been able to refuse to marry him if I had said it. It would have bound me to him. It was why he d never said the actual words to me. The goddess would have known they were false, and he would have been punished.
But he d wanted me to say it. To trap me.
Everything between us had been a lie.
I knew my adelphia were worried about me. One of them stayed with me at all times. Even when I went to use the washroom.
And I didn t know if that was to keep me safe from other people, or to keep me safe from myself.
I kept running everything through my head, trying to find a way out of this situation. I decided that I would see what his worst was when he returned and then I would go from there. Perhaps Zalira was right and I should sneak out. I still didn t think it could be done, but it was better than sitting here and waiting for someone to come assassinate me or for Alexandros to figure out a way to punish me or the people I cared about.
I should have been relying on my sisters, letting them support me the way they clearly wanted to.
But this was now my fight, and my fight alone. I was going to have to figure out how to deal with all of this on my own because I was the only person that his demand affected.
When the horns announced the prince s return, I got my sword and strapped it on.
What are you going to do with that? Ahyana asked, the concern evident.
I didn t answer.
Instead I went out to the courtyard and shoved my way through the gathered crowd with three of my sisters following me.
Io still stayed away.
But everyone else was here for a show.
Prince Alexandros pulled up on his chariot and jumped down. He came back to the same spot he d stood in yesterday and I did the same.
Has your answer changed? he asked.
No greeting? You don t want to inquire after my health? Whether or not I ve had a good day? You don t want to tell me about your sea voyages? Tell me how well you know me?
He flinched, but it was only for a split second. Are you done?
I am done. My answer has not changed.
Alexandros waited for a few beats and then took several steps back. You will change your mind when you see what I ve brought you. Bring out the prisoner!
Prisoner? My panicked mind ran through a list of people he might have captured to hurt me. My parents? Kallisto? Demaratus?
My breathing became ragged and I struggled to pull air into my lungs. How long had he kept someone I loved locked up in his prison?
I narrowed my eyes at him. After I killed his friend Thrax, he was next. I swear it.
Thrax was the one who brought the prisoner forward, his hand under their left arm. The prisoner had a coarse, beige hood on their head and I couldn t see who it was. Their wrists were in chains, as were their ankles.
My heart beat louder with each step that they took.
I took out my sword.
Closer and closer.
That s far enough! Alexandros told them, his gaze never leaving mine. Take it off.
My throat was burning and everything seemed to be happening so slowly. My pulse thundered in my ears as Thrax reached over and pulled the hood away from the prisoner.
Revealing their face.
I let out a sound of strangled anguish and dropped to my knees. It was as if I d been stabbed in the gut, hit so hard that it caused my soul to leave my body.
Quynh.
Quynh was alive.
I couldn t speak, couldn t breathe, couldn t do anything but stare. My limbs trembled as a strange cold sensation filled my entire body. Was this actually happening?
Alexandros crouched down to my eye level. Fury radiated from him in waves but his voice was cold, precise. You will leave the temple and you will marry me. Now. Or else . . . His gaze drifted to Quynh and my heart stopped beating out of sheer dread.
Or else what?
Or else he d kill her?
I didn t know this man or what he was capable of. What he would do to make certain he gained his throne. Alexandros doing his worst was beyond what I could have imagined. He had left me with no choice.
Because he knew my weaknesses.
I d allowed him to get close to me and he had used that information to corner me, leaving me with no way out. Demaratus had warned me repeatedly about letting myself get trapped, and my naivete, my misplaced trust, had allowed this to happen.
I had lost this battle. And if I didn t agree to his terms, I might lose my sister.
Frenzied terror gripped my throat with sharp, icy fingers. I shook my head. No, I couldn t let fear take over. I wouldn t be able to think, to act. I had to master my emotions. I funneled that scared, sickly feeling into fury. Anger I knew. Anger I could control.
My blood pulsed quickly inside my veins, chasing away the coldness until all I felt was molten rage. I narrowed my gaze at the prince. I was not going to lose this war. He had forgotten that I knew his weaknesses, too. He wouldn t win. I wouldn t let him. I was still going to find the eye and go back to Locris.
After I had my revenge.
Prince Alexandros would pay for locking up my sister. For trying to trick me. I would make him regret forcing me into this marriage.
Then I would kill him for threatening to hurt Quynh.
As strength and resolve infused my spine, I recalled that I had once declared I wouldn t marry an Ilionian even if my life depended on it, but it turned out I would do so if my sister s life was on the line.
Yes. The word burst bitterly out of my mouth, my chest heaving. Yes, I will marry you.