Page 207 of A Tribute of Fire

Gritting my teeth, I put my sword away. I wouldn’t draw his blood. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of behaving that way.

Not yet.

“What do you want, Alexandros?” I said, emphasizing his name.

He didn’t even flinch.

Thrax, however, put his hand on his hilt again. “That is Prince Alexandros to you.”

Ignoring his guard dog, I directed my attention to the royal liar, waiting for him to answer.

He moved as close as he could to the archway without stepping over and technically entering the courtyard. “You know what I want. We have a signed betrothal contract. Come out and keep your word.”

I wanted to rage and shout and make him admit to what he’d done. How he had used me, tried to coerce me. I would have had more respect for him if he’d just been honest with me from the beginning and admitted who he was and what he wanted.

I had no respect for this kind of targeted, constant deception.

So I stepped up to the line as well so that we could speak without every single person being able to hear what we were saying.

“I am not going anywhere with you,” I said. “You can set that contract on fire. Ball it up and throw it in the ocean. Eat it, for all I care.”

His honey eyes flashed with anger. “You will marry me. There is no other choice for you here.”

“I will stay in the temple, where I have made vows to serve,” I snapped back.

Alexandros leaned in closer so that he could breathe the next words against my skin. “Perhaps I should go tell your high priestess what you were doing with me the night of the festival.”

I gasped. I had never wanted to hit someone so badly in my entire life. “You bastard.”

“I assure you, my parents were married and I’m entirely legitimate.”

Fury wrapped itself around me like a water dragon, all sinews and teeth, urging me to strike out at him. “It would be your word against mine.”

“My word is royal,” he countered.

“So’s mine. Which they all know now, thanks to you.”

He shook his head and clasped his arms behind his back. “Don’t stand here and pretend to be pious when we both know you have no problem skirting dangerously close to breaking the vows you’ve made.”

Again I was so angry that I was afraid I was going to physically attack him.

He pushed his suit. “You will leave and you will marry me.”

“No, I won’t.” As I’d told Thrax, Alexandros wasn’t my prince. He couldn’t order me around. I was not subject to him.

There was only an invisible line separating us. I realized that he could reach out and yank me to him, force me into his chariot.

The laws he was so easily dismissing were the only things keeping me safe at the moment. He couldn’t enter the temple and he couldn’t force me into marriage. I had to agree.

Which was why he had stooped to so much subterfuge to get me to do so.

He also had to know that Antiope was itching for an excuse to come out here and slaughter some soldiers.

His gaze was hot, intense, and despite how incandescently angry I was with him, despite all the things I blamed him for, I could feel my body responding. It urged me to step forward, to go with him if it meant he would kiss me again.

I let out a small sound of disgust. All I could think about was that while we stood here, being watched by so many, I still had the mark he’d made on my chest. I was glad he couldn’t see it. That no one could.

But I knew it was there.

---