Page 211 of A Tribute of Fire

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.

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