Page 112 of A Vow of Embers

I buried my face into his neck. “I thought I was safe. I locked the doors. I wasn’t paying attention. I should have known they were there. I thought I felt something earlier and I checked but then I dismissed it. I didn’t have my sword. I should have had my sword.”

“Shh,” he said against my temple, kissing me quickly. “You’re safe now.”

Then he leaned back and yelled out, “Rokh! Thrax!”

Rokh entered the room through the balcony and Thrax came running in via the bedroom door, which hung off its hinges.

“The washroom,” he said with a jerk of his head, and the two men ran in there, their swords drawn.

“Where are the guards?” I asked.

“Dead.”

“My sisters?” I couldn’t keep the quivering out of my voice.

“Io’s room was empty. Stephanos and Dolion are searching for them now. They’ll bring them straight here when they find them.”

They had taken my adelphia? Xander was right to be angry with me. I had put everyone he cared about in danger. This was all my fault. He should never forgive me. Never speak to me again.

I began to feel woozy, my thoughts circling around on top of one another. “I’m bleeding.”

“A healer should be coming. Hold on. I’ve got you.” He kissed the side of my head again.

“What happened?” Io demanded, and the relief I felt when I saw my adelphia come into the room made me start to cry. Stephanos and Dolion followed them.

“Where’s that healer?” Xander snarled.

Dolion said, “I’ll go find someone,” and he hurried out.

“Where were you?” Xander asked his sister.

“We went down to the kitchen because we were hungry,” she said, and I was so glad for it. They hadn’t been in danger. “What happened?”

“Lia was attacked,” he said. “Six assassins in the washroom. She was unarmed.”

My sisters came rushing over to me, all of them asking questions at once, trying to see if I was all right.

“She’s bleeding!” Ahyana said.

“We need bandages,” Io said as she reached for my arm. “She might need stitches.”

Thrax came back into the room. “Someone reopened the passageway behind the washroom.”

“That was supposed to be sealed shut!” Xander said. “Search all of them. And now we’re going to need guards patrolling there, too.”

“I’ll take care of it,” Thrax said and went back into the washroom.

“Where were you when this happened?” Io asked her brother pointedly as she pressed a sheet against my wound, applying pressure.

“At the barracks.”

“Why weren’t you here?”

He didn’t answer her question.

“You promised me,” Io said, her voice shaking. “You promised me she would be safe.”

“She’s alive, isn’t she?” he shot back. But he sounded as if he felt guilty.

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