Page 115 of A Vow of Embers

Your true reflection is in the water. It is there that you will find your fate.

My heart beat so loudly that it blocked out all other sound. I knew that I had to look into the water even though it was the last thing I wanted to do. I crawled to the edge carefully and peered over.

There was no image of me looking back.

Something dark moved below the surface, coming toward me. My first feeling was fear. I wanted to run away but made myself stay. This was the answer to my question. And the longer I sat, the less afraid I felt.

The object came to the surface and I saw that it was a person.

It was Xander.

“That’s not my reflection,” I said, confused.

Reflections are always true. But they may not be the way that we’re accustomed to seeing ourselves.

He smiled at me and put one hand up against the water, beckoning me to do the same. I leaned forward and put my hand against the water. It felt like glass. Our hands were pressed against each other but I couldn’t feel him. I realized that I would have to break through to reach him. My fate was in this water.

I looked for a rock, found one big enough, and held it high above my head, preparing to bring it crashing down—

“Good morning!” Io chirped happily, pulling me roughly out of my dream. Xander and I were wrapped up in each other, much like we had been the morning after our wedding. He had both arms around me, holding me to his chest, our legs intertwined, my face against his warm throat.

This was something he and I had never done before. Cuddling together for an entire night while we slept. A tiny part of me liked waking up to him this way, even if the rest of me felt awkward and embarrassed.

Io’s grin lit up her entire face. She was far too pleased to find us together. “I’m here to check your bandages and to ask you how it is that the two of you have the same wound in the same spot.”

Of course she would be the one to notice. I felt him stir as he woke up. I untangled myself from him and rolled away, finding that I didn’t want to.

“It just happened,” he said. “I was in the barracks and this wound opened up on my arm, apparently when she was cut by one of the attackers.” His voice was deep and rough and I found my heart beating a bit faster at the sound.

“And the rib injury,” I said. “He got hit in sparring and I felt it in my ribs, as if I’d been hit. The bruises on our necks, too.”

His eyebrows shot up at this information, and I realized that I probably should have told him sooner instead of keeping it to myself.

Maybe we could try to rebuild some trust between us. It would be necessary for us to continue working together.

My stomach clenched at the thought that our talk could potentially lead to something more.

“Maybe it’s because you’re the savior,” she said.

“I’m not the savior.”

“Do you think it’ll keep happening?” she asked. “If one of you gets hurt, so will the other one?”

“Only one way to find out,” he said. He sat up, swinging his legs over the side of the bed. He opened the drawer of his side table and I saw a set of keys and a dagger. He took the dagger out and swiped it lightly across his left palm.

“Ow!” I said, looking down at my own left palm, where I was bleeding. “How are you doing this?”

“I’m not,” he said as I used the sheet to wipe away the blood.

“This isn’t me, either,” I said before he could accuse me of being responsible for it. The last thing I wanted was for my well-being to be so heavily entwined with his.

“This can’t be a coincidence,” Io said. “I’ve never heard of something like this happening before.”

“What happens if I die?” I asked.

“Then I die, too,” he said, his expression grim. He might have been wrong, but there was only one way to test that theory and I had no desire to do so. My mind raced to comprehend what was happening and why.

“Is it only physical wounds?” I asked.

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