Page 187 of A Vow of Embers

Maybe going back to the party would’ve been a good idea, as it might help provide cover if I was accused of doing something to that apprentice. But I just felt exhausted. I wanted to lie down and be available in case my sister needed me.

I went into my room and locked my bedroom door. Despite the fact that I was alone, out of habit, I went over to my dressing screen to change and reached behind me to take off the girdle. But just like on my wedding night, there were too many knots and it was too tight for me to turn around and undo it myself.

Should I try to track down my maid? I recalled that Io had said Parthenia was sick. I could go to the party and get one of my adelphia to do it for me.

I had resolved to do that when I heard a flapping sound and something darted in from the balcony. From the corner of my eye, I saw that it was Kunguru, although he had been somewhat absent of late.

The raven cawed several times, and then there was a strange sound as the cawing turned into what sounded very much like a loud but human groan of pain.

A man’s voice.

“Little Luna! I’ve brought you some more delicious treats.”

The door was locked, the passageways sealed shut. The only creature that had just entered this room had done so through the balcony.

I stepped around my dressing screen and the man turned toward me, startled. I was completely shocked by who I saw.

“Rokh?”

Chapter Sixty-One

“I—I thought you were still at the party,” Rokh said, managing to sound both nervous and defeated at the same time.

“You’re Kunguru?”

“That’s what Ahyana calls me, yes.”

I had to sit. This was too much. I felt like a fool for not realizing it sooner. The night I was attacked and Xander had called for his men, Thrax had entered through our door ... but Rokh had come in from the balcony.

Because he’d flown in.

“How?” I asked.

“A hundred generations ago, an ancestor of mine tricked a malevolent but powerful entity that my people call a marjun. The marjun cursed my family, saying that any boys born would be forced to shape-shift and that it would be excruciatingly painful each and every time.”

“Painful?” I echoed. Was that why he had made that sound?

“It is agonizing. I have to rearrange every part of me.”

“Why would you do it?”

“I am often compelled to, but even if I was not, I would still choose it. You become accustomed to it. The pain doesn’t ever diminish but I’m prepared for it. I know what it will feel like. There’s a part of me that always hopes it will hurt less, but it never does.”

“I still don’t understand why you would choose it.”

“You can’t imagine how exhilarating it is to fly.”

I wasn’t sure I would opt for the pain as he did. “Do all the men of your family shape-shift like you?”

“The women of my family used magic to ensure that no boys were born, but my mother wanted to give my father a son. A potential heir. You actually know my mother.”

“I do?” How was that possible?

“My mother is Mahtab.”

The leader of the hetaera house? “What?” I gasped.

“She was of a noble house and met my father at her cousin’s court and fell in love with him. She came to Ilion a year after I was born. By that point my father had already met Xander’s mother and married her. In my land, royals sometimes have more than one spouse. My mother made that offer to my father, but there was no similar custom in Ilion.”

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