Page 216 of A Vow of Embers

That she and I had been brought into one another’s lives for a purpose beyond what I wanted to do for Locris.

That I might be the savior.

But if she was right ... that meant I was going to die.

And I had too much I had to do first.

My adelphia returned, and Suri pointed at Io, wanting to know why she was crying. I told them what had happened. Zalira and Ahyana insisted that I read the passage aloud for them so that they could hear it exactly as it had been written.

Everyone was silent as they absorbed the prophecy, Io still crying.

She needed to know that she was not alone. That we were all in this together.

I put my hand around her right wrist. She looked up at me with watery eyes, and understanding what I was doing, she reached over to Suri to grab her right wrist. Suri to Ahyana, Ahyana to Zalira, then Zalira to me.

Connecting us as we had done the day we had vowed to be an adelphia. I looked at our linked hands and arms, and a feeling of rightness filled my being. A lump of emotion formed in my throat. They meant so much to me. They were my sworn sisters.

My found family.

My adelphia.

I wasn’t going to keep secrets from them anymore.

“There is something I have to tell all of you,” I said.

Chapter Seventy

Everyone released their hands and looked at me curiously. “I bribed an official to join the tribute race deliberately. I made certain that I was selected as one of the maidens.”

I expected one of them to ask me why, but they seemed to sense that I was sharing something important and stayed quiet.

“My grandmother gave me a book with stories of the goddess. There was a line that said only the eye of the goddess could restore Locris. I decided then and there that I would come to Ilion, to the temple, to find Ilion’s eye. Locris’s eye had been cut up and distributed to life mages, and used by them for a thousand years. My only chance to save my nation would be with Ilion’s eye.”

“That’s why you searched the temple’s vault,” Zalira said, her voice sounding a bit off.

They were going to be angry. I expected that. And they would probably feel hurt.

“Yes. I have been searching for it since I arrived. I’ve had Suri help me a few times but we haven’t been able to locate it. I’m going to keep looking. I intend to find it and go home with it so that I can restore Locris and reopen the goddess’s temple. I didn’t want to tell you because I didn’t want to make any of you lie for me.”

“And because you didn’t trust us,” Io said sadly, as if she understood why I hadn’t trusted her, specifically.

I glanced at my sleeping husband. “I didn’t trust Xander. And I was afraid that if you thought you’d be protecting me, you would tell him. I was worried that he would find it before me and destroy it. I need that eye. It’s the only way to save Locris.”

There was a long silence, and then I added, “I’m sorry. I should have told you.”

“Yes, you should have,” Ahyana said angrily, startling me with her intensity. “I know you think it has to be one for many, but did you ever stop to think that we made a different vow?”

“What?” I asked.

“Many for one,” she responded. “We have done nothing but stand by your side whenever you’ve needed us, and you have paid that back by keeping a huge secret from us.”

I felt ashamed. “You told me to keep it. When we were in the forest south of Troas.”

“That was different. Things have changed. We deserve to know what’s happening. Especially after what we just ...” Ahyana’s voice trailed off and I knew the images that filled her mind. None of us would forget what we had seen in Lycia anytime soon.

“You don’t have to sacrifice yourself,” she added.

If what Io had discovered was true, then yes, I did. It was what the goddess intended for me. Was this why she had abandoned me? Because I was nothing more than a pawn, or a sacrifice to appease her?

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