Page 17 of Odette's Vow

“No, stay here. I’ll be right back.” I began stripping off my armour, before grabbing a towel and the bathing items and heading off to wash outside the tent.

Once behind the tent, I dropped the items as usual, draping the towel over a tent rope. I grabbed the water bucket, dousing myself in double quick time, gritting my teeth at its chill. I leaned my head back and tossed the rest of the water across my face.

Next, I reached for the sand mixed with salts, scrubbing it vigorously across my chest and into my chest hair. It scratched as it always did, but I had already moved on to another scrubbing area. Then it stung. I hastily ran my hands across my chest, and a sharp pinching sensation jolted through me, a distinct and unnatural sting that demanded attention. Peering down, I saw one tiny sand crab scuttle across my skin. Another followed. The stinging jolts made me jump back, my reflexes knocking over the rest of the water bucket. The precious water spilled uselessly onto the ground, leaving me with no way to drown the bastards out.

Cursing, I stumbled, trying to shake off the persistent crabs, and inadvertently staggered back into the tent.

“Oh!”

Furiously trying to dislodge the creatures, I blinked to find Odette staring, wide-eyed.

Accusations had been many in my years, but vanity was never among them, yet I found myself oddly pleased by the faint blush glazing her cheekbones as she studied my form. “You like what your eyes have found?”

Her eyes snapped up to mine. “I do not, I?—”

I let a slow smile tug at the corner of my mouth, the crabs forgotten as she continued to stammer. “It’s just a naked male body. You’ve seen one before.”

I moved past her, deliberately slowing as I reached for a fresh towel from the trunk, using it to shimmy away the rest of the crabs, before I shrugged on my tunic and turned back to her. A littlevformed in a cute frown between her brows.

“Only my husband’s,” she admitted.

I see. “Well,” I inhaled sharply, then gave a casual shrug. “It’s of no matter to me.”

Odette went to open her mouth, then snapped it shut, as fishes do.

“Now, more importantly, would you care to explain how those crabs ended up in the bowl of salts you so diligently refilled?”

She blinked rapidly, and for a moment she hesitated, her gaze shifting nervously from side to side. It was a look I knew well – a familiar sign of evasion I’d seen countless times when my men tried to lie to me after I’d asked them a simple question.

“No, I have no idea,” she replied, her eyes wide in feigned innocence.

“Clever girl,” I muttered as she collected herself.

Such an audacious act of sabotage – placing those tiny, pinching crabs in my washing sand – was a subtle yet striking way to retaliate.

I stepped closer, until I could tip up her chin with the crook of my finger. “I always did appreciate spirit and wit. Perhaps, in another life, you and I might have been allies. For now, though, let us call it even, hmm?” My grip tightened ever so slightly. “No more surprises, spear-wife.”

1 “May you be destroyed.”

2 Also known as a belt or a cord, typically made of fabric or leather.

7

Odette

“… b

y Hades, I’ll drag you to the river and hold you under until the mud dissolves … I will not sleep in the same room as a corpse.”

Those two statements had lingered in my mind, haunting me. The thought of failing to avenge Alcander and Lykas, and being found unworthy by the Judges of the Dead because I had not fulfilled my vow, was a torment I could not escape. The fear of the punishment awaiting me in the Underworld dragged me to the depths of my despair and longing. But those words … They were enough to remind me of the world beyond my tormenting dreams. It seemed that the vow was the only thread of life keeping me tethered to this world.

A sort of madness had taken over me. As if the oppression and subjugation, anger and resentment, had all bundled up inside my body like a rolling thunderstorm, desperate for an outlet. Desperate for someone to acknowledge the suffering being inflicted on me internally, day after day, the longer I continued to live this farce of a life. I had no other way to justify what I did with the sand crabs.

And then Odysseus had stumbled into the tent, naked.

I tried not to think of that moment since, and so, naturally, it was theonlything I was able to think about. That moment shattered any illusion that I was no longer part of this world.

He had stood there, unadorned and unabashed, every line of his body outlining his harsh life as a warrior. His chest was broad, covered in thick, dark hair. As my eyes had travelled down, they had caught on the nicks and scars mapped out across his skin, muscles taut from years of wielding sword and shield. And I, traitorously, found my eyes lingering …allthe way down, until warmth bloomed deep within me.

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