Page 18 of Ties of Deception

I placed my hand to my heart with the innocent expression she had mocked me with earlier. “Me? Nothing.” I pushed past her as she removed the last of her hair pins, attempting to tidy her hair.

That power had been death, had it not? No Grace could have made a plant wither and die. Which meant a god of death had done it. I looked up and down the street, but I couldn’t see the Aida prince. Why would he get involved? Pity for me? Or trying to make amends for his previous behavior? If that was the case, I still didn’t forgive him.

I left the narrow street back to the main road and found the closest Amazone standing guard. “Excuse me. There’s a Grace down that narrow street. I think she’s struggling with her hair. She cracked the pavement in frustration. I think she might need help, maybe a mirror or something before she brings down a whole building.”

The Amazone sighed. “Graces! It’s almost the end of my shift too.” She strode off down the street to Charity, and I hurried to join the milling crowd not far away at the end of the street. I smiled again, though I wasn’t sure if my comment to the Amazone had made things a whole lot worse.

As I found Pris in the crowds of people, thoughts of the disheveled girl and her haunted eyes came back to me. Guilt sat thick in my stomach. But there was nothing I could do. And that was what I hated most of all.

Chapter

Seven

Iwas tired after traveling back from Fierro and had dismissed my maids early. Somehow, I just knew the Aida prince would choose tonight—when I was emotionally shattered—to visit again. I sat at the foot of my enormous bed and stared at the wafting curtains, waiting and alert so he didn’t catch me asleep.

I’d replayed the day over and over in my mind, bouncing between hating how vulnerable I’d been, and longing to become familiar with that world so I could stand up to bullies like Charity and help people like that poor girl.

I didn’t want to be somebody who was powerless, even if I wasn’t sure what exactly I wanted to do yet. And I was starting to face the uncomfortable truth that hiding safe and cozy in my villa was not going to help me achieve anything. I was just languishing here.

After half an hour, I started to feel foolish for waiting based solely on a gut reaction. I lay down and pulled up the covers, just as a sharp clatter made me sit up again. A rock skid across the mosaic floor. I scowled, jumped out of bed, picked it up and chucked it back in the direction it had come from. Hard. Unfortunately, the moving curtains and the shadows of dusk meant I couldn’t make out my target.

“You would be sad if that had hit me.” The god’s voice sounded amused.

I folded my arms, squinting between the pillars as I tried to find him. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”

“Imagine if it had hit me on the head?—”

I really didn’t feel in the mood for this. “With pleasure. Actually, stop talking, I need to imagine that again.”

“—and I had been knocked unconscious. Then what would you have done?”

“Left you out there and slept easy. Maybe you would have died.”

“It could have been seen as a sign of aggression between our countries. That could mean war.”

“Or it would mean the whole world would know you’re the sort of person who breaks into people’s villas to harass goddesses in the middle of the night.”

There was silence for a heartbeat. “Are you ready to leave your pretty little cage yet?”

I still couldn’t make him out. I stepped closer toward his voice. “Not with you.”

“Fine, stay there, and be a pretty songbird for everyone to admire.”

I frowned and glanced at the tiny red and yellow bird asleep in its ornate cage and hated how accurately he described how I’d felt coming home today.

“I can work things out for myself. I don’t need you and your Aida games.”

“Aida games? You realize we don’t actually kidnap people or whatever nonsense you’ve been told.” He snorted. “I never said you couldn’t work this world out. But with me, things would be much, much quicker. Not to mention more entertaining.”

His offer was more tempting than I wanted to admit, but surely there was a safer way than trusting this man. “I don’t think I’d like your idea of ‘entertaining.’”

There was a heavy sigh, and something rolled to my feet with a much hollower sound than a rock. At first, I thought it was an apple, but when I bent to touch the red orb, I realized it was a pomegranate.

I frowned as I clutched it in my hands. “Run out of rocks, have you?”

“Not when you so kindly returned the last one.”

“Well, what do you expect me to do with this?” I waved the fruit in the air.

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