Page 209 of A Tribute of Fire

She shook her head. “That doesn’t sound like Xander.”

I wasn’t going to stand here and let her defend her evil brother. “How long has he known who I am?”

How long had he been teasing and kissing and manipulating me into submission?

“I saw him at the festival, before I went to bed. He comes to the temple and checks on me regularly to make certain that I am all right. It was after I’d talked to you. He told me about some of the moves our stepmother has been making and I told him who you were. He needs you to marry him to keep the throne out of her hands.”

Io talked to Alexandros? I realized that this had happened more than once. “The day I snuck out into the city. You were worried about me going alone. You told him. That’s how he found me.”

“Yes.” She sounded miserable. “But I didn’t know he was telling you that he was someone else.”

I had thought these were coincidences. Happy accidents. But there had been a more sinister design behind it all the entire time.

Had he known from the moment he’d stepped foot into Locris? He could have bribed someone in the palace to point me out. And then I went into the tree courtyard and kissed him, like a complete fool. Ihadn’t even made him try to catch me. Like a fish deliberately swimming into a net, voluntarily catching itself.

I collapsed onto my bed, hard.

From her body language it was obvious that Io wanted to comfort me. I knew she hated hurting me, but it didn’t make the pain of her betrayal sting any less. I didn’t think she was the reason he knew who I was. I believed that he had known for a while now, but it still hurt that she was so willing to break my trust. She hadn’t told him anything that he didn’t already know, but her confession might have forced him into acting sooner than he’d planned.

“I left the palace to avoid being forced into a marriage,” she said. “I know what that’s like. I don’t want that for you but I also need you to know that I love my brother and he is a good man.”

Jason, or Alexandros, was a lying, deceiving, philandering, self-centered, vile ... I couldn’t even think of a bad enough word to call him. I should have paid closer attention when Demaratus was cursing at us for not performing up to his standards.

But I wouldn’t say any of that to Io. I would never be able to convince her of the kind of person her brother really was. “If you say so.”

Several quiet moments passed between us before she said, “Do you know how my brother got his scar?”

“He said something about a woman with a jealous lover.”

She frowned, as if she didn’t like my answer. “My stepmother was worried that I would marry a foreign prince, obtain a powerful marriage, and then throw my support to Xander for the crown. She decided to eliminate me and thought no one would care if a daughter was killed. Xander fought off her assassins but was left with a permanent reminder of her treachery on his face.”

That didn’t change anything. I could see that Io wanted it to, but it didn’t erase either one of their betrayals.

“When the attempt failed, that’s when she tried to marry me off to one of her cronies and I came here instead.”

I put my head into my hands. There was too much pain, too much confusion, too much emotion.

“There’s something else,” she added.

“What else can there be?” I asked, throwing my hands into the air. I couldn’t begin to imagine what she had to say that she thought I would want to hear.

She looked down at her hands, folded on her lap. As if she were considering where to begin. “When I was young, I had an illness that threatened my life. No life mage could fix me. No medicines or potions healed me. The physicians told my father that I was going to die. As a last resort my father brought me to the temple. Daphne was the one who took me. She brought me into the flower garden and laid me on the ground and left. The goddess appeared to me there.”

As angry as I was at her, I couldn’t help but be caught up in her story.

“What I remember most was how beautiful she was, how loving. The way that she glowed, her golden hair and green eyes. She knelt down on the ground next to me and asked me what I wanted. I said I wanted to live. I told her that if she saved my life, I would devote myself to her. She reached over and touched my head. I was immediately healed and have not suffered from that sickness ever since.”

“I don’t understand what that has to do with me.”

She gave me a small smile. “I’m getting to that. After she healed me, she kissed me on my brow and said that she had a special quest for me to fulfill. She told me that I was to protect her savior. The one who would save all of Ilion. I vowed to her that I would.”

Now I was growing impatient. “And?”

“And you’re the promised savior, Lia. You aren’t safe here at the temple. I think you’ll be safer at the palace. Xander won’t let anything happen to you.”

I sucked in a big breath. She wasn’t making any sense. “I am not Ilion’s savior.” I would still be happy to see the entire place burned to the ground.

Especially now that I knew who Alexandros was and what he had done.

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