Page 28 of A Tribute of Fire

“The second maiden selected is ...” The selector reached into his bag, pulling out another inscribed stone. He peered at it before announcing, “Quynh, adopted daughter of Ephesus and Hypatia.”

CHAPTER TEN

I dropped to my knees, my hands pressed hard against the dusty earth. A high-pitched shrieking noise blocked out all other sound, and it took me a while to realize that it was coming from me.

No.

No, no, no.

Terror clawed at my throat as my breaths rasped hard in my chest. There was no air. I couldn’t breathe.

Not Quynh. Anyone but Quynh.

This was a mistake. It had to be a mistake.

Quynh stepped out next to me and I wanted to push her back into the crowd. This couldn’t be happening.

I had known that another maiden would be selected.

But I’d never even considered the possibility that it would be someone I loved.

Demaratus had warned me about the second tribute on our third day of training.

“She will be the first casualty of your war,” he said.

“What do you mean?”

“I cannot train you to protect yourself and another. You will only be able to save yourself.”

That had bothered me. I didn’t want to have to sacrifice anyone to attain my goals. Perhaps I could convince another woman to train with me. Two would be better than one, wouldn’t it? It would certainlyincrease our odds that one of us would make it into the temple alive. “Maybe I can bribe the selector with a second name. I can find someone who would want to work with us.”

“You do not have the resources, nor do I believe that you would be able to find another maiden willing to do what you’re doing. You can only attempt to control your own fate.”

I’d accepted on that day that I would have to abandon whoever was chosen along with me.

I shouldn’t have listened to Demaratus. I should have forced Quynh to train with me. She would have hated every moment of it, but at least then she would have had a fighting chance.

Or I should have murdered every Ilionian as soon as they got off their ship, the way I’d wanted to.

She crouched down next to me and there was a heated knot in my larynx. “I’m so sorry, Quynh. So sorry.”

But instead of responding, she just wrapped her arms around me and I finally let myself cry with her.

I would have to be strong going forward, get my emotions back under control, but I would allow myself this moment to grieve our intertwined fates.

A dark future I never could have imagined.

I became aware of hands reaching for us. Our father had lifted Quynh to her feet and was helping her walk back to the palace. I saw that our mother was lying completely still and had been placed on a litter to be carried back by several of the guards.

Andronicus got me up, wrapping his arm around my waist to support me. If I had been myself, I would have been embarrassed to have my captain seeing me in this state.

I might not have been screaming on the outside, but it was still happening inside my mind.

Not Quynh.

“You have to protect her,” he said.

“I know.” It was the one thing I was absolutely sure of in that moment—that I would give my life to save Quynh’s. There was no other option. “I will.”

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