“I don’t know,” I admitted. “And I’m afraid that if we ask her about it, she’ll just lie.”
“We could always trick her into taking some of the truth serum,” Zalira suggested.
“Zalira!” I protested with a laugh, and she gave me her dazzling grin in return. I grabbed the vase Io had prepared for Lysimache. “We should go.”
I didn’t want to delay my chance to finally get answers to questions I’d had for so long.
Zalira and I rode side by side on our way to the house where they kept Lysimache. I felt like I was getting better at horseback riding, but I wasn’t as good as the others. I focused on what I wanted to ask the high priestess, trying to come up with a mental list.
“When we get to the safe house, I’m going to let you question her alone,” Zalira announced, interrupting my thoughts. “I’ll stay downstairs.”
“Why?”
“Because based on what you’ve told me and what I’ve seen, Lysimache has some kind of connection to you. Like you’re an opponent she plans on defeating. If you’re the only one talking to her, I think she’ll feel like she’s outsmarting you and it might make her more prone to answer.”
I considered what Zalira said and it did seem possible. “How are you always so insightful?”
“When you live on the streets like I had to, you start to understand what it is people want and what they’ll best respond to. Sometimes I can read people the way you read books.” She didn’t mention that time of her life very often, and I was glad she felt like she could share with me.
“You can read me? What is it I want?”
“I know what you want,” she said. But then she didn’t continue with her thought, leaving me waiting.
When I couldn’t take it any longer and was about to ask her to explain herself, she said, “I hope you know that I’m loyal to you.”
“Of course,” I responded. That wasn’t something I would ever doubt.
“And because of that, I want to hate him on your behalf. But I like your husband,” she confessed.
Since she understood my situation so well, it was easier to be honest with her. “I’ll tell you a secret. I like him, too.” That was the closest I’d ever come to admitting to all the contrary feelings I had about Xander.
“Oh, we all know.”
That made my heart freeze in my chest. “Do you think he knows?”
“He’s an intelligent man, so I’m thinking yes.”
Out of all my sisters, Zalira had always been the most straightforward, the one to say exactly what was on her mind. And I didn’t know how to deal with her guess.
“Then why doesn’t he say something? Or do something?” I asked.
“You have given him no indication that you want him.”
She was probably right about that, too. “I can’t want him.”
“Even if you can’t, you still do.” She sighed. “With everything happening, maybe giving in to those wants and severing the link is the best choice.”
Her words hit with the precision of an arrow.
And she didn’t help by adding, “And maybe Ahyana had a point. If this is the end, maybe we should be allowed to enjoy ourselves before it happens.”
“Do you really think that?”
“I might think it, but I won’t ever act on it,” she said with a note of sadness.
Letting out a deep breath, I said, “I wish I had your strength.”
“I don’t have to share a bed every night with Stephanos. Nor do I have to pretend to be in love with him for the sake of the court. Our situations are not the same. It is much easier for me. I can mostly avoid him.”
