“No, Ianthe—”
Ianthe lifts her chin and speaks over me. “I’ll go.”
“No! I just got you back!” She’s my Elpis. My other Elpis. I need her. She can’t justgo. Doesn’t she want to stay with me?
“I’ll go,” Ianthe repeats with even more force, looking first at me and then at Griffin. “You need this. You both do. We have to protect the rest of Thalyria from Mother. With the Ipotane at the border, she won’t try to get past.Youcan invade, not her.Youcan attack without fearing what’s coming at your back.” She shrugs shoulders that are slight, almost too thin, but so incredibly strong. “Besides, he can’t be any worse than Galen Tarva. And it’s only six months, not forever.”
“But you don’t know what he wants from you!” My voice comes out too high and shockingly loud. I bite my lip almost hard enough to draw blood.
“I know what he wants.” Griffin’s tone is a curtain of doom. My husband is incredibly angry right now.
Ianthe scoffs, understanding immediately. “That’s not possible.”
“Have you seen the Nymphs?” I hiss.
She slowly pales to a shade I don’t like at all. Then her spine stiffens, and a blank, detached look changes her face entirely. “Like I said, he can’t be any worse than Galen Tarva.”
My knees nearly buckle. I can hardly breathe. She just confirmed my worst fears, and I can’t help seeing in my mind how frightening and horrible it must have been. It makes me sick inside, the thought of that meaty brute on top of her, holding her down, and my little sister screaming and kicking and struggling underneath.
Mother sent her there. To be used. Abused. Ianthe could have fought him off with her Water Magic, but there’s no doubt in my mind that Galen Tarva made her believe the consequences of that kind of resistance would have been even worse. For herself, and for others. A man like him would have no problem hanging the safety of his entire household over Ianthe’s head—Bellanca, Lystra, gentle, addled Appoline. Everyone.
My voice shakes with rage, and I look hard enough at Ianthe that she finally looks back. “You are not an object to be used. We do not barter with your body.”
“Stop speaking before I get angry.” Lycheron’s low voice swells with the warning rumble of a thousand pounding hooves.
I look at the Ipotane Alpha, and fear ices me over.He wasn’t angry before?I guess not, because now his very presence hollows my chest and coats my stomach in acid. His eyes glow a violent amber, and I shudder, almost shaking in my boots. I don’t know how he does this to me. Even Griffin looks cowed. Bellanca takes a step back, her magic sparking. Distance is no longer a sufficient buffer, and I feel more than see the hundreds of people behind us backing away, cringing, cowering. I want to do the same. Only Ianthe is still standing tall.
“I do not force myself on females. Goddess, creature, or human,” Lycheron says.
“You’ve been with a Goddess?” Ianthe asks.
I turn, gawking at her.That’swhat she’s worried about?
My head whips back toward the Ipotane leader. “Swear to me,” I demand, knowing I’ll detect any falsehood in his words, and that he’ll be magically bound by the vow. “Swear to me that you won’t touch Ianthe in a sexual way. If she goes with you, you will not touch her.”
“Ianthe.” Lycheron savors my sister’s name on his tongue like a spicy mulled wine, dragging it out long enough to uncover all the nuances that make it both zesty and sweet. His power-charged eyes fade back to a warm, only slightly luminous brown, their heated concentration solely on my sister. His gaze is so focused that it’s almost an ocular touch. “I swear toIanthethat I will not touch her in any way she does not wish.”
Ianthe flushes deeply. Her lips part. Her breathing accelerates. She nods once, her green eyes huge, and Lycheron’s skin shudders over his taut muscles, absorbing the jolt of his unbreakable vow.
My heart starts pounding even harder than before. He swore to Ianthe, cutting me out of the loop. But there was no lie in his words when Lycheron said he doesn’t force himself on females. He swore only to touch her in ways she doesn’t object to. She…Oh my Gods.Ianthe might actually be safe with him. Safer than with us! We’re heading for Fisa. For war. For Mother.
All of a sudden, I feel much better about this.
Griffin takes a deep breath that lifts his chest. Then his head bows, and his hands fall to his hips. For a moment, he looks defeated. When he looks up again, to Ianthe, he says, “I should thank you, but I really wish you’d just take it all back.”
She breaks eye contact with Lycheron to look at him. “Take care of Talia.” Her voice wavers at the end when she really sees Griffin’s face and understands his sincerity—hedoeswish she would take it all back. “…Brother,” she adds hesitantly, as if it’s a new word she’s trying out for the first time, one she only just learned the meaning of and isn’t quite sure how to fit into her reality yet.
It breaks my heart, and the way my chest contracts crushes my heart even more. From Griffin’s tortured expression, I know he understands the gift Ianthe just offered with a single word—trust. And letting her leave with this volatile, otherworldly male now pains him even more. Upset doesn’t even begin to describe him. He’s outwardly calm and quiet now, but I know the emotion that boils underneath.
Ianthe looks away, but not before I see the sheen in her eyes. We’re her family now, the one she’s probably secretly dreamed of since the day Eleni died, and in my selfish grief, I left her behind. Ianthe was nine. Alone. Unprotected. No Thanos. No Eleni. No me. Her magic was still so far from being mature that I didn’t even know she would turn into a powerful Water Mage. Being the youngest among us probably spared her life but not much else. She’s seventeen now, all innocence irrevocably lost.
I take a sour breath that tastes like my own failures and lay my hand on Griffin’s arm. Already tensely coiled, his muscles tighten even more under my fingers. Ianthe isn’t only a new sister to him, a female relation only two scant years older than Kaia. I think he also sees her as me, the young me he didn’t know yet and wasn’t there to defend and protect. I can feel him practically shaking under my hand with the need to shield Ianthe now from the things that have already happened to both of us. But it’s too late. We’re Fisan royals. We were born without shelter in the middle of a raging storm. We were wrecked and laid bare by a person we should have been able to trust, in a place most people consider safe. Mother. Home.
I grip Griffin’s arm, maybe to keep from reaching for my sister myself. Ianthe is an adult. This is her choice, and we need to respect it.
Lycheron steps closer to Ianthe, carnality in his every look and move. “And now you’ll swear something to me, my fragile little dove.”
Ianthe cocks her head back to meet the Ipotane Alpha’s penetrating gaze. Her voice gently rasps. “What?”
