Page 4 of Thief of Hearts

Lia nodded. “Do you see how green her eyes are? Just like mine when I call on the goddess.”

“You never mentioned that your powers were hereditary.”

“I didn’t know.”

“We have considered that Kyra might also be goddess-blessed, like me,” Xander said. “But that won’t manifest until she’s older.”

Thrax must have snuck up behind us because I almost jumped when he spoke. “I love the idea of that holy terror being fireproof and unbeatable in battle.”

Kyra took her flaming sword and fixed her gaze on the linens covering the food tables. She started running toward them.

Lia unsteadily got to her feet and said, “By the goddess, Kyra, give me that!” Kyra laughed and ran faster, but by using her savior aspect, Lia managed to intercept her daughter before she could torch the food.

Kyra loudly protested as her mother took the sword, smothering the flame.

Something large hit the ground hard not far from where we were—like a rock had been dropped from a crane. I flinched but no one else seemed to register it. I supposed they were all accustomed to the constant rebuilding that had been taking place in Troas since the Carians’ invasion three and a half years earlier. I was gratified to see that the city seemed almost fully restored.

I glanced south at the labyrinth walls that surrounded the city. Remembered how Thrax and I had fought there and the terrible, terrible things that—

“Do you really have to leave in the morning?” Quynh asked me, pulling me from my thoughts. I was glad that she had.

“We have to get back.”

“I wish you could stay longer. We don’t see you nearly enough.”

“There’s been some issues at our northern border. The Epirians don’t understand what a boundary is and that they’re not allowed to cross it.”

My mother let out a weary sigh that caused me to stop speaking. I didn’t think I’d ever heard her make a sound like that before.

Lia had rejoined the group, smelling faintly of smoke. “Quynh’s right. You should stay a few months and let us teach you how to read.”

She’d been determined to teach me for years and I was still as uninterested now as I had been in the beginning. I wasn’t able to keep the disdain out of my voice. “No, thank you.”

“It’s not a punishment. It’s a good thing. You can learn battle techniques or read fantastic stories that take you to new places—”

I knew it wasn’t polite to interrupt her but I did. “I’m not interested in other people’s strategies for war when my own work very well. Nor do I need to escape my life. I’m very happy.”

Quynh and Lia exchanged a quick glance that made me think they didn’t believe me. They obviously shared some sort of opinion about my life, but they didn’t seem willing to loop me in.

Minha had managed to get clear of her grandmother and joined Kyra. Kyra found a stick and handed it to her cousin. “Let’s fight!” She brandished her charred sword.

Minha didn’t look afraid of Kyra or of fighting—if anything, she seemed uninterested. She was a very quiet little girl. Quynh had been teaching her their native language in addition to the common tongue, and when she spoke, it was often a mixture of both languages.

But my niece was half Thracian and she would soon love her sword, the fight, and being loud more than anything else.

“I can’t wait until you send Minha to us,” I said to Thrax.

He didn’t meet my eyes. “We’re not.”

There was an ancient tradition in Thrace where children were sent to their maternal family at the age of five to learn how to fight. Quynh’s birth family had died many years ago, and her adoptive family in Locris didn’t seem interested in war, so I expected that they would have us teach Minha.

“But we are supposed to train her.”

He turned toward me. “Minha will get to choose what she wants to do with her life. If she wants to be a warrior, she can be one here. We are not sending her away and making that decision for her.”

My mouth gaped open, and when I could speak again, I said, “Does Mother know?”

“I told her right after you arrived.”