Dumped the Oathbreaker for His War God Uncle novel · Chapter 12 of 32

Chapter 12: The Bargain

The Sun guards wouldn't let her through the gate, so I went out to her.

Theron came as far as the gatehouse arch.

That was the edge of his confinement, and four gold spears dipped toward him to remind him of it.

He leaned on the arch with his arms folded and let them point.

Ismene stood in the road with her arms wrapped around herself.

It was split in two places and had gone the color of a plum.

"You look cold," I said.

"I am cold."

I took off my cloak and put it around her shoulders.

She stared at me.

"Say what you came to say," I said.

She pulled the cloak tight.

"The letter," she said. "The one from the Eastern road. I know who wrote it."

"So do I. Phaedon."

"Phaedon can't copy anyone's hand," she said. "He paid a scribe in the lower city."

"How do you know?"

"I took the gold down myself. I watched him copy your husband's hand off an old order."

Behind me, I felt Theron go still in the archway.

"I'll stand up at the Feast and say so," Ismene said. "In front of everyone."

"And what do you want for it?"

She lifted her chin.

"The temple," she said. "Signed to me, forever, by your hand, with the flame. And the ring."

I looked down at my mother's ring on my finger.

"No," I said.

She laughed, a small cracked sound.

"You'd let him hang for a temple?"

"I'd let him do nothing," I said. "But I won't buy him back with my faithful. They walked down those steps behind me. They're not mine to sell to you."

"Then he'll burn at the Feast, and you'll be a traitor's widow, and you'll have nothing."

"Here's what I'll give you," I said.

She waited.

"Swear on my name," I said. "Here, now, everything you know about the letter and the chains. Every word true. And when Phaedon falls, I'll stand between you and whatever comes down on him."

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