With a nod and his eyes still on the ground, he retreated down the hall he’d appeared from.
A knot in my chest loosened at the thought of maybe having a kind soul around. Seeing as he was close enough with Theo to berate him without being killed or told to get on his knees and apologize, I gathered he likely wouldn’t be an ally in my quest for independence while here. However, I’d happily settle for knowing there was at least one person I could speak to without wanting to gouge my eyes out with frustration, even if he was a dragon.
As I walked through the space he’d just occupied, I took in an appreciating breath and his scent lingered in the air. It was very much like the salty ocean air that bordered the northern portion of Andrathya, and in combination with his blue scales, I found myself wondering if he was aligned with the water affinity of the undine, whereas Theo was clearly ice. Either way, it was a lovely smell, and I wondered if they had bottles of perfume around that matched it.
Chapter Nine
SIYANA
As the warm,buttery goodness of the danish I’d chosen flooded my senses, the large double doors to the dining hall burst open, startling me. I’d had four already and was very much looking forward to a few more.
Theo stormed in, interrupting the question Lucius had been asking me about our food supply dwindling in recent years. I paused in my efforts to stuff myself painfully full of food.
“Morning, Theo!” Lucius called out, “I thought we?—”
“I told you to wait for me!” Theo yelled, his voice booming through the empty room and cutting Lucius off. Thankfully, they didn’t seem to have any staff here, or else they would probably be wishing to be in any other area of the castle right about now, just as I was.
Shrugging in response as he drew close to me, I lifted the danish back to my mouth and took a bite. In my plan, I knew this would rile him up, but I never imagined it would pull this level of animosity from him.
His chest heaved with the ragged, deep breaths that filled the air around me as he closed in on my location. As I swallowed, his hand came flying out to smack the food from my grasp, knocking it to the ground.
“Hey, I worked hard on those,” Lucius rumbled dejectedly from the other side of the oak table.
“Get out,” Theo seethed in response to Lucius, unable to look back at the other drackya. No, his venomous gaze was meant for me alone to bear the brunt of his anger.
“Real mature,” I muttered, glancing down at my fallen food. “Are you going to pick that up? Because I’m absolutely not, nor is Lucius.”
Lucius' chair scraped against the floor as he let out a sigh and left the table, muttering, “Please leave me out of this,” before the gentle groan of the doors closing sounded behind him.
A part of me felt really awful now for what I did. He hadn’t known that Theo had told me to stay and wait for him, and clearly it was going to cause a big problem. It seemed I didn’t know the depths of my husband’s anger issues like I thought I did. This should have been a harmless decision that mildly irked him and made him call me a wench.
As my eyes lifted all the way up to the towering drackya standing at my side, the war I saw in his gaze was unnerving. Not because he was angry—that I was accustomed to already. Even his annoyance was dismissible. It was the way he seemed to be looking over every inch of me that he could see with me seated, as if he was concerned for my well-being, that caused me pause.
“Theo, I?—”
He cut me off, yanking me to my feet, causing my chair to clatter to the ground behind me. I didn’t have time to breathe before his hands were on me, running the length of my arms as if the thin material of the dress sleeves covering me hid a plethora of new wounds from him.
“Theo—”
“Shut up,” he snapped.
That was the perfect time to call me a wench, yet he abstained. This didn’t bode well. He was truly furious.
His words were as harsh as his hands that traveled down to my waist and spun me around, continuing his inspection.
I whirled around, batting his hands off of me. “Stop it! I’m fine!”
His voice was thunderous as he roared, “Your well-being is my job as your husband, but how am I supposed to uphold that duty when you defy my direct orders, ones that are given to you to keep you safe in a land you don’t understand?”
The irony wasn’t lost on me, and a peel of laughter came from me as I threw my hands in the air. “That’s rich, coming from the very person who didn’t take into account my needs while traveling all day and night yesterday through the first winter storm of the season, that you supposedly knew was coming,” I paused to take in a deep breath before continuing. “No carriage, no blanket, no cloak, not even any food or water! I almost died because of you! Now all of a sudden, when I’m in the safety of the castle’s walls, with a dress lined with fur to keep me warm and food in my belly, suddenly I’m in danger enough to elicit this response?”
His lips thinned as he nodded and took a breath, seeming to deflate with my accusations.
“My actions are regrettable and showed me why none of your missing citizens ever returned. I might have made an error in judgment for your ability to survive in the wilderness alone. I will not do that again.”
His words were like the rush of cold water that had flown from the bath in my chambers, chilling me instantly.
“What do you mean why none of our missing citizens everreturned?”
