Page 21 of Antiletum

“And you look it, friend. Exciting night?” He winks, rubbing a hand over his shorn head. “I would ask if you finally broke through Delaney’s defenses, but if that were the case, you’d be smiling, not brooding.”

“I am not brooding.”

I am absolutely brooding. The pout that comes over my mouth is involuntary. Like a fucking toddler.Deos, I need to pull it together. This is not at all becoming of me.

My hand covers my itching eyes. “She hates me.”

“I was only teasing, Val. Quit with the melodrama.” Mallin slaps the top of my shoulder, unable to reach my back.

My fingers spread to peer at him with skepticism.

I need a nap.

“Hate is a strong word. Delaney’s been distant. Not mean. This has been an immense amount of change for her. And you’ve allowed her to be distant!” He offers me a hopeful smile. “You can work with that. Ease into things.”

Time to lay the truth out there for him, then. Well, part of the truth, at least. “My wife and I had arivetingbreakfast this morning.”

Riveting indeed.

“Oh?” Mallin asks, interested. “Did it go well?” Another glower from me. “Ah. Explains the extraordinarily bad mood. Though not why you look so sleep deprived one might wonder if you got punched in the face. Twice. Perhaps by your wife.”

“Funny.”

“Well. Don’t keep me waiting. What was this conversation?”

“It didn’t go quite as swimmingly as I’d hoped,” I admit. “In keeping with my delusions, I imagined that I’d be leaving that tower this morning with my wife on my arm, ready to take a romantic stroll through the manor grounds together.”

I rub my aching head again.

Mallin makes a soft tutting noise. “And yet, here you are, still sad and alone. What did you do?”

“Why do you always assumeIdid something?”

Truly, I am full of asinine questions these days.

“I don’t feel the need to go over your history. But today, I will say it’s because in spite of your grand plans, apparently the only thing in tow when you exited Delaney’s tower was the rash decision to leave Greystone early.” Mallin gives a soft chuckle, strolling over to a tall window to gaze at the grounds.

“I learned why she’s been distant. Beyond the change,” I tell my friend, meticulous in not saying that I learned of this distrust directly from Delaney. Or that it was at breakfast.

I’d rather not deal with Mallin’s reaction to my sacrificing Tabitha to the Heartstone right now. At least this morning I did learn that Tabitha’s final words were truth.

Good for her.

Mallin motions his hand impatiently for me to get to the point. He’s used to my long winded explanations, usually getting too lost in my own thoughts and real-time ruminating on the topic at hand to converse. Old habits and what-not. Mallin’s a good friend, generally not prying at my cemented doors too hard, knowing how fragile they can be.

“Apparently Delaney had some kind of premonition from Rainah the night of our wedding, telling her not to trust me.”

In a very characteristically accurate reaction, Mallin lets out an echoing belly laugh, head thrown back. Another reason he’s a good friend. His contagious humor cracks a smile from me as well.

“I mean…” Mallin trails off, giving me a patronizing stare, brow raised. Challenging me to argue.

Fucking Rainah. Being right.

“Yes,” I say with irritation that is decidedly directed at a dead woman and only a little towards myself. An internal lie that Iclingto. “It’s certainly brought forth complications. I gave Delaney the barest basis for, well, everything.” I pick up the letter from Parliament, waving it gently.

“How did she respond?” Mallin asks.

With an exhausted sigh, I lean back in my chair, raking my hands down my face, failing to clear the ache in my throat. “Not well. She’smore suspicious of me now, not the government.”