Page 160 of To Touch A Silent Fury

“It’s not true.” His mouth twisted, ready to bite, and I scrambled to defend myself. “Yes, I wanted to marry you for my Fate, but there was more to it than that.”

My husband stared at me as if he had never known me. As if he were looking at me for the first time. Perhaps he was.

Food?Hanin asked.

I sucked in a soft breath, and bit my lip to keep the sob in.Sorry. I know you’re hungry. Food soon.

He grumbled at me, but I couldn’t take my eyes from Lang.

“I suppose I’ll have to take your word for it, or you will force me to believe it anyway.” He sat down heavily at the table, staring down at the cut on his palm, tied now with his handkerchief as a bandage. I could see the angry tears welling, and all I wanted to do was reach for him. It was the last thing he would want from me. “It is a small relief, at least, that you could not manipulate my emotions before. At least I can look back on what I felt for you, and know it was all real.”

What I had done had given me my Fate and had broken something else, just the same. Whatever love he had started to feel for me was gone now.

Lang jutted his chin. “You will never do that to me again.”

I opened my mouth, and then closed it. With Hanindred behind me, and Seth locked above me, I did not want to lie to him again. “I cannot promise that.”

Lang sighed. The anger dissipated into total nothingness. This wasn’t the same calculated mask I had seen him don, this wasn’t an act to appear disaffected, he just looked exhausted, and numb. “Then at least tell me how you plan to use me next.”

Hanin mooched forwards, sniffing under the table legs.

I swallowed. “Lang.”

“You are my wife, and I have promised before the Five to protect you. That will be easier to do if I know your plans.”

No more lies.

“I plan to help those who cannot help themselves.” He looked at me again then, and I kept my chin from wobbling. “To end tyranny.”

A sick humour crossed his face before losing to that same dead expression. “My darling, you married into the wrong family.”

There was cruelty in the words, but nothing more than I expected and deserved. I would rather his anger. “You will not help me, then.”

“It seems to matter little what I will and will not do, since you are determined to have your way regardless.” He stood, too quickly, and staggered a step as he searched the room for something. “What you did today put a target on both of our backs.”

“Me, they can kill. You’re a Sightlands Prince, with an adult dragon. Who can target you?”

Hanin curled around my legs, asking me for food again.

Lang pulled out a piece of parchment from the third drawer he searched, and a pot of ink. There was no life in his movement, nor in his words. “Not all targets are public duels, as you well know.”

I folded my arms. “I am sorry for my actions, but I saw no other way.”

He paused as he placed the pot of ink on the table, his fingers whitening around it. “You could have asked me.”

“Seeing you today, walking down the aisle towards me. That was the first time I knew you were capable of defying your father.” Lang flinched. I would not lie to him again, though. “If I had asked you to give up your father’s Soundlands coup, would you have done it?”

I studied his pale jaw, his flaring nostrils, and the tension in his brow. I would take his anger over the nothingness from before. Goading him was not my intention, but around him, I could not help but bite.

“You are new to this game, Tani. Some of these pieces have been moved before I was even born, and you’ve just shaken the table. People are going to be angry.”

“I know that.”

“You do not know anything.” He slammed his hand down on the table, and I did not move a muscle. “What you did isn’t going to change anything. You’ve exposed yourself for nothing.”

“I’ve exposed Braxthorn’s intention to invade an innocent nation,” I replied. But Lang’s words had shaken me. Surely, it could not have been for nothing.

Lang did not let up. “At best, you’ve caused him a few days’ delay.”