Page 98 of Poisoned Empire

“I can see you’ve given this an inordinate amount of thought. Just how have you managed to see to your other responsibilities, I wonder?”

Nicephorus faced Belisarius’ dark temper head on, his resolve unbent.

“It is my duty to see to the well-being of the empire at all times, and in all ways, Your Royal Highness.”

“Get. Out,” Belisarius hissed.

“As you wish.” Nicephorus stood and bowed, leaving a seething mass of fury in his wake.

Chapter 34

Seleneracedthroughhallways,imperial red décor blurring together with the force of her tears. Agony drove her faster. Some primal part of her believed, if only she could outrun it, she might escape the pain altogether. When finally she could run no more, she collapsed on hands and knees onto cool grass, lungs heaving, gut roiling. She could slow neither her heart, nor her frantic breaths. There would be a list of women. She would be expected to tolerate the nights he would spend with them. His children would not be her own. The thought of him with other women, after all the tenderness they’d shared just hours before…it made her sick. Sick with wrath. Sick with jealousy. Sick with unbearable sadness. She’d made herself utterly vulnerable to him, and her reward was a hot knife to her heart.

“Selene?”

Selene looked up through blistering tears. Concerned amber eyes gazed down at her. Domina Mina Topaz was dressed in a walking gown and a robe hooked together at the throat. She was alone.

“What are you doing dressed like that, out here, at this hour?” Mina unclasped her robe and settled it around Selene’s shoulders, bending down to place a warm hand on her back. “Breathe slowly. Do you want me to call for someone?”

Selene shook her head.

“He-he’s going to get a concubine,” she sobbed.

Mina’s eyes widened in shock and then softened with pity.

“I suppose if you grew up outside a noble household, you wouldn’t know to expect such things from a husband.”

“I can’t accept it! He’s supposed to bemine!” she shrieked.

“Foolish girl. You fell in love with him, didn’t you?” There was nothing but sympathy in her voice.

“I’m such an idiot.”

Mina sighed and seated herself beside Selene, settling in as she tucked a stray strand of dark hair behind her ear.

“From my limited experience, one chooses a partner wisely or one falls in love, but rarely do the two coincide.”

“But I thought he loved me too. How can he talk about other women?”

“Selene, in my biased opinion, men are disgusting, perfidious animals. It’s better to ask yourself if you want to subject yourself to them at all, rather than ask why they do what they do.”

Selene finally caught her breath and sat up in the grass. She wasn’t the only one who lived believing people were scum. The mantle of her cynicism was an effortless fit, no matter that she thought she’d begun leaving it behind as of late.

“People are scum.”

“Precisely,” Mina affirmed.

“Where does that leave me?” For the first time in many years, her cynicism failed to ground her. She was lost.

The other woman shrugged.

“I suppose you get to choose what to do now that you know what your future will be as empress. If it were me, I would take charge of the selection. I would find the most hideous woman, with putrid breath, afflicted with warts and boils, probably missing most of her teeth, too. Then I would wish him happy copulating with the creature.”

Selene chuckled at Mina’s cruel streak, but her momentary mirth was replaced by a hollow ache in her chest. A companionable silence stretched between the two.

“I envy you, you know,” Mina told her.

“Why?” Selene asked, baffled.

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