Page 99 of Poisoned Empire

“As horrible as it feels now, you can still be with the one you love. And if you ultimately decide you cannot live like a noble, you can leave. No family to tie you down, no duty you’re expected to fulfil. You can set yourself free, or you can bind yourself to another, but in the end, it will be your choice.”

Selene sat in shocked silence. Before she could formulate a reply, she heard a familiar voice call her name.

“Selene!”

Yet instead of solace, it brought only pain.

“I guess that’s my cue to leave.” Mina stood and brushed grass from her skirts. “Best of luck.”

The prince barely noticed Domina Topaz leaving as he rushed to her side.

“What happened? Why are you crying? Has someone hurt you?”

Now that he was before her, acting like she was precious and in need of protection, the knife in her heart twisted. The weak Selene wanted to weep and beg him to remain faithful. The old Selene only wanted to scream, bite and kick. He’d hurt her enough, she decided.

“I don’t share.” She glared and slapped his concerned hands away. He was baffled as she stood and wiped the remains of tears from her face.

“What are you…” he began before he grimaced. “How much did you hear?”

Selene bristled. The knife twisted anew. That was what he wanted to know? No denial? No reassurances?

“I decided I’d heard enough once I learned about the lists of women.”

“That was not my idea. I want nothing to do with it.”

“Apparently, what we want has nothing to do with it! Would you really fuck another woman if I can’t give you a baby?”

He flinched.

“Selene, no matter what the future holds, I believe we will figure it out together. You’re the one I love, only you.” He reached out to touch her face. She stepped out of his reach. His expression was hurt, his hand tightening into a fist, his lips thinning as he averted his eyes.

“Was the praetor right about what will happen?”

“Possibly,” Belisarius sighed, his eyes haunted.

Bile crept up the back of her throat. Belisarius would do what needed to be done, even if he did care about her. He lived his life as the prince first, and as a man second. She couldn’t bear it. She wasn’t capable of living like that. All feeling she held for him would be extinguished by resentment and jealousy. She pulled the borrowed cloak closer around herself, a pitiful cloth shield against the pain.

“Find yourself another woman. If I can’t have you completely, then I want nothing to do with you.”

When she brushed by him on her way back to the palace, he grabbed her wrist and pulled her close, his arms caging her.

“Please, don’t go! I love you. I’ll do anything to prove it.”

Selene fought his hold. How long had she desperately wanted to hear those words? But only hours after first hearing them, now they were salt in her gaping wounds.

“I won’t accept it! I won’t! I’ll kill any woman you take to bed! And you will!” she howled.

“The future isn’t set in stone. We could be blessed with children of our own. Please, stay and try with me. Please!”

Selene stopped struggling at the sound of his plaintive tones. He wasn’t going to let her go unless she viciously twisted a knife in his heart. So be it.

“PrinceBelisarius always puts duty before his heart. If I left in my shiny new ship, filled with your gold, would you leave the empire behind to follow me? Would you give up everything to be with me, or would you do your duty and marry a good domina, from a good family, and make little princes and princesses?”

He let go of her. She stepped out of his arms and turned to face him.

“That’s not fair,” he said.

“Isn’t it?”

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