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Riftan was in a foul mood. King Reuben had sent yet another letter demanding he marry his daughter, the princess. Reuben knew that Riftan had a weak spot, and he kept exploiting it. Saying that Riftan was too much of a monster for the frail Croyso girl. Gritting his teeth, Riftan dropped the letter and stormed out of his office. In the three years since the Dragon Campaign, the King had never stopped his asinine wailings about marrying them together. Thinking of his fiery wife, he strode through his castle to find her.
After many minutes of searching and questioning frightful servants he found her in the library with his mage Ruth once again. Of course.
“Maxi…” he growled out. His wife jumped in her seat and spun around to look at him, expression showing something akin to fear before she recognized him and smiled sweetly. For some reason, that irked him today. He had never struck his wife or treated her poorly and she still feared him. The woman he had fought with a king over staying married to.
“Come with me.” Riftan spun on his heel and strode from the room. Sparing Ruth a concerned glance, Maxi went to follow her husband. She made efforts to keep pace with him, and he could see out of the corner of his eye her start to wring her hands and grit her teeth. As they walked through their beautifully decorated castle, his wife’s tantalizing eyes became more and more downturned, and she seemed to shrink within. The pair finally entered their bedchamber.
Riftan stood still in the middle of the room, back turned to Maxi. She stood several paces inside from the now closed door. He turned suddenly and leveled his wife with a gaze. He strode towards her quickly. Maxi shrunk away from him, colliding with the door. He leaned over her, still staring into her eyes. She flinched down, almost into a ball, holding her hands in front of her face. He stared at her for several moments, not moving.
Maxi breathed heavily and slowly opened her eyes to stare back at Riftan with wide eyes. Her mouth started moving but no sound came out.
“I-I-I’m s-sorry, I…” Maxi trailed off, breaking their eye contact with tears. Her face fell into her hands. He watched her for a moment more, deeply unhappy that she would have such a honed instinct.
“Are you that frightened of me?” He grit out, holding back the emotion in his voice. She cringed and shook her head before slowly bringing her face out of her hands. Her opaline eyes were red-rimmed and her bottom lip trembling as she gazed upwards at him. He slowly kneeled down to her level and took her hands in his.
“Then why are you frightened right now?” His thumb stroked her hand and new tears leaked from her eyes. She took a deep breath and it seemed to help steady her tremors.
“I-I-I’m n-not frightened o-of y-you, my L-Lord,” Maxi gasped for breath and new tears fell. One of his hands reached out to brush them away.
“W-whenever m-men get a-angry with m-me, I am s-scared. I m-meant n-no offense.” Riftan’s heart clenched. He had not intended to scare his wife so badly as to make her stutter get noticeably worse.
“Maxi. Tell me.” He rarely ordered his wife to do anything, and he could see in her eyes that she understood this to be what he had intended. Gulping, she retracted her hands from his with a flinch and hugged her knees to her chest, allowing her face to fall between her chest and knees. To keep her face hidden from him.
“M-my d-deepest apologies, m-my Lord. You e-expected the n-noble highborn d-daughter of D-Duke C-C-Croyso. Instead, y-you r-received the d-disgrace to the f-family. M-my inability t-to speak g-greatly upset m-my f-father, you s-see, a-alongside n-not being the heir h-he w-wanted.” Riftan’s heart skipped a beat. Every moment that he had thought he had scared Maxi came flooding back into his mind. Had it been that he had not scared her, but merely reminded her of what did scare her?
“H-he used his c-cane. I th-think th-that I can use m-magic because a h-hierarch was n-needed so often th-that it a-affected m-my m-mana circuits.” Her face remained hidden from him.
“I-I w-was m-meant as an in-insult to y-you, R-Riftan. I-I’m s-so sorry!” She started sobbing into her skirts.
“Maxi, I’m going to touch you.” She tensed at his words, and he slowly picked her up and walked to their bed. He sat down with her cradled on his lap. Riftan hugged his wife closely and blinked away the heat behind his eyes.
“Your father will pay for daring to harm my precious wife. I forbid you of thinking of yourself as an insult or burden to me. You are my Lady Calypse. You are the woman that fixed this castle, earned the respect of my servants, learned how to heal and defend Anatol, and tripled our wealth. You are the best thing that this land could have ever received, and you would do well to remind yourself of that. In the meantime, let me remind you.” Instead of jumping into making love with his beautiful wife, he leaned back in their bed, still clutching her. He continued to tell Maximilian every single thing he loved about her, while vowing to himself to enact vengeance against her father. Eventually he could feel Maxi start to drift into a slumber, and he repositioned them for her to be more comfortable. Riftan basked in the presence of his wife, who despite everything she had been through had shown such strength of will and determination to become strong for Anatol and for him. He would do anything to protect and repay the woman in his arms for everything she had done for him and his people.