Naturally, Malus found out about her conversation with the Emperor.
Kalliope could tell he had the moment Malus stepped through their shared chamber’s door, his strides hurried and an unsettling expression on his visage. She feigned ignorance, and offered him a quiet greeting over some storehouse report.
Malus didn’t bother beating around the bush.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
The slight note of hurt in his voice faltered her, and guilt squirmed into the pit of her stomach; another drop of poison in her already heavy heart. Perhaps he didn’t deserve this. Schemes or not, Malus had been nothing but kind to Kalliope, and even if (her heart clenched painfully) it had all been just a front, he had made her happy, for the first time in her quietly suffering life.
He at least deserved the bene
