Page 79 of Cages and Crowns
“Are you alright?” I whisper, breaking through the silence.
“Believe it or not, little witch. I am not entirely thrilled to be married either, or forced to do what we did.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. You are stuck in this just as much as I am.”He mutters.
“I know.” I take another slow deep breath as a lump forms in my throat. I’m cold, but sweating. I feel ill. I feel like I’m going to– “Oh gods.” I rip the blanket off of my lap and stumble out of bed. I run across the wooden floors andthrow the bathroom door open. I almost don’t make it as I fall against the tub, vomit exploding out of my mouth.
“Rosie.” A warm hand gathers my hair as I throw up. It takes a few minutes before I am left dry heaving. “You’re warm.”
“I feel cold.” I say through my gasping breath.
“Are you ill?”
“I don’t know. I just feel nauseous, and I have a weird pain in my stomach.” I admit as I gag.
“It could be all the wine.” He ponders, but I just shake my head.
“It started before then.”
“I am going to ask you a really personal question.” He says after a moment of silence.
“What?”
“Do you know when your last monthly bleed was?” I open my mouth to answer, but nothing comes out.
“I don’t know.” I whisper as panic courses through my veins. “Nithe, I can’t. I can’t be pregnant withhischild. What if it’s not even his? It can’t be yours!” He drops my hair and I turn to look at him.
“We’ll figure it out. It could be nothing.”
“Nithe—”
“We will figure it out.”
“This isn’t your problem.”
“Yes, it is. We are married, so whether or not that child is biologically mine, that is my child. If there even is a child to begin with.” He stares at me with such devotion, I don’t even know how to respond. Scarlett says he’s duty-bound. He’s here because of duty, and I need to remember that.
“You don’t owe me anything.” I shake my head and look away from him.
“No, I don’t. But you don’t deserve to be alone in this either.” He uncurls his legs, letting them stretch out in front of him as he sits on the floor.
“Nithe, I don’t know what to say.”
“I still don’t like this, little witch, but at least until this war is over, we are married.” He says with a shrug.
“Can we do that? Can we divorce after everything is over?” I ask, hope sparking somewhere inside my black hole of a mind.
“If that is what we want, why not?”
“What do you mean,if?” I question. He can’t expect me to want to stay married to him forever.
“I don’t foresee this being over for a while, who knows where we will be years from now.”
“I don’t have the capacity to love anyone, I told you that.” I say a little harsher than I should have.
“Who said anything about love?”
