Anger rose in me. Rhaelgyr's bite mark stung, something seethed in my collarbone, and the very walls seemed to pulse. I was too incensed to speak, invectives dying on the back of my tongue.
Steven rose from the bed, Chaos magic whispering as his outfit changed. The straps faded into skin as his engorged penis pointed accusingly at me, as scales grew and sprouted. Ears became horns, fingers became talons, and hair became leather spikes. Laughing, he approached me.
"Do you like this better? Lizard, human, elf, none of it matters to me." He took another step, becoming Rhaelgyr in elven form. "Anything to please my little girl."
I stepped back, disgusted and attracted at the same time. "Stop that."
"Why? You like him enough to keep wearing his clothes. You let him mark you, and touch you. Did you even think of me when you slept with him?"
My voice was a low hiss as I stepped into the other room. "I never slept with him."
Steven's nostrils flared, his eyebrows becoming a row of blue spikes. All his color became blue, shiny beneath the lamp light. "I smell another man on you. Not just that hedonistic club. Who did you fuck?" He was sliding into his reptilian form, breath hissing through jagged teeth.
My shoulder seethed again, fresh blood trickling from cracked scabs. "None of your business."
Walls that had only seemed to move before were now actually moving. They wobbled like gelatin, pulsing with some inner life. The lamps grew brighter, hissing as they consumed raw Chaos magic. Steven grew taller, the ceiling rising to accommodate him.
"You are my wife. You will tell me who you've shared your charms with." His voice boomed, rattling the window.
I stood strong in the face of the onslaught. Whatever he might be in my forgotten past, he wasn't my husband. I'd never consented to marry him. Not that marriage meant the same thing to a Setian as it did a Chaos Lord.
Calm passed over me, like the eye of a hurricane. I didn't know what race Steven was, or how we'd met, or why he was enthralled with me. But I could find out, using the weapon ever woman had.
I burst into tears.
"You don't love me. You never loved me. I travelled all over, and I got hurt, and i did whatever I needed to do to find you, and you don't care." Burying my face in my hands, I turned my back on him.
The mood changed instantly. Steven's anger disappeared, dragging the Chaos magic with is. A breeze stirred around me as the cottage returned to normal, and Steven sighed.
"My poppet. My little love." He closed the gap between us, wrapping his arms around me. "Don't cry, precious heart."
"You made me cry." I let the tears subside, but kept my face buried.
He kissed the back of my head, my neck, my right shoulder. He was being very careful not to touch Rhaelgyr's mark. "And I apologize. I've just been so worried for you, and I didn't know where you were." He kissed me again, squeezing me. "To come back to myself and find you've been with someone else..." He paused, mouth hovering over the bite mark. "It was more than I could handle."
I let my hands drop, glancing shyly over my shoulders. Something told me that I'd loved him with a naive heart. The kind of love little girls feel before they learn how the multiverse really works. But I couldn't say that to him right now. Save it until I understood what was really going on.
What I did ask was shy and tentative. "You really forgive me?"
Steven turned me in his arms, claiming a kiss. I allowed it, softening, wrapping my arms around him. It was a nice kiss, a tender apology, and even my mistrustful heart was willing to forgive him.
As his hands slid down my back to pull me into a more passionate kiss, I wondered what it was I needed to forgive.
