Her words made the burn in his stomach dim and a tightness form in his chest.

“You are definitely not unlovable, my Silence,” he murmured.

“No, I am not. For Tril loves me and always has. Nearly from the moment we met, we have been friends. And True loves me and has shown that to me for as far back as I can remember. And even though you were also right, not only about the ugly nature of my father, but the weak one of my mother, she loved me as well, as much as he would let her.”

She missed somebody.

“And I love you too,” he reminded her.

“Yes,” she replied without conviction.

He clenched his teeth, reached out and took her hands in his.

She tugged slightly, but he held strong, feeling a vein pulse in his temple at her attempted retreat.

“Much has happened in the time we have been together, but we are still new, amore,” he stated as patiently as he could. “We must not lose sight of that as we navigate these early times in our marriage.”

“Agreed.”

At least she granted that.

Mars endeavored to take heart in it and carried on.

“Thus, I will admit to perhaps not communicating my concerns earlier as I should have done.”

“Perhaps,” she replied, a bite to that word not sharing she concurred with what he’d said, instead disliking he’d used that word.

“Silence—”

“You treated me like him,” she accused, and Mars again went stone still. “You called me stupid. You have no use for me, my king, except one. His was to marry me to the husband that best suited his stature. Yours is in this bed.”

He could not believe his ears.

No.

He did not want to believe she had said what he had heard.

“You cannot possibly believe that,” he ground out.

She lifted her brows. “Is this not what you said to me earlier today?”

“It is not.”

“I have used my shadow many times in my life, my king, many.” She put great stress on her last word. “No one can see it, save you. It is a gift. A gift from the gods to me. There is a reason I have it. There is a reason you can see through it, and only you. But I will repeat, there is a reason I have it. And although I will admit that you were right, the barons said naught that you might need to hear while I was there, it was not foolish or stupid that I did what I did.”

She took a breath, but he had no chance to get words in, for she quickly recommenced in returning to hers.

“I know this, for I did it because I love you. I did it because I believe in you and your vision for your realm. I did it because I would have you face no adversity or even uncertainty as you carry it forward, but since I cannot make that happen, I would do what I could. I did it safe in doing it because I have long since learned how to be unseen not only using my shadow. But in this instance, I was using my shadow.”