The First Dinner

Rache took a deep breath to steady herself, and then slowly followed him out of the library.

She was silent. There was nothing for her to say.

What else could she say? The slap had spoken everything she could have said, and his laugh stole everything she might have followed up with.

Donncahd was a dangerous, unpredictable man.

That was the most predictable and easily knowable part of him. Even for her, who had read the book and knew his future, there were actions of his that she'd never fully understood, and couldn't have predicted.

She didn't know why he was treating her as if he had any intention of maintaining her as his wife, or why he was acting as though their marriage was anything other than a political arrangement that would only end in her death.

It didn't matter, anyway. There wasn't anything she could say or do to change that outcome. He'd kill her eventually, no matter what happened.