Read The Spoils of Allsveil: Dark Heart Heroes #2 for Free Online

husband.
    Bridgette turned her scowl to her friend. “Don’t lie to me.”
    “Really, I’ve been treated well. I stay in my own room.”
    “He’s not the same man you knew,” Bridgette said. “He’s a fiend, and worse.”
    Aighta looked aghast but Bridgette didn’t notice.
    “Why have you done this?” my wife said to me.
    Anger flushed my face. Opening my mouth to speak, I was rudely cut off.
    “No.” Bridgette shoved a hand to halt any explanation I might have given. “Don’t tell me, I know why, you greedy bastard. You have no mercy whatsoever. You just take what you want.”
    My jaw clenched. My palms began to sweat. “Paul. Lady Goththor is exhausted from her travels. See she gets rest.”
    Paul bowed low and stood by Bridgette’s side.
    “Were you ever coming back?” Bridgette said.
    All my self-control went into holding myself back. “This again.”
    “Mother!” Darrin stepped forward. My brave son trying to step into the fray and protect us from each other.
    Bridgette looked at him like he was a squashed bug. “Yes. Good tidings to you, my dear. Having fun roaming the countryside and following in your father’s adulterous footsteps?”
    Darrin stopped in his tracks. The hurt in his eyes made my anger boil over. Maybe I deserved her ire, but the boy? Never. “Leave my son alone, you black-tongued harpy.”
    Bridgette acted as if she didn’t hear me. “Did you think I wouldn’t find out what you were doing? Do you think I’m going to let you get away with this?”
    Her insolence burned the blood running through my veins. “Why should I come home to a smack-lipped cow such as yourself?”
    Bridgette pulled back but recovered. “You bastard.”
    “Oh, you’re allowed to call me every disparaging name your hen head can think of but I’m granted no defense?”
    “You don’t need a defense, savage, you need manners and a good beating.”
    I stepped forward. “You want a beating, woman?”
    “Stop it!” Aighta’s voice pierced through the haze of anger. “Stop it!” Her small frame vibrated, her expression firm. “Stop it!”
    I was dumbfounded. My wife brought me to anger before, but I’d never lost control. Never even thought of striking her.
    “See what you’ve done!” Bridgette went to put her arm around the former queen of Allsveil.
    “No!” Aighta pulled away and faced my wife. “You’re as much to blame.”
    That shocked Bridgette. She raised her hand to her throat.
    “What happened to the both of you?” She looked for answers in our faces. “You were in love. You respected each other. You were the perfect couple, married in perfect union.”
    Silence.
    “Why doesn’t he know how to fly?” Aighta looked at Bridgette and pointed at me.
    My wife looked down. She’d been shamed. She knew what Aighta meant and that made me shake in anger. Something had been withheld from the one person I loved the most. It hurt. It shoved another frosted iceberg into my heart.
    “I told you to never stop.” Aighta’s eyes flashed in anger. “Did you not continue with everything I taught you?”
    That perked my ears. Bridgette looked up. “I’m not enough for him.”
    Aighta closed her eyes and shook her head. “My methods are foolproof, Brie, foolproof.”
    “He never listens to me!” Brie trembled.
    I’d been betrayed. Slighted. Tricked. I knew it. “Everyone out!”
    Darrin shot out of the room like a whipped horse. I would counsel him later, see if I could undo the damage of his mother’s harsh words. The filly was not far behind him, and Paul turned to go. Aighta stood, her face looking up at me with an authority she no longer had. Brie took Aighta’s hand and started to pull her friend away.
    “Not Lady Aighta ,” I roared.
    Bridgette turned and stood in front of Aighta, ever ready to battle till our tongues were bloodied. “She goes with me.”
    “Take Paul instead, he can show you to a big bed where he can fuck the insolence out of you.” The admittance of my