Chapter 37: Chapter 37: The Broken Table, The Proud Husband, and The Safe Room

I was pacing a hole into the expensive tatami mats.

It had been three hours since Akira left for the Emperor’s throne room, and my nerves were completely frayed. Every time I heard a servant’s footsteps outside our pavilion, my heart leaped into my throat, half-expecting Imperial Guards to drag me away because my husband had finally snapped and set the Emperor on fire.

"If you pace any harder, you are going to wear through the floorboards," Yuki complained from the veranda.

The ancient cat spirit was currently lying flat on his back, sunbathing like a lazy housecat. Rin was sitting next to him, tossing crumbs of a sweet bun into the koi pond.

"I can’t help it," I muttered, chewing on my thumbnail. "He is in a room with the man who ruined his life. What if it’s a trap? What if the Emperor tries to lock him in the dungeons?"

"Please," Yuki snorted, not opening his eyes. "If they tried to lock him up, he would just melt the iron bars. You humans worry too much. Look at the child. She has achieved perfect zen."

"The orange fish is eating all the food," Rin observed seriously. "He is very fat. I respect his strategy."

Before I could scold Yuki for being completely unhelpful, the heavy sliding doors to the East Palace courtyard scraped open.

I spun around.

Akira strode through the doors. He still wore his dark indigo court robes, but his jaw was locked so tight a muscle feathered in his cheek. The terrifying, freezing Warlord aura was practically rolling off his broad shoulders in invisible waves. The two Imperial servants trailing behind him looked like they were going to faint from sheer terror.

"Dismissed," Akira barked at the servants without even looking at them.

The maids squeaked, bowed frantically, and ran for their lives.

Akira stopped in the middle of the room. He let out a long, heavy breath, pinching the bridge of his nose.

I rushed over to him, grabbing his heavy silk sleeves. "Akira? Are you okay? Did he do something? Do we need to run?"

He opened his eyes and looked down at me. The icy, murderous Warlord mask instantly melted. The tension drained right out of his shoulders, leaving him looking incredibly tired, but whole.

"I am fine," he murmured, his hands coming up to gently cover mine. "Let us go to our room."

I nodded, grabbing his hand and pulling him toward the master bedchamber. Yuki cracked one turquoise eye open to watch us leave, let out a dramatic sigh about needy adults, and went back to sunbathing.

I slid the heavy paper doors of our bedroom shut. Since Yuki had literally eaten all the hidden magical listening wards last night, this was the only room in the entire capital where we could actually speak freely.

The moment the door clicked shut, Akira let out a sound that was half-groan, half-laugh.

He didn’t walk over to the futon. He just leaned back against the sliding door, crossing his arms over his chest, and stared at me with an incredibly intense, unreadable expression.

I suddenly felt very self-conscious. I smoothed down the front of my heavy silver and purple skirts.

"What?" I asked defensively. "Is my hairpin crooked?" 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

"So," Akira said, his deep voice rumbling in the quiet room. A slow, incredibly devastating smirk began to spread across his face. "I hear you broke Lady Kiku’s cedar table."

I slapped a hand over my eyes, my face instantly burning hot.

"Who told you?!" I groaned. "I was only gone for ten minutes! Does gossip travel by wind in this place?!"

"The Emperor told me," Akira chuckled, pushing off the door and walking slowly toward me. "Apparently, Lady Kiku sent a very frantic message to the throne room complaining about the feral northern bride who shattered her tea set with a solid iron war fan."

"It was an accident!" I argued, dropping my hand. "Well... mostly an accident. It was a deliberate accident. They gave me a chipped cup and bitter tea, Akira! They were trying to humiliate me! I couldn’t just sit there and let them think they won."

Akira stopped right in front of me. The smirk on his face was gone, replaced by a look of such overwhelming, unfiltered pride that it actually made my breath catch.

He reached out, resting his large hands gently on my waist.

"You," he murmured, pulling me a half-step closer, "are a terrifying, absolute menace. And I have never been more in love with you."

My heart did a violent backflip. "You’re not mad?"

"Mad?" Akira let out a rich, genuine laugh that vibrated against my chest. "Kitsune, I spent the entire walk back to this palace trying not to smile. Do you have any idea how much those cedar tables cost? You completely terrified the Emperor’s highest-ranking concubine. I am going to buy you a dozen more iron fans."

"One is heavy enough, thank you," I smiled, wrapping my arms loosely around his neck.

I rested my chin against his chest, listening to the steady, strong thud of his heart. It felt so good to just hold him, to know that we had both survived our first day in the viper’s nest.

But as I leaned against him, I felt a strange, cold tension lingering in the muscles of his back.

I pulled back slightly, looking up into his amber eyes.

"What happened in the throne room, Akira?" I asked softly, dropping the jokes. "You came back looking like you wanted to cut someone’s head off."

His smile faded. The dark, protective shadows returned to his eyes.

He walked over to the edge of the massive futon and sat down, resting his elbows on his knees. He looked down at the floorboards.

"The Emperor poured me a cup of plum wine," Akira said, his voice flat and quiet. "He laced it with nightshade and raw wolfsbane. Enough to kill a normal man in seconds."

My blood ran completely cold. I dropped to my knees right in front of him, my hands flying up to grip his face.

"He poisoned you?!" I gasped, my thumbs frantically brushing his cheeks, checking his eyes for any sign of sickness. "Akira, are you in pain? Do we need to find a healer? Why didn’t you say anything?!"

"I am fine, Kitsune," he promised, gently catching my wrists. He brought my hands down, pressing a soft kiss to my knuckles. "My yokai core burned the poison out before it even reached my blood. He knew it wouldn’t kill me. He was testing my strength. He wanted to see if the spirit-ash in the cup could suppress my magic."

"He’s a monster," I whispered, my voice shaking with anger.

"He is," Akira agreed. He looked up at me, and the raw vulnerability in his expression made my chest ache. "But the poison wasn’t the worst part. He brought you up."

I froze. "Me?"

"He knows about the soul-tether," Akira said, his thumbs gently stroking my wrists. "He knows that the Consort Mark isn’t just a symbol. He knows that you are the anchor keeping my demonic blood sane. He told me, right to my face, that if you were to die... my tether would snap. I would become a mindless beast."

The room went completely silent.

The Emperor hadn’t just insulted him. The Emperor had threatened my life in order to keep Akira on a leash. He was using me as a hostage against my own husband.

A wave of pure, freezing dread washed over me. I finally understood why Akira had looked so furious when he walked through the door.

"What did you do?" I asked, barely breathing.

"I crushed his solid gold cup into a ball," Akira admitted, a dark, lethal edge creeping into his voice. "And I told him that if he ever touched you, my grief would be so destructive that the capital walls wouldn’t be thick enough to stop me from leveling this entire city."

I stared at him. I couldn’t help it. I let out a slightly hysterical laugh.

"Well," I said, sitting back on my heels. "So much for keeping a low profile."

"I am a Warlord, Kitsune," Akira said fiercely, reaching out to pull me onto his lap. I went willingly, wrapping my arms around his broad shoulders as he buried his face in the crook of my neck. "I will play his political games. I will drink his poisoned wine. But I will not let him threaten you."

"I’m not afraid of him, Akira," I whispered, running my fingers gently through his long pink hair.

"You should be," he mumbled against my skin.

"No," I insisted softly, pulling his head back so I could look him in the eye. "I’m not. Because we know his plan now. He thinks he can use me as a weakness. He thinks I’m just a fragile target."

I leaned in, pressing my forehead against his.

"He has no idea that I’m completely invisible to his magic," I reminded him. "He has no idea what a basement rat can do in the dark. We rest tonight, Akira. We go to his stupid Imperial Banquet tomorrow and smile for the nobles."

Akira’s amber eyes locked onto mine. "And then?"

"And then," I smiled, a dangerous, confident spark ignating in my chest, "I start sneaking into the Imperial Archives. It’s time we find out exactly what the Emperor is actually planning for your yokai core."

Akira let out a slow, heavy breath. The tension finally left his body entirely. He leaned forward, capturing my lips in a deep, slow, incredibly tender kiss. It wasn’t fierce or desperate like the one in the hot springs. It was slow and completely grounding.

"Rest," Akira murmured against my lips, his arms wrapping securely around my waist. "There’s no need to go anywhere, just stay here where it’s safe."

I closed my eyes, letting the warmth of his embrace completely block out the coldness of the capital. We were exactly where we needed to be.