His hand hovered over his throat as it often did in the last couple of days. He almost lost his neck due to one of his most trusted advisors flipping his loyalty. It was sudden, out of left field, and he had so many supporters for this attempted coup.

It was unsuccessful though. How could the mighty Cassian be taken down by someone beneath him? It was never going to work, Cassian swears it was a half-baked attempt. An almost attempt that would have succeeded had he not gotten into a spat with his empress that day and thus his routine changed slightly…

But try as he might, sleep in his lonely bed was hard to come by, the days felt as if they had shifted in the wake of the coup. Stress had fallen on the palace, the help, other advisors and himself felt on edge since. It was the closest the palace had gotten to being overturned.

But you, his empress, had not batted an eye. You seemed disgruntled, stressed, but not empathetic. You seemed more concerned about your safety than his when he was the one almost killed!

Why? Were you one of them? Surely not. In the beginning you pined for his affection. You wanted this marriage more than he did in those days. You yearned, you tried being a perfect spouse, you tried to garner his attention as more than political peers. He doubted that affection for him could have faded, even if he’d ignored your advances all this time in favor of viewing you as simply a position and not a relationship. You were a political advantage, your union gained him territory and support he otherwise would have had to acquire by force. But…why would you show little concern for him? It irked him for some unknown reason.

And your secondary purpose was to bear an heir which you did so successfully—the spawn sharing your shiny locks and piercing doe eyes, a girl of now 4 years of age who sat next to you while you tended her.

“I cannot believe Aeris could have orchestrated such a thing,” He murmured across the table as dinner was served by the servants. He glanced to you to gauge your reaction.