“I will,” Constantine replies, not looking at him. “It’s my duty.”
“Exactly. Your duty. It will be better coming from a friend,” Frederick drawls.
“A friend,” Constantine scoffs, turning to face him and then glancing back down at the spectacle before him. “Horses?”
“I figured it might get her outside, at least,” Frederick says with a shrug. “They only arrived this morning.”
Constantine hates to admit what a good idea it is. Aefre used to love to ride. He doesn’t know if she still does, as it is something that has never come up since the advent of vehicles and then her new powers. So, he just nods absently and watches as Vito gallops along the length of the wall, with Lincoln bounding alongside him.
“Humph,” he mutters and turns to enter the bedroom. He closes the door behind him and leans against it. He knew Aefre would be gazing out of the window to the eastern most point.
“I didn’t even know that was still there, let alone in use,” she says, with just a tinge of ice in her voice.
“It hasn’t been used in quite some time, my dear,” he replies. “However, I thought it fitting seeing as it was her idea to begin with.”
Aefre spins to face him, her eyebrows raised. “Oh?” she croaks.
The jealousy is bewitching. He will never get tired of seeing it on her face, but he knows the agony it causes her, so he just shrugs to dismiss its importance. “You will be there to witness her demise?” he asks instead.
“I–I don’t know,” she says with a frown, looking back out of the window.
“I brought her here at your request. Were it up to me, my sweet, I would have killed her where I found her.”
“I understand that,” she says with feeling. “But, out there…I am sure Devon couldn’t wait to tell you…” she adds bitterly.
“You haven’t been outside yet,” he says carefully.
She shakes her head.
“What better reason than at dawn tomorrow?” he presses.
She takes in a deep breath and nods her head resolutely as if she has made up her mind. “I will be there.”
“Good,” he says and approaches her. “About the ring…”
“I don’t want it,” she says again, turning to face him.
“That hurts me,” he says with a pinched look, hoping to appeal to her guilt.
“I’m sorry, but you have no idea what she did to me in there. Seeing her with that on her finger while you fucked her over and over again!”
Her cheeks have gone bright red. He is so startled by her words that he takes a step back from her.
“Excuse me?” he asks incredulous.
“Not you, obviously,” she amends. “But a Shifter. A very, very convincing one. And I know you marked her.”
The last six words come out so frostily, he shivers in the chill that has suddenly descended on the room.
“Ah, I see,” he says carefully. He had hoped that would never come up, but he should have assumed Clementine would jump at the chance to shove it in his wife’s face. “I was a foolish boy back then…”
“You don’t need to explain yourself, Constantine,” she says witheringly. “I know of your ways. Would have been nice to be treated the same.” She crosses her arms and turns her back to him again.
She stares at her in utter shock. Never in a million years would he have ever expected to hear that from her.
“You would have liked me to mark you?” he asks, as if he hadn’t heard her correctly.
“Yes,” she says in a huff. “Of course. Why do you think I bring it up?”