The Selection: Bride Of The Dark Dragon

LARA

Did he just leave me here alone? This easy? I could literally walk out of here right now and he’d never find me. Or would he? Maybe it was some kind of test that I wasn’t getting?

The shop assistants were bringing me dresses after dresses. And I wasn’t paying attention. In the end, I ended up asking them to find me everything they have in lighter tones. And however much they insisted that the dark shades were the current trend, I still chose what was closer to my heart. Another thing that I ordered were silk shawls to cover all that revealing monstrosity. The four of them were busy with matching accessories and shoes when I was left completely alone with a fresh cup of tea.

It was now or never, and I decided to go for it! Not thinking twice, I pulled my hood back on and stepped outside of the shop.

I felt like every passer-by was watching me. As if they knew that I was trying to escape my captor and they all were against me. I was imagining that if I make a step, they all would attack me, catch me and bring me back to Demir. Or worse – the Emperor himself.

Yet when I made that first step, nothing happened. Life in the Gerdian Empire continued and absolutely no one was paying me attention.

I quickly looked around and found a dark lane behind one of the shops. It could be a perfect place to hide. I walked and I walked, looking back from time to time. But no one was following me. Could everything really be so simple?! It was shocking. And a bit appalling. There was so much talk from Demir about how he’d make me want him yet in the end he didn’t even care enough to look after me for a day. Not that I cared! Of course, I didn’t! It was my luck that all gerdians were overconfident, impudent, careless creatures with enormous egos! Did he really think that I’d stay there and wait for him? Ridiculous!

Suddenly, I could sense some movement behind me. I carefully looked back but no one was there. However, I was trained well enough to know that when the sound repeated, I had to admit that I was being followed. Was it Demir finally realizing he forgot about me?

They thought unexpectedly made me smile. And I was embarrassed that it affected me in that way. However, when I heard several footsteps, I had to come to the conclusion that I was followed by several people. Men. And by the sound of it, they were huge, tall, and heavy.

This was the last thing that I needed! Gerdians were known to be stronger than most people. Their dark magic was suffocating for most. As an almost warrior of light I probably had a better chance to stand against them than most. Light destroyed darkness.

But I never tried it. Counting the few times I stroke Demir with my a light would be wrong. Especially considering that most of them happened in our shared dreams and not in reality.

Not to risk it, I decided to hide. I sped up my pace as I walked through a narrow passage and then jumped off using my Air element to get onto someone’s balcony. Unfortunately for me, it was closed, and the steps were getting closer. Between the balconies, there was a carved statue of a dragon with spread wings. It was the best place that I could find at such short notice, and I jumped there and hid behind the wings. I made sure to tuck in my golden hair and my white dress under the black cape so that I wouldn’t be attracting any attention from the ground in case my followers happened to look up. I even took my breath just like Gideon taught me to but cooling down my heart was much harder. Finally, there they were. Three men wearing dark red cloaks with some kind of dark armour. I recognized one of them – it was the man with the scar from before. The one Demir looked at when we came here. Suddenly, I felt bad for the guardian who escorted me today. What if something really happened to him?

“I’m sure she went this way,” one of my followers said and I shuddered slightly. So, they were after me after all!

“Well, she is not here is she?” The one with the scar said and judging by the way everyone else looked at him, he was their leader.

“We need to continue searching,” another one suggested, “she was on foot and couldn’t walk too far.”

The leader slowly traveled with his eyes around the tight space, and I stopped breathing. If they found me now I’d be doomed. Who knew what they wanted to do with me? I for sure wasn’t keen on finding that out!

“Go,” the man commanded to the others and I heard their receding footsteps. I wasn’t too naïve to jump down at once and decided to wait some more in case they return, thinking of what to do next. I couldn’t fly without wings but my Air Element could support me a bit if I needed to jump. So, the roofs seemed like a good place to go. I was about to move when something struck the dragon statue I was on, breaking it to pieces. I didn’t even realize how I started to fall down rapidly but managed to summon Air in time to land gracefully on my feet.

Two amber eyes were watching me with an ugly smirk on the scarred face. Now that I looked at him closer, I saw that he had several scars close to each other, but the one that went from his forehead to under his eye through the cheek to his left ear seemed the biggest. It was fiery red and reminded me of lightning with several branches which seemed to be heating like lava in a volcano as he was looking at me. His gaze was greedy and it felt…dirty. The Light inside of me was twitching and curling, willing to get out. But I hold it back. Because I knew nothing about this man and my secret weapon should remain hidden.

“I have to give it to Demir,” the man spoke not taking his eyes off me, “He always had good taste in women!”

“Oh, I highly doubt that!” I couldn’t help myself and snorted, making my opponent look at me with newly found amusement.

“There’s no need to struggle,” he said unexpectedly calmly, “I don’t want to hurt you unless I absolutely have to.”

“But if you absolutely have to you will?” I ask him with a challenge in my voice.

“I wouldn’t choose this option if I were you,” he warned me.

“But you are not me, are you?” I chuckled even though I wasn’t too sure of myself on the inside. I needed more information. “And to whom do I owe the pleasure?”

“Captain Sean Sarn,” he confessed easily.

“What army do you serve, Captain?” I raised my brow at him and he looked slightly taken aback. Was I supposed to know that?

“The one that is going to win the war,” he smirked, “So, why don’t you join us while you still can. At least it will be wise.”

“Uhm,” I mumbled, “Somehow an army whose Captain is following a weak and lonely girl in the dark alley to force her to do something doesn’t look too serious to me!”

He clenched his lips until they formed a thin white line and took off his hood. Short red hair, trimmed the way only soldiers do. So, he was a part of the army. And he was about to attack me.

Not thinking twice, I pulled the string on my cape and let it fall to my feet. Sean Sarn gave out a little growl seeing that and I felt a wave of his energy. Surprisingly, it didn’t feel dark. Wasn’t he a gerdian?

He emitted zero darkness yet I felt overbearing heat. That signaled me that the man must be a fire mage. And when a fireball appeared on his hand, he confirmed my suspicions.

I dodged his first attack but judging by the smile on his face, he was just testing me.

“Last chance to change your mind and just go with me,” he offered to give up again.

“Go where?” I decide to get that last bit of information out of him.

“Nice try!” he smirked and I saw that his two friends returned, slowly walking to the sides to block my way out. Now there were three of them and my chances to escape were diminishing by the minute.

A new fireball appeared on Captain’s hand. Bigger this time, more powerful.

“I’ll try not to touch your face,” he said with some kind of sadness in his eyes.

“I can’t promise the same!” I summoned Light to the tips of my fingers, ready for the defense. There was no chance to weave something elaborate but I would be able to protect myself with simpler means.

“Feisty!” one of the other men snorted, “Maybe Xander will give her to us as an award!”

I gritted my teeth, fearing that today could be the day when I had to kill for the first time. True Warriors of Light always tried to avoid death when it was possible. But in this kind of situation, I had no choice…

“For that, you’d need to stay alive!” dark flames appeared right behind both newcomers and for the first time ever I was glad to see Demir. But what happened next I did not expect! He stroked his hand at the back of one of the red capes and I saw it poking out of his stomach. The guy fell dead on the spot and I didn’t even have time to gasp when he broke the neck of the second one.

I turned to see a fireball flying right at me and all I heard was the gerdian screaming my name, “Lara!”

Light came easy to protect me. As always. However, I didn’t know what happened exactly but there was too much of it. So much that even I could see nothing! And when it started to die down, I saw Captain Sarn standing up next to the wall he had been thrown to, looking at me in shock.

“Lara!” Demir ran up to me and wrapped me in his arms. Black flames surrounded us and I knew that he was going to take us back to the castle we came from. My escape plan just went to waste!

I closed my eyes but when I opened them we were in the middle of a forest. Dark trees dangled their bushy branches over our heads as if they were threatening to capture us. The sky got gloomier and it was definitely darker than before. No one came to places like this to hide. This was the kind of place to go when you needed to bury a corpse!

“What the chaos?!” Demir looked as stunned as I was…