The Selection: Bride Of The Dark Dragon

LARA

My lips parted as the crying guy was crawling away and I stayed alone with my ‘husband’. He looked at me with a smirk and took off his cloak, throwing it on one of the empty seats at my table, while landing right next to me.

“Darling wife,” Sean Sarn smiled, “Don’t act too surprise, or other people are not going to buy it.”

He looked too comfortable in my presence and all I was thinking about was whether I should attack him first and ran. Or whether I should eat first, listen to what he had to say, and run.

“Don’t be too scared,” he said all of a sudden, “If I wanted to hurt you in any way, I’d do it in one of the previous days of your little adventures.”

Crap. So, he had been following me for a while. That couldn’t be good.

“Why didn’t you?” I raised my brow at him and he smirked.

“That would be hypocritical of me to do since you are simply following the advice I gave you,” he gave a wide grin to the girl who brought my food and I was surprised that she actually came with two of each dish. Meaning that he already changed my order a while ago.

“Enjoy your stay at the Golden Duck!” the server muttered and disappeared.

Great. Now it wasn’t safe to eat it. Who knew what he could do to the food. And I was starving.

“What’s wrong?” he looked at me and then nodded understandingly, taking one of the forks and eating a bite from each plate, then moving them to me, “No poison, I swear.”

My tummy gave a loud rumble and I hated this little moment of weakness with all my guts. Fine, food first. A surprise attack and a quick escape later. Hopefully, I could make it to my wings.

Although, he was a dragon, and all that was unlikely.

“So, it was you at the ball after all,” I stated as I had a spoonful of the stew, “You killed a lot of people, do you know that?”

“I am at war, Lara,” he sighed, “Not that I have a choice.”

“A sneaky attack on unsuspecting people doesn’t seem like a fair fight,” I insisted coldly.

“You know very well that it was intended only for that one person,” Sean did not seem bothered with my accusations.

“Your ex-best friend,” I snorted, “I remember. But it was unreasonable to think that no one else will suffer as a result of an explosion like that.”

“Members of his Council are the reason we are where we are,“ Sean replied, eating as if we were discussing the weather. To my shame, I did the same thing. If I run now it may be days until I could show myself in any town. I’d need to go as far from here as possible.

“And there I thought that it was personal!” I shot a glance at him and he took a gulp of his drink.

“Now it is,” the man said putting his glass down, “I know you think you know the story but in the long run, all you know is just one side.”

I rolled my eyes. Of course, he’d say something like that.

“Let me guess,” Sean continued, “He told you a sad story about friendship and betrayal? Right?”

“Is that not true?” I looked at him, unimpressed.

“It is,” the red dragon shook his shoulders, “But who betrayed who first – that would be the right question.”

“Demir is not like that,” I tried to turn away, but his palm suddenly landed on mine, making me flinch. He squeezed my fingers and I felt heat coming from him. I did not like it at all.

“He is an emperor above everything, Lara,” Sean told me, looking straight into my eyes, “Even now he is there, ruling over his empire and not looking for you, his soulmate.”

I did everything in my power not to flinch again or not to give any kind of reaction to him, because I was sure that he was fishing for it. There was no other way to confirm something like that and if I as much as mentioned that it was true, he’d pack me up and take me to the red dragons’ lair this very moment.

“You are tougher than you look, Lara,” Sean chuckled, “Demir was blessed by the gods even in that sense. Dragons don’t find their soulmates that often…”

“Soulmates, what is it?” I asked simply and he gave me another smile.

“Don’t play dumb with me,” he sent another piece of meat into his mouth, “There will be no other reason for him to start a war for a woman. Trust me, he has plenty of those in his life already.”

I clenched my lips at his remark and somehow Camelia came to mind. Was he now in her arms, was she consoling him this very moment the way she used to? I took a sip of my drink and it seemed bitter.

“There will be no war,” I said to my unexpected companion, “Don’t overthink it.”

“Haven’t you heard?” he looked at me suddenly serious, “There is already a war. The White Archipelago is going to attack the Gerdian Empire any moment now.”

I swallowed. That could not be happening. I sent a letter to Gideon stating that I wasn’t even there! Not to mention that it would be stupid for our people to attack the gerdians, we wouldn’t stand a chance.

“The leader of the White Archipelago will never allow this!” I tried to calm myself down.

“That would be the old leader,” Sarn chuckled darkly, “But unfortunately he was killed a few days ago by the new one. I believe his name is… Gideon Artes.”

The words echoed in my mind like thunder on a quiet day. This could not be true! Gideon would never…

It was hard for me to breathe and I tried to get out of the table but felt too dizzy all of a sudden.

“Careful,” Sean’s arms wrapped around me and I looked at him in shock. Of course, it was a trap and I was stupid to stay here in the first place.

There were many emotions in his eyes and I tried to summon light to attack him, but he squeezed my hand so hard that all I felt was pain.

“Not here,” he whispered, “Relax!”

He lifted me in his arms and to my surprise went upstairs while all other people in the tavern paid us no attention.

“What do you want from me?” I hissed, feeling how all my senses were leaving me one by one.

“Trust me, Lara, I am not as bad and scary as you might think!” he laughed as he opened one of the doors with his foot, “You and I are just going to get to know each other better. But we’ll do all the talking tomorrow…”