The Selection: Bride Of The Dark Dragon

LARA

I felt uneasy just sitting in my room and doing nothing. The sensation of soon approaching doom was not leaving me. Something was off and I knew it. I could sense it with my skin.

I jumped when I heard a knock on my door. No one was supposed to come here this early. Lady Fiona said that she would bring me food after midnight to avoid being seen. Yet it was her voice behind the door.

“It’s me,” she hissed, “Open up.”

I obeyed, of course, I brought enough trouble to that woman already to disrespect her now.

She came in with her usual elegance and sighed, “I tried, my dear, I really tried. But I am afraid you still have to go and serve lady Gianna.”

My lips parted in surprise. That wasn’t our plan at all.

“What happened?” I asked her bluntly, “I thought we…”

“Right now downstairs she makes a whole ugly scene,” Fiona shuddered, “Shouting and screaming that we are hiding her maid!”

“But you were supposed to tell her that I was gone…”

“Well, someone told her that the castle was under a barrier and no one can leave. So she is not buying anything that we came up with.”

“I see,” I bit my l*p almost to the point of bleeding.

“At the moment she will attract more attention to you shouting about a maid with short golden hair who disappeared,” the woman exhaled loudly, “Than if you go there and give her what she wants. Gerdians do not visit girl’s rooms at this point of the Dark Selection. Not before the first ball.”

My cheeks got slightly red as I understood what she was hinting at.

Well, it looked like I had no choice, so I fixed my uniform and tied my hair at the back into a short ponytail.

When I was close to lady Gianna’s room, I heard loud noises and sounds of things breaking. I guessed that lady Fiona did not lie to me about my unstable mistress.

I knocked and the sounds stopped. The door opened before my face and I saw the lady of the South breathing heavily and with disheveled hair.

“You!” she almost shouted and pulled me in by my hand roughly, “You! Traitor! What do you think you were doing?!”

She pushed me so hard and unexpectedly that I landed on the floor with a thump. My first instinct was to jump on my feet and kick her back, after all, that was what I was trained to do for years.

But, of course, I didn’t do it. I had a role to play, so I just clenched my feasts and tried to stand up.

“And what the hell is this?” Gianna bent over and grasped the ruby pendant on my neck, making me gasp. I tucked that safely under my uniform but it probably fell out when I was on the ground. And now she was pulling it so hard that the chain hurt my neck.

“It’s mine,” I tried to stay calm.

“Where would a maid get something like this?!” Gianna demanded, “I doubt that your yearly wages will be enough to pay for that…”

I opened my mouth to say something about it being a family heirloom treasured for generations. But the lady of the South smirked and distorted her pretty face. She already had an answer for me.

“Oh, I know where you got it!” she chuckled and let it go, “Only gerdians here possess such treasures and may throw them around like it’s nothing. My cunning little maid was servicing a gerdian while I was waiting there alone like an i***t!”

My lips parted in shock at her words.

“Of course, not,” I started to explain myself.

“Enough!” Gianna raised her hand, “Lucky you that I respect clever people. But betray me again and no gerdian will help you! Sleep with whoever you want while you are off work, but when I require you here – this is where you need to be! Got it?”

“Yes,” I sighed. Arguing with her would be useless anyway. She was one of those people who always had their own opinion and thought that it was the only one correct.

I just needed to go through all this – avoid Demir, forget Demir, work as a maid while stay hidden, avoid Sean Sarn who got me into all of this and then escape at the first opportunity again. Easy, right? Right…

“Enough of all that,” she suddenly changed her attitude, “Come, take care of my hair. I want something simple yet elegant for dinner.”

For about an hour she was telling me how her date with the “duke” went. She didn’t care that I did not want to hear about it, so she went on, and on, and on… She told me how perfectly gallant he was with her and how he couldn’t take his eyes off her… How he was the man of her dreams – handsome, powerful, rich… How he seemed to inhale the air around her while bending almost to touch her face…

And I may have pulled her hair too harshly a few good times to help me through all this. It was torture. Pure and inevitable. And I created all this myself. What an i***t I was to agree to go with Sean Sarn in the first place! Maybe all this was his plan all along… After all, not to bring Demir’s demise, I knew I needed to be as far from him as possible.

I made this decision and I needed to stand by it. It was for the best. For the best, for the best, for the best…. I kept repeating it as a mantra, trying to calm down my nerves. Maybe if I said it several times, I would believe in it myself.

“And now bring me the red dress,” Gianna commanded, “It’s already on the bed.”

“Yes, my lady,” I was playing my part of an obedient little maid and went to the bedroom, finding there the most gorgeous red dress. However, it was huge and with a long train. Definitely fit for a ball at the royal palace. Yet a bit too much for a simple dinner with other ladies.

However, who was I to judge?!

I helped Gianna to get in and did all the laces at her back. Then she chose jewellery and I helped her with that too, feeling happy that I’d be able to leave as soon as she did.

Yet life had other plans for me.

“What are you waiting for?” the lady of the South turned and looked at me expectantly.

And when I did not get the hint, she rolled her eyes, “The train of the dress! You’d have to hold it while I walk.”

“Y-you want me to go to the dinner with you?” I gulped.

“Oh, I don’t want to,” she chuckled, “I just don’t have a choice! Pick it up! We are almost late!”

All the way to the dining hall I was going through my options. There was no way, I could walk inside. That was exactly where all the gerdians would be at this hour.

“My lady,” I mumbled when we were almost at the entrance, “Don’t you think that this dress is a bit too much for the occasion? You could save this beauty for the next ball. You would look wonderful in it and…”

“It’s not that I need a maid’s opinion,” Gianna scoffed, “Not to mention that I have to wear this dress today.”

“Have to?” I asked dumbfoundedly. What did she mean by that?

“Yes,” for some reason she decided to reply to me with a smirk on her lips, “The duke sent it to me with a note that I have to wear it today! How could I refuse such a simple request from such a wonderful and generous man?!”

I clenched the fabric in my hands, wishing to tear it to pieces. He even sent her a present! Already!

And it was at that moment when Gianna rapidly walked in, dragging me behind her into the huge Dining Hall.

It was too late!