The Selection: Bride Of The Dark Dragon

LARA

I was lying in his arms and not quite believing in what had just happened between us. On the one hand, it was such a mess with the prophecy… But on the other, I was so happy… and he was happy too.

“I know what you are thinking about and you need to stop,” he told me, brushing his fingers over the skin on my shoulder and sending waves of tingles all over me.

“You know me so well, huh?” I chuckled, lifting myself up to have a better look at him.

“I do,” he smirked, “But now I also can feel you better.”

“What?” my lips parted in surprise and he traced them with his thumb, going down my neck slowly and all the way to the mark he gave me that was shining with the purple light of his dark magic. It looked like an ancient rune but when I examined it closer, I saw that it was actually a dragon with spread wings and a scaly tail. Beautiful and so Demir.

“This connected us forever,” Demir told me and touched the mark, almost making me lose my mind. It was still sensitive and could easily send me over the edge again. Noticing my reaction, my soulmate smiled understandingly.

“Will I feel you the way you feel me?” I wondered, thinking that I would actually really love that.

“Yes,” he nodded and nipped my chest with his lips gently, “Over time you will learn to control it. What I feel, you will feel too. You will sense me.”

“I like it,” I admitted, blushing slightly at all the attention he was giving to my chest area again. We were here for longer than necessary already.

The thought suddenly hit me.

“Goddess of Light, Demir! The portal! The ball! We need to go!” I tried to stand up, but he pinned me back to the bed, laughing.

“No, we don’t,” he announced, “I am not planning to get out of here for days!”

“What? Are you crazy?!” I looked at him with wide eyes, trying to understand if he was joking.

“That’s the Portal of Truth, Lara,” he chuckled, “However long we spend here, we’ll walk out back in our world within seconds. No one will even notice.”

“Really?” I gasped, suddenly feeling how the bottom of my belly clenched with desire again.

“Really,” he smirked and crashed my lips with his, making me forget about everything and dissolve in this wonderful sensation.

It was long before we were finally able to stop. After being apart for so long, nothing was enough. However, portal or no portal, but our bodies became tired after hours of loving each other in every way imaginable.

“So, what’s next?” I asked him as we were sitting on the balcony and watching the magical sunset that Demir created for us. It wasn’t real, but it was still perfect.

“We will live our life together,” he shrugged his shoulders as if it was the most natural thing, “Get married, get you crowned, have kids… plenty of those, please.”

“But what about…you know what,” I didn’t even want to say the word.

“We are not going to speak of it, we are not going to wait for it,” he replied without hesitation, “It has no power over us.”

“But if it happens…,” I turn to face him.

“Lara,” he wanted to stop me but I shook my head.

“No, listen to me,” I begged him, “If it happens, we’ll share your destiny together. As one.”

“Lara…”

“We’ll share everything!” I said firmly, “The good and the bad. And from this day forward I’ll stand with you. Not by your side, not behind you… with you. Holding hands and being one whole that you insist that we are. That’s my only condition.”

“All right then,” he smiled proudly, “But I have a condition too.”

“What is it?” I furrowed my brows, expecting anything from this man.

He stretched his palm to me and two bracelets appeared on it out of the dark flames.

“You will let me put one of these on you,” Demir chuckled, “And you will put the other one on me.”

“Engagement bracelets”, I bit my l*p, “So, you were serious about marrying Iris then?”

I couldn’t help but feel a prick of jealousy inside.

“No, my love,” He pulled me closer and took my wrist, “This one was only meant for you. No one else.”

“Still,” I couldn’t help but sulk, “You made that oath… What would you do if I rejected you?”

“I had to believe in you making the right choice,” he let out a laugh, “It was scary as chaos itself as you are not known for best decision making…”

“Hey!” I felt slightly offended, “I was doing it for you! To protect you!”

“I know,” he caressed my cheek, “But from now on let’s make all our decision together.”

“I agree,” I lay comfortably in his arms and watched him place the bracelet on my wrist. It looked like it belonged there.

“Lara Artes, now you are my one and only, the love of my life and my future wife,” Demir announced with pride in his voice, and I looked at the shiny metal with carvings in ancient gerdian language.

I took the second bracelet and put it on his wrist, saying, “Demir Darmerion Derwood, now you are mine and mine only. My soulmate and my future husband, the only man I will ever love…”

He let out a growl of approval and I sneered at him, “So, forget about harems! You are not having any!”

“Deal!” he pulled me on top of himself and locked his arms around me as we both laughed. “You make me so happy, Angel,” he chuckled.

“That’s only because you make me happy first…” I replied.

~*~

We spent about an hour doing the ties of my dress. It turned out that although Demir was very skillful in undoing them, actually tying them was out of his field of expertise.

It was time to go back and looking at the mirror, I fixed my hair for one-hundredth time. The shiny mark was on display and as soon as we would walk out of the portal, everyone would know…

“Are you nervous?” my now fiancé asked me, hugging me by my waist from the back and enjoying the sight of our reflection.

“Very,” I told him honestly. We agreed not to have secrets from each other anymore and I didn’t want to hide from him even the smallest of things.

“I’ll hold your hand,” Demir whispered in my ear and kissed my temple, “Whatever happens, wherever we find ourselves in life, I will always hold your hand. Never forget about it.”

It made me feel so much better and I smiled at him, feeling warmness in my heart.

It was time to go…

We opened the door and saw the portal. It looked exactly like the one back at the Dark Selection castle.

He took my hand, and we stepped into it together…

~ * ~

Gasps filled the room as my eyes were trying to adjust to the light.

“What the chaos?!” someone screamed, and I recognized the voice as Gianna’s.

“But it’s a maid!” someone whispered.

“With the duke!” another lady was in shock too.

Demir and I looked at each other and smiled mischieviously. I bet that would be the talk of the empire for a while!

All the gerdians in the room stayed quiet politely and some of them seemed to restrain their ladies. Of course, they probably already guessed that their emperor was up to something and none of them wanted to risk their life and wealth by silly comments of their partners.

“Let’s go from here!” my dragon told me and I just nodded, grinning.

However, we only managed to make a few steps when Gianna came in front of us. And I would probably admire her bravery if she wasn’t looking at me as if she was about to s*******r me in very many brutal ways. If anything, she looked scary!

“Kara!” she raised her chin and narrowed her eyes, “How should I understand this?!”

“Lady Gianna, my name is not…”, I started talking, but Demir interjected.

“How dare you?!” his voice echoed like thunder in a suddenly quiet ballroom.

“Your Grace,” the lady of the South tried to be respectful with him, “I do apologize but I need to have a few words with my personal…”

“Don’t. Finish. That. Sentence.”

Demir’s eyes filled with dark magic and even I flinched at the way he looked right now, squeezing his palm tighter to send him a signal to calm down.

“But…,” Gianna still didn’t get how much trouble she was in.

“Silence!” this time it was a voice of a dragon, not human, “Show respect to my future wife and Empress of the Gerdian Empire!”

A wave of bows and curtsies went through the room and all of them stayed as low as they could. No one wanted to test the emperor. And only Gianna still stood there, not quite grasping the situation. She was probably in too much shock and I even felt sorry for her. But then she looked at me with eyes full of hatred again and I forgot about all that.

“Wh-what do you mean future wife and empress?” she asked not so sure of herself anymore, “Kara is just a lowly maid! When did she…”

I noticed dark flames on the tips of Demir’s fingers and grasped his free hand too, looking at him with a plea in my eyes. That wasn’t how I wanted to start our life together. His features softened as if he had read my mind and I smiled at him, realizing that this was our new bond working.

“Forget the name Kara,” Demir told the girl coldly, “This is lady Larissa Artes of the White Archipelago, my soulmate and future wife. And as soon as that happens, she will become the Empress of the Gerdian Empire as well. Bow when you speak to her! Say thank you that Lara has a kind heart, otherwise I wouldn’t forgive you your insolence! But you’d better not to cross our path again!”

“B-but that means that you…,” the southerner opened her mouth in shock at the realization, and only then she finally lowered herself for a curtsy. She was trembling and I decided not to add anything to her misery. As far as I already knew, the Dark Selection crowd wasn’t a forgiving one. It would be highly unlikely that any of her suitors would now be proposing to her when they saw the Emperor disliking her this much. As far as this event went, Gianna Vensal was done.

Demir led me to the exit and I noticed lady Fiona. I hurried to her and helped her up, even though my help wasn’t required. The woman was in great shape.

“Lady Lara,” she smiled at me and I couldn’t help but notice that she wasn’t in too much of a shock at the fact that I wasn’t in love with her cousin. And when she smiled at Demir, I knew that she was the one helping him, and me being in the ballroom wasn’t a coincidence at all.

But I had no hard feelings towards her, of course. Everything happened the way it was supposed to be.

“Lady Fiona,” I took the artifact necklace that Sean gave me previously out of my pocket and placed it into her hands. I took it with me for safety but I did not need it anymore and it would be wrong to keep it. She understood me without words and I heard a soft unhappy growl behind my back. “Will you pass it to the original owner?”, I looked at her and raised my brow. And she nodded quietly.

“It would be my honour, my lady,” she answered politely.

Demir took my hand into his and headed to the exit once again. And there, almost at the door, I noticed Iris, who smiled at me gently, looking genuinely happy. But my dragon pulled me away to fast to say anything to her.

Back in my tiny room, I wrote one more note and attached it to the bag of coins that I earned. I wanted to send it to Ramina, who was always kind to me here. Not wasting time, I packed my bag and used the same spell to send the money to my friend, that I used to send a letter to Gideon. After all, she needed them more.

Demir watched me with a smile on his face and hands crossed on his chest.

“Your magic,” he said all of a sudden, “Is it me, or does it look a bit different? The light seems.. brighter.”

“Oh, you have no idea the things that have been happening to me lately!” I chuckled, coming closer to him and wrapping my hands around his neck, “But it’s a very long story.”

“Can’t wait to hear this one!” he chuckled as dark flames surrounded us, transporting us straight to the gerdian palace.

We appeared on the balcony in Demir’s private chambers, kissing madly. I dropped my bag to the floor and we both were ready to repeat everything we did back at the Portal of Truth.

Yet someone cleared their throat right next to us, “You know, brother. This is so not what I meant when I sent you to the Dark Selection for a bride!”