The Selection: Bride Of The Dark Dragon

LARA

“Lara! I know you are there!” Prim shouted while I was hiding between the shelves in the library. The last few weeks were exhausting as it turned out that the princess was not joking about all the wedding preparations. There was so much to be done! And apparently, I had to be a part of it all.

It seemed that it was all that we were doing for the past few days and yet nothing was ready yet. So, somewhere along the way I just decided to let Prim deal with everything. However, she wasn’t particularly happy about that. And now we played this game every day where I was hiding and she was searching.

Unfortunately for me, Prim was a golden dragon, and, of course, she could feel my scent from afar. So, hiding wasn’t working out for me too well.

The red-haired princess was walking between the tall bookshelves lazily. She already knew exactly where I was and was just giving me time to adjust to the idea of more wedding planning.

“So,” she chanted, “Today’s agenda is to check the sketches of your dresses that lady Solveig brought and created personally for you. Then we work on the speech for your first official introduction. And the menu needs to be adjusted for every guest. Not to mention that there is a sitting chart to take care of for all three receptions that we are going to have. Then your wedding vows…”

Oh, Goddess of Light! Even the wedding vows had to be planned under her guidance. I knew that Prim meant well but this was getting too much too soon. Her perfectionism was killing me.

She was already near and I clenched the book I had in my arms, knowing that I had literally seconds left before she would find me. Just then two strong hands wrapped around my waist scaring the life out of me and I turned to look at Demir appearing out of dark flames. He pressed his index finger to his lips and gave me a mischievous smirk. And I leaned back into his chest and closed my eyes, letting him transport me out of here.

He took us to his chambers that would soon become ours and we both burst out laughing. We laughed until our bellies hurt and it was the best feeling.

“What a naughty emperor you are!” I scolded him in a sarcastic tone and turned to give him a k**s of gratitude.

“I couldn’t possibly let you stay there and suffer, could I?” he snorted, brushing a curl behind my ear. My hair became longer but still only reached my shoulders thanks to being so wavy. But I was starting to kind of liking it this way. It was definitely more practical.

“My knight in shining armour!” I stood on the tips of my toes and gently pecked his lips. But of course, it did not end there and his palms started sliding up and down my body, only pulling me closer. Our breath got ragged, and I hated that I had to put a stop to it.

“You do know that your sister is going to find me no matter what?!”

“Luckily Prim can’t transport so it will take her a while to get here,” my dragon chuckled.

“Still not enough for us to have proper fun,” I shot my eyebrow up and sparks of dark magic appeared in his eyes.

“Angel, are you talking me out of it or trying to entice me more?” he smirked, tracing my lips with his thumb and then lifted me up and placed me on the top of his desk.

He was tempting me, teasing me, and I really wanted to give in to this guilty pleasure when someone knocked on the door.

“No,” I whined desperately, pouting my lips. But Demir only smiled apologetically. Apparently, he wasn’t that much of a rebel. And when duty called…

“Sorry, my love,” he shook his shoulders, “It’s Ryker and he only bothers me like this when there is something urgent.”

“Of course,” I sighed and let go of him, but stayed where I was, grabbing the nearest book. It was one of those that Prim brought to Demir on the day that I returned to the Gerdian Empire. I saw him reading it a few times. “The Ancient History of The White Archipelago” was pressed on the cover and painted gold but pieces of the paint were coming off from time. The book looked old and was clearly falling apart. I flipped through the pages and a few of them fell out.

“Damn it!” I swore under my breath and picked them up while Demir was still talking to his right hand about something. I looked for numbers, trying to figure out how to put the pages back, but there weren’t any. I stuck the first two randomly but paused on the third. It was a drawing and a very unusual one at that. It was of a maiden with wings. But what was odd about it, she didn’t just have two of those. She had all six of them!

However, even that was not what startled me the most. The thing that made my lips part in shock was what was written underneath: Lady of the Seraphim.

A memory of lady Iris suggesting for me to read about those creatures helpfully surfaced in my mind. So, that was what she talked about! How peculiar!

“Lara,” Demir distracted me, and I looked at him questioningly, still grasping the drawing.

“Did something happen?” His face looked strained and he got me worried there quickly.

“It’s a new message from your brother,” he leaned on the desk right next to me, “And he insists on another meeting with you. He says that he knows you are in the Empire. And to be honest I am not sure if he thinks you never left or actually knows that you have returned.”

“You think he has informants here?” I bit my l*p, fidgeting the piece of paper in my hands.

“He wouldn’t be the only one,” Demir g*****d, “The palace seems to be full of rats and I’ll need to do the cleaning soon.”

“That bad?” I clenched my lips and tried to give him a supportive smile.

“I now think that the explosion that Sean caused wasn’t meant to kill me, after all. It was a long shot. But the new members of the Council are giving me a hard time. And they are suspiciously on the same page lately…”

“I see,” I placed my palm over his and squeezed it lightly, feeling helpless. He was dealing with so much and I didn’t help with anything. In fact, I was even making things worse. Just like the prophecy that we did not speak about anymore foretold. I was dragging Demir down and it was time to put an end to it. “Demir,” I looked him in the eye, “I want to speak to my brother.”

“No,” he cut me off at once, not even considering such a possibility.

“Demir!” I knitted my eyebrows, “This war… None of us needs it! Gideon just doesn’t understand. I am sure we still can find common ground and deal with everything peacefully. The people of the White Archipelago do not take part in wars. Especially the useless ones.”

“Your brother will fight for you until the day he dies,” Demir said looking nowhere in particular, “I saw it in his eyes the last time we met. He is not giving up.”

“And yet I still want to talk to him. Just give me a chance. I want to try.”

He looked at me for a few seconds that seemed like forever and held his testing gaze.

“You want me to become your empress,” I decided to persuade him more, “Isn’t it my direct responsibility to try and avoid that war? What if I manage to put the conflict down?”

His lips twitched just for a second but enough for me to notice. That was the moment when I knew I won.

“Fine,” he confirmed my suspicions, “But I still don’t like it and I insist on measures of extra security.”

“Anything you like!” I wrapped my hands around his neck and gave him a k**s, “I really don’t mind.”

And he wanted to say something else but at this moment the loud knock on his door disrupted our sweet time together.

“This was not funny, you two!” Primrose yelled from the other side and then pushed the door without permission. She was wearing a beautiful emerald, green dress today and somehow looked even more beautiful than usual. Not that it was possible.

“Sister,” Demir grinned at her, “You look dazzling. Any particular reason why?”

Blush hit Prim’s cheeks and now I knew that something was shady here. Not to mention that it took her too long to get to her brother’s chambers.

“No,” she squeaked in an unusual for her voice.

“Oh, so you didn’t meet Ryker on your way here?” the dark dragon chuckled, embarrassing his sister even more, “What a shame! He just left!”

Yet she raised her chin high, as a true royalty and ignored his little comment.

“Lara, I know you have too much on your plate, but you know that we have to get back to planning. Very little time left. And everything should be perfect!”

“I know,” I jumped off the table and smiled at her. After all, she was doing all this for us and for her country. The least that I could do was to try and help her. Not to mention that Prim was a perfect example of what a gerdian queen should be. Finding a better role model was simply impossible and I needed to learn fast.

I wanted to return the page in my hands to the book when an idea struck my head.

“Demir, can I take this book?” I pointed at the leather-bound volume.

“Of course,” my fiancé looked slightly startled.

“Great!” I chirped, “Thank you! I guess I’ll see you in the evening!”

“Of course,” he placed a soft k**s on my forehead when his eyes were telling me that he wanted more.

But Primrose already took me by my hand and dragged me to her chambers, where lady Solveig was waiting for us with dress sketches – one better than the other. And while they were discussing fabrics and further embellishments, I started reading the book. A lot of what was written there were the things that I already knew from the history lessons at the White Archipelago.

But after a while, I came to see the chapter that grasped my attention in less than a second…