The Selection: Bride Of The Dark Dragon

LARA

I did not let it affect me and finished the speech exactly the way I was supposed to. Whatever was happening, I knew far too well that all eyes were on me and I couldn’t fail Demir and his trust.

“I hope that together we’ll be able to bring peace and prosperity to this wonderful empire!” I said one of the last sentences as my voice echoed through the square that exploded again as soon as I was done. Demir stepped closer and took my hand into his, lifting both of them up to demonstrate our matching engagement bracelets.

Not surprisingly, that was when people really went wild. I looked at him with worry in my eyes but he only smiled confidently.

However, in just a few seconds dark flames surrounded us and we stepped out into the emperor’s office. Not the private one in Demir’s chambers, the one he used for official matters. Which only confirmed my suspicions.

“What happened?” I asked him at once, not wasting any time. Whatever it was, it was serious enough for us to be here and not at the banquet that Prim planned carefully.

“There was another attack at the border,” the gerdian replied dryly and at that moment his sister arrived in Ryker’s flames.

“Red dragons?” I asked, secretly hoping for an affirmative answer, but Demir shook his head, looking at me with a concerned expression on his face. I felt weak in the legs. If it weren’t red dragons… then it was Gideon and his Warriors of Light. But why?! Why would he do that?!

“How bad is it?” Primrose came closer to us and gave me a reassuring hug, making me flinch as I did not expect it. If anything, they all were supposed to be mad at me. Yet no one said a word.

“That’s the biggest attack they tried so far,” Ryker got an artifact out of his hand and put it on the desk in front of us. A big map appeared before our eyes and he pointed at the mountains close to the White Archipelago. “They attacked here, here, and here,” he pointed his finger, and red dots formed on the shown locations.

“Casualties?” A little line formed between Prim’s eyebrows.

“Pretty much everyone who lived there,” Ryker replied dryly and my heart skipped a beat.

“What does it mean – everyone?” I heard myself saying.

“Three border towns are gone,” the gerdian replied and I felt dizzy.

“Impossible!” I muttered, “The Warriors of Light don’t kill innocent people…”

“Apparently some things changed since you were gone,” Prim crossed her hands on her chest, “That brother of yours…”

“Enough,” Demir stopped her and then turned to me, “Lara, we will have to cancel our engagement banquette. I hope you understand…”

“Of course,” I nodded, “There is no question about it – we are not having a party when people are killed like that.” He smiled sadly and touched my chin with so much love in his eyes that I almost forgot what kind of situation we were in.

“I need to go,” he said and leaned his forehead over mine, “To deal with it.”

“Let me go with you,” I begged, “I can talk to Gideon again, persuade him…”

“No.” Demir distanced himself from me. “Something tells me that this is exactly what he wants, Lara. This is about you one way or another.”

There. He said it out loud and the silence in the room became heavy as I clenched my lips. There was nothing to reply to that. He was right. And everyone else was thinking that too.

“I don’t mean that it’s your fault,” Demir hurried to fix his statement but I raised my hand for him to stop.

“It’s all right,” I tried to smile at him, “It is what it is. There is no point pretending that I have nothing to do with it.”

“Lara,” he stepped closer again and pulled me into a hug. His warmth coated me, but I knew that I couldn’t enjoy it for too long. Not now.

“Go,” I said, pushing him away slightly, “They need you more now.”

Dark flames rose again, making Demir and Ryker disappear and leaving me alone with the princess. Prim, however, did not look worried at all.

“Don’t worry,” she came closer, “They are going to deal with it fast.”

Yeah… Because people from the White Archipelago are easy to kill for the gerdians. And especially for the dragons. That wasn’t something to be happy about either.

“I don’t know what Gideon was thinking,” I sighed, “What he does… it goes against everything we believe in.”

“As far as I understand, he loves you very much. And love makes us do crazy things,” Primrose came to the window and looked out of it to see the crowds dispersing slowly. The show was over after all.

“In other words, it’s my fault?” I chuckled darkly. I for sure felt like it was.

“No,” the girl next to me answered easily and looked me in the eye, “You can’t be responsible for other people’s actions, Lara. I hate when they do that. She was wearing a dress too revealing, she behaved provocatively, she walked alone at night and that’s why that happened to her! All that is bull sh*t that men give us!”

I looked at the gerdian princess in shock. It was the first time when I heard her swearing. And she gave me a confident smirk, similar to that of Demir’s.

“Don’t be so surprised! If you are anything, then you are a victim here! Always the one that everybody wants, always the one to blame for other people’s desires. However, it’s wrong! Your brother chose to do what he is doing, his people chose to follow him and not object! All that has nothing to do with you in the long run. Because in the end, all that is about a man who didn’t get what he wanted and couldn’t deal with it.”

My lips parted as I didn’t even know what to reply to that. Luckily, Prim didn’t need me to as she kept going, “So, back to your question – is that your fault? Definitely not!”

A smile almost formed on my face but then I remembered something…

“You are speaking from experience, right?” I sighed and noticed a small tear running down her cheek, which she quickly wiped away, pretending that it never happened.

“Xander Rust,” she chuckled nervously, “The leader of the red dragons. He wanted to marry me and after I refused, he killed the man I loved. And then when they betrayed us, he started spreading rumours that it all happened because of his broken heart. He blamed either me or Demir. Me, for being cruel when I rejected his love. He even stooped so low as to claim that I was his soulmate. And Demir – for breaking two lovers apart.”

“The two versions contradict each other,” I leaned over the desk. My shoes were killing me.

“That’s the thing with rumours, Lara,” Primrose snorted, “People don’t even care if they are logical! They spread them anyway.”

“I can only imagine what they say about me now,” I played nervously with the hem of my dress.

“It doesn’t matter,” the princess smiled at me, “Whatever it is – it’ll pass when they see you standing by Demir. Or with him, ruling together over the Empire that really needed an empress!”

“I wouldn’t go that far!” I let out a little laugh.

“Who knows,” she shrugged her shoulders, “Maybe you should. Demir is… tired of being an emperor. He has been doing it for a while now, giving it his best. He helped this Empire become better, he helped different races live together in peace… well, more or less. But over the years that drained him. He was doing it alone for so long. And you… you are like a breath of fresh air for him, Lara. You have eyes full of light and this desire to live, desire to make everything around you better. He needed this. He needed you.”

“Funny you should say that,” I sneered, “All those years he had you by his side. And you were performing the empress’ duties just perfectly.”

“Oh, stop it!” she rolled her eyes, blushing but by the look in her eyes, I could tell that she accepted my compliment.

“In fact,” I continued, “You were so perfect that now I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to fill in your shoes!”

“You’ll do just fine,” she smirked and went to a little table in the far corner with elegant marble chess on top of it, “Care for a game while we wait? We need to take our brains off all that negative energy!”

~ * ~

“Checkmate!” Prim announced again and I g*****d, “New game?”

“Please, no!” I begged her, “I used to think I was good at chess and now my ego needs time to adjust to the new reality.”

“Don’t be too hard on yourself,” the princess scoffed.

“Too hard? I was playing chess almost every day of my life and now I see that it was all for nothing!” I relaxed my back in my chair, running a hand through my face.

“So?” the princess scoffed, “I played most of my life too. Only that’s a couple of hundred years when you barely reached your first decade. Trust me, you have nothing to be embarrassed about!”

Right when I wanted to answer something snarky, dark flames appeared right before us, and Demir walked out of them with Ryker. It did not escape me that my gerdian already changed his clothes. But that was probably to be expected as his previous outfit wouldn’t be comfortable for any kind of fighting. And the most important thing was that he was back and he was all right.

I threw myself in his arms and he embraced me with warmness, kissing the top of my head and pressing me tight against himself.

“Is it over?” I looked at him and he hesitated before answering.

“I sure hope so,” he smiled, “It is over for now.”

“Is my brother…”, I was too afraid to form the words. Whatever happened, Gideon still had a place in my heart.

From the corner of my eye, I noticed Primrose greeting Ryker awkwardly. She obviously wanted to go for a hug too but stopped herself and stretched her hand to him instead. Which he took into his large palm and kissed gently, making the beautiful princess blush. And when it was time to let go, he didn’t. They didn’t say anything, though their eyes clearly were speaking to each other. While Demir and I pretended not to notice.

“Tell me everything,” I asked my gerdian but noticed how his eyes shifted away from me. I didn’t like it. That wasn’t how Demir usually was and deep inside I knew that something was off.

“Maybe later,” he caressed my cheek, smiling, “I am a bit tired now and still need to do a few things.”

“If you want, I would deal with the prisoners myself,” Ryker said and Demir threw a furious gaze at him.

“Prisoners?” my heart sunk at the realization.