The Selection: Bride Of The Dark Dragon

LARA

I stood there, silent. He looked terrible, half of his face was burnt and so was one of his wings. He couldn’t take them away now and there looked like simple wings made of flesh and b***d. Not a sight of light anywhere in the feathers that usually were shining brightly.

“What happened?” I asked, touching the metal bars and not taking my eyes off my brother.

“You dragon happened!” he spat, “He is a monster!”

“That’s not what I am interested in, Gideon!” I sighed and even though it was painful for him, he tried to sit up, looking at me in shock. Yes, this wasn’t how we usually talked to each other. But I was tired. I felt sorry for him, it pained me to see him this way, but also I knew that he did it to himself! Moreover, I knew that he did it to others as well.

“He ruins you!” my stepbrother narrowed his eyes at me, “Look how different you are already!”

“I beg to differ. If anything, I am changing for the best here!” I retorted calmly, “Please, don’t play games with me anymore. I am so tired of all this. Why did you do it, Gideon? Why did you attack those villages?”

For a few minutes he was just looking at me and I thought that yet again, I wouldn’t receive any answers from him. But he leaned over the wall next to him and tried to stand up, slowly coming closer to me. His wings were now dragging behind him and leaving a bloody trail. I cringed at the sight.

His fingers reached the bars, almost touching my fingers. And I notice that even those few steps made him pant.

“Why do you think I did it?” he looked at me with his golden eyes and I felt all the regret in the world.

“I told you my choice, why didn’t you listen?” I felt tears forming in my eyes, “How did it even help? There was no way that Warriors of Light were enough to take a huge empire down!”

“I don’t need to take the whole empire down,” he chuckled sadly, “Just one dragon who is in my way most of the time.”

“And then what?!” I stepped away right before he managed to touch me. Disappointment grew on his face.

“I hoped that you will give me a chance,” a vague smile appeared on his face, “We never had it in the first place…”

“What are you even talking about, we lived together for years?!”

“Not like that… Not like we should have… Not like I wanted,” he looked away, “It’s probably strange for you to hear because I did everything wrong. Father warned me about that, but…”

He stopped talking and looked away.

“What did Father warn you about?” I couldn’t help but ask.

“Not to let you think of me as your brother,” Gideon’s gaze met mine at last and I felt like someone stabbed me with a knife.

“W-why?”

“Because from the day he found out what you are, he knew that the only way for us to keep you safe would be for me to marry you,” he tried to smile, but it seemed too painful in his state and I noticed a small trickle of b***d near his l*p, “And I never minded that, since his plans were in lines with my feelings…”

Now it was my turn to look away. I wanted to go as far as possible and even made a step in the direction of the exit. But then I realised that I couldn’t run from this. I came here for this exact conversation. For the first time ever, Gideon was ready to talk honestly to me and it would be stupid to waste such an opportunity.

So, instead of running, I came closer. Still not enough for him to reach me, but enough for us to have this conversation in private.

“Tell me everything!” I said dryly, too exhausted to demand or to beg. And the warrior of light in front of me just nodded. “You said that fa… your father found out what I am. What do you mean?”

“I thought you already figured that out,” he leaned over the metal bars, trying to hold himself in place, “When you asked me about seraphim… I thought you already knew.”

I ignored that and he continued, “When Father found you, we thought at first that you were just a regular child. You were lying in the shore, wearing next to nothing, only your long hair covering your frail body… golden hair.” His eyes lingered over me and I brushed my fingers over my short wavy locks. “You know what our laws were telling. He was supposed to kill you then and there. He was the protector of our lands. Yet he couldn’t do it. He said that he looked into your eyes and his heart melted. You were so small, so innocent… He wrapped you in his cloak and got you home, thinking of what to do with you next. But when Mother saw you, she insisted that we had to keep you as our own. She always wanted a daughter but couldn’t have one.”

I smiled. Memories of Lydia Artes almost faded from my mind, but I still remembered her voice and her warmness towards me. She was the closest thing I ever had to a mother.

“Then one day, Keatar came. He just replaced his father as our leader and wanted to prove himself to his people. He found out about you and wanted to fulfill our laws. The White Archipelago never accepted strangers. Foreigners were considered a danger.”

“But I was just a child!” words left my mouth before I realized that.

“That’s what my father said to him,” Gideon chuckled sadly, ‘But Keatar insisted that there should be no exceptions. He was afraid that people would come looking for you… and what they may reveal. We wanted to stay unnoticed.”

I liked this less and less.

“Then Adrian Artes came up with the last idea he could and said that they need to check you for the light present in your body. Do you remember what happened there?”

“Not really,” I answered honestly, hugging myself.

“Then, I have a bigger story to tell you…”, he g*****d and fell to his knees, which made me run to him and try to help him up. “It’s fine, Lara,” he stopped me, “Just let me speak… You see, for decades the White Archipelago was dying. The Citadel of Light…its core crystal that is said to be a gift from the Goddess herself, the one that gives the Warriors of Light power… it’s weak now. It was weak for too long. But when they brought you to it, it reacted. You touched it and so much light emerged that it started working properly again. But this wasn’t all that happened when your little fingers came in contact with it. Your appearance changed, your aura sparkled… there was no denying that you were something else.”

“A seraph,” I finished for him and he nodded.

“We didn’t know for sure at first, they were supposed to be those mythical creatures… But with time, both Keatar and Father found enough information to come to the same conclusion. And then they burned it…”