The Selection: Bride Of The Dark Dragon

LARA

I tried to keep my breathing steady even though my heart tried to jump out of my chest. He was confirming all my suspicions. But unfortunately, I wasn’t too happy about that.

“Why did they do it?” I asked quietly, “Why did they burn all the information about seraphim after they realized that I was one of them?”

He turned to look at me, every move seemed painful for him. But his lips still managed to curl into a soft smile.

“You managed to fill the crystal with Light, but the effect turned out to be temporary. After a few months, it started to get weaker again and we brought you back and repeated everything. Then again and again. And soon it became clear – whoever had you, had the power,” his words sounded like a slap in the face and I clenched my lips, not to give away how hurt I was to hear that. All my life was a joke! I was just a pawn in the hands of the rulers of the White Archipelago.

“So, that’s what it all was? You all just wanted power… and I was a mean of achieving it.”

“Not all of us,” Gideon sighed heavily, and I sat down on the floor opposite of him so that it was easier for him to see me, “I did what I had to for your protection. I didn’t want Fabian and his father to get you.”

“Is that why…” I couldn’t even finish the sentence. But he got what I wanted to ask. Is that why you wanted to marry me?

“I swore to protect you whatever it cost me,” he stretched his hand in my direction so that our fingers touched. I wanted to take my hand away, but his words moved me and I stayed in place. “This was always my only reason for existence,” my stepbrother continued, “To keep you safe. From everyone. Even when you left me, I had to make sure that no one can hurt you. That’s why I killed Keatar. He wanted to get you back and e*****e you, marry you to Fabian and make you live at the Citadel of Light, without ever leaving it again.”

“But what was the point of marrying me to Fabian if all he wanted was to use me for charging the artifact inside the Citadel?” I furrowed my brows, feeling how a bad headache started bothering me slowly. So much had happened lately. I couldn’t take anything else… And then I caught Gideon’s eyes on me. That was how he always looked at me when I didn’t know something, but he did.

“For your kids, Lara,” he stated calmly, his head still leaning over the stone wall as my heart clenched.

Of course… I was just temporary for the islands. However long I lived, one day or another I would be dead… And then what? They would still need power and energy… And the best way to get them would be through my children! To use them in exact same way! To take their light, to make them produce more seraphim to this world, to marry them so that their spouses could rule…

Disgusting! The ugly feeling was spreading in my chest. Disappointment, anger, resentment…

I wanted to stand up, but Gideon intertwines his fingers with mine already and he held me in place. His eyes begged me to stay.

“Is that why I wasn’t accepted into Warriors of Light? And even the Sisters of Light did not want me?!” I chuckled on the verge of crying and he pursed his lips.

“Yes,” the reply sounded grim, “Keatar made sure that no one accepted you. Not the orders, not the people… It was his plan from the very beginning. But father intercepted it…”

“With that engagement,” I touched the cold bars with my forehead and closed my eyes. The coolness of metal helped me to keep my thoughts in line, “So…”

“He understood Keatar’s plans early on,” I noticed crystals of sweat on Gideon’s face, he was really in a bad state and his burns looked bad as well, “And when Keatar started rejecting marriage proposals for Fabian, we knew we were in trouble. One night he came to our house to talk. You were under our protection and Artes family was always influential. He couldn’t get to you in any other way, so he decided to try and test other options. He offered a marriage…”

“For me and Fabian?” I rolled my eyes, tired.

“No, for me and Bria,” he smirked, “That’s when father had this idea for the first time. The only reason why they were ready to unite me and Bria so early was because they were afraid that father will marry you to me. We share no b***d. So, any temple would approve it. When we were discussing it later with Father and he laughed about all that, I told him that I want to do it.”

I looked him in the eye, and he held my stare. Everything was so reasonable… too reasonable.

“It wasn’t for your protection only,” his voice was getting stronger now, “I would be a liar if I said that. When they came with Fabian, everything became so real for me. I realised that they might actually take you away from me one day. And for the first time, I felt the anger and the ugliness inside of my soul. That was the day when I found out that I would never be able to be happy for you if you are not with me. That was the day when I realized that I love you not as my sibling. That was the day when I knew once and for all, that I would do anything for you to be safe and for us to be together. This was the day when I made the most important decision in my life… Everything I did after that day was for that.”

His confession startled me as he said all that calmly looking into my eyes, not a muscle flinched on his face. Only his fingers grasped mine tighter.

“It doesn’t make any of this right,” I sighed and stretched my hand to touch him but stopped before reaching his skin, “Your wounds look bad. I will call a healer. Let me go.”

“No,” he begged, “Please! Stay with me. I need this more than a healer…”

“I can’t stay for long anyway. Demir will get angry…”

He pulled my hand harsh so that my face almost bumped into the bars and I noticed a strange spark in his eyes.

“Lara, don’t you see? He is using you too!” my brother started whispering desperately, “You can’t stay with him! You shouldn’t!”

“He is the only one who has no real use of me, Gideon,” I tried to distance myself, but he kept holding me forcefully. To the point that my hand went numb and I was starting to consider using my magic. However, I still hoped that he would come to his senses and release me without it. The Warrior of Light and the leader of the White Archipelago didn’t look like he could take another blow.

“He will taint you,” he said, looking at my mark again, “He already did! Who knows what his magic will do with you!”

“It doesn’t do anything,” I tried to reassure him, “We…complement each other. I need him and he needs me. This is how it was supposed to be.”

His eyes somehow got darker when he heard my words, and I didn’t like it. I tried to get my hand back, but he was holding me so tight now that I was sure that there would be bruisers tomorrow.

“Lara, think about this. It’s not only about you but about our people too…”

“I understand. And I will help where I can but my personal life is off-limits. I already made my choice.” With that, I demonstrated to him the engagement bracelet that Demir put on me and Gideon almost choked on the air.

“We can still take it off…”

“The thing is that I don’t want to,” I said loud and clear, “I love Demir and I am we are going to spend the rest of our life together! Accept this already!”

“How can I?!” he pulled me closer, “You never even gave us a chance!”

“That’s because I can’t! I am sorry, Deon. I love you very much. But not in a way that you want me to. This would never work. You need to forget…”

“Forget?!” he snapped and I noticed something shiny in his other hand. The panic struck me when I realised that it was a feather… A feather from a wing of a Warrior of Light. Once falling out, they turn into the sharpest steel.

I tried to get my hand back for the one-hundredth time but felt his fingers digging deeper into my flash.

“I am sorry, Lara,” he muttered, “This is not how I wanted to do it. But you left me with no other option!”

He used the gleaming feather to cut my flesh in one swift move, even before I managed to summon Light, and to my horror, he dug his face into it and started drinking…

“What are you doing?!” I creamed and sent a pulsar the way that made a hole in the bars and threw him off me.

Crap! That was bad!

I squeezed the hurt hand and saw Sandra running in my direction, while two guards ran from another. But in the next second, a huge wave of light went into them and knocked them off their feet. I wanted to scream, but Gideon’s hand covered my mouth, muffling any sounds coming out of it.

“Tsh,” his lips touched my ear, “I’m so sorry, Lara. Just a little bit left… Hold on, please.”

I hit him with my elbow. Hard. And he released me just for a second. But it was already too late, as three pulsars that he sent into other sells, broke their doors, melting the dark gerdian magic.

Other warriors of like looked weak, but all of them hurried our way, as Gideon fixed my body position, holding me in a way that didn’t allow me to move or summon light. A girl that I went to school with grabbed my hand, twisting it painfully and making me scream. At the same time, others were dealing with the guards and Sandra, who attempted to run in the dark smoke but was hit with someone’s light right when she tried to escape.

“Careful!” my stepbrother growled at the girl, “No one is hurting her! Just do what we have to!”

And with that, he stretched my bleeding hand to the rest of the warriors of light… They hesitated just for a few seconds. The people I grew up with… The ones with whom I trained for years! But then Fabian stepped forward first and leaned to my wound, licking the dripping b***d off. He wanted to do it again, but Gideon pushed him back.

“Just a drop and just once!” he warned his friend. Although I wasn’t even sure anymore if they were still friends… Fabian stepped back, looking displeased. But he said nothing and that could only mean that he acknowledged Deon as his leader after all.

Bria was next, I didn’t even recognize her at first. She grasped my hand, nails digging painfully into my flesh, squeezing it and making me bleed more. She looked into my eyes just before she took a sip and all I saw there was raw hatred. One after another they came, sometimes two at once as they were in a hurry, and tears started rolling down my cheeks, while Gideon was still holding me whispering something to me. My whole body started to feel dizzy. The ones who were already free were releasing the others and they all were coming to me. It felt as if it would never end…

“Just a little bit more,” the stepbrother kissed my temple, just like he always did when I was hurt in our childhood, “Soon they will come and it will be over.”

“Wh-who will come?” I mumbled on the verge of losing my consciousness.

“The red dragons!” Fabian replied grimly, looking around. They already hid the guards and Sandra in one of the cells. All their wounds were healed, not even a single scar left…

The red dragons! They were working together! Panic got the best of me but at least it helped me to sober up from all the b***d loss. This was all a plan! And I stupidly fell for it! Gideon knew that I would come to talk! They let it all happen to themselves! And I played the part they needed me to play just perfectly. But the worst thing was that they had the backing of the red dragons! That was why they were so bold in their attacks on the Empire. Alone the White Archipelago had no chance. But together… especially if they got me…

I felt furious and tried to summon light again to the tips of my fingers, even though I knew that my light energy flows were blocked. However, Gideon pressed on my wound and sharp pain prevented me from properly concentrating, taking my last chance of freedom away and making me cry out loudly in pain.

But then the worst thing that could happen occurred – dark flames appeared right in front of our group and Demir stepped out of them in a torn shirt and a few scratches on his face, looking angry and ready to kill. Just what was happening here?!