The Selection: Bride Of The Dark Dragon

LARA

We both turned to see Sean Sarn and the hope in me died that same instant.

“Very funny!” I sighed and wanted to walk away, but he caught me by my arm. Not wasting time, Fabian grabbed a dagger that he apparently had strapped somewhere under his jacket and placed it at the red dragon’s neck. All three of us froze in our places, watching each other.

“First of all, I don’t have ill intentions,” Sean released my arm but in the next moment, the blade that was touching him turned red as if it just got out of a blacksmith’s forge and Fabian dropped it. “Second of all, don’t forget where you are and who I am, birdman,” he furrowed his brows.

“What do you want?” I looked at him, demonstrating how unimpressed I am. Everybody knew that red dragons could heat anything up within seconds. There was nothing new about that.

“I was thinking about our conversation earlier,” he looked into my eyes while Fabian rolled his, “I understand your feelings. And I am willing to take the first step forward if that’s what you need to trust me. I will help you see him. Just as you wanted.”

“And what is the catch?” I shot my eyebrow up. If anything, Sean was the king of scheming. Trusting him just like that was dangerous. That man always had his own agenda.

“There is no catch,” he lifted up his arms as if to demonstrate that he was harmless. Hardly believable but I wanted to see Demir so much… I needed to know where he was and how bad they treated him. Because there was no denying that being the prisoner of the red dragons was not nice for him. They were impulsive and more aggressive by nature than even the dark dragons themselves. And they hated Demir. Whatever happened in the past they still couldn’t forgive him even now. It was personal. That’s why I didn’t have any illusions of how they were treating him now.

“Why should I believe you?” I turn to face Sean and he took a deep breath before answering.

“You shouldn’t and I don’t expect you to. But it’s not like you have a choice here, Lara. Other than me only Xander or your brother-fiance could do it however I’m sure you realize the none of them will be remotely interested to even consider something like this.”

“And you are doing this out of the kindness of your heart?” Fabian scoffed, crossing his arms on his chest.

Sean rubbed the deepest scar on his face and sighed, “Of course, not. I just want to demonstrate to you, Lara, that I’m on your side.”

“Alright,” I nodded, “take us to him.”

“It would be impossible to do it now,” he tried to explain but I just turned away and started walking, Fabian followed me closely.

“Goodbye, Sean,” I wave my hand not even looking at him. He caught up with us in just a few seconds.

“What do you think,” she chuckled, “that it’s that easy? He’s heavily guarded and Xander gets reports on everyone who visits him. The moment I help you enter his cell, he will know and will come to kill both of us.”

“Then I don’t see how you can be useful,” Fabian said within an emotionless face.

“In two days, I will be visiting him officially. To prepare him for his…” he stopped talking but I knew what he wanted to say. He had to prepare Demir for his execution. It would probably be too late by then… the thought alone made my heart clench painfully in my chest.

“I will be able to take you with me then,” Sarn continued, looking at me with hope in his eyes. I don’t know what he was counting on, because if Demir died, it would also be the end of me. I heard of Dragons and their mates dying after losing each other and now I could feel it. If the thread of his life would be cut short, mine will tear on its own very soon after that. Soulmates two halves of the same whole. You break one and the other follows.

However, it was better than nothing. Ideally, I needed to find a way to save Demir as soon as possible. But if I couldn’t do it before then – it would be my best chance.

I stopped and spared a glance at the red dragon.

“Then I’ll be seeing you in two days, Sean,” I said and sped up.

Fabian kept following me and I didn’t know what to do about him. It was not easy to trust him even though I genuinely felt that he was sincere. But I was mistaken so many times before that it was hard to trust people now. Nevertheless, I couldn’t ignore the fact that he already knew about my little deal with Sean Sarn. And that meant that I was better to keep him close.

“How do you know this guy?” He asked me.

“I had quite an adventure while I was gone,” I admitted, “I know many people now.”

“You don’t trust me,” he sighed, “I can’t say that I can blame you for that. But, Lara, what I told you before was true. Gideon will destroy us and you are the only one who can save us. I want to help you.”

“If I’m honest, I don’t see how you can help me,” I told him bluntly without sparing his feelings, “You lose your light and almost have no strength. I doubt that Gideon shares any useful information with you since he clearly doesn’t trust you either after you’re tempted to marry me. So I don’t see are you of all the people may be useful now. No offense, Fabian. I’m only speaking the truth.”

“None taken,” he stepped in front of me and summoned light to the tips of his fingers, “I, Fabian Marvis of the White Archipelago swear my loyalty to lady Larissa Artes. I will do everything in my power to help her save our people and to overthrow the ones who are destroying the true warriors of light.”

A magical oath was something he would have to keep until the day he died.

“Didn’t you give a similar oath to my stepbrother?” I reminded him.

“No,” he smirked, “the oath that I gave him stated that I will not seek revenge for my father and that I will never try to marry you or be involved with you in any romantical way.”

“You chose your words carefully,” I chuckled but went past him, “Despite that, I still don’t see how you can be helpful.”

I managed to make just a few steps when his voice sounded firmly behind my back, “I’m the son of my father, Lara. He was preparing me to become the next leader of the Citadel of Light. I know always in and out of it, I know everyone who works there, I know all the magic spells that lock the doors there… but most importantly, I think I know what you have to do to return the light to the islands.”

“Not on my first priorities list,” I replied calmly even though I was genuinely interested. The best I could do was to get Demir out of here. but what would we do next?

“If what I read about seraphim is right,” Fabian smiled softly, “You may possess such power that neither Gideon nor red dragons would be able to stop you when you are in your full strength. If I am correct, you alone will be enough to defeat a whole army. I bet this is something that may potentially interest you, right?”

“And what do I have to do to get my full strength?” I looked at him still not being able to get rid of their distrust inside of me.

“You need to get to the artifact inside the citadel of light,” he replied honestly, “I think that it was meant from you from the very beginning. After all, it was called the Heart of Seraphim for a reason. When you get it, you will know what to do.”

I did not say anything. But this time around I just knew that he was telling me the truth. In all honesty, he already told me everything I needed to know. And we both knew that. This was him putting his trust in me because he had nothing left.

“You do realize that I’m not leaving this country without my dragon,” I showed my brow up.

“I figured,” he shrugged his shoulders, “Recently I came to believe that the gods know what they’re doing. You being his soul mate is probably not a coincidence. And since you are our last hope, she’s probably a part of the plan. Just tell me what you need and when you need it. Other than that, I have nothing to do anymore. But I will have one little request…”

“Now I recognize the old Fabian,” I let out a little snort, “what do you want?”

“Bria,” He sighed, “my sister… if you can save her if there is at least a little chance to return her and to bring back her light, would you promise me to at least try to do it?”

For a second there I remembered Bria’s eyes… The way she looked at me when she drank my b***d, the way she looked at me at the feast just a few hours ago… Raw hatred that I didn’t know she was even capable of.

Have some good memories from our childhood and she was the closest thing that I ever had to a friend back at the White Archipelago.

“I will try,” I nodded just when we heard steps from the other side of the dark corridor.

Not wasting any time, Fabian step closer and grab my arm, and started bullying me behind him, well throwing an apologetic gaze at me from time to time.

“Laura! There you are!” Gideon threw me out of his grasp and started looking me up and down as if checking if I was hurt, “I’ve been searching everywhere for you! Where have you been?! And why are you with him?!”