The Selection: Bride Of The Dark Dragon

MIRA

The battle was going exactly as planned. Rien didn’t look like it was hard for him, he even got a bit too cocky to my taste. I would prefer for him to play it safe. But one thing I always knew for sure about my husband was that he is one arrogant piece of a dragon. He always was, he always will be. But I love him still.

It was sad for me to see so much hatred in Tristan’s eyes. I never loved him the way he apparently wanted me to, but I also never really hated him. In some sense, I can even understand a lot of what he was doing for the country. It’s just that somewhere in the middle of trying to do the right thing, he turned to the very wrong way… And lost himself there… Forgot about boundaries, honour… And became a different man. Lives of his people became nothing, consent of his beloved woman became unimportant… Everything about him was wrong now. And I saw that.

The hatred with which he looks at Derrien now, the madness in his eyes… They all tell me that Tristan that I knew years ago was long gone. He was attacking like an animal. Too strong for what he should be. Amplifiers come to my mind and I know that I am right when one of his sapphires gets broken and he seems more upset about it than he should be in the middle of a fight.

when Ryan pierces his sword through his heart, I know it is over. He falls to his knees and looks for something in the crowd around him. His eyes find mine. and I can’t help but feel pity for him. The great Sapphire Knight, the King of Akyrian Kingdom for just over a month… A traitor who killed his own king, who killed innocent people and sacrificed innocent girls, the one who drugged me with Sideria and tried to erase my memories… But I still found some pity in my heart for him…

“Good-bye, Tristan,” I whisper and a small smile appears on his face as he falls down…

Suddenly, a cloud of dark smoke appears right next to me and I realize that Rien has taken the barrier down. Ryden Dargen’s eyes are full of crazy glory even though he is deadly wounded as well. He grabs me roughly and pulls me into a tight embrace, transporting immediately.

The transportation doesn’t feel right. He is almost out of strength and I am gathering with mine. I came here to fight if needed too! And now it is needed more than ever! Luckily, I am full of strength now and dark magic is long by my side!

The transportation practically throws us out somewhere in a stone dark building. I land on top of Dargen and he gives out a painful shout, b***d gushing from his wounds.

“Where are we?!” I ask him angry, my only wish is to poke my fingers inside of his cut to make it hurt more!

“The palace!” he grunted standing up and catching me by my hair, but I hit him hard with my elbow and he lets go of me. I run to the door in front of us but it opens before I reach it and the Emperor Ghardin of the Gerdian Kingdom appears before me, looking surprised.

“What’s all this?” he asks in an angry voice, noticing Dargen kneeling behind me, breathing heavily from pain. I take a few steps back. I am no fool, I know that the Emperor is not my friend! I remember what he did to Rien’s parents! To his own sister! And it makes me shrug! Rien told me that as an Emperor he gets the most powerful dark magic in the Empire. Not as strong as a dragon, but stronger than anyone else.

I am now behind Ryden, thinking of ways to escape. It’s a shame that I have been to the palace just twice and didn’t get the opportunity to learn the surroundings well. I really don’t know if I can take the Emperor down on my own. And then there is Dargen…

“You lost!” Ghardin nods his head as if he expected this.

Ryden raises his head up and tries to stand up, but fails, “He wounded me badly! But uncle… I escaped.. And I… I got her!”

He points at me with a bloody finger and I want to break it!

“And?” the Emperor raises his brow.

“He will do everything for her!” Dargen spits b***d, “He loves her! She is his wife! She is with his child! He turned on you for her, we can use her to lure him out and kill him!”

“How noble!” I grit through my teeth, “Spoken like a true Emperor, Ryden! Hiding behind a woman’s back!”

Ghardin watches me with interest. His lips curl in a smirk as he walks closer to his nephew and gives him a hand. I don’t like the way he looks at me.

“Good job, Ryden,” he says, giving the bleeding man a tap on his back which makes him spit b***d to the floor, “Are you sure that she is pregnant?”

“She said it herself, uncle…”, Dargen nods vigorously, “In front of everyone! And they also brought…”

“She said it herself, uncle…”, Dargen nods vigorously, “In front of everyone! And they also brought…”

He doesn’t get to finish his sentence as Gharding takes his head into his hands and swings it with force, breaking his neck and throwing him away as if he was nothing.

I gasp with horror looking at the scene and realizing that Dargen is dead!

Just like that… I remember the times when I thought that he was the main evil of this Empire, of this family… But now I know for sure… Ryden was just another victim! Grown by this monster, he broke under his suppressing sinister aura. Maybe he could have been a better man if he had a better example in his life… It’s surprising that Rien didn’t turn up like him. But then again, maybe it is because of the dragon inside him… Maybe he was his anchor…

“You are a monster!” I snap at the man in front of me, “How could you? He was your own b***d!”

“He was a loser who was never destined for greatness, Miradora!” Ghardin chuckles darkly, “I gave him everything, every chance… and yet he failed me every time! I am extremely happy that now I finally will have someone worthy to replace him with!”

I gulp. I know who he is talking about…

“You are not going to get away with this!” I take another step back.

“Of course, I will,” he smirks, “I already did it before… With Rien. But I will learn from the mistakes of my past. And fix them.”

He comes closer but still keeps a distance between us. He is like a predator who drives his prey into a trap, and I am trying to hectically think what to do now. That’s a room without windows, just a door behind him… I need to at least get there and try to escape and hide. There is no way I am as strong as him! And also… also I can’t risk my precious baby boy by trying full combat against the most powerful gerdian man!

“What do you mean?” I try to stall for time and luckily, he relaxes a bit.

“I had a soft spot for my sister,” he starts telling me, “A thing of beauty she was! I’ve never met another woman like her… If she wasn’t my sister than…”

He stops talking and I cringe from the inside. This is disgusting!

“I was so angry when I found out that she was in love with another man! The man who I once had a fight with and lost! The only one I couldn’t win over! I wanted to kill him! That was all I wanted… But then I found out something significant about him. Something that changed everything! He was a dragon! Can you believe it? The opportunities it opened before me?! I wasn’t even angry when I found out that my sister got pregnant by this man. She was already betrothed to another anyway. And I knew how good it would be to have this child! For me! For the Empire! But before the child was born I needed to get as much information as possible… What strengths dragons have, what are their weaknesses… I wanted to know everything! I needed to know it so I… I started to read. Everything and anything I could find on dragons! And there wasn’t a lot. But luckily, there was enough. So, I prepared a perfect trap, using my sister and her unborn baby to lure the dragon out. I made him surrender!”

He laughs with a laugh of a crazy man! There is nothing normal inside of him.

“She was his soulmate, did you know that?” he snorts and then grits through his teeth, “Soulmate! He loved her more than anything! And he sacrificed himself for her! I tore him to pieces. Bit by bit! Slowly! Painfully! Even when I knew that there wasn’t any new information for me, I kept torturing him! I kept enjoying his sufferings! And hers… Yes, I made her watch sometimes… And she wept for him! I hated how sorry she was for him! I hated every moment of it! She would have helped him run, I knew it… So, with the knife at her belly with unborn Rien inside I made her swear, give a b***d magic oath that she would never leave me and that she would never help him! My luck was that she was already too attached to her child to risk his life! Otherwise even that wouldn’t have stopped her!”

“You are a monster,” I say coldly, just stating the fact.

“I guess I am,” he grins, “And now I can do the same thing all over again!”

“What…”

“You are with child! This is amazing news! For me!” he chuckles, “Now thanks to you, I will be able to make Rien surrender! You are his soulmate, aren’t you?”

“I don’t know what you are talking about!” I look him in the eye without blinking.

“Liar!” he gives out a small laugh, “I am starting to see what both my boys have found in you! So feisty!”

He takes a small strand of hair that got out of my braid and pulls it harshly, tearing off most of it. I scream at first but quickly take myself under control.

I will not give this man the satisfaction of seeing me weep! Not now! Not ever!

He brings my ginger lock to his nose and breathes in my scent.

“Do not worry, Miradora!” he smirks, “I will make your son the Emperor! He will be the most powerful man in the world! I will help him and…”

“He doesn’t need the help of a beast!” I retort, “You will never even lay a hand on my son!”

I send a strong wave of dark magic into him and it knocks him off his feet. I don’t waste any more time and jump over him, running to the door and opening it shut. It looks like a private bedroom… Fit for an emperor! s**t! Why would he have a room with no windows or furniture attached to it?

Wait, I don’t want to know why!

I charge for another door that I notice but Ghardin appears behind me out of the dark smoke and grabs me by my hair.

“Going somewhere?” he hisses, “You know, Mira if you don’t learn to behave then I just feel the need to inform you that to give birth you don’t need all your body parts! I just can make it so that you will not be able to run anymore, so sit and…”

A thud came from behind me and the grip on my hair is gone, I turn and see Ghardin falling down, holding his bleeding head. Lady Cecilia stands in front of me with a heavy candelabrum in her hand. My lips part in shock and she hits Ghardin once again. Strong.

“You will not hurt any of my girls anymore!” she shouts and throws away her weapon, leaning on her walking cane.

“Cecilia!” I jump to her, the old woman is shaking. With the corner of my eye I notice that Ghardin is standing up slowly, he is a bit disoriented but gerdians heal fast.

“I will kill you old b***h!” he growls and charges at us, but I block him, stabbing his side with a knife I get out of my boot. The knife gifted to me by Agnes. The knife made out of Flameglass! It cuts through the armour that he is wearing easily and he g****s from pain, sparks of dark magic on the tips of his fingers. He is ready to attack us any moment and Cecilia in no state to run!

I see a balcony behind us… It’s big…and I notice something else in the window. Or I better say, someone!

I turn to Cecilia and grab her hand, concentrating as hard as I can. Flames of dark magic appear around us and I transport us to the ballroom where I had my first and last ball at the Gerdian Empire. The powers of dark magic are limited, I can only transport to places I have been to or have precise coordinates for.

“Hide!” I say to Cecilia, “Hide as well as you can and as fast as you can! I need to go!”

The woman looks at me in shock, but flames of dark magic surround me again. I reappear on the balcony of the Emperor and he throws furniture in his room around in a fit of anger.

“Ghardin!” I shout and he turns to look at me, surprise on his face.

He walks to me quickly, saying, “This was a mistake, little w***e!”

“Yes,” I get onto the rail before he can reach me, “It was. But not mine!”

I jump off the balcony as the Emperor shouts a long and loud, “No!”

He doesn’t want to lose his new toy and puppet!

But I know that my husband would be there to catch me. I land on his back, his spikes are pressed against his skin as I land, but as soon as I grab one, they rise again. My dark dragon is changing direction and we are back in front of the balcony in no time.

Ghardin standing there, his hand on the wound that I gave him, b***d dripping through hid finers. My knife is in his hand… And his eyes… His eyes are on the hundreds of dragons that now fly around the palace!

He mutters something but we don’t hear him. It doesn’t matter really.

The dragon under me opens his mouth and dark fire emerges. It consumes the Emperor of the Gerdian Empire… There isn’t even enough time for him to scream. No power can be compared with dragon’s fire! None!