The Selection: Bride Of The Dark Dragon

MIRA

“I see you are ready!” Dereck snorts while Rick and Nort drag unconscious knights that were supposed to guard me inside. We tie them up quickly and put pieces of cloth into their mouths.

“And what if gerdians reach this place?” I ask, looking at my friends, “They would be dead for sure..”

“Mira, it was so easy to overpower them. If gerdians reach here – they would be dead anyway,” Nort shrugs his shoulders, “Their best chance is if no one reaches this place. So let’s just pray for their souls!”

“Let’s not waste any time,” Dereck reminds us.

“We need to get my family out of the palace first,” I say, “They don’t know it yet but they are just hostages here.”

“I’ll do it,” Rick says casually like it’s nothing hard or serious.

“Alone? How?” skepticism in my voice must be obvious.

“Easy,” he snorts, “Do you remember my superpower?”

“Sleeping with everything that moves?” I raise my brow.

“Money!” he rolls his eyes, “If I can’t take the guards down, I’ll buy them to close their eyes. Always works in the palace.”

“Oh Gods,” I sigh, “All right, off you go then. And give this to my father.”

I take the bottle with detoxifying elixir and hand it to my friend.

“Wait!” I suddenly remember, “When you see them, do this sign with your hands and say “Under the Sun of Akyria”. This is our family secret greeting. They will know you are one of us if you do that.”

“Diamond, I always secretly wanted to be a part of your family!” Rick chuckles, “My parents would be thrilled!”

“You will have to go through Colton first!” I snort, “Tell him…”

“He is not there, Mira,” Dereck interjects.

“What do you mean?”

“He was made the captain of the first squad by Tristan’s order,” my friend informs me nervously, “He will be in the first line, fighting gerdians.”

“Chaos!” I swear, “This is bad! Der, then I need to get there! We need to get him out as well! Gerdians… they are much stronger and I don’t think any of our warriors have the dark magic yet. They will all be killed… I can speak to Derrien and ask him for help, but it might be too late! I need to at least get my brother out to safety first!”

“Let’s go then,” is all he says. We shake Rick’s hands and go in different directions. Gods, I hope Rick is confident not for nothing!

We move carefully around the palace, avoiding the guards as much as possible. Everyone is in a state of panic, lords, and ladies are running in the direction of the living chambers. Probably in an attempt to hide. Good luck with that!

And my heart is torn. I hate Tristan at the moment and I am really not sure how I feel about our king. For all I know, he might be drugged by his favourite nephew the way I was. But also, he could be the culprit behind everything.

But one thing I don’t hate is my kingdom. Akyria is my homeland, its people are my people and I don’t want them to die! I was born and raised to protect them! All those years I have spent learning how to become a battlemage with one aim only – to fight for them and make sure that the Kingdom is safe.

And now… Now I am running to meet my gerdian lover, who probably leads the whole attack… How does that fit into my world now?

And what if it’s not Derrien attacking but Dargen. If it’s him then we are all doomed! With Rien – at least we have a chance…

Suddenly everything changes. We look up and see that the barrier dome breaks into millions of little pieces. Just like a mirror would if something heavy thrown into it. The lighting changes as the red sky now covers us. And smoke quickly fills everything around us.

“Here!” Dereck points the direction in which we should move and I see Akyrian knights and mages form a protective circle. Colton must be there! But however much I look, I don’t see him.

What I see are dark figures coming out of the smoke. Gerdians! They are all wearing their black battle armour. I only saw that in our history books. For a regular human, this kind of armour would be too heavy, but they don’t seem to be bothered with its weight. They move slowly and confidently.

“Mira,” Dereck looks at me, “If they attack us I would have to join akyrians.”

“I know,” I say, “I need to find Derrien! I am sure he will help us if I can just talk to him…”

“Fine,” he sighs, “Try that, I will cover you for as long as I can.”

“I hope you are right,” Nort ads. He doesn’t look too sure about anything.

Meanwhile, the gerdians are closer and closer.

“Take one more step and we are going to attack!” I hear Tristan’s voice and thanks to that I see exactly where he is. And, luckily, my brother is not too far from him, fire pulsars ready in his hands.

But the next second everything changes. Gerdians ignore Tristan’s word and keep moving. All kinds of magical weapons fly in their direction – fire pulsars, ice arrows, deadly vines from the ground, flashes of lightning, and anything else one can only imagine. And yet, most of them just block all of those easily. Seconds and they all join in combat. Clinging of swords sounds in every corner. But the magic is also not forgotten.

I’ve been preparing for it for so long and yet now when I see a real battle before my eyes, I don’t see any romance in it. If anything, it’s ugly. B***d and bodies everywhere. There are so few gerdians in comparison to the quantity of Akyrian knights, and yet most of the bodies are ours…

“Let’s go!” Dereck says and Nort and I nod in agreement. We form small shields and start running in the direction of our warriors. I am looking for Colton everywhere but at the moment it’s hard to define who is who on the battlefield.

A huge dark shadow covers us and disappears within seconds. I lift my head up and see a small dark dot in the sky. But then it gets bigger and bigger… And soon I see him! My dragon!

He flies right above our heads and disappears again. I am not even sure if he noticed me…

“Mira,” Dereck call for me, “Colton!”

I turn to look where he points to and see my brother on the ground, a gerdian above him with his sword ready to finish him.

I send a fire pulsar with all my might and luckily it knocks the gerdian off his feet.

“Colton!” I scream and run to him, noticing that he is badly wounded.

“Mira, what the chaos you are doing here!” my brother g****s when I lend on my knees right next to him.

“Later!” I say and form a shield as the gerdian is back and furious. His sword hits my shield but doesn’t destroy it.

“Mira, get out of here!” Colton hisses.

“Listen!” I say to him quickly, “Mum and Dad are in danger! They are hostages here and so are you! Don’t trust Tristan and don’t trust the king! Get our parents out of here and protect them! Be clever about how you do it!”

“What the…” he mutters but another strike of the sword destroys my shield. Luckily Dereck sends a fireball at the attacker and he is thrown off his feet once again. We help Colton on his feet and I see b***d gushing out of a deep wound on his side.

“Damn it!” I swear, “Der, help him! Please!”

“All right,” my friend nods and that’s when the shade is back. I look up and see that the dragon flies slower this time. The gerdians is back on his feet and I attack him with a fire wave, my strongest weapon. But honestly, can’t he get a message and find someone else to fight?!

The dragon flies in our direction, beautiful and mighty. Dark flames cover his body and soon his shape changes. Human legs step on the ground and I finally see him!

“Rien!” I gasp, looking at him in his gerdian armour. He has a hood on his head but his eyes are just shining with the purple light of dark magic. I also see sparks of it on the tips of his fingers.

I want to run to him but he points a hand in my direction and a wave of his dark magic knocks me off my feet… Why?!