The Selection: Bride Of The Dark Dragon

LARA

Everything was blurry for a few seconds as I didn’t even know what was actually happening around me. But then I saw light and walked out on a balcony of all places. The beautiful view of The Gerdian Empire was spread before me, the view so familiar that tears formed in my eyes. It was my room in the palace… I turned around in hopes that Demir would be here too. But I was alone, and it made my heart clench painfully. Even though I knew that it was for the best that we didn’t meet here. But the tiny voice in my head was whispering, “He moved on…He already forgot…”

I walked around my old room, reminiscing about the good old days. Who knew that this would be how I’d remember the time I spent in the empire. And then I decided to take one last tour around the palace. After all, I had no opportunity to say goodbye to this place… I opened the door and walked out but instead of the usual hall, I found myself at Demir’s library.

Strange… Although now that I was thinking about it, it wasn’t the real palace… Just the space inside the magical portal that was showing me what I wanted to see. And those were my most favourite rooms, the ones where I made my best memories with the man I loved. Those places were carved in my soul.

I walked through the shelves, brushing the book covers by the tips of my fingers… Just like I used to do here when I was choosing a book to read. But then I felt something and looked at the shelf. I didn’t get it at once, but when sparks of dark magic gleamed in the darkness, I saw that someone was watching me from the other side of the shelf. I started walking and the eyes followed… It couldn’t be! It couldn’t!

The damn shelf was so long, and I simply lost my patience and started to run. He seemed to speed up too and in no time the shelves were over and we were able to face each other.

“Demir!” I gasped, panting. Not from all the running, more from the shock.

“I knew I would find you here, Angel!” he smiled and pulled me into his embrace, covering my lips with his, not even bothering to ask me if he could or was allowed to. My fingers dug into his shoulders, clenching the thick fabric of his jacket as I tried to push him away at first but ended up pulling him closer. His hand grabbed the back of my head roughly, ruining the bun I did earlier, to keep me in place and I gave in to my weakness. I didn’t know for how long we were continuing the madness but in the end, we had to break the k**s to breathe.

But when he wanted to claim my lips again, I covered his with my palm.

“No, Demir, no, no, no!” I wanted to cry, “Stop doing this! You know my decision! You know why I do this! Could you just… let me do this for you? Please!”

He let go of me way too easily and turned away, clasping his hands behind his back. And my whole body tensed.

“Lara,” he sighed heavily, “I decided to… respect your decision.”

My heart skipped a beat, and I didn’t know if the cause was happiness or pain. He was letting me go. For real… for good. But it didn’t feel good at all.

However, when he turned with a smirk on his face, I felt that something was off here.

“Th-thank you,” I mumbled and took a step back, not sure what to expect from the gerdian emperor.

“You are welcome,” he nodded and the expression on his face was hard to read, “I probably also have to tell you that I am planning to get married very soon.”

It felt like myriads of needles were poked through my heart but I decided to hold my emotions back. I would have my whole life to cry about this later.

“That was to be expected,” I said as calmly as I could and then heard myself asking, “Did you…did you already choose your bride?”

“Oh, yes,” he smiled and there was something wrong with that smile but I still couldn’t say what, “I decided to go with Lady Iris Raen. You probably saw me dancing with her right now.”

“What?” I couldn’t get it if he was joking or if he meant what he just said, “You are not serious, are you?”

“Oh, I am deadly serious,” that smirk of his appeared on his lips again, “In fact, I was thinking about it for a while.”

“You can’t marry Iris!” I interrupted him, almost screaming and he looked at me with interest.

“Why not Lara? Elaborate on that, please.”

“She is…she is,” I realised how stupid this was going to sound but he left me no choice, “Her hair is the same colour as mine!”

He looked me in the eye and grinned, “You think I didn’t notice? That’s exactly why I am going to marry her.”

“Demir! This is not a joke!” I snapped at him.

“No, it’s not,” he shook his shoulders lazily, “It’s my life, Lara! And in my life, I am going to make my own choices. Just like you make in yours. It just so turns out that I like blondes.”

I thought I heard my teeth screech but he simply continued, “I used to avoid them thanks to that stupid prophecy and the promise I gave to my parents. But you know, Lara, I honoured that promise for hundreds of years. I think I am about done. There is one thing that dragons hate more than anything. Do you know what that is?”

He looked at me expectantly and I was sure I knew the answer.

He looked at me expectantly and I was sure I knew the answer.

“Not getting what they want!” he announced and I rolled my eyes. It was all a game for him.

“So, you only want blondes now even if they are going to kill you?” I snorted, crossing my arms on my chest.

“Well, I want only one blonde and I am sure that she would never hurt me intentionally,” he smiled sadly but then let out an overexaggerated sigh, “But since she is no available… I decided to go with the closest thing as a replacement.”

“How romantic! Don’t forget to mention that to her!” I scoffed, “Also, I am SO flattered by the fact that I am this easily replaceable!”

“Not this easily,” Demir chuckled, “Iris would hardly be enough! That’s why I decided to start up a harem.”

“A what?!” I was almost speechless at his impudence.

“A harem, it’s when a man has many women to satisfy his…”

“I know what a harem is!” I practically yelled at him, “What the chaos, Demir?! You are not serious, are you?!”

“I am very serious. I checked history books and a long time ago gerdian emperors used to have harems. So, now I am planning to bring back that tradition and take every girl with blonde hair I could only find and turn them into concubines! This is going to be so fun!”

I closed my eyes and exhaled through my nostrils. He was playing with me and I was falling for it.

“Very well!” I smiled at him and went as far away from him as was possible, “Good luck with that!”

He caught up with me in no time and created a dark flame on his palm, making me stop and look at him in shock.

“What are you doing?” I g*****d.

“I think that you are not taking me seriously right now,” he looked at me with a challenge.

Well, I wasn’t. But I did not like the gleam of mischief in his eyes.

“I, Demir, give you an oath and summon Magic as my witness,” he started, and I turned pale.

“No!” I shouted but he continued.

“…that if you don’t agree to marry me here and now, and be my wife in body and soul, I would marry another woman with golden hair and collect myself a harem with more golden-haired girls! As many of them as I can only find! I will not love any of them but I will do it ANYWAY!”

The flame got bigger, signaling that the oath was accepted and I stared at him in dull shock.