Chapter 15
The Dragon King's Substitute Bride
CH15
Morgan
Worry clawed at me. "Isn't it pretty usual for people to leave instructions for their successors?"
He nodded. "In the case of the queen, your instructions are in two parts. One is the journals, but the part you are looking for is held in the Trial itself."
I scowled at him. "I'm just supposed to know because I didn't die?"
His lips twitched. "Because you were chosen by the heavens and blessed by the Phoenix."
I cocked an eyebrow. "Mystic words that mean nothing to me other than seeming important."
He tapped a journal. "Perhaps reading will educate you, then."
I met his gaze. "How can you be so sure?"
He sat on the edge of the desk and looked out the window with a wistfulness in his eyes.
"Because I knew my mother, and she told me many stories about how she came to settle in her power as queen."
I looked down at the journals. "Will you tell me about her?".
"What do you want to know?"
I considered it, trailing my fingers over the cover of the journal in front of me.
"Was she happy with your father?"
"She said she was."
"You didn't believe her?"
her
"I believe that happiness in tion was complicated," he said. "She stirred a lot of
controversy."
at him. "By
been talking to
handmaiden
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CH15
could not ask for someone
more. Is Maya... related to you
smirked. "You have sharp
cousin."
why isn't she a lady instead of
he said. "Her mother
hummed. "I'd been banking on her being your father's
them soon
his deal? First, he's hitting on me, then he's insulting me." I glanced over at him,
such behaviors run in the family." He sounded amused. "To be fair, you are
way I can keep you out of my
He smirked..
others read
upon a time, but not since his scales lost
darkness."
shook my head. "That have something to do with his
son of my father's first consort. He is younger than me and resentful of me being chosen as the next heir. I am sure that Maya told you that it's rare
- nower:
to the risk
her from becoming pregnant, but she was bribed by a concubine and later dismissed. My father
would cause the destruction of a room during birth, but glad to hear I won't be expected
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CH15
He went still.
no desire for
www
the family. It was expected that either I'd have a child to succeed me or choose someone to do so, and if I married, he would essentially be head of the family. I remember
..
never had a desire to marry
scowled at him. "Get
"I cannot."
shook my head. "It hardly matters
His eyes were
suspended in the air between us as if he wanted to touch me. Did he? He
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